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#Z2 Comics Solicitations
aladdin · 1 year
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WHO STOLE MY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY? Aladdin Investigates
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In 2021, I made a social media post to publicly call out one of my clients, Z2 Comics, for underpaying their creatives. I received between $45 - $75 a page for my coloring work, always below the industry minimum standard for mainstream work, while being pushed to work at rapid and unsustainable speeds. In that post, I expressed other grievances, as well, such as being told by Z2 leadership that I was simply replaceable - they told me they could hire new colorists for as low as $30 a page. 
The CEO of the company, Josh Frankel, appeared on my public call-out thread to tell me I was being "inappropriate,", and proceeded to terminate all active projects with my coloring studio, I Love Lamp, LLC. He was fully in his right to execute that decision - we had no work-for-hire contracts between us to complicate the business / legal side of things. 
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Although Josh referred to himself as my “employer” on that thread, he must have either been confused. Luckily for him, because he was my client, and not an employer, it was not a federal crime for him to terminate our relationship over my open discussion of compensation with other working artists. 
Z2 found new colorists to finish up Elvis The Graphic Novel, Sublime: $5 at the Door, and Machine Gun Kelly's Hotel Diablo Graphic Novel. 
Although I met lots of great illustrators and editors during my time working with Z2, the experience was, broadly speaking, a nightmare. I was more than ready to sever ties. I retained, however, a massive financial stake in the work that I'd done - I never surrendered any of my intellectual property. 
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The More You Know: In the American Legal system, a colorist is a co-author of the comic books on which they work, with the full rights that entails. 
I had no energy for a fight, so I straight up offered all of my IP to Z2, for free, under the condition that they write out an official contract. My intention was to have a complete list of work I'd done for Z2, and ensure that I'd be properly credited for my work, by the company, moving forward - a mutually beneficial arrangement, I believed. 
Josh rejected the offer, saying that a contract wouldn't be necessarily, and that the email itself "should work fine." In that same email, Josh also accepted an apology from me that I didn't make. I laughed at the clown, and wrote his name down in my burn-book ("Josh Frankel Is a Fugly Slut").
I made no further attempts to offer my IP to the Z2 circus show. Instead, when Z2 continued use my work in promotional material, I sent a cease and desist to Z2's marketing department, and offered an explanation to the various new hires that Z2 never secured the rights to my work. I was ignored, and the solicitations continued. 
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The Hotel Diablo graphic novel, which was completed in my absence, was nonetheless heavily marketed using pages that my studio had colored - because, presumably, other colorists had been paid $30 a page, and their efforts reflected that. BloodyDisgusting and ComicsBeat both published uncredited previews of my work on that book, which have since been corrected to include my name. Explaining how my name had been omitted, the journalist at Bloody-Disgusting told me that he “was only able to run what I was provided with.” 
Z2 comics thought that it was in their best interests, apparently, to simply remove my credits from future publications - or, the company is just so sloppy that no one even knows who worked on what.
When the The Elvis Graphic Novel was released, the final print contained my my covers, my pin-ups, and more than a dozen pages of interior coloring, with the rest of the color art clearly modeled after my own - but my credits had been entirely stripped from the work.
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Confused and angry, I checked the copyright text within the book - the Elvis Estate was claiming 100% of the IP rights in the book. Where did my intellectual property go? 
Did the Elvis Estate steal my color art? Does the Elvis Estate even know that my color art was stolen? Does the Elvis Estate they know they are trafficking in grifted IP? 
I'm sure that Elvis would be rolling in his grave to know that his brand was associated with stealing the work of other artists. 
Anyway, I checked online, and there exists no record (that I can find) that credits me for my coloring work on that Elvis, other than my own various social media posts. When I nominated myself for awards in 2021, I had included that Title -  how embarrassing to discover that there was no public record of my involvement.  
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Newly incensed, I contacted an Arts / Entertainment lawyer for the first time. I never intended to file lawsuits - I just wanted to be treated fairly, and recover my intellectual property. The lawyer explained the dynamics of IP and copyright in 2022, and sent me on a quest to the US Copyright Offices to look up all the copyrights to the books I've worked on. 
