How many people know how the “Disney system” of comics works? When I describe this to some fans when asked about it, they often think I'm kidding them or lying. Or they are outraged. But it's an unfortunate fact that there have never been, and I ultimately realized there never will be, any royalties paid to the people who write or draw or otherwise create all the Disney comics you've ever read. We are paid a flat rate per page by one publisher for whom we work directly. After that, no matter how many times that story is used by other Disney publishers around the world, no matter how many times the story is reprinted in other comics, album series, hardback books, special editions, etc., etc., no matter how well it sells, we never receive another cent for having created that work. That's the system Carl Barks worked in and it's the same system operating today.
How can such an archaic system still be in operation in the 21st Century when royalties have been paid in other creative publishing endeavors for literally centuries? All book authors, musicians, actors, singers, non- Disney cartoonists, even people who act in TV commercials … they all receive royalties if success warrants it. Even Disney pays normal royalties to creators and performers in its own movie and TV and book and music businesses. As near as I can tell, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's only the creators of Disney comics who have no chance to receive a share of the profits of the success of the work they create. And yet Disney comics have never been produced by the Disney company, but have always been created by freelance writers and artists working for licensed independent publishers, like Carl Barks working for Dell Comics, me working for Egmont, and hundreds of others working for numerous other Disney licensees.
Why is this? I don't know.
Via Hacker News [1], “Don Rosa Collection | An Epilogue by Don Rosa [2]”
My very first post [3] was about the importance of creator owned IP (Intellectual Property). This is more of the same, although it's from the other Good Duck Artist™ [4] (the Good Duck Artist™ being Carl Barks [5]).
It's sad that this still happens to this day.
It's also sad that artists still sign their lives away like this too.
[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5189490
[2] http://career-end.donrosa.de/
[5] http://stp.ling.uu.se/~starback/dcml/creators/carl-barks.html