Artist Dustin Nguyen (Descender, Batman: Li’l Gotham) joined Instagram this week, posting strong criticism of the fees Marvel Comics pays creators, continuing to declare that he is refusing to work with the company because he doesn’t pay the artist well enough.
Here’s the post that kicked off the discussion:
Nguyen received a lot of support from other creatives and comments from former Marvel editors like Heather Antos.
Zoe Thorogood (Lord at the Center of Earth) stated, “The only time I worked at Marvel (Edge of the Spiderverse in 2022) was for character design (they paid a $100 IMAO, but I thought it was cool just to do it). Sketch.”
Yannick Puckett (Wonder Woman: Earth One) added: Everyone pays me better for the cover. Joe starts DC, Boom, Image, Dark Horse, Oni, Kickstarter. Marvel is dead in the end. Their argument is that the original art sells better (and of course correct), but the original sales revenue is mine, and we fight for this and pay in the market is a way to get back to this extra revenue. ”
As anyone familiar with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditco’s life stories knows, freelancer exploitation is not new from Marvel or the licensed comics industry, but it should not be ignored. The story also provides a plain answer as to whether your favorite artist hasn’t worked with a home of ideas recently or at all (especially with Thorogood).
However, artists aren’t the only ones affected by low wages. Dustin Nuguen, published in this post, coincides with longtime Marvel writer Peter David’s new GoFundMe. David is much more dependent on Marvel than DC or Paramount because he’s floating financially, but it’s clearly not enough. At the time of writing, $35,751 has been raised for its current $75,000 target (formerly $50,000).
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