The Business of Comics For October 5, 2026
Let’s Get Rape Culture Out of Comics: You probably don’t need a reminder that rape culture isn’t limited to the Epstein files or Cornell University, but this is the server we’re living in, so we need to talk about sexual abuse in the comic book industry...again.
British comic book artist Dan Boultwood was recently given a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to “three counts of sexual activity with a child”. This is the latest example of predatory behavior alleged against creators like Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Ed Brubaker, and others. It appears to be a toxic manipulation of the power dynamics inherent in comics, where aspiring creators are abused by established ones under the guise of mentorship or collaboration.
This goes beyond concepts like protecting your professional reputation, and it goes beyond the comic book industry specifically and the entertainment industry in general. If you strive to be an artist, a publisher, or a fan of comics, it is up to you to create environments in the industry where women can feel safe and actually are safe. This needs to happen in your stories, in your business practices, in your behavior, and in the behavior you tolerate from other people in your circle. Comic creators might not be able to end rape culture on their own, but they can definitely stop adding to the suffering.
The Best Website For Your Digital Comics: The month leading up to New York Comic Con has generated a lot of upheaval in the world of digital comics. Kakao Entertainment announced their plans to shut down Tapas completely. Companies like Webtoon and GlobalComix are both leaning into using webcomics as a development pipeline for broader print and media adaptation rather than just a format, and new companies like Sweet Shop are coming out of beta and gearing up for a public launch.
This increased volatility displays the lifecycle of an online business from birth to expansion to death. Navigating all these platforms as a creator can be confusing and frustrating, especially when digital comics revenue is only a fraction of print.
One alternative to this digital sharecropping is to use a site builder like Comix Cleric or Neocities to make your website the home for your digital comics. This will require more work, and you won’t get the discovery advantage of being on a site like GlobalComix, but if the comics are on your site, then you can drive all your social media traffic to something you control, you potentially keep more of the revenue you generate from sales or advertising, and you don’t have to worry about some random company on the other side of the world pulling the plug one day to save money.
Comics to Movie Deals Gone Wrong: For many comic creators, getting a movie deal for their story is like getting the final stone in the Infinity Gauntlet. But from a business and legal standpoint, getting a call from Amazon or Netflix isn’t the happy ending to their creative journey. Sometimes it’s the beginning of a personal tragedy.
Consider the Children of Blood and Bone controversy. The details are unclear, but the author has publicly stated that the adaptation of her bestselling book into a film was a traumatic experience that she not only never wants to repeat, she insists that she will never watch the movie based on her work.
What she learned, and what you should understand, is that getting a deal from Hollywood for your story isn’t about just one deal where you hand someone your comic and they hand you a cartoonishly large bag of money with a big dollar sign on the side. There are actually several potential deals involved, including a shopping agreement, an option/ purchase agreement, and possible producer and screenwriter agreements. Each one of those deals can be crafted or manipulated to undermine your rights, your revenue, any ability you have to recover your intellectual property, or all three. Finally, if your comic got published with the wrong publisher, you can be frozen out of the film adaptation completely, long before Hollywood comes calling.
Am I telling you not to try to get your comic made into a TV show? Of course not. That would be dumb. Am I telling you that it is impossible to get a good deal? No, there are creators who have successfully defeated the final boss of Hollywood without rage quitting. What I am saying is that if you’re going to go down that road, having a great comic is only the first tool in your inventory.
Their Money, Your Problems: The manga publisher TOKYOPOP recently announced the launch of an equity offering, marking the first time in its history that the company is opening ownership to the public. This follows in the wake of publishers like Skybound and Archie getting mixed results from their private equity plans, and occurs in the shadow of the debt-financed mega acquisition of Warner Brothers by Paramount. All these moves raise the same questions for any comic creator to consider, namely does it make sense to use other people’s money to create your art?
From an investment standpoint, intellectual property assets in the entertainment industry tend to be high risk. This means that for every Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that succeeds there are dozens of Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters that fail. Entertainment IP, especially comic IP, is also often a long-term investment. It took more than twenty-five years for Deadpool to go from a new comic character to a blockbuster film. But investors don’t want high-risk, long-term assets. They want a guaranteed return on their investment, and they think in quarters, not decades. Since they ultimately control the flow of money, this often leads to scenarios where creative decisions are undermined by financial restraints, and any potential revenue from a successful comic launch could be eaten up by debt and interest payments.
You can sell ownership of your comic to get it off the ground, just understand what you are getting, what you are giving up, and how it will impact the stories you’re trying to tell.
All Time Is Not Created Equal: How much does a freelancer need to make per page to make a living? This is a question that has been around since the late 1900s, and various creators have offered their calculations and thoughts on the subject. Earlier this month, writer Justin Jordan posted a video on his YouTube channel attempting to calculate a reasonable page rate for a freelance creator to make a living without burning out because they’re working 16 hours a day. His numbers seem reasonable, and I’m not an accountant, but I do think there is a significant wrinkle he left out.
His page rates are based on how many pages a professional creator can make working 40 hours per week and 50 hours per year, which is the same as having a full-time job. The problem is that in most cases, a freelance comic creator doesn’t have 40 hours of paid work lined up on a consistent basis. In fact, most of the work a freelancer does to maintain their skills, pitch projects, hunt down work, negotiate rates and contracts, develop initial drafts, handle notes and revisions, and chase down payments is required but unpaid work. I believe the feast-and-famine nature of the work is a major cause of burnout. Creators work 16-hour days either because they need to make up for downtime that got them behind on their bills or they keep pushing themselves to work because they’re worried about another dry spell in the future.
The lack of consistency means freelance work can’t be calculated in the same way as a salaried job, and a profitable page rate has to factor in that required but currently unpaid work.
Have fun.
Gamal
PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A CONTENT, LICENSING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.
