What is a Story Pitch?

By Gamal Hennessy

This is a modified excerpt from a book I’m working on called The Business of Freelance Comic Book Publishing. It is designed to help you understand how to build a story pitch for a publisher. While this can’t be taken as legal or financial advice, it can help structure a story for characters you don’t own.

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Artists, colorists, and letterers can use finished comic book pages to show their ability to transform a script into a professional comic. But before any of that can be done, the script needs to be produced. Which scripts get produced and which stories get told is determined by the publisher.

Many publishers in the emerging, independent, and creator-owned sectors of the industry know what stories they want to tell. In many instances, they are writers who are trying to transform their scripts into comics. At the conglomerate level, publishers hold the rights to valuable IP, but look to freelance writers to create compelling stories for them. This is where you need to be able to present a story pitch to the potential client.

For our purposes, a pitch is a story proposal for an existing IP. There are various types of verbal pitches in the entertainment world, from elevator or convention pitches, and high concept pitches, but the story pitch is a more formal document a writer can use to secure work with a conglomerate publisher.

Dan DiDio, writer, editor, and publisher for both DC Comics and Frank Miller Presents, advocates the following structure for a story pitch:

• Logline: A one or two-sentence summary of the story that hooks the potential client and describes the central conflict of the story.

• Synopsis: A summary of the entire story, including the premise, the inciting incident, progressing complications, climax, and resolution of the story.

• Character Breakdown: A list of the protagonist and all the other supporting characters in their satellite relationship to the protagonist in the story.

• Situation and Location: A description of where and when the story takes place.

• Springboard: Other storylines that can follow from this story

• Art Samples: Capture the look and style of the story. This doesn’t need to be the actual art or original art. It merely needs to convey the proper mood.

Story pitches for established IP often have to balance the existing perception of the characters among readers, corporate plans for the character in other media, and the writer’s unique vision. For a historical perspective, some writers try to deal with these factors by reading up to fifty comics about the character before developing their pitch. Others, like DiDio, suggest that the writer only needs to be familiar with the character’s origin story and their last appearance and avoid being swamped by the “endless middle”. The corporate plans for a character are harder to prepare for because the information is often confidential, but networking and staying informed about film, TV, and game projects surrounding the character can mitigate this issue.

Have fun with your comic.

Gamal

If you’d like to learn more about freelance comic book publishing, subscribe to the Comics Connection newsletter for blog updates and information about the upcoming Kickstarter campaign.

If you have questions about the business or legal aspects of your comic book publishing and you'd like a free consultation, please contact me and we can set something up that fits in with your schedule.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH YOUR COMIC PROPERTY, DISCUSS IT WITH A QUALIFIED CONTRACT ATTORNEY OR CONTACT C3 FOR A FREE CONSULTATION

What is a Portfolio Review?

By Gamal Hennessy

This is a modified excerpt from a book I’m working on called The Business of Freelance Comic Book Publishing. It is designed to help you understand the structure and purpose of professional portfolio reviews. While this can’t be taken as legal or financial advice, it can help reduce the stress of having your work criticized in a professional context.

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 A portfolio review is a professional analysis of samples of your comic book work. Many comic conventions (cons) have time set aside for this type of evaluation. Artists, editors, and publishers use this process as a way to discover and develop talent. Building a portfolio is a story for another time, but there are seven important things to remember in a portfolio review:

1. The point here is not to stroke your ego, hire you on the spot, or even to encourage your career in comics. The main goal of a portfolio review is to identify the weaknesses in your craft and what might prevent you from finding work. Many prominent FCC have horror stories about the brutal nature of portfolio reviews that ultimately improved their work and their careers.

2. Most of the time, the person conducting the review has dozens (if not hundreds) of people they have to evaluate in a very short period of time. This means they probably will not have time to hold your hand and walk you through each flaw they find in your technique. The interaction may be very brief, so don’t be offended if they spend five minutes tearing down work that you spent five months putting together.

3. You might have to have your portfolio reviewed multiple times by the same editor over several cons over several years before they think you’re ready to work for their publisher. This is a part of building the marketing relationship, so don’t expect an immediate offer at the review table.

