Essentially Yours
Marvel has released THE ESSENTIAL MAN-THING Volume 1 and THE ESSENTIAL DEFENDERS Volume 2. Both titles would be comprised largely of my work, and the stories are some of my very favorites from the ’70s.
I’ve added Amazon links to both titles in the sidebar at the right. If you purchase the books through these links, I get an extra few cents a copy.
So, this Christmas, give the gift of… Gerber.
For yourself. For a loved one. For almost anyone you’d like to mindfuck.
(And as a first jolt, let them know their present won’t arrive until, say, Little Christmas.)
December 18th, 2006 at 5:44 AM
(googlepause)
Also known as Women’s Christmas, which puts thing in a whole new light. Er, things.
December 18th, 2006 at 6:41 AM
On a less sophomoric note…if we copy those ‘stevegerberco-20’ type links into our own pages, do you still get the percentage?
December 18th, 2006 at 11:40 AM
I’m curious, how much do writers and artists get for reprints of work, especially when they appear in collections? Do they get a larger percentage or a lesser one than for the first printing?
December 18th, 2006 at 4:46 PM
Forrest: “On a less sophomoric note…if we copy those ’stevegerberco-20′ type links into our own pages, do you still get the percentage?”
I think so, as long as the code isn’t changed.
Stephen: “I’m curious, how much do writers and artists get for reprints of work, especially when they appear in collections? Do they get a larger percentage or a lesser one than for the first printing?”
DC has a standard formula for calculating royalties from the sale of collections produced as work-for-hire. I don’t recall what it is at the moment, but it’s based on a percentage of cover price of copies sold. The total for writer, artist, inker, etc., adds up to something reasonably close to a standard royalty from a book publisher.
On non-work-for-hire books, royalties are as negotiable as anything else in the contract.
Marvel, of course, is much weirder. As nearly as I can figure out, they pay an unknown percentage based on the number of copies *printed*. (Saves them some accounting work, I suppose.) And to this day, they don’t call them “royalties”. They’re “incentives”. The statements are indecipherable. I once asked a group of writers — including some who’ve earned rather substantial “incentives” from Marvel over the years — if they knew what the various abbreviations and percentages on the Marvel “incentive” statements meant. *Not one person* raised his or her hand.
As you’d expect, both companies prorate the total royalties on a collection proportionately to the percentage of content contributed by individual writers, artists, etc.
December 18th, 2006 at 11:07 PM
So for the Marvel books you’d only get one incentive payment unless the book went into multiple printings? (Which is likely for the Essential collections, I figure.) I’m bad at figuring these things out.
If that’s the case, any chance of linking to your HTD MAX trade? Because I’d like to get that, especially if it meant you’d get a little extra money from Amazon beyond Marvel’s incentive.
December 26th, 2006 at 9:46 PM
I picked this up a couple of weeks ago…I have all the originals, but it’s nice to have easy access…and I still love ’em. I was first exposed to your work with your first issue of Man Thing in Fear and have been a fan ever since. The stories still hold up and took me back to some happy times reading comics as a kid.