COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS, NOT PAYING CREATORS

[agent_graves]

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/comic-b ... -creators/

Joe Quinones: "Waited recently over a full year on one publisher before getting paid and currently still awaiting payment, running on six months now from a second prominent publisher who has largely ghosted me relating to two separate cover I crafted for them last summer. Know of another artist who's drawn several full issues & covers for a miniseries they were working on, without even one paycheck. Yet their publisher will come knocking for the next cover, the next issue, then threaten to move on to another artist if not replied back w/expedience

Joe Quinones: "The first publisher I won't name because I believe it was an honest mistake. The second publisher is Valiant. Bloodshot & Archer & Armstrong covers I did just over six months ago. No payment. Largely no correspondence except to kick the can down the road. 'We're working on this'"

[aj583]

Mico Suayan also had a cover they didn’t pay him for as of a few months ago. So sad to see him, an all time great VEI cover artist, and Quinones get shafted. Sad state of affairs.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[valiantdude]

Alex Garner
@AlexGarnerArt
·
3h
Replying to
@Joe_Quinones
Valiant stiffed me too. Did a Bloodshot cover and they didn’t pay. Ignored all my follow up emails. Deadbeat publisher.



looks like theyve stiffed a lot of people... CCP cut off the funds to the garbage?

[IMJ]

They are probably deeply under water given the crap content they've been putting out. People quit buying their books, their publishing line became slimmer, they money dried up even more and they keep stringing things along hoping to have a sudden sales hit that will bail them out and get the back bills paid.

This is all a ship that has been slowly going down in front of us for some time. But the sink is occluded from view and once everyone sees it, there are only going to be smoke stacks sticking out of the water.

[nycjadie]

Horrible horrible. I’m so grateful for talented artists working on comics. They can make more doing other things. They deserve to be paid.

I have seen the other side. I had a side business where I laid deposits to artists to create sculptures for making toys. I was regularly stuffed by artists. Well known ones to boot. It nearly bankrupted me several times. I figured by investing up front would be a win win. It wasn’t always. Some artists focus on paying work coming in, and I was put on the back burner, 1+ year late on deliverables.

I’m not sure what the right balance is. My clients often don’t pay me for 4-6 months. I have to pay a team of people, vendors, bills.

I’ll tell you what doesn’t work. Not paying people at all or telling them it’s in the works!

I have original art for dozens of Valiant covers. This is a big disappointment to hear that Valiant artists may not be getting paid. Well, I’m still buying original art if Valiant isn’t paying!

[Chiclo]

It sickens me to see the name of Valiant handled so dishonourably. Better to cease publication altogether than to fail to pay these creators.

Better to burn out than to fade away indeed.

[grendeljd]

Brutal news. Not the kind of headline an already-gasping-for-breath company would want to be associated with.

[Dallow Spicer1]

Everyone relax, the new readership will be here in their droves soon enough putting their money down and supporting the company. The same audience Valiant under DMG have been pandering to the last few years.

The ‘killers row’ of editing talent brought in by Fred Pierce couldn’t have been a monsterous misstep. Heather Antos’ time spent ‘amplifying voices’ with writers and artists she brought over with her famous rolodex will reap the rewards, you’ll see.

Don’t worry about the loyal readers lost when Dinesh was ousted or the readers with the wrong politics, who needs those clowns or their money.

[IMJ]

Everyone relax, the new readership will be here in their droves soon enough putting their money down and supporting the company. The same audience Valiant under DMG have been pandering to the last few years.

The ‘killers row’ of editing talent brought in by Fred Pierce couldn’t have been a monsterous misstep. Heather Antos’ time spent ‘amplifying voices’ with writers and artists she brought over with her famous rolodex will reap the rewards, you’ll see.

Don’t worry about the loyal readers lost when Dinesh was ousted or the readers with the wrong politics, who needs those clowns or their money.

Well if you go by a few of the clowns here who fought the "good fight", you'd have no other choice but to accept that basically anyone not buying Valiant books, which would be 99.999999% of the world and something like 98.1469% of comic buyers must all be racists. And definitely anyone here who spoke up about this nonsense over the years and saw it coming - they are definitely racists. Unless it's the misogyny. It could be the misogyny. Definitely maybe the racists though.

[Dallow Spicer1]

Everyone relax, the new readership will be here in their droves soon enough putting their money down and supporting the company. The same audience Valiant under DMG have been pandering to the last few years.

The ‘killers row’ of editing talent brought in by Fred Pierce couldn’t have been a monsterous misstep. Heather Antos’ time spent ‘amplifying voices’ with writers and artists she brought over with her famous rolodex will reap the rewards, you’ll see.