4. The reviewers are people who are ultimately providing a service to you by offering their professional opinion of your work. While you might not agree with their evaluation, understand that their perspective is subjective without being defensive or belligerent, even if they are less than polite. It will be more difficult to find work when you start verbally attacking your potential employers.

5. Portfolio reviews are essentially auditions, but the goal isn’t instant recognition or flattery. You are trying to build relationships with people who can enhance your business over the long term.

6. If you have done work for clients and you want to include that work in your portfolio, make sure that you have those rights clearly stated in your contract to avoid any claims of copyright infringement, breach of contract, or breach of confidentiality claims.

7. If you can’t make it to a convention portfolio review, you could submit your portfolio directly to publishers online. The benefit of this is that you can submit to multiple publishers at very low cost. The downside is that you might never get any response to your submission, even after multiple tries.

Have fun with your comic.

Gamal

If you’d like to learn more about freelance comic book publishing, subscribe to the Comics Connection newsletter for blog updates and information about the upcoming Kickstarter campaign.

If you have questions about the business or legal aspects of your comic book publishing and you'd like a free consultation, please contact me and we can set something up that fits in with your schedule.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH YOUR COMIC PROPERTY, DISCUSS IT WITH A QUALIFIED CONTRACT ATTORNEY OR CONTACT C3 FOR A FREE CONSULTATION

Character: A Book Review

I have recommended Robert McKee’s books to comic book creators for years, but his latest book might be his most relevant to this artform.

Character deconstructs the distinct works of art that populate stories. McKee analyzes the process of designing characters tapping into the psychological, philosophical, and social perspectives to create complex contradictions that readers identify with on both an intellectual and emotional level. McKee takes examples from every type of narrative art from The Odyssey to Breaking Bad to Waiting for Gadot to Mission: Impossible to A Fish Called Wanda to The Avengers to illustrate his points.

Characters are important to any story, but they might be most significant to modern comics because the characters can achieve so much life outside the narrative. Most of the Western world knows who Batman is, but not from reading the comics. The character has evolved and adapted to different stories and media over the decades in part because of his internal multilayered conflicts and the cast that surrounds him to highlight those facets of his experience. McKee’s book teaches you how to build that structure for your comics.

Our characters can exist and inspire beyond the confines of their story if they capture the imagination in the manner McKee lays out. If you want to create quality characters and comics on any level, McKee’s books are an important addition to your library.

Have fun with your comic.

Gamal

If you have questions about the business or legal aspects of your comic book publishing and you'd like a free consultation, please contact me and we can set something up that fits in with your schedule.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH YOUR COMIC PROPERTY, DISCUSS IT WITH A QUALIFIED CONTRACT ATTORNEY OR CONTACT C3 FOR A FREE CONSULTATION

Your Career in Comics: What Are You Trying to Do?

By Gamal Hennessy

I’m in the process of writing a book about the business and legal aspects of making independent comics (See Your Career in Comics). As the book develops, I plan to share parts of it here for your reaction and feedback.

Since this is the first post, I’m going to start with an existential question:

Why do you want to make comics?

Before you start thinking about drawing, sales or social media, it is important to figure out exactly what you’re trying to accomplish and why. Making comics, like any artistic or business endeavor, involves substantial sacrifice and investment. If you’re going to make comics a part of your life beyond the Wednesday ritual of picking up your pull box, it makes sense to take a step back and look at the big picture.

To answer this question, I suggest you take yourself out for a cup of coffee or a cocktail (if you’re old enough, of course) and figure out the answers to the following questions. Keep in mind that the answers can and will change over time, so don’t be afraid to revisit these questions as your circumstances and the industry changes.

Goals (or What Do You Want to Do in Comics?): “I want to make comics” is a start, but there are different aspects to the industry, and figuring out where you want to be will help you make decisions on which opportunities to pursue and which ones to avoid. Maybe you want to make your own books and sell them at cons. Maybe you want to work for the Big Two. Maybe you want to be the next Stan Lee or Todd McFarlane. Maybe you want it all. You can have any goals you want. The purpose of goals isn’t to limit you. They just guide you on your path.

