Platinum Studios Contract Shenanigans

It’s the oldest story in the book. Boy makes webcomic, boy loves webcomic, webcomic wins contest, company turns webcomic into print comic, company doesn’t pay boy on schedule, boy gets screwed.

I’m talking, of course, about D.J. Coffman and Platinum Studios. After winning the Comic Book Challenge, Coffman’s strip Hero By Night was picked up by Platinum Studios. When Platinum started delaying his payments, Coffman decided that he couldn’t afford to work for them any more and the two parties entered into negotiations to return the publishing rights for the series to its creator. Coffman posted about this on his blog.

A short time ago, he got the following reply from Platinum Studios:

…Please be advised that due to the controversy stirred up as a result of your recent blogging and interviews, all discussions between us regarding any potential licensing back to you of limited rights to Hero By Night are on hold. At this time, we cannot say when those discussions might be resurrected. - Brian Altounian

This is what’s generally known in the business as a “dick move”. According to the contract, Platinum is completely within their rights to do this, but that doesn’t make it right (or even smart) to do so. The lesson to take home? Read carefully before you sign a contract. Also, Brian Altounian licks goats.

More info from the horse’s mouth. Hat tip to Fleen.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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4 Responses to “Platinum Studios Contract Shenanigans”

  1. Adam_Y on June 25th, 2008 at 7:21 am

    They may be within their rights, but that doesn’t make it *right*.

    But it is a good way for a publisher to alienate any other potential creators. Aside from the fact that they failed to pay him, something for which there is no excuse (if you don’t have the money, don’t get someone to do the work), getting all whiney and witholding his rights – which they are unable to use – just seems like a childish and spiteful act.

    Just not cool.

  2. Scott Henkle on July 2nd, 2008 at 3:00 pm

    I’m sorry to hear about your misfortune. Something about drunk duck lead me not to trust em…I figured I might as well just create my own website if i’m going to create my own web comic.

    Thanks for proving my intuitions right, and I hope this turns out badly for them….taking an artists comic like that is dick.

    -Scott

  3. Dan on July 16th, 2008 at 2:00 am

    http://blog.platinumstudios.com/

  4. Lars H on August 29th, 2008 at 7:13 am

    I’m pretty sure they’re not within their rights to violate contracts and not pay people for their work though.

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