Aftershock Comics files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Late payments to the artist effectively killed / paused indeterminately an original 4-issue I co-created with Aftershock. Have had good faith convos w/ EIC Brian but w/ 2 issues done, no movement. If within a year you don’t have art costs to finish 2 issues within your budget…

…then your whole enterprise should be called into question. This statement says all under contract will be paid… but when? No word on that for months now. Zero direct communication. “Late” at a certain point becomes “non” if your income has a giant hole in it for 6+ months…

Artists, colorists, letterers, & writers should not have to be bookkeepers and accountants for imprints with business affairs, accounting, and legal departments.

On the TV / film side, unions have won important contract terms like “timely” and “pay or play.”

I have been taken care of across the board by every imprint I’ve worked for, including Aftershock, where I’m paid out on the series after delivering all contracted work.

But it rankles when colleagues suffer, taken advantage of for choosing to pursue a vocation they love…

…ignored as if they don’t exist……and when our most valuable assets—our ideas & efforts—languish in the mismanaging hands of those firms (and people!) we trusted with them.

That—and all this armchair devaluing by AI enthusiasts—is frankly dispiriting and fairly infuriating.

And look TV / film is no greener ethical pasture. Entire streaming series are being wholesale deleted in order to escape paying residuals, something unions have just barely carved out in new media (look up the difference between cable / TV resids vs streaming in WGA agreement)

And the amount of free work and writing I’ve done chasing TV / Film pitches and projects that didn’t happen would be staggering and extraordinary if it also weren’t entirely ordinary. I have been paid to pitch precisely once… for the only time I worked on a video game.

It was so shocking to me that I was actually anxious and felt at any moment a mistake would be realized and I would have to give the money back.

Unfortunately, fear of reprisal / overcompensation has been baked into the artistic trade as a pathology at this point.

If we let that fester, and accept continued devaluation in any form, then corporatized slight-of-hand and exploitation will only persist and get bolder and more egregious.

At the end of the day, it’s important to remember: they can’t do what we do.

So they should pay us for what we do.

On time.

And they should treat us with respect, through proper professional communication about project status / financial issues.

Anyway, the fight for fair compensation, the only American pastime I love more than baseball.

Late payments to the artist effectively killed / paused indeterminately an original 4-issue I co-created with Aftershock. Have had good faith convos w/ EIC Brian but w/ 2 issues done, no movement. If within a year you don’t have art costs to finish 2 issues within your budget…

…then your whole enterprise should be called into question. This statement says all under contract will be paid… but when? No word on that for months now. Zero direct communication. “Late” at a certain point becomes “non” if your income has a giant hole in it for 6+ months…

Artists, colorists, letterers, & writers should not have to be bookkeepers and accountants for imprints with business affairs, accounting, and legal departments.

On the TV / film side, unions have won important contract terms like “timely” and “pay or play.”

I have been taken care of across the board by every imprint I’ve worked for, including Aftershock, where I’m paid out on the series after delivering all contracted work.

But it rankles when colleagues suffer, taken advantage of for choosing to pursue a vocation they love…

…ignored as if they don’t exist……and when our most valuable assets—our ideas & efforts—languish in the mismanaging hands of those firms (and people!) we trusted with them.

That—and all this armchair devaluing by AI enthusiasts—is frankly dispiriting and fairly infuriating.

And look TV / film is no greener ethical pasture. Entire streaming series are being wholesale deleted in order to escape paying residuals, something unions have just barely carved out in new media (look up the difference between cable / TV resids vs streaming in WGA agreement)

And the amount of free work and writing I’ve done chasing TV / Film pitches and projects that didn’t happen would be staggering and extraordinary if it also weren’t entirely ordinary. I have been paid to pitch precisely once… for the only time I worked on a video game.

It was so shocking to me that I was actually anxious and felt at any moment a mistake would be realized and I would have to give the money back.

Unfortunately, fear of reprisal / overcompensation has been baked into the artistic trade as a pathology at this point.

If we let that fester, and accept continued devaluation in any form, then corporatized slight-of-hand and exploitation will only persist and get bolder and more egregious.

At the end of the day, it’s important to remember: they can’t do what we do.

So they should pay us for what we do.

On time.

And they should treat us with respect, through proper professional communication about project status / financial issues.

Anyway, the fight for fair compensation, the only American pastime I love more than baseball.