Wouldn't you know it, almost every Graphic Novel I ever worked on with Z2 had been registered, with the entirety of the Intellectual Property being copyrighted by Z2's various clients. These copyrights were not filed independently by the artists - all the copyrights were registered by the same Lawyer in Alexandria, VA. I sent the lawyer an email asking, in effect, "Hey WTF?"
I have received no reply, and have since reported their office to the Virginia State Bar. 
Early in my tenure contracting for Z2, in 2020, Z2 co-founder Josh Frankel explained to me, at his birthday party, that he was withholding my creator credits in the press so that I wouldn't get poached out from under him. It was his clever solution for retaining my services. At the time, I didn’t have other offers for work, and I was encouraged by other creators to push through my frustrations, and earn my place at the table. I kept working for Z2, despite feeling devalued (because I was literally being devalued). 
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Upon further reflection, there is reason to suspect that Josh's idea to withhold my credits may have had even broader implications than what he revealed to me. The concerted effort to minimize my association with Z2 comics happened to dovetail quite nicely with a possible corporate embezzlement scheme - Z2 had legal access to, but not legal ownership over, my Intellectual Property. Somehow, all of Z2′s clientele seems to be under the impression that they own 100% of the IP contained within their various projects.  I haven’t fenced a lot of stolen goods, but I imagine, as an arm-chair gangster, that it’s lot easier to sell stolen material if the buyers don't know that it was stolen. Did the clients even bother to check if the colorist had signed away his rights? 
From my studio in Baltimore, I can't do much other than speculate. Some questions remain, for me:
What happened, behind the scenes, that caused Z2's clients to believe that they owned all of my IP? 
Is there a relationship between this years-long IP 'displacement,’ and the fact that Josh Frankel left the company this Fall? 
If Z2 did, in fact, intentionally embezzle hundreds of pages of my coloring art over the course of 3 years, would that constitute a valid RICO case to be mounted against the company? 
Did God himself orchestrate these events to amuse himself over the irony of a bunch of 'anti-establishment' Artists and musicians using the power of the State to facilitate the theft of art from smaller creators? 
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When I colored 2 pages of the Magic comic for Boom!, I was credited in their press release, and was tagged in tweets for months as the book was reviewed, and later collected into trade paperback editions. 
Z2, meanwhile, has sent dozens of my pages out for previews, while withholding my name from the credits. Some popular outlets that currently feature my uncredited work online include Paste Magazine, ScreenRant, the Hollywood Reporter, the Comics Journal, and BleedingCool. 
Was there a legitimate corporate conspiracy against me, with agents in place across all spectrums of Pop Culture? Is the US State going to stand in my way as I march through Hell to take revenge on God for his failure to protect me and my family? Must I surrender my own humanity in order to summon the cyberpunk that lurks within? What will I become? 
Sorry, my degree is in “Dramatic Writing,” not “Intellectual Property Law.”
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Anyway, here's a non-exhaustive list of of Copyright Claimants that have filed, with the US Copyright Office, for full legal ownership over my Intellectual Property on their various publishing projects. For the lulz, I have added three asterisks to each book that utilizes “Anti-Authoritarianism” as a major literary theme. 
Grateful Dead Productions  Grateful Dead - Origins ***
Dominic Harrison ("Yungblud") Yungblud Presents: The Twisted Tales of the Ritalin Club *** Yungblud Presents: Weird Times at Quarry Bank ***
Moriah Rose Pereira ("Poppy") Poppy 1: Genesis *** Poppy's Inferno ***
Universal Music Group The Final Symphony: A Beethoven Anthology.
Skillet Eden II: The Aftermath ***
Dance Gavin Dance  Tale of the Robot ***
Rico Nasty, Inc.  Nightmare Vaycay *** Note: all images in this post were colored by Aladdin Collar for I Love Lamp, LLC, whose services were solicited by Z2 Comics. The Elvis Estate actually made minor adjustments to the Elvis cover, to their credit, they were very helpful in making their final touches, instead sending a thousand emails about inane bullshit. The paper texture on A Robot’s Tale was taken from an old book on archive.org, I don’t remember which one. The b/g textures of the Yungblud Presents cover below were originally from scans of a silk tie-dye scarf I originally made with my Mom for the Grateful Dead book and reused in at least 4 different projects. 
