WONDERCON '07: SLAVE LABOR PANEL REPORT

[MattBrady]

by JK Parkin

Is Slave Labor Graphics a publisher of comic books, graphic novels or digital content? While the answer is “yes” to all three, SLG publisher Dan Vado discussed their shifting business model, as they move from the monthly comic book format to a combination of digital downloads and trade paperback collections.

Noting that the monthly comic book format has “gotten really soft,” Vado said during a panel at WonderCon on Friday that the format was no longer building an audience for them and that trying to maintain it was counterproductive. Meanwhile, they see an opportunity on the Internet, as more fans are downloading comics.

“If you’ve ever looked at any of the torrent sites, or anything like that, you can go on on a daily basis and it’s like, ‘Oh look, there’s 12 people who are downloading Milk & Cheese #1 right now,’ and what am I getting for that? Nothing,” he said. “So if we can figure out a way to monetize that, even at a low level, making 25 cents or 30 cents, those are people who aren’t going to buy the comic anyways.”

Wanting to “get in front of that trend before the trend got in front of us,” he talked about EyeMelt.com, their website where fans can buy and download most of their comics, including new material that’s never been in print before.

One of the reasons why they’re making this move is to cut down the costs associated with distribution. He said when they sell through their distributors, they only get $1.10 back from a book that sells for $2.95 -- the rest goes to retailers and the distributors. From that $1.10, they have to pay the printer, for storage and for other costs. If a book sells less than 3,000 copies, it doesn’t make any money, and they barely recover the costs of printing.

“The last successful launch we’ve had of a comic is Bear #1 and Serenity Rose #1,” he said. “Those came out a month apart four years ago, and I think everything since then has been pretty abysmal.”

The digital format also gives fans a price break.

“It saves you a lot of money, because instead of the $3 you’d pay for a comic book, we’re selling our downloads for 69 cents,” he told fans during the panel. “And it’s all because we think that’s where the future of that particular part of the medium is, at least for smaller publishers like ourselves – actually, I think for everybody as well. The magazine format just doesn’t seem to hold the same allure as it once did.”

Many of the projects Vado highlighted during the panel are now available on EyeMelt.com, such as Whistles and Byron. Eventually the stories will be collected into trade paperbacks.

“It was going a lot better when the downloads were part of our regular (online) store,” Vado said, when asked how EyeMelt.com was doing so far. He said they had to move the downloads to their own site because of bandwidth issues on their regular site.

Originally they also hoped to attract other publishers to offer content on the site. “It’s now become a crowded field,” Vado said. “Which is kind of funny because I don’t really consider it a mature part of the business at all, but there are now like a half dozen places that offer plans for selling downloads. It’s almost kind of funny.”

And the torrent sites have reacted as well. “After we started rolling out, one of the bigger torrent sites took their stuff off the site,” he said. “Their rationale for having those for people to download for free was that they weren’t being offered in any other way.”

He said personally he found reading comics on a computer screen unpleasant, but noted the whole generation of kids who find it preferable. “I don’t get it, but there are a lot of things I don’t get in the world and it doesn’t stop me from being a part of it.”

But don’t think that means Slave Labor is abandoning the monthly comic format altogether. “We haven’t given up on comics as a format,” he said. “There are things that we have been doing as comics that we will continue to do, it’s just that new projects that we would ordinarily have done as comics will be digital instead.”

Their licensed Disney titles, for instance, will continue to be published in the monthly format. Vado gave an update on Gargoyles, which has seen delays since it launched.

“Gargoyles we just mishandled from the get-go. On top of that, there’s just a real lengthy set of approvals that affects all the Disney comics that’s slowed them all down. For example, Gargoyles #3 has been done for three weeks, almost a month now, and we’re waiting for Disney to give us the go ahead to print it.”

Gargoyles #4, #5 and #6 will have a series of fill-in artists as SLG attempts to catch up.

When asked if Disney asks for a lot of changes, he said “Surprisingly no, but the process is not a quick one.” He said originally three people would review the comics before they were printed, but now around 10 people review them.

When asked why Disney licensed their characters to someone else instead of doing their own books, he said Disney benefits because they retain the rights to the comics that SLG creates without having to spend the money on staff and other costs associated with creating the comics.

He said that in regards to the Haunted Mansion and Wonderland comics, “If there was anyone within that company who had the ability to think things through in that way, they would have done it already,” he said. “That Haunted Mansion movie wouldn’t have sucked so bad.”

At the end of the panel, an audience member asked what Vado would do differently if he had a chance to do it all over again.

“Not do it. And I’m not kidding,” Vado said. “Knowing then what I know now, I definitely wouldn’t have done it.”

He added, “On the serious end, I would not publish creator-owned work. It’s a terrible business model as a publisher.” He said the successful companies in the industry own their characters, mentioning Spider-Man as an example.

“When you’ve got an environment where someone can come in, cut their teeth with you, then turn around and walk out, taking the stuff that you put money into with them, it’s just not a healthy way to do it,” he said. “I would not offer creator-owned contracts, I’d own it; I’d own it all. And sure, maybe there would have been things that wouldn’t have come our way, but I guarantee you if we’d had an equitable way of taking those properties on, if I’d owned Johnny, if I’d owned Milk & Cheese, if I’d owned Lenore, if I’d owned everything I’ve published over the last 20 years, this company would be in a lot better shape as a company. So that’s what I would do differently, and that would be my advice: no creator-owned comics.”

[GeorgeG]

Man, did they ever screw up on Gargoyles. There was a good buzz for that, but of course, lateness once again plagues the industry.

[Darth Wahu]

Originally Posted by GeorgeG

Man, did they ever screw up on Gargoyles. There was a good buzz for that, but of course, lateness once again plagues the industry.

It's not SLG's fault it's frelling Disney and their rectual hang ups!!!

[Kamandi]

Man! I haven't read anything by Slave Labor for a loooonnnng time!
I bought a lot of their stuff early on:
HERO SANDWICH
SUBURBAN HIGH LIFE
IT's SCIENCE WITH DR. RADIUM
All short live, fun & cool, some of the best stuff of the Independant black & White boom of the 80's

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

“If you’ve ever looked at any of the torrent sites, or anything like that, you can go on on a daily basis and it’s like, ‘Oh look, there’s 12 people who are downloading Milk & Cheese #1 right now,’ and what am I getting for that? Nothing,” he said. “So if we can figure out a way to monetize that, even at a low level, making 25 cents or 30 cents, those are people who aren’t going to buy the comic anyways.”

Now, that's what I call a nice price for digital comics.

[KidFurious]

That's about what the price should be for digital books 70 cents to a dollar. There's no printing cost, distribution costs, or retailer costs. So I can see this catching on. There's just got to be something where it's easy to pay for it that's a norm like i-tunes.

[richstanz]

Moreso, than Image, I always saw SLG as the *the* indie publisher. It had a lot to do with the comics they produced, the attitude they projected - but its so weird that they are moving to a mostly digital format, and how much the publisher regrets the creator-owned aspect.

In college and some of my career, I've worked at small print publications - and I know how much of pain it is to pay to get something printed. For some reason, it just never seems practical even when printing the final product. Going digital does seem like the best investment nowadays, I just hope they can continue collecting as many works as possible in trade paperback.

What happened to the rest of the Disney comics? Wonderland, Haunted Manison, Tron? Are they all canceled? I was halfway interested in a Tron comic.

I'm also a little confused as to why even if Disney knew it would be cheaper to publish through an outside company, why didn't they go