http://quickmerch.printfection.com/

I got an email from their sales rep about merchandising my characters. I'm pretty sure some of you've been approached but has anyone dealt with them? Thanks.

Printfection is a slightly upscale version of cafepress. I use them just because they're cheap as anywhere else and pretty reliable, but I wouldn't expect anything on the level of topatoco and I'm personally planning on looking into other option since I wasn't amazingly impressed by the quality or adaptability of their stuff. There's also the downside of that you have to earn at least $25 of profit before they send you your earnings in the mail.

speaking from experiance, if youre going to actually sell your characters to the company, make sure you have a lawyer or someone else go over the contract with a fine toothed comb. It's really important that you retain as much rights as possible, or else a company can not only fire you, but keep all your characters and rights. Thankfully I was never with anyone who did that, but damn it's been known to happen.

Yea, you don't want to just sign over your hard work so they can take it away from you. Look what happened to the creator of Spiderman. He didn't get paid for the earning from movies and merchandising. It's disgusting. I think it was something like he was drawing the characters for hire so there was no royalty agreement. Anyway, I doubt I'll go with this company because I don't think they have a great marketing campaign and I'd probably make more money just selling stuff on my site.

vexx78
Look what happened to the creator of Spiderman.

Lee made his contract in the 1960's i think, and at the time spiderman was a nobody concept that ran as a side in other comics before it got its own.:) He didn't draw spiderman himself since he was a writer, the original was drawn by an artist marvel hired.
Anyways marvel is what made spiderman possible, by paying lee to write and getting him artists and publishing it, in the end spiderman is theirs. Since we're creators ourselves it's sad to see someone screwed over, but what can yah do? :0

Skullbie
but what can yah do? :0

“Well if I am getting raped, what can yah do?”

Put up a fight?

You know you can typically negotiate terms on a contract. And if you can is selling out your creative property really worth it?

lefarce
You know you can typically negotiate terms on a contract. And if you can is selling out your creative property really worth it?

Yeah have fun doing that with Marvel/DC. Creators are more knowledgeable and cautious about what they do with their work today because there's so many ‘i got screwed!’ stories circulating the net. Most up and coming creators care about the instant glory/paycheck from the work, not ‘is my ragtag comic idea going to be a movie 35 years from now and make 200mil in it’s first week while i sit in my mansion with my measly pile of millions >:'(?raaaage.'

Skullbie

lefarce
You know you can typically negotiate terms on a contract. And if you can is selling out your creative property really worth it?

Yeah have fun doing that with Marvel/DC. Creators are more knowledgeable and cautious about what they do with their work today because there's so many ‘i got screwed!’ stories circulating the net. Most up and coming creators care about the instant glory/paycheck from the work, not ‘is my ragtag comic idea going to be a movie 35 years from now and make 200mil in it’s first week while i sit in my mansion with my measly pile of millions >:'(?raaaage.'

Well no shit you cant negotiate easily with Marvel or DC, but we werent talking about them in the first place. : /


Besides, I seriously seriously doubt that anyone from this site is going to get signed onto either of those companies in the near future. Mayber further down the line, when they're a bit older, been floating around the industry, but for now the important thing is to understand the risks involved with even smaller companies.

Also you know who else gets instant glory and a paycheck? Stripers.

SO THAR U GO~

Stripping?! Actually that's a great idea! I have to brush up on my dancing moves but I think I'll be able to swing my thang for dollars! Ooooo, I can get a cop uniform and old divorced cougars can rub me down….
On second thought maybe not.

Skullbie

vexx78
Look what happened to the creator of Spiderman.

Lee made his contract in the 1960's i think, and at the time spiderman was a nobody concept that ran as a side in other comics before it got its own.:) He didn't draw spiderman himself since he was a writer, the original was drawn by an artist marvel hired.
Anyways marvel is what made spiderman possible, by paying lee to write and getting him artists and publishing it, in the end spiderman is theirs. Since we're creators ourselves it's sad to see someone screwed over, but what can yah do? :0

Possibly Vexx is talking about Steve Ditko? Stan Lee, the other guy who takes credit for Spider-Man… i think he's doing okay, and is okay with his arrangement (okay enough to have a cameo in all three flicks). Ditko has been pretty silent over the years, but was recently interviewed for about about himself and he said that he actually took a larger part in the creation of Spider-Man than is attributed over the years by the stories Stan Lee has told.

Probably, though, Vexx was maybe thinking of Superman's case? Where Siegel and Shuster, barely (if even) out of their teens sold National (now DC) their rights to Superman for something like $325? And then after a few years were completely ignored. They later ended up fairly poor I believe, and there's been a number of copyright cases by them and their families… the most recent, where their families (as they are both now deceased) actually won a portion of the rights back. What that means as far as what they get, I think is still being determined… blah blah.

I'm on the fence about that whole situation. In fact, the only reason they;'re getting anything is because of technical copyright loopholes. Honestly, on technical level, I don't think that DC really owes them anything. They sold their rights. Done deal. Not only that, but the millions or billions of dollars that Superman has generated over the years, would not have happened if the character was left in their hands. It was DC/National/WB that developed the character over the last 70 years. In fact, a lot of the most familiar attributes of Superman were NOT created by them: flight ability, Lex Luthor, and kryptonite, to name a few.

On the flip side, you have guys like Bob Kane, who in all likelyhood probably did NOT create Batman (at least not by himself) and due to his contract negotiations managed to take credit for a lot of the Finger/Robinson Batman comics that he didn't create.

The take home lesson here, is, yeah, make sure all your legal stuff is in order– even if its just you working with a partner in a friendly relationship. Its best to draw things out and say “Hey this is how it is.” from the get go because down the line, you don't want to be on the poop side of a copyright issue watching someone else make a ton of money off your work.