Reasons (or Why Do You Want a Career in Comics?): It’s one thing to know what you want to do. Knowing why is a different type of insight. Are you doing this because you have a story to tell, because you want to be a part of the comics community, or because you want more money than Tony Stark?

Like your goals, your reasons are personal. They don’t have to define you, but keeping them in mind can motivate you to overcome the inevitable setbacks and pitfalls. You can have any reason or motivation you want for getting into comics. There are opportunities for artistry, creativity, and profit at almost every level of the industry, but at the end of the day, a love of the art form will keep you going.  

Plan (or How Are You Going to Get into Comics?) After you understand your goals and your reasons for wanting those goals, you need to develop a plan to help you get from where you are to where you want to go. As you follow along with this blog and hopefully read my book, you can begin to figure out which path you want to adopt for your own purposes and take the appropriate steps.

Of course, no plan survives contact with reality. The industry is in a state of constant flux. The impact of changing trends will often be outside of your control. You’re going to need to modify your plan to adapt to new conditions, so the plan you make might not be the path you ultimately take. But you have to start somewhere and making your own comic is a good place to begin, no matter where you ultimately want to go.

Resources (or What Do You Have to Offer the Industry?) The secret to success in the comics business involves making consistent ritual sacrifices on the altar of the industry. What you get from comics is based in large part on what you put in. Your offering might be a creative vision, artistic skill, a network of eager professionals, or an investment of time and finances. In many cases, the creators who came before you had to offer all these things and more. Now is the time to figure out what you bring to the table and what you need to find in the community to make your goals real.

Milestones (or How Will You Track the Progress of Your Plan?) No one goes to sleep wanting a career in comics and wakes up where they want to be. Your development as a creator will grow in stages. You get to determine what those stages are and to a large extent, in what order you want them to happen. You can start with putting your first team together, getting your first issue online, or any other basis that’s right for you. You can decide whether your goals are books created, copies sold, or views on your website. Milestones give your goals concrete structure you can use to measure your efforts.

Motivation (or What Gets You Started and Keeps You Going?) Despite the view from the outside, the art and business of comics are not easy. It can be a long road from your initial inspiration to holding your book in your hands and the road isn’t a straight line. There will be obstacles and pressures to stop. This isn’t just true in comics. It’s true in life.

Even if you get your vision into the world, success (whatever your definition of it is) may not come quickly. It is not hyperbole to say some creators did not live long enough to see the characters they created become a fixture in mainstream culture.

So what is it about your comic that’s going to bring you back to the project month after month and year after year? What is going to pick you up when life knocks you down? What drives you might be very personal or it could be the universal desire for fame and fortune.

Yes, they’re movies, merchandise, and money to be made. Yes, comics are one of the driving forces in 21st-century pop culture. But the comics business is not a get rich quick industry. For every Walking Dead, there are thousands of other titles that lose money or never get off the ground. If you don’t love comics, it might not make sense to spend the time and effort of getting into the business.

In the next installment of Your Career in Comics, I plan to talk about the framework for an independent comics company and break down the process into manageable parts. If you’d like to read more about the business and legal aspects of making comics, like my Facebook page or sign up for my free newsletter.

Have fun with your comic...

Gamal  

 PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A ISSUE WITH YOUR COMIC PROPERTY, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.  

Unnatural Talent: A Book Review

by Gamal Hennessy

I’m in the process of writing a book about different careers in the comic book industry (See Your Four Careers in Comics) so I’m reading a lot of books related to the comics profession. While there are a lot of books about how to create comics and how to self-publish them, few of them are as broad or as thorough as Jason Brubaker’s Unnatural Talent.

