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creator-owned

Copyright and IP

by Palle Schmidt Leave a Comment

Who owns the rights to a piece of art or a character? Can you sell the same story twice and what if someone steals your artwork?

In most cases and artist hired to do a specific job retains the IP (Intellectual Property) of their work. Creating a jingle, a op-ed illustration or a short story for a magazine doesn’t mean signing off ownership. It means you lease the work you did to a client for a specific purpose and/or time period. If there’s a contract involved this should specify exactly who owns what right but as a rule of thumb, it’s you as the creator. 

In comics, there is work-for-hire (in which case the publishing company owns all the rights) and creator-owned (in which case you bring the project to the publisher and sign off the publishing rights but retain the intellectual property). If you’ve been on retainer or creating something while working for Disney or Microsoft, you bet they will keep the IP – and trying to fight them on it will cause you a lot of time and headaches  and likely bankruptcy.

If on the other hand you were hired to design a poster and the company decides they want to use it for a banner ad or a free give-away sticker, you’ll likely be able to get more money or get them to cease and desist, since you still own the IP. Theoretically you could sell the same piece of work twice but you risk pissing off both clients, where they ever to find out. Comics artists do this all the time, selling original artwork that was printed in a book and I’m sure it’s similar in other industries.

If a client should present you with a waiver or contract leaving them with all the rights to your work for all use in all eternity and known universes, I’d be very wary of signing it. And if I did, I’d expect to be well compensated. Some clients will try to get all the rights but it’s usually negotiable if you push back. If you do sign off say publishing rights, make sure the rights revert back to you after a period of time – the standard is two to three years.

Some of my earlier clients have thought they just owned whatever they bought from me, to use for whatever. I’ve sometimes introduced the idea of rights and been able to charge a higher price for my work, by offering broad usage with no time limit – mostly in cases where I cared less about the artwork, and had no use for it myself. The client might find it more convenient to buy you out from the beginning instead of having to negotiate a new rate every time they find a new use for your jingle, illustration or whatever. And that’s totally fair, as long as they pay premium.

Copyright is another can of worms but basically no one is allowed to steal your work and present as their own or use it for commercial purposes without your explicit permission. There’s something called “fair use” which means if a blogger reviews my comic I can’t very well sue them for using an image from the book.

If you’re a semi-pro artist I’m sure you use stuff like Instagram to promote your art. Some artists are wary of putting their content on these platforms as it might get stolen or copied. And while it certainly happens, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. You can post work-in-progress or detail shots rather than finished artwork and your followers will be just as happy. Besides, the more loyal fans you have out there, the bigger the chance that they will let you know if your work shows up in weird places.

If you do find your work popping up somewhere online you can take two different approaches:

1. Let it go. Usually there’s no ill intent behind it, people just don’t realize that you can’t copy/paste whatever you find online. Or maybe they’re evil bastards (like the people who put my book The Devil’s Concubine on a torrent somewhere in China), who knows? But the chances of you getting them to cease and desist are slim at best.

Usually there’s no ill intent behind it, people just don’t realize that you can’t copy/paste whatever you find online. Or maybe they’re evil bastards (like the people who put my book The Devil’s Concubine on a torrent somewhere in China), who knows? But the chances of you getting them to cease and desist are slim at best.

2. Send a nice e-mail  to the owner of the site, asking them either to take it down or at least credit you – or simply send them a bill! I wouldn’t expect them to pay but it might help persuade them to remove your work from their page.


This post is an excerpt from my book SOLO – Survival Guide for Creative Freelancers – Pre-order now on Amazon.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: comics business, copyright, creative decisions, creator-owned, freelance life, IP, rights, SOLO, solopreneur, work for hire, working with clients

Case study: THE DEVIL’S CONCUBINE

by Palle Schmidt Leave a Comment

This book was over ten years in the making, a perhaps overly ambitious project designed to kick down the door to the US market. 

I wanted the book to be look like a music video and be as stock full of gratuitous violence as an early John Woo action movie. I wanted to create a book that my 13-year old self would find it impossible not to pick up. I had a dogma that no matter where you opened the book, there should be someone getting shot, something blowing up or someone taking their clothes off.

