Some interesting coverage of Platinum Studios as of late starting with PW Comics Week's general overview of Platinum circa mid 2007:
These comics are part of the company's overall plan to put characters into as many media as possible. In addition to its film and TV projects, Platinum has a mobile-device division; an apparel company called Number Zero Ltd., which sells reversible T-shirts; a comics news site, Broken Frontier; an online store; and Web comics site DrunkDuck.com. It also hosts the Comic Book Challenge, a talent contest held at Comic-Con International in San Diego for comics creators, now in its second year.
In addition, the Beat has a short bit about Platinum publishing some of it's "library" of comic material on Drunkduck as webcomics; apparently a Dave Roman-penned never-published comic for Platinum is now appearing as Alien Circus at Drunkduck.com without crediting Roman or the other creators. Obviously work-for-hire material (which Alien Circus is) is the property of the copyright owner (which isn't the creators by definition in a work-for-hire situation) but it's not good manners and I'd say not good business sense as well to not credit the creators. Not good manners because it costs Platinum nothing to credit Roman and others who worked on the comic and so Platinum is needlessly creating bad blood with these and other creators. Not good business sense because Dave Roman is a budding star in comics and while there's never a guarantee of success in any creative business (triply so in comics) Roman has a very commercially appealing sensibility and I wouldn't be shocked if he created a story and/or characters that might be successfully translated to television or film. There's just no reason to strip the credit of any creator but it seems even more foolish when the creator's name in question has some odds of actually becoming commercially valuable.
UPDATE: Dave Roman and Luke Weber are now credited on Alien Circus.
Comments
In my usual defense of
In my usual defense of Platinum, I wish people would just contact Platinum before running wild with expose type stories or assuming things. I bet NO ONE e-mailed Platinum about it, probably not even Dave Roman. I've written more over here: http://yirmumah.net/in-defense-of-platinum-studios/
Not that my opinion really matters, but I AM a creator under WFH contract with Platinum, and saying they don't give creator credit as a general statement would be wrong. More at my link..
DJ Coffman- cartoonist
yirmumah.net - herobynight.com
Platinum
D.J.,
Hey I don't think I'm bashing Platinum needlessly (I don't think I agree with everything written in every other post on this today) - bottom line: there's no reason not to credit the creators on any project. They should fix this Alien Circus oversight pronto. (This post IS NOT about Platinum not crediting ALL creators or WORK-FOR-HIRE being the spawn of the devil. I know you've written about having a good experience working with them on Hero By Night and I don't doubt you - there's nothing evil about work-for-hire if everyone knows what they're getting into...)
I know it's entirely likely it's just a mix-up, but I expect more from Platinum then your non-funded "Joe's Webcomic Host" - Platinum has money in the bank and paid employees. It's not a charity or a scrappy, dirt-poor start-up, and it shouldn't make bush league mistakes like this. Blunt opinion - I don't think this was an intentionally evil decision - I think someone at DrunkDuck or Platinum f'd up on this.
I appreciate that it's sometimes hard to separate individual comments about Platinum from the at-times larger hysteria about the company and its alleged practices but in this specific case Platinum shouldn't be posting work at all until it can appropriately credit the creators of the work. I can't even think of the business reason why Platinum would rush Alien Circus to the web if the problem was that series-specific templates with the proper credit weren't ready yet.
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Xaviar Xerexes
On second thought, let's not go to Comixpedia. It is a silly place.
Oh, hey.. I'm not accusing
Oh, hey.. I'm not accusing you of that, i know you're just reporting it, etc... but i felt the need to at least point to my point of view on it.
You know, I haven't spoken with Platinum today, but if I know Platinum, I'm willing to wager that this would be fixed by the end of today, or any problem or oversight brought to their attention. But you won't see any positive kudos to them for that, I equally bet.
DJ Coffman- cartoonist
yirmumah.net - herobynight.com
Great post Xaviar
I would go so far as to say this is the only coverage I've found on the matter that lays out a balanced view on it instead of just telling me what to think.
Sure, Dave has a right to be pissed, and of course, everyone else has thier right to their opinion on it, but c'mon internet, all signs point towards an oversight, not EVIL, so take a xanax, will ya?
Meanwhile, you remain the voice of this medium, Xaviar.
Tim Demeter
does a bunch of neato stuff.
Clickwheel
GraphicSmash
Reckless Life
It has to be some sort of screw up
The comic is credited now.
Happy? Probably not until
DJ Coffman- cartoonist
yirmumah.net - herobynight.com
Funny to hear you say that,
Just to clarify, when I said
Just to clarify, when I said "people" i didn't mean Comixpedia's post here-- I was a little taken aback after Heidi mentioned that workin for hire is akin to sharing a needle with AIDS patients?? But if you agree with her opinion, so be it. I vehemently disagree, and I think it's harmful to comics as whole.
DJ Coffman- cartoonist
yirmumah.net - herobynight.com
She said that those things
Actually it was our last
Actually it was our last little blowup internet fight, and a nice note from Xerexes back then that made me rethink posting outrageous or passive aggressive things in posts, etc. I think you might want to give a little pause in the future before jumping on something like this for news, we all know you dislike Platinum, but I think at the end of the day, the people crying foul all look pretty sad and pathetic.
I mean, if you do fancy yourself a businessman, it might be something to think about in acting business like.
DJ Coffman- cartoonist
yirmumah.net - herobynight.com
Guys?...
Civility reigns :) and given that half this story is now moot I think I'm going to close shop on this thread.
For the record I think Heidi's AIDS analogy was outrageous and inflammatory. But I also think calling Platinum on mistakes is fair game though and will continue to do it where I see them not living up to their own hype.
Let's leave it with me getting the last word! :)
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Xaviar Xerexes
On second thought, let's not go to Comixpedia. It is a silly place.
Just curious... slow news