Bluewater Comics has an awful contract that creators sign because they’re desperate to break into' the industry. Basically, they don’t pay you until a comic book is 'profitable' and then it’s a royalty, with no advances. Which is kind of a shitty contract in the book world, but you still see it. The difference is that in this case Bluewater owns or licenses the Intellectual Property (IP) and what they’re doing is developing that IP for other-media on the backs of young freelancers, whom they never have to pay, and that moves from being a shitty contract to exploitation.http://comics212.net/2010/01/25/bluewater-shifty-non-payment-garbage/
In the past, when I’ve talked about Bluewater comics, it’s generally been to make fun of them. After all, they’ve made stupid, entry-level mistakes when they weren’t dementedly seizing at trends to get something, anything to sell. Their latest approach, rushing out tie-ins to whatever people are talking about politically, seems to be working for them (although once again, they made basic mistakes there as well).
Unfortunately, now word comes that the company is making money by not paying their artists. In short, they only pay the people who create the comic once they’ve made a profit … which is ripe for exploitation, since a company can keep throwing expenses against a work until nothing ever makes money (known as 'Hollywood accounting').http://comicsworthreading.com/2010/01/25/why-i-wont-cover-bluewater/
Unfortunately I know a lot of geeks well enough to know that they wouldn't let something like non-payment of the people creating the comic books they're enjoying be a reason to not buy from that company anymore. That's just sad.
Although, are there a lot of people buying Bluewater comics?