Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
::Today's soundtrack: Muse "Uprising" ::
I feel that I must voice my own rage.
As you may know, I like comics and relative to that, there is one creator in particular of whom I am a big fan: Aaron Alexovitch (I actually interviewed him back in 2007for Rant 220). He has worked on a modest number of projects, both as a writer and an artist, and I like and admire them all to date. So, when I found out he was taking part in a comic contest on the internet, I was eager to see what it was all about. Alexovitch and Drew Rausch (of Sullengrey fame) had hammered out a new comic entitled ELDRITCH! and it was in competition with nine other eight page sample comics on DC's Zuda website. The contest was reader vote-based: the most votes determines the winner. The prize? Why nothing short of DC publishing a full length version of your comic and a hefty paycheck for your troubles. In other words, a pretty worthwhile prize for any comic book writer or artist currently without a contract or paying work. Voting was open for the entire month of April, and Alexovitch and his partner were promoting their project on every social platform online nonstop the entire time. Twitter, blog, and Facebook postings were made every few hours for thirty days.
But, competition was stiff, with one other contestant in particular, so we, the fans of Alexovitch's work who really wanted to see more of this neat little comic started to take up the call as well. We started forum postings, tweeted and retweeted pleas for views and votes, e-mailed and direct messaged our contacts to tell them about this great comic that deserved more. I personally tweeted about the contest several times per day once I'd heard about it and direct messaged all of my twitter followers (my first and only direct message of a solicitous nature to anyone) and even e-mailed friends and family. I constantly checked the Zuda site to see where ELDRITCH! was currently ranked, and it seemed to constantly teeter between number 1 and number 2. All of us ELDRITCH! supporters were biting our nails and pulling out our hair watching the rank switch back and forth. Would we still have the number 1 slot when the month ended??
WE DID!! It was a miracle, a hard-earned miracle, but one nonetheless. All of our hard work in spreading the word and securing votes had paid off! ELDRITCH! was going to be produced, and by a major publisher no less! One of our favourite creators was going to get a tidy sum of money for this comic which meant he would be able to work more on his own characters and comics (fan favourite Serenity Rose would live on in a third volume!) rather than finding a job that actually pays by drawing other people's stuff (he had recently taken on a job doing one page comics to promote the new PC video game "Lylian")! Us fans would get to have this new comic and following that, another dose of our old favourites as well!! It was a win for everybody.
Until last Thursday.
True, we all had a creepy crawly feeling when June was going by and Alexovitch and Rausch had yet to receive their contracts from DC. They were declared the winners on May 1 and here June was going by with no word from DC. What was going on? Where were the contracts? When would they get paid that nice check they were promised? Then on July 1 DC sent out e-mails to all of its Zuda participants telling them the branch was declared dead. There would be no new Zuda projects at this time, ELDRITCH! included. True, we should have sensed something was up when they declared an end to the contests on April 30th, but it was still shocking news to say the least.
Now, DC is a very big company. Heck, they're one of The Big Two (along with Marvel Comics). You would think that they would know how to do business and honour commitments. It was said in the contest that this is what the participants would have to do, and then this is what Zuda/DC would do for the winner. Alexovitch and Rausch covered their end. They created the first eight pages of what promised to be a quality comic and got literally THOUSANDS of people to read it, like it, and vote for it. It's like DC had their market research already done for them. There were thousands of people willing to buy this comic when it was done, but DC seems to be ignoring that. We said "we want to read more of this comic!" but DC doesn't care. Alexovitch and Rausch have been officially cut loose. There will be no contract or pay check. DC did not hold up their end of the deal.
This, my friends, infuriates me.
Alexovitch and Rausch are freelance artist-types. They try to make a living creating artistic things. This can be difficult. This can mean that the projects you WANT to do, the creative works that really carry a strong meaning for the creator on a more personal and spiritual level, often wind up taking a backseat to taking on a job that will actually pay up front. The ELDRITCH! comic in the Zuda contest seemed to be the perfect solution. Alexovitch and Rausch would get to make their own, original work and be paid mightily for it, which would in turn finance their own other independent artistic works (like more Serenity Rose and Sullengrey comics). They worked hard relentlessly promoting ELDRITCH! so that it and their other endeavors could be made, and we, their fans, worked relentlessly, too. We were on cloud 9 when our efforts paid off, and now DC has brutally yanked that cloud out from under us.
It isn't fair, nor do I think it ought to be legal for them to get away with this. Promises were made and not kept. Alas, I am no lawyer, nor am I at all familiar with the inner workings of the comic book industry. For all I know there could have been some fine print somewhere on the contest entry form granting DC the right to back out at the eleventh hour with little or no reason. We all just worked so hard. We all want this comic. We told DC we want this comic. Thousands of us. Money in the bank, DC. Do you not like money? Well, you're going to get less of it. I know a few people who have vowed to boycott DC products in light of this. If you are as enraged by these events as I am, then I encourage you to do the same. Except for Fables, DC really has done anything all that great in a while anyway.
William the Bloody (fuming)
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