Don’t worry about the loyal readers lost when Dinesh was ousted or the readers with the wrong politics, who needs those clowns or their money.

Well if you go by a few of the clowns here who fought the "good fight", you'd have no other choice but to accept that basically anyone not buying Valiant books, which would be 99.999999% of the world and something like 98.1469% of comic buyers must all be racists. And definitely anyone here who spoke up about this nonsense over the years and saw it coming - they are definitely racists. Unless it's the misogyny. It could be the misogyny. Definitely maybe the racists though.

They are all the ‘ists’ and ‘isms’ without a doubt.

On the plus side I remember someone saying they lived in a town with a lot of students (Portland?!) and they loved the new direction Valiant was going in. So no doubt the sales are going gangbusters in place like that. Where books like ‘the harbinger’ by Lanzing and Kelly or ‘Savage’ by Max Beamis is looked upon in the same awe that some of us view Watchmen or V for Vendetta.

As we ‘age out’ the future is bright and in the best hands!

[Jerseydevil79]

I’m convinced the only way to save this company is to bring back Shooter and start right after Unity

[depluto]

So what are the final valiant books? Is this the end?

[agent_graves]

Nicole Rifkin: Hey Valiant, you owe me money.

Nicole Rifkin: I have three unpaid comic book covers, and I’m very close to losing my mind over it.

Nicole Rifkin: No one answers emails for months, are you kidding me.

Twitter @NicoleRifkin

[The Harbinger]

Is this still the most successful year for comic books ever (where we secretly include manga sales)? Definitely sounds like a healthy business /s

[buff-beardo]

Bad news! I remember when news broke that Crossgen couldn’t pay their artists! That was it for them. Negative publicity erased any chance.

Anyhow….fast forward from 1983 (my start) through 2022 (current)

It’s curious to see at 46. Some things stay the same. Some don’t.

[jmatt]

Everyone relax, the new readership will be here in their droves soon enough putting their money down and supporting the company. The same audience Valiant under DMG have been pandering to the last few years.

The ‘killers row’ of editing talent brought in by Fred Pierce couldn’t have been a monsterous misstep. Heather Antos’ time spent ‘amplifying voices’ with writers and artists she brought over with her famous rolodex will reap the rewards, you’ll see.

Don’t worry about the loyal readers lost when Dinesh was ousted or the readers with the wrong politics, who needs those clowns or their money.

[Ryan]

To be honest, I won't be sad when this version of Valiant goes under. VEI wasn't my cup of tea. I didn't agree with a lot of their decisions, but at least I could see the logic behind what they were going for.

VEI Rant
Hard reboot in the present day, but using some of the best concepts and characters (X-0, Harb, etc.) very similar to how they were in the original Valiant. Mixing in some concepts more similar to later (VH-2) versions (Bloodshot, Shadowman, Q&W) that some people like more. Updating and modernizing certain things. Using mostly relatively young writers from the indy/sci-fi niche of comics who weren't big superhero fans or even Valiant fans at all. Modern artwork that tends more toward they hyperreal/photorealistic side of things. It's kind of like if someone was going to make a series of movies based on the original Valiant comics. They would try to boil down all the best concepts and tell new stories that would incorporate all the best storylines from the old books. There's definitely a vision and a goal they were trying to accomplish.

DMG rant
With DMG era I could never tell what they're trying to do. It's like these people just so happen to be making comic books and they just so happen to be Valiant comic books, come buy them? Valiant has always been a tiny fanbase of a few thousand people, that can maybe fluctuate up to a few 10s of thousands when the comics are really good. If you don't love Valiant comics or the characters or have any idea what made them special, why the hell would you spend your time making them? Money, I guess. But damn there's gotta be easier ways to make money.

The only reason (from a business perspective) that anyone would ever invest real money into this universe is the dream of a Valiant Cinematic Universe. It makes sense that all the investment happened during the height of MCU's successes. But the truth is (IMO) Marvel is unique, there's never going to be a big appetite from a large general audience (aka the general public) for MORE superheroes than the ones that have already saturated the market.

In my opinion, Valiant has been brought back and sustained for 10ish years due to speculative investors hoping to ride the coattails of Marvel's success. Especially the last few years. It doesn't seem like comic sales or even appealing to the fan base that has kept the brand alive has mattered at all. It's just a front to keep the facade of a 'successful comic book universe' going until they can get that big movie deal and cash out.

After so many half-hearted and misguided relaunches, it'll be hard for anyone in the comics fandom to take these characters seriously again. Just look at this site, so many of the hardcore fans have dropped off. I for one will not be sad when these characters are back in the hands of the fans, if there will be any left at that point.

