Color Artists & Royalties

There was quite the discussion on Twitter last night. I took a small part in it.

The topic? Whether color artists deserve to be include in royalty payments for their work.

Erik Larsen asserted that they do not. While writers and pencil artists generate sales, color artists do not.

I'll probably put together a blog of highlights of some of the biggest contradictions from Larsen and best points from the cast of characters opposing him (Kurt Busiek, Dave McCaig, Alex Sinclair, Chris Sotomayor and more).

One of the problems with Larsen's position, from my point of view, that he keeps referring to art when he's only means the work of the pencil artist. He'll say that readers only care that the art looks good, without seeming to acknowledge that the color work plays a part in how good the art looks.

I asked: "Do you not agree that there are some high profile artists that rely a lot on the colorist's work? (w/o naming names)"

He responded: absolutely--BUT I think that rates a bigger page rate.

That seems to acknowledge that color artists sure make a really important contribution to the art that "moves the needle". For some reason, it justifies up-front payment, but not royalties.

Larsen at times "cries poor" for the hypothetical publisher, which I don't get. The up-front rate is completely out of the publisher's pocket, regardless of results. The royalties only pay out after a profit is made. Seems like it would be difficult for royalties to ever be the reason a publisher goes under.

He, also, uses a movie analogy that the artist (he means pencil artist) is the director while the colorist (color artist) is the lighting. Couldn't imagine a more insulting analogy, personally.

Tony F-ing Harris: My New F-ing Hero

I've always been a fan of work Tony Harris does. Haven't had any contact with him at conventions or anything of the sort. Might have read one interview with him on a site or in a magazine.

But tonight he vaulted to the top of my list of favorite creators on the strength of one word repeated many times: UNION.

we NEEd a fucking Union. I am sick of skirting this topic at cons in bars. we will FOREVER be treated like the Mentally Challenged, red

headed, step child who lives in the basement and is fed by sliding a plate of food under the door part of the entertainment Industry until

we step up and demand better pay, benefits, and all around professional behavior out of the same people

who demand it out of us. guess what John Q. Publisher? I aint turing in any more FUCKING pages until you pay me what you owe me.

But I don't think we will have a Union in my lifetime. Unions =fallout. Fallout of creators. nobody wants to be a Martry.

That was about 5 years ago. Nothing has changed. Comic creators are still Castrated bitches. I think we like big Dicks in our Butts.

...

Fame in the Comics Industry is so limited. you can be the biggest name in the Biz, and you walk out your front door, no-one knows you.

.....and they don't care. So don't let your "Fame" go to your head captain-suck-myself. Did I mention we need a FUCKING UNION?!?!!?

thay way we could get together at Union Meetings and vote out " people who think their shit don't stink".

This means I'm even more of a lock to buy The Further Adventures of the Whistling Skull from Harris and B. Clay Moore.

Tyler Perry: Busted By Union

OK. So the news hit on Wednesday, but I was waiting on a key piece of information before I'd be ready to talk about it here.

Nikki Finke has the best coverage, for the most part, but had missed one key point: what happened to the fired writers?

It took a weekend of Google alerts, but I found out that they received a financial settlement from Tyler Perry's company for an undisclosed amount. I imagine that it will include residuals for the episodes they already completed work on, but can't say for certain.

So, Mr. Tyler "I'm not Disney/I haven't seen one thin dime" Perry fought the WGA...and the WGA won. On a Thanksgiving weekend that was hard to find things to be thankful for on a personal level, this managed to make it on to that unfortunately short list.

You're Entering The Tyler Perry All Spin Zone

Tyler Perry gave an exclusive interview to Sistas Talking Tyler Perry. I have to say that his answers don't pass the smell test:

Yolanda Ro: One question, that the readers are asking, is why wouldn't someone in your financial position, at the very least, provide the writers with health care insurance?

