Wednesday, August 29, 2007  
Zeroes2Heroes Update

:: Posted by Bryan @ 8/29/2007 01:45:00 AM

We linked to T. Campbell's criticisms of Vancouver start-up Zeroes2Heroes.com last week. I'm sure the main question many observers have been asking based on the press releases and what is on the site so far, since it differs from existing webcomics business models (if only in the scope of its ambitions) is how (and for what) this company will pay creators and who gets the rights for what is created. Campbell now has a podcast of his interview with z2h president Matthew Toner and some clarifications on his blog.

Zeroes2Heroes has quite a few big plans involving user participation and Toner mentions the youtube model alot in the podcast. He talks about the Comic Creation Nation project as a way for "undiscovered writers" who may not have considered comics to get a "foot in the door" as published writers by entering a project selection derby and then getting an artist, paid by z2h, to produce a comic. The company has already received money from Telefilm Canada, the federal government granting agency that helps finance most of the tv and movies in this country, to produce these comics, apparently. So at least the project will be a paying gig for whatever professional artists are chosen to illustrate the contest winners.

From the website: "Zeros 2 Heroes' first comic creation campaign -- Canada: Comic Creation Nation -- will effectively make the company Canada's largest online publisher of comics. Canada: Comic Creation Nation will use social media techniques to identify, qualify and create 30 to 50 new suitable for development as feature films, television series, direct-to-DVD animation and --of course-- comic books."

As for rights, it sounds from the podcast like the company wants to act only as a marketing agent or manager for comics creators, big and small, helping out with signings, products, and maybe "micro-loans" perhaps financed by Telefilm or private sector production companies/publishers (maybe for a share of the back end or rights, it's still unclear --hopefully Sequential can clarify this soon). As for the company's website, it claims that creators of the Comic Creation Nation project retain rights while agreeing to a fifty-fifty split of profits, with no promises made if the resulting webcomic is optioned as a movie, etc. And the "standard" contract the company is offering seems only available for perusal by those who are chosen by z2h's "community" when the contest ends October 31st. (In Sequential's experience, there is no such thing as a standard contract: everything is negotiable and having a lawyer or agent look at any document you sign is always a good idea).

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2 Comments:

Blogger max said...

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Wednesday, August 29, 2007 5:39:00 AM EDT  
Blogger max said...

Ok, sounds like an American Idol for hot housing writers/concepts, and then ushering them to market.

The comment about page rates varying from country to country makes my brow rise. So who are the artists they’ve got lined up for this?

There are boilerplate contract traditions in publishing. But If that’s what they are talking about, those don’t traditionally favour the creator.

If that’s not what they are talking about it should be made clear what the basic deal is at the ‘winning’ stage. Maybe I’m missing it but I didn’t hear him really address that directly in the podcast….

Who owns the rites once they take on a title, put the artists on it, and edit it? When it’s published, who gets what percentage of what? What about US rights, International, Film, Merch…..
Didn’t really make that clear.



I singed up to take a peek inside. I think the avatars are annoying, but nothing in the user agreement at that stage is particularly concerning. But it says very little about what rights the site claims, like say the right to use images posted in the marketing of the site….?

Needs more of the I’s dotted I think…

Wednesday, August 29, 2007 5:41:00 AM EDT  

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