[GammaJosh]

Everyone relax, the new readership will be here in their droves soon enough putting their money down and supporting the company. The same audience Valiant under DMG have been pandering to the last few years.

The ‘killers row’ of editing talent brought in by Fred Pierce couldn’t have been a monsterous misstep. Heather Antos’ time spent ‘amplifying voices’ with writers and artists she brought over with her famous rolodex will reap the rewards, you’ll see.

Don’t worry about the loyal readers lost when Dinesh was ousted or the readers with the wrong politics, who needs those clowns or their money.

Well if you go by a few of the clowns here who fought the "good fight", you'd have no other choice but to accept that basically anyone not buying Valiant books, which would be 99.999999% of the world and something like 98.1469% of comic buyers must all be racists. And definitely anyone here who spoke up about this nonsense over the years and saw it coming - they are definitely racists. Unless it's the misogyny. It could be the misogyny. Definitely maybe the racists though.

Still lurking. Still put off from participating by the same few people injecting the same *SQUEE* all the time. Do you guys always have politics on your mind? Like you literally have a bunch of browser tabs open and the others are all Breitbart and *SQUEE*? (I don't know, maybe you're old school and always have your print copies of Epoch Times and Coup d'etat Quarterly on your desks.)

I hope Valiant's next book is a hero based on Dr. Fauci just to annoy you. He goes around heroically giving people free vaccinations and fights a bunch of dumbasss conspiracy goons who keep dying of preventable diseases right before they can get the drop on him.

[GammaJosh]

Cullen Bunn posted that he had not been paid for recent work by an unnamed publisher. Hard not to draw the obvious conclusion here...

[Dallow Spicer1]

Everyone relax, the new readership will be here in their droves soon enough putting their money down and supporting the company. The same audience Valiant under DMG have been pandering to the last few years.

The ‘killers row’ of editing talent brought in by Fred Pierce couldn’t have been a monsterous misstep. Heather Antos’ time spent ‘amplifying voices’ with writers and artists she brought over with her famous rolodex will reap the rewards, you’ll see.

Don’t worry about the loyal readers lost when Dinesh was ousted or the readers with the wrong politics, who needs those clowns or their money.

Well if you go by a few of the clowns here who fought the "good fight", you'd have no other choice but to accept that basically anyone not buying Valiant books, which would be 99.999999% of the world and something like 98.1469% of comic buyers must all be racists. And definitely anyone here who spoke up about this nonsense over the years and saw it coming - they are definitely racists. Unless it's the misogyny. It could be the misogyny. Definitely maybe the racists though.

Still lurking. Still put off from participating by the same few people injecting the same *SQUEE* all the time. Do you guys always have politics on your mind? Like you literally have a bunch of browser tabs open and the others are all Breitbart and *SQUEE*? (I don't know, maybe you're old school and always have your print copies of Epoch Times and Coup d'etat Quarterly on your desks.)

I hope Valiant's next book is a hero based on Dr. Fauci just to annoy you. He goes around heroically giving people free vaccinations and fights a bunch of dumbasss conspiracy goons who keep dying of preventable diseases right before they can get the drop on him.

I like the Dr Fauci suggestion, but more in the mould of the Joker where he injects people with his toxin and they start dropping down with heart attacks on tv!

[Dallow Spicer1]

Cullen Bunn posted that he had not been paid for recent work by an unnamed publisher. Hard not to draw the obvious conclusion here...

Wonder why Valiant can’t pay their bills…I guess that’s a mystery never to be solved ?!?

[GammaJosh]

Everyone relax, the new readership will be here in their droves soon enough putting their money down and supporting the company. The same audience Valiant under DMG have been pandering to the last few years.

The ‘killers row’ of editing talent brought in by Fred Pierce couldn’t have been a monsterous misstep. Heather Antos’ time spent ‘amplifying voices’ with writers and artists she brought over with her famous rolodex will reap the rewards, you’ll see.

Don’t worry about the loyal readers lost when Dinesh was ousted or the readers with the wrong politics, who needs those clowns or their money.

Well if you go by a few of the clowns here who fought the "good fight", you'd have no other choice but to accept that basically anyone not buying Valiant books, which would be 99.999999% of the world and something like 98.1469% of comic buyers must all be racists. And definitely anyone here who spoke up about this nonsense over the years and saw it coming - they are definitely racists. Unless it's the misogyny. It could be the misogyny. Definitely maybe the racists though.