Tyler Perry: I don't want people to think I'm walking around with $300 million and won't give people health insurance. There are all these articles about me making $200 million from "House of Payne" but that's not true. I haven't gotten one dime off the show--not one thin dime. Nobody writes you a check for $200 million. TBS doesn't have a contract to write me a check for $200 million. It could take up to 5 years for "House of Payne" to make that amount of money. But the initial investment had to be made by me. Every dime that has been put into "House of Payne", to pay the actors and writers, have come from me doing plays and movies; from black folk who have been with me all the time. The writers knew that I even went into my own personal checking account and gave all 300 employees $1000 bonuses for Christmas.

That's just ludicrous. There's no way House of Payne is airing on TBS for free...which means he's not telling the truth. With the number of episodes it has aired, money has certainly come in from the show itself to pay the ongoing expenses. As far as the upfront costs to have started putting the show together before he had a deal with TBS, that's a case of him getting credit for what he's supposed to do. If you want to have your own production company, you're putting the money up. If you want to have your own studio, you're putting the money up. You get to reap the lion share of the profits, but you don't get to cry "poor me" along the way. Especially since he never seemed to cry poor on any of the movies he's produced from his plays.

Tyler Perry: This is what I was trying to get WGA to understand with the deal; I'm not Disney, and I'm not CNN. This is me, by myself. I'm one man with 300 employees. The deal they wanted me to sign was a deal I couldn't afford. And the moment I refused to sign, the very next day, there were all these articles printed about me being a "union-buster". The next day they were calling me racist and picketing outside the party. They waited right until the party to picket, thinking they had me over a barrel, and that I would cave in, but I don't give into extortion. If it had not been for the NAACP stepping in, things would have gotten really ugly. Originally WGA tried to get the NAACP on their side but it didn't work out that way.

By the way, he acknowledges later that he has deals with all of the other unions. Not crying too poor for that, eh? He just feels his writers aren't worth as much because he's previously done all of his writing, in my opinion. Since these are his creations that they're playing with, he feels as though they're not doing enough work to justify the compensation they should be getting.

By the way: extortion? Please. You use all legal advantages you have in negotiation. Where else should they have picketed? Where else would be effective?

Yolanda Ro: Did you ever promise the writers benefits, residuals, or union contracts once the show took off? Tyler Perry: No. They were never promised anything. What was said to them is "here's the deal--The show is a non-union show". Each writer made six figures for less than nine months of work. Every time they wrote a script they received between $7,000-$10,000; In addition they were also receiving a paid salary by the week. Furthermore, WGA did not call me, I called them. It was 'me' making that move. I called them 5 months ago to begin negotiating a deal. These writers clearly knew that. I have deals with every union except WGA and I was trying to get into WGA because I wanted better writers--and because I was working too hard. I had to outline the show, tell them what I wanted, give them ideas, and then rewrite the script. It was taking 16-18 hours for them to write the show. The actors were frustrated, the crew was frustrated, everybody was frustrated because we would go in to shoot the show, but the script was bad. So I made it through that first year but I told them " I can't do this anymore". After I began negotiations with WGA, I didn't threaten to fire them. I just told them they were going to have to get on their job and step up their game.

I find it hard to believe that the WGA would be trying to press their case with the state labor board if Perry was truly trying to get things rolling with the union. Hard to make a case that someone fired workers for attempting to organize if they were welcoming the union.

Yolanda Ro: Can you address the accusations that you are racist, and also the rumors that you replaced the four black writers with white writers? Tyler Perry: That's not true. I let go of four writers in LA but I kept three writers in Atlanta--two are white and one is black. I hired four new black writers; One of them was Myra J from the Tom Joyner Show. When she came to work for me the union originally told her, since she hadn't done anything in four years, she could work for me. But once she came to work they began sending these harassing letters saying she had better not work for me. I sit here and look at these people knowing that they've never been able to do anything...knowing that I gave them their first opportunity, and for these four black writers to call me racist...it's ridiculous.

Ugh. No, no one called him racist in that way. What they suggested was that he was taking advantage of their being black because he knew that it is often harder for black writers to find work.