Brubaker is the creator of several books including ReMind, Phobos, and Sithrah. Unnatural Talent is the distillation of advice and lessons he learned while creating these books. The book walks a new comics creator through several steps of the modern self-publishing process including

• Creating and completing a comic
• Negotiating social media
• Finding a fan base
• Crowd funding
• Dealing with the technical issues of printing
• Getting your book into comic shops and libraries
• Creating both primary and secondary streams of revenue

When reading Unnatural Talent, you need to keep in mind that Brubaker’s process involves doing almost every aspect of production, sales, and marketing on his own. While this approach removes the obstacles of collaboration and work for hire deals, it also makes the process much longer, especially if there are creative/ and or technical skills you don’t have. He also focuses on finding an audience among current comic fans. The book was released in 2013, but since the overall amount of comic book readers is allegedly shrinking, an aspiring creator should also consider finding a new audience while they fight for market share in a dwindling universe of readers.

Unnatural Talent is a beneficial addition to the library of any comic creator. It explores the art and business of comics in a manner that is accessible, informative and realistic. It’s available on both Amazon and Audible.

Have fun.

Gamal

 PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

How Much Do You Get Paid Per Page?

By Gamal Hennessy, Esq.

When you first start out in comics, there’s a lot of details about the business you need to understand. Everything from how to find work, to what to look for in a contract, to making sure you get paid are all things you have to take care of in addition to making great art. Not only do you have to digest a lot of information, but aspects of the comics industry change from publisher to publisher and from month to month. One of the most important and the most fluid aspects of freelance comics work is how much each publisher pays per page. I’d like to make the process of determining your page rate a little easier by talking about what a page rate is, what the common rates are and how you can keep track of changing rates in the future.

What is a Page Rate?

Different professions get paid according to different measurements. Lawyers get paid by the hour. Sales people get paid based on commissions. Freelance comic book artists (and some creator driven artists) get paid a page rate. The basic idea is for every page you’re hired to work on, you get a set fee. So if you get $100 per page and the book is 32 pages, then you get $3,200.

A page rate is a base number. It doesn’t take into account incentives like royalty pools, recoupment, back end participation or anything else that could muddy the waters. It’s a straight forward transaction; one page for one price. As long as you know what the price is, everything else is based on that.

What Were the Current Page Rates for 2016?

The confusing question is ‘what is the right page rate for you?’ Your page rate can and will vary based on your experience, skill level, established fan base, prior projects and the publisher you’re working with. While several factors are subjective and based on you as an individual, there are some baselines you should keep in mind. Thomas Crowell, author of the excellent book Pocket Lawyer for Comics Creators recently offered this snapshot of the industry at the 2016 New York Comic Con:

• Writers:                              $25-$220 per page
• Cover Artist:                      $200-$750 per cover
• Pencils:                             $100-$250 per page
• Inks:                                  $75-$200 per page
• Coloring:                            $35-$150 per page
• Flatting:                             $8-$20 per page
• Lettering:                           $10-$50 per page

This list is not a guarantee. You might be offered less than the numbers above. You can always ask for more. This should just serve as a guideline to what you can expect when you deal with a publisher. Other factors will play a role, but this gives you somewhere to start from.

How Can I Keep Track of Page Rates?

As a freelance artist, you’ll get a sense of where the market is in terms of page rates as you spend time in the industry working on different projects. Publishers can alter their rates at will, so it pays to keep in touch with other artists in the field, pay attention to message boards and discussions and talk to your editors and publishers on a regular basis to find out their individual positions. There are also ongoing resources you can use and participate in to make page rates more transparent. The list above was derived from a site called Fair Page Rates that isn't perfect by any means, but it attempts to track rates for various US publishers in a system that is inherently subjective.

Once you understand what a page rate is, how you can figure out your page rate and who pays what, you have a lot of information to help you chart your freelance comics career. If you know how many pages you can do a month, you can calculate your maximum potential income. If you know how much you need per year to work on comics full time, you can figure out what page rate you need and how many books you need to work on to make freelancing a viable job. Then you can spend some time actually practicing your craft and making great comics.

Have fun.

Gamal

Related Articles:

Your Career in Comics: Freelance Artist

Your Career in Comics: Creator Driven Artist

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

Four Tips for Writing Your Comic

By Gamal Hennessy

Being a comic writer has more in common with being a screenwriter than a novelist or a playwright. There needs to be a visual aspect to the writing and a certain willingness to surrender your story to another artist and trust them to deliver the finished product to the public.