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lotuslandcomics · 11 months
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Beyond DC and Marvel, Lotusland Comics covers the best in independent comics from Ahoy to Z2
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multiversitycomics · 5 years
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New Harvey Pekar Stories Coming in Gary Dumm's "Tales of the Music Makers"
Gary Dumm's new anthology book "Tales of the Music Makers" will feature two biographical strips written by none other than Harvey Pekar.
In a press release, Z2 Comics have announced artist Gary Dumm (“American Splendor”)’s new graphic novel “Tales of the Music Makers” will contain two posthumous stories written by Harvey Pekar. The book, which will be released on February 12, is a musical anthology created to mark the 25th anniversary of the Music Maker Relief Foundation: Pekar’s two stories, which explores the lives of blues…
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comicsalternative · 7 years
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Episode 234: The April Previews Catalog
It's time to look at the current Previews catalog from Diamond, and for this month Derek is joined by Paul, the new cohost of the monthly Young Readers series. Paul has helped out on earlier Previews shows, and as Andy has jokingly pointed out, on those occasions the episodes have tended to clock in on the longish side. And indeed, that's what happens this week! But the lengthiness of the April Previews show is filled not only with choice solicits, but also with critical commentary, astute observations, and even a couple of soapbox rants. In their highlights from this month's catalog, the guys discuss offerings from:
Dark Horse Comics - Briggs Land: Lone Wolves #1, Bankshot #1, Calla Cthulhu, and the trade of Dead Inside
DC/Vertigo - Shade, the Changing Girl, Vol. 1: Earth Girl Made Easy and a new edition of It's a Bird...
IDW Publishing/Top Shelf - Clue #1, Surfside Girls: The Secret of Danger Point, and Super Weird Heroes: Preposterous but True!
Image Comics - Crosswind #1, The Divided States of Hysteria #1, Shirtless Bear-Fighter #1, and Tokyo Ghost Deluxe Edition
AdHouse - Tarantula
Aftershock Comics - Jimmy's Bastards #1 and Babyteeth #1
Alternative Comics - King Cat Comics and Stories #77
Big Planet/Retrofit Comics - Canopy
Black Mask Studios - The Skeptics and Beautiful Canvas #1
BOOM! Studios - The Unsound #1
Cinebook - Alone, Vol. 7: The Lowlands
Clarion Books - Fish Girl and Lint Boy
Dynamite Entertainment - Blood Brothers #1
Dover Publications - Kafkaesque
Drawn and Quarterly - If Found...Please Return to Elise Gravel
Fantagraphics Books - A New Low, Ripple: A Predilection for Tina, All Time Comics: Blind Justice #1, and Vague Tales
Farrah, Straus and Giroux - Four Points, Book 2: Knife's Edge
First Second - The Big Bad Fox and Making Scents
Knopf Publishing - Rickety Stitch and Gelatinous Goo, Vol. 1: The Road to Epoli
Kodansha Comics - Appleseed Alpha, Vol. 1
Lion Forge - Noble, Vol. 1 #1 and Jazz Maynard, Vol. 1 #1
Nobrow - Garbage Night
Oni Press - The Sixth Gun, Book One: Cold Dead Fingers (Square One Edition), Heartthrob, Season Two #1, and Angel City: Town without Pity
Sunday Press - Foolish Questions and Other Odd Observations: Rube Goldberg, Early Comics 1909-1919
Ten Speed Press - The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up
Titan Comics - Normandy Gold #1 and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo-Millennium #1
Udon Entertainment - Manga Classics: The Count of Monte Cristo and Manga Classics: The Jungle Book
Valiant Entertainment - Secret Weapons #1
VIZ Media - Golden Kamuy, Vol. 1, Manga in Theory and Practice: The Craft of Creating Manga, and Goodnight Punpun, Vol. 6
Z2 Comics - Murder Ballads
Rutgers University Press - Superman: The Persistence of an American Icon
Check out this episode!
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