And their first opportunity? Some of those fired (if not all) were WGA members. In order to become a member, you have to have sold a script at the very least. You can't enter until you're doing work and as soon as you're doing work, you need to enter. Of course, his basically saying they should be grateful that he ever gave them a job is right in line with the accusations of the writers.

The Undying Tyler Perry Story

From the Philadelphia Tribune:

Reportedly, Perry’s attorney, Matt Johnson, said that the four were fired because of poor work performance. Griffin, Moore, Brown-Jackson and Ferrell had worked on more than 100 episodes of Perry’s series, now syndicated on FOX. The three remaining writers were asked to stay on, and two did.

“Up to that point, we wrote 100 episodes of ‘House of Payne,’ said Ferrell, who was fired on his 3 year-old son’s birthday. “The show won three Image Awards last year — one, for the best comedy on television, and we just had a ‘table read’ in Atlanta with Tyler Perry and the actors. We got a standing ovation on the scripts we wrote, and his exact words were, ‘These are golden!’ This was just a week ago. So that was just totally ridiculous and absurd that it was because of our work.

“And logically, it doesn’t make sense. You wouldn’t hire people and let them write 100 episodes for you … TBS was so pleased with the show that they gave him another 26 episodes. So he brings us back to write the rest of the 126 episodes. We wrote 16 of them, and then all of a sudden he’s not pleased with our work? That just doesn’t make sense.”

...

“The day after he fired us, they called the Writer’s Guild and wanted to go union,” Ferrell disclosed. “He fired us Monday, and wanted to go union Tuesday morning. So basically, he’s just throwing it in our face(s) saying, ‘OK. You guys brought this to me — trying to make me go union. So I’m going to go union so I can avoid all the flack, but I’m going to fire you, so you won’t receive any of the benefits from it.’”

Yeah, Perry and his lawyer seem to be doing a piss-poor job of making this go away.

Tyler Perry: Still Violating Labor Laws

Just so no one thinks I've forgotten or dropped this:

Tyler Perry situation used as an argument for the Employee Free Choice Act.

Defamer calls Oprah Winfrey, Sidney Poitier and Will Smith scabs for attending Perry's party.

Gay Wired made Tyler Perry their Hypocrite of the Week.

Tyler Perry: Union Busting Fallout

People are certainly trying to spread the word about Tyler Perry being a greedy hypocrite and union buster.

On IMDB, the issue is being discussed, with someone eventually bringing up the race issue to say that black people in Hollywood are their own worst enemy.

Over at Atlanta Film Fest 365, they've been on the issue for over a week. They've linked to coverage on NY Times, LA Times & The Hollywood Reporter.


And it is all over the net:

LALate.com
SandraRose.com

Of course, Nikki Finke is still on it.

Hope to see bigger coverage.

Corporate People Say The Silliest Things...

Thanks to Graeme for blogging about this, which is the only reason I caught it.

Tom Brevoort had the following to say about foreign royalties:

Like our editorial staff, our accounting department is lean, and the revenue derived from overseas editions isn’t so great that it woul justify the manhours it would take to determine that somebody was owed a three-dollar check for a story that had appeared in Zimbabwe and to cut it.

Gee, Mr. Brevoort...mighty kind of you to decide for your contractors what amounts of money are worth it for you to track. Corporate streamlining of your operation completely negates the legal and ethical obligation for you to pay them all monies rightfully owed to them.

People are right: creators DEFINITELY have no need or use for a union. Clearly, management has their best interests in mind at all times...

Edit: I'd like to acknowledge that Tom Brevoort says Marvel finds "other ways" to compensate creators for foreign reprints that we don't know about and shouldn't know about. I wonder if it is some manner of compensation that even their shareholders don't know about. Because, if it isn't, then there is no reason not to just share it with the audience. If the shareholders DON'T know about it...hmmmmm....

