I am very happy that I had people surrounding me early on that taught me what predatory practices in comics looked like. I hate how common these stories are and how few people are out there teaching people how to avoid them. There were some pretty big offers I would’ve been so happy to take when I was just in my first couple of years into comics professionally until I talked to friends about it and realized how terrible the deals were.
Most of my career I’ve only dealt with companies who have asked me specifically to put my health first, I am in a position with one publisher where they know my work sells reliably enough that I can sometimes ask for an advance on royalties when I was having health issues, I also have maintained ownership of all my work.
Self publishing, while you do get to crowdfund, when it gets to a certain size becomes like having ten different full time jobs and was the most stressful thing I’ve put my body through so I’m happy I made the transition out of it.
I don’t trust most of the big companies, I’ve seen enough of their contracts. But there are hundreds of other options with great distribution and reach. My publishers aren’t household names but they have Eisner noms every year and are in nearly every library in the US and Canada as well as some overseas. And they have treated me extremely well and been very patient with me.
If you get offered a predatory contract, ask for changes and if they can’t budge just walk away. Always read the contract, always ask for revisions, and as in general page rates specifically haven’t been a very good way to make long term money in comics. This is all to say that yes— there are bad practices in comics but that’s not every single corner of the industry.
