That post I wrote about creators being ripped off... David Gordon recently posted this:
Back in 1997, Terry Hooper-Scharf asked me to draw this book. We got an advance and in total I think I got about £600 before our 'editor' snuffed it and the royalty cheques stopped coming. Fantagraphics, when pressed for back royalties, told me, "your deal died with Ezra (Marks)".
That was 24 years ago.
Since then the title has proved VERY popular for Fantagraphics, always available on their website (destroying their "out of print" claims) translated into untitled languages which was NEVER part of the original agreement...
AND here's the bit that REALLY pisses me off. One, just one, illegal download site has seen it downloaded 3,500,000 times...
That's right folks, 3.5 MILLION times.
To remind you. I've seen just £600 so far.
Those numbers do raise the question though, just how many physical copies of the book has Fantagraphics sold?
Bitter, pissed off? Too f*****g right.
David added a screenshot of what is being asked for a copy of this book on "legit" sites and I think the record I saw asked for it on Amazon a year ago was £200.00 ($200).
Crooks illegally upload and download and publishers screw the creators. NOTHING has changed in comics except the internet -that's how we find out the truth.
Thing is, there's no language we can use that they can't just laugh at. We found out very early on these people circumvent every rule they can get away with. You can't shame people who have had their conscience surgically removed at birth. They tout being the artist's 'friend'. We know what 'friend' means in Fantagraphics language. It carries the same insincerity as "Have a nice day".
ReplyDeletetrue. problem with karma is it takes so bloody long!
ReplyDeleteAnd we're also holding back what we'd actually really like to say about this company.
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