Still lurking. Still put off from participating by the same few people injecting the same *SQUEE* all the time. Do you guys always have politics on your mind? Like you literally have a bunch of browser tabs open and the others are all Breitbart and *SQUEE*? (I don't know, maybe you're old school and always have your print copies of Epoch Times and Coup d'etat Quarterly on your desks.)

I hope Valiant's next book is a hero based on Dr. Fauci just to annoy you. He goes around heroically giving people free vaccinations and fights a bunch of dumbasss conspiracy goons who keep dying of preventable diseases right before they can get the drop on him.

I like the Dr Fauci suggestion, but more in the mould of the Joker where he injects people with his toxin and they start dropping down with heart attacks on tv!

Thank you for confirming my assumptions on where you fall in the Venn Diagram.

[Chiclo]

Everyone relax, the new readership will be here in their droves soon enough putting their money down and supporting the company. The same audience Valiant under DMG have been pandering to the last few years.

The ‘killers row’ of editing talent brought in by Fred Pierce couldn’t have been a monsterous misstep. Heather Antos’ time spent ‘amplifying voices’ with writers and artists she brought over with her famous rolodex will reap the rewards, you’ll see.

Don’t worry about the loyal readers lost when Dinesh was ousted or the readers with the wrong politics, who needs those clowns or their money.

Well if you go by a few of the clowns here who fought the "good fight", you'd have no other choice but to accept that basically anyone not buying Valiant books, which would be 99.999999% of the world and something like 98.1469% of comic buyers must all be racists. And definitely anyone here who spoke up about this nonsense over the years and saw it coming - they are definitely racists. Unless it's the misogyny. It could be the misogyny. Definitely maybe the racists though.

Still lurking. Still put off from participating by the same few people injecting the same *SQUEE* all the time. Do you guys always have politics on your mind? Like you literally have a bunch of browser tabs open and the others are all Breitbart and *SQUEE*? (I don't know, maybe you're old school and always have your print copies of Epoch Times and Coup d'etat Quarterly on your desks.)

I hope Valiant's next book is a hero based on Dr. Fauci just to annoy you. He goes around heroically giving people free vaccinations and fights a bunch of dumbasss conspiracy goons who keep dying of preventable diseases right before they can get the drop on him.

That doesn’t sound like a good comic, with goons dying of preventable diseases before any of the action begins. If you are going to have Fauci Mr. Magoo-ing his way around danger, you need to have some of the danger present itself.

[Chiclo]

I don't think it would be appropriate for Valiant to publish a comic celebrating Anthony Fauci. You see, Valiant has been using its platform to amplify voices of marginalised communities, to work for inclusion and allyship. Anthony Fauci has not always worked towards those goals.

On May 21, 1990, a coalition of 25 national AIDS and health organisations, many focused on gay and queer communities, protested and even in their own words, "stormed" the NIH because they felt that the NIH and its director, Anthony Stephen Fauci, was purposefully bypassing inexpensive drugs and treatments for AIDS that were already out and available, in favor of expensive, new and untested drugs that enriched drug companies, made marginalised communities into guinea pigs, and continued Reagan's fascist policy of positive punishment over the "sin" of homosexuality. These communities felt it was necessary to January-6 the NIH to get their voices heard.

Some citations -
Act Up's oral history of the storming of the NIH
https://actuporalhistory.org/actions/storm-the-nih

A Washington Post article from 2020 (behind a paywall) reframing the event
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/ ... ronavirus/

A Washington Post article from 1990 (no paywall) discussing the event
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/ ... 40f47a010/

So no, it is not appropriate for Valiant to use its diminishing platform to amplify the voice of this man who prolonged the suffering of the AIDS epidemic to pad the bottom lines of the drug companies - many of whom he owns stock in today, if not in the early 90s.

Bob Dole once said the most dangerous place in America to stand is between Chuck Schumer and a camera. For the last three years, the most dangerous place to stand in America has been between Tony Fauci and a camera.

[IMJ]

Cullen Bunn posted that he had not been paid for recent work by an unnamed publisher. Hard not to draw the obvious conclusion here...

Wonder why Valiant can’t pay their bills…I guess that’s a mystery never to be solved ?!?

It definitely couldn't be due to pandering to a non-existent woke readership while alienating and angering the clear majority of the general readership population. Couldn't possibly be due to anything like that..... It can only be because of the racists. Or the misogynists'. Either way it's that. They. Them.

You see, Valiant has been using its platform to amplify voices of marginalised communities, to work for inclusion and allyship.

The next narrative to come out of their offices will be that they believed in that amplification and allyship for phantom causes so deeply that they went broke doing it. They will call themselves heroes in their self-advocacy and self-love.