There have been more than a few books about writing for comics, like Alan Moore's Writing for Comics, Words for Pictures and others listed in my recent post on comic creation books. Rachel Gluckstern recently distilled her own version of the comic writing craft into four handy tips to help get you on the same page as your artist so you can create your masterpiece.

Just remember to have a contract in place for every book you write. You don't want your masterpiece to make someone else rich.

Click Here to Read So You Want to Write a Comic Book

Have Fun.

Gamal Hennessy

Success in the comics industry requires an understanding of the business, creative, and legal aspects of the medium.

Sign up for The Professional Comics Creator to get monthly e-mail news, tips and advice on how to get the most from your characters and stories.

C3 Spotlight: Mike Marts, Editor in Chief of AfterShock Comics

By Gamal Hennessy

The world of comics, film and licensing is full of professionals with years of experience, deep affection for their craft and a practical understanding of the business. To help all my readers and prospective clients, I’m planning an ongoing series of interviews with people I’ve met in the industry to get their perspectives on contracts, career growth and where they see the entertainment world going.

I wanted to start off this series with a friend of mine who has helped shape the current explosion of comic book properties. Mike Marts has worked for both Marvel and DC, successfully guiding flagship properties for both companies. I met Mike back in 2002 when he was the editor for the X-Men line of books. He would go on to edit the Batman line and Guardians of the Galaxy as well. Just before he left for this year’s San Diego Comic Con, I caught up with Mike to talk about his new role as Editor in Chief for Aftershock Comics.

Gamal Hennessy: You’ve worked on the biggest properties at both major publishers, and you’ve also worked for smaller players in the industry. How have you seen the business change in the wake of the film and TV explosion we’re currently seeing? (See Making Comics Isn’t Really About Comics Anymore)

Mike Marts: Comics always had a foothold in movies and TV, but that space was usually reserved for characters like Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and Hulk. Every once in a while you’d see a book like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Men in Black crossover, but no one thought Flash, Constantine, SHIELD, iZombie, and Daredevil would find success on TV at the same time both major companies are planning six year release cycles for films and still leaving room for independent publishers to get movies made. We’ve come a long way from the downsizing of the late 1990’s.

GH: True story. In addition to your expertise in publishing, Aftershock’s executive board brings together professionals from film, TV and Silicon Valley. Did you come together to reap the rewards of the current comic book mystique? Do you plan to create a new cinematic universe along the lines of Marvel, DC, and Valiant? (See What Does the Valiant Deal Mean for Comics, Movies and You?)

MM: In terms of connections, experience, and resources, we’re certainly in a position to translate a property from comics to the screen, but that’s not our focus or our main reason for existence. We see an opportunity to create great and unique stories. That’s our goal. If the timing and opportunity comes up for a show or a movie, we can pursue it. But good stories and quality comics come first.

GH: So what genres of stories will you focus on? Will it be an American type superhero line, or will you explore other genres?

MM: Japanese and French comics have a strong tradition of books from multiple genres and I think there’s space for something similar here. It isn’t our goal to stand out in the superhero genre because the big two have decades of history and thousands of characters, but a lot of other genres are wide open. We’ll probably start with science fiction, crime, fantasy and horror titles because they have a rich history in the medium, but I’d love to see us doing sports, romance and comedy related work too.

GH: Let’s talk about the business side of where Aftershock is going. Are you planning on publishing creator-owned properties, or will it mostly be work for hire on Aftershock created IP? (See Entertainment Contracts 101: Creator Owned vs. Work for Hire)

MM: We’re looking at a creator-owned model in the beginning. We want writers and artists to pitch their best work and grow a strong stable of properties from a lot of different minds.