Kevin Huxford Is A Big Fat Snitch

I've been reading responses to my reporting Marc Guggenheim to the WGA and publicizing Dan Slott's private e-mails asking me to call him so he could tell me how I got my review of his Brand New Day work so wrong. I've had a fair share of supporters, but I've clearly had more detractors.

They're bringing their frustration (some eloquent, some idiotic, some ignorant) to Newsarama, Shotgun Reviews, YouTube, and even here.

Being that I'd at least like for my actions to not be a headache for Matt Brady or Troy Brownfield, I'd like to create a place for you to bash me to your heart's content where it really should be: DIRECTLY SAID TO ME, WHERE I'M AVAILABLE TO BE BASHED AND RESPOND, WITHOUT IT IMPACTING INNOCENTS.

You can come with the ridiculous commentary, like Kirk Warren who compared my reporting Marc Guggenheim to a student accusing a college professor of rape (and other extreme and inappropriate examples), as it could ruin their career, regardless of the veracity of the accusation.

Problem is: I reported Marg Guggenheim's public support for Joe Quesada's appearance on The Colbert Show and declaration that it is OK to watch a strike show as long as you don't DVR it or have a Nielsen box. There is no question as to whether he did it or not. There was only question whether it was wrong of him, as a WGA member, to publicly state such an opinion. He claimed that it wasn't and that my stance on the whole issue was merely because I wasn't aware of all the nuances of the issue. I merely directed the issue to people who WOULD be aware of the nuances: WGA leadership.

Call me a snitch. That's fine. Accuse me of trying to hurt someone's career maliciously? Suggest I'm libeling or slandering someone? You're way off on the facts. I never made anything up. At one point, I misinterpreted Marc's statement as being that he went so far as to give Joe the thumbs up BEFORE his Colbert appearance. I acknowledged that mistake and it was NOT part of anything stated to the WGA.

I'll be your snitch. In societies with a rule of law, there is a fine line between public service and snitching. Same goes for organizations, especially those centered around the ability of all to come together in unity so that they may collectively bargain as one. I'm pretty sure most of you calling me a snitch here have never had to worry about some weak link in your group's chain fucking things up for you.

It happens in union and non-union work. I've had co-workers nearly lose a contract I was working on, because they didn't care what they said in the presence of the client. Whether publicly proclaiming that he'd be able to do his job better if he actually knew what he was doing and got some training to unprofessionally insulting another contractor present on a conference call, my ability to be gainfully employed was out of my hands to some extent. The same can be said for a WGA member (and, let's not forget, PRODUCER with a possible conflict of interests) who tells the public that it is OK for you to keep watching struck shows or become a part of struck shows.

Let's not forget that Guggenheim and I were having a fairly productive discussion until another party showed up. I had actually missed Guggenheim dismissing my opinion out of hand at the end due to my not being in a Hollywood union until Slott had to chime in during his chasing me around (more on that in a separate blog).

After my post pointing out Slott's questionable actions of late (like e-mailing me repeatedly to have a phone conversation about my "wrong" review of his work), I was bowing out. There was nothing to be gained. I had received e-mails from friends that confirmed the wisdom of my decision to bow out, but they were after the fact.

Then, it would appear, someone decided to bring the attention of others into the mix. They did this quietly, while scurrying through the shadows. How could they publicly admit to doing so when they'd lose any mistaken shred of moral superiority on the issue? Forget that the act was pretty much transparent, despite their lack of owning up to it. Forget that an astute observer can pretty much tell who went crying to daddy when they felt I crossed the line. They didn't go to an organization I was a part of, either.

I'm not saying it was Guggenheim. I know it wasn't me. Hmmmmm.

I found it hilarious (and tacky) that the next interview that ran with Guggenheim at the 'Rama was done via a phone call while he was on the picket line. Screamed of damage control to me, but then the interview might have already been conducted before his error in judgment where he supported Quesada's appearance on The Colbert Show. With a week between his gaffe and his picket line interview, pardon me for being suspicious.