For years I tried the traditional route of mailing test pages (this was almost before the internet!) to US publishers, getting rejection slips or no reply at all for years. I tried publishers in France and the UK as well, getting close to a deal a couple of times but never anything set in stone. The industry seemed far away and interests were slim. I knew it would take years (with no incoming salary) to finish the book and was almost ready to give up. It just seemed like it would never happen. Then one night out drinking with a bunch of comics guys in Copenhagen, I got to chatting with small press editor Paw Mathiassen of Fahrenheit. He asked what I was working on and I told him the woeful story of The Devil’s Concubine. I’m sure this dead-end project of mine was a joke among my peers at this point but apparently Paw hadn’t heard it. “Send it to me,” he said and as it turned out that slight interest from an editor was enough to kick me back into work mode.

I translated the script to Danish (it was originally written in English) and rough sketched the entire book in a few months, so I at least would have something readable to present. Paw agreed to publish the book and although it was a back end deal that never made me any money as far as I recall, I could now see the finish line and was able to drag myself out of the ditch and finish the race. I worked on the book any chance I got for the next year or so and The Devil’s Concubine was finally published in Denmark in 2009 – more than a decade after I came up with the initial premise and main characters.

With the book finished, I was now able to present to US publishers with a little more confidence. Time and technology had worked in my favor because now most publishers could be reached via email and I was able to send a full PDF with links to a cool trailer a friend of mine had made in after effects and both a Danish and and English version of a website (created by another friend, still available at devilsconcubine.com). IDW showed interest and we reached an agreement after about a year of going back and forth. The book finally came out in the US in 2011.

Lessons learned: 

Ambition is great, finishing something is better. It’s also a whole lot easier to sell a finished project than an idea. If you want to create something, do it for your own sake in your style rather than trying to cater to any market.


This post is an excerpt from my book SOLO – Survival Guide for Creative Freelancers – Pre-order now on Amazon.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: behind-the-scenes, case study, creator-owned, graphic novel, IDW Publishing, making comics, Peter Snejbjerg, pro tips, process, SOLO, The Devil's Concubine, working with editors, Writing

New Book: SOLO – Survival Guide for Creative Freelancers

by Palle Schmidt Leave a Comment

If you’re on the newsletter, you’ve no doubt heard about my upcoming English language book SOLO – Survival Guide for Creative Freelancers.

The book is an attempt to gather my 20 years of experience as an independant creator in several fields – writing, drawing, comics, YA, children’s books, podcasting, teaching.

It’s a well-known fact that more and more jobs will be outsourced to freelance contractors or be project-based. The so called “steady jobs” are a thing of the past. It is time to take control of your own destiny, ownership of your career and your future.

SOLO is written for people who believe in creative living on their own terms. It will focus on people who want a sustainable career, mixing freelance work with creating and selling their own art. My promise is that diving in to the tactics and strategies of this book will help you find a clearer vision to strike out your own path.

Here’s some of what the book covers:

  • How to get started with freelancing
  • How to create a network of people to help build your career
  • How to handle clients and pricing your work
  • How to handle the business side of things
  • How to gain new clients and create several income streams
  • What tools, tactics and templates you can use to sustain you over the long haul

The opportunities for running your own creative business have never been more optimal and the book gives concrete examples and ideas for what your next step could be, no matter where you are in your creative career.

Click the image below to download a free 20-page sample.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: artist, creative decisions, creativity, creator-owned, freebie, freelance, freelance life, indie creators, new book, reading sample, SOLO, solopreneur, work for hire, working methods

The Monthly Grind – Comics for Beginners podcast episode 21

by Palle Schmidt Leave a Comment


The rabbit is out of the hat! BOOM! Studios is releasing the first issue of creator-owned book Thomas Alsop in June 2014, an occult New York story, written by Chris Miskiewicz and drawn by yours truly. Bleeding Cool did a nice little write up here: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/03/12/are-you-missing-hellblazer-here-comes-thomas-alsop/. I’ve obviously known about this for a while, even recorded an interview with my friend and mentor Peter Snejbjerg (http://www.snejbjerg.com) on the topic of working on a monthly book. Listen for more details.

You can read a 12-page short featuring Thomas Alsop here: http://welcometotripcity.com/2013/05/thomas-alsop-the-case-of-dead-uncle/ and watch the live action promo at http://welcometotripcity.com/2013/05/thomas-alsop-the-hand-of-the-island-official-trailer/

Thomas_Alsop_Cover-600x922

Filed Under: News, Podcast, Pro Tips Tagged With: artist, BOOM! Studios, breaking news, career, Chris Miskiewicz, collaboration, comics, comics industry, comics market, creator-owned, improving as an artist, making comics, monthly, Palle Schmidt, Peter Snejbjerg, planning, podcast, pro tips, productivity, Saint-Malo, Thomas Alsop, US

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