GH: Talk about your experience of working with writers and artists on contracts. Have you found a tendency for creatives to try and negotiate their deals, or do they come to the table with very few demands? (See David vs. Goliath: Negotiating Power in Creative Contracts)

MM: There’s a tendency for people to see larger publishers as more stable and less prone to business misunderstandings. They think “these guys have been doing it for so long, their system must be locked in.” Artists and writers tend to be more wary of smaller publishers, especially when it comes to creator-owned deals because there’s more at stake and the pedigree of the big boys isn’t there. The negotiations tend to be longer when smaller companies are involved, and a lot of times creatives feel comfortable asking for more.

GH: What’s the best path for an up and coming writer or artist in 2015? (See How to Break Into Comics)

MM: I don’t think there’s any one path. Almost everyone in comics you meet has a strange story of how they broke into the business. The most important thing, no matter how you get in, is showing a consistent body of work. You could be the best artist ever, but no editor or publisher can take a chance on someone who will only finish one book a year or who misses deadlines. Quality production over time is what everyone is looking for.

GH: So how can writers and artists submit their ideas to Aftershock for consideration?

MM: All of our submission guidelines will be available on our website very soon. People can just jump to that page and show me what they’ve got.

Have fun

Gamal

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“Professional Timeline for Mike Marts, EIC AfterShock Comics

1993:
Began as an editorial intern at Marvel Comics while still in college and became an assistant editor for books including Fantastic Four and Iron Man in the same year

1997:
Moved to Wizard Entertainment to manage promotions and publicity

1997-1999:
Editor at Acclaim Comics

1999-2006:
Senior Editor at Marvel for the X-Men universe

2006-2014:
Group Editor at DC for Batman universe

2014:
Executive Editor at Marvel for X-Men universe and Guardians of the Galaxy

2015:
Editor in Chief at AfterShock Comics”

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

What the Valiant Movie Deal Means for Comics, Movies and You

By Gamal Hennessy

One of the bigger pieces of entertainment industry news this week focused on the deal between Valiant Comics and a Chinese based company called DMG. The details of the deal haven’t been made clear, but the initial reports suggest DMG has pledged to invest “a nine figure sum” in creating a film and TV universe for Valiant properties. (See Valiant Entertainment Gets Nine Figure Funding for Movie Division)

Paying the Money

In any licensing or production deal, there are at least two sides to the story. On one hand, you have DMG who appears to be trying to get a slice of the lucrative shared universe pie, but it is hard to understand their motives at this point. Why would a Chinese company, with access to potentially billions of creative minds invest so much effort into intellectual property with limited cache? Why not create an original shared universe with less baggage, complications and cost? I understand properties like Iron Man and Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t have mainstream cache before their films came out, but Marvel focused on those properties because they already owned the rights to them. They didn’t have to shell out big money to a third party and then dump more money into bringing them to the big screen. DMG appears to have overpaid to join the connected universe wars.

It could be DMG is using Valiant as a future landing spot for talent it plans to lure away from Disney/Marvel and Warner/DC. Once the established creators see a former minor player as a new deep pocket, they might be willing to jump at the chance to join Valiant’s roster. A move along those lines could shift the balance of power away from Marvel’s dominance in film and DC’s leadership on TV and make the entire industry more competitive.

Getting the Money

No matter what DMG plans to do, the other side of the story is the important piece for producers, writers and creative people of all types. This deal, to the extent it comes to fruition, elevates an unknown independent comic publisher into an international entertainment force. But this transformation didn’t happen overnight. Valiant has been publishing since 1989. Its titles and roster have changed over the years, but their story is a classic example of three concepts I tell all my clients:

• You never know when or how your characters could become popular, so always prepare for potential success by making sure you own the rights (See What Can We Learn from the Success of Guardians of the Galaxy?)
• Always treat your art as an investment and get all the legal protection you can (See Treat Your Art Like an Investment)
• Take a long term view of your work and keep creating even if your first work isn’t a hit (See How to Break In and Stay in Comics)

Of course, the DMG/ Valiant deal could be a complete disaster. It might be the beginning of the end of the golden age of comic book based entertainment (See Can We Have Too Many Comic Book Movies?) But I don’t think so. Film, television, books and interactive media can all share in the windfall of increased interest in new properties. You can get a piece of the pie too, but only if you’re rights are protected.

Have fun.

Gamal

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSEING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.