Owe My Soul the Company Store...

CB Cebulski brings up an interesting point on TokyoPop contracts on The Engine. (You may have to register to read it, I don't know if you can otherwise.)

Basically, he brings up the point that no one else has really talked about- that if you sign, TokyoPop expects to get first refusal rights on everything else you come up with besides the book you signed for. This is similar to the contracts that Disney makes their animators sign, where anything you come up with while working for Disney belongs to Disney. (At least, they used to have those contracts... I don't know if those have changed now...) And, according to CB (a guy I trust, by the way, he's a straight shooter), he was told this was non-negotiable at SDCC this year. This is something that bothers me on a deep level, because I know that freelance artists *need* to get as much work out as possible, in as many different venues as possible. It's just not feasible to try to make any kind of living from just one company. (Well, unless you like ramen noodles and living in a carboard box...) Even if an artist does have monumental company loyalty (as many of my artist friends do, and for good reasons) and wants only one company to publish their works, they still are able to supplement their income by making their own merchandise, goods, art prints and gewgaws themselves based on their published works to earn extra cash on the side. Will TP artists be able to do this themselves? Or will they need approval for such things?

I'm thinking there are many different definitions of "creator-owned" floating around out there, and few of them reflect the actual meaning of the term. Considering how hard freelancers have had to fight over the years for creator's rights, I cannot help but think this sort of stuff is a step backwards.

EDIT: The discussion continues on other blogs, with a lot of other good information:

Lea Hernandez posts about the whole thread and then Robert DeJesus posts about it too. Interesting comments by Bruce Lewis, and others also. These are people who have been doing "American manga" since the 1980's. They know what they're talking about.

Owe My Soul the Company Store...

CB Cebulski brings up an interesting point on TokyoPop contracts on The Engine. (You may have to register to read it, I don't know if you can otherwise.)

Basically, he brings up the point that no one else has really talked about- that if you sign, TokyoPop expects to get first refusal rights on everything else you come up with besides the book you signed for. This is similar to the contracts that Disney makes their animators sign, where anything you come up with while working for Disney belongs to Disney. (At least, they used to have those contracts... I don't know if those have changed now...) And, according to CB (a guy I trust, by the way, he's a straight shooter), he was told this was non-negotiable at SDCC this year. This is something that bothers me on a deep level, because I know that freelance artists *need* to get as much work out as possible, in as many different venues as possible. It's just not feasible to try to make any kind of living from just one company. (Well, unless you like ramen noodles and living in a carboard box...) Even if an artist does have monumental company loyalty (as many of my artist friends do, and for good reasons) and wants only one company to publish their works, they still are able to supplement their income by making their own merchandise, goods, art prints and gewgaws themselves based on their published works to earn extra cash on the side. Will TP artists be able to do this themselves? Or will they need approval for such things?

I'm thinking there are many different definitions of "creator-owned" floating around out there, and few of them reflect the actual meaning of the term. Considering how hard freelancers have had to fight over the years for creator's rights, I cannot help but think this sort of stuff is a step backwards.

EDIT: The discussion continues on other blogs, with a lot of other good information:

Lea Hernandez posts about the whole thread and then Robert DeJesus posts about it too. Interesting comments by Bruce Lewis, and others also. These are people who have been doing "American manga" since the 1980's. They know what they're talking about.

Baby Squirrel!

This link is for dustmeat:

Papillon raises baby squirrel as her own.

You *have* to check out the photo gallery. The pictures are too cute!

Work was slow tonight, I had all of four sales. -_-; However, DD did come in with Fred Perry, who I haven't seen since con season, even though he lives in town! So that was a nice diversion, chatting about games and helping them shop for some new ones. I owe DD and denshousha birthday gifties, so I was surreptitiously gaining info for potential b-day presents. ^_^

In other news, we are done with Manga #1 and all the pages have been uploaded. I got my price quote for the Ebin & May trade, so tomorrow, I go to pay (and pay and pay.... heh, no, it's not that bad...). I sent off the solicitation info for the February 2006 books this morning (early, due to Yom Kippur, our Diamond rep is Jewish), so my work for the day is done.

Now, I will eat a can of tuna and some rice and play some WoW before going to bed.

Baby Squirrel!

This link is for dustmeat:

Papillon raises baby squirrel as her own.

You *have* to check out the photo gallery. The pictures are too cute!

Work was slow tonight, I had all of four sales. -_-; However, DD did come in with Fred Perry, who I haven't seen since con season, even though he lives in town! So that was a nice diversion, chatting about games and helping them shop for some new ones. I owe DD and denshousha birthday gifties, so I was surreptitiously gaining info for potential b-day presents. ^_^

In other news, we are done with Manga #1 and all the pages have been uploaded. I got my price quote for the Ebin & May trade, so tomorrow, I go to pay (and pay and pay.... heh, no, it's not that bad...). I sent off the solicitation info for the February 2006 books this morning (early, due to Yom Kippur, our Diamond rep is Jewish), so my work for the day is done.

Now, I will eat a can of tuna and some rice and play some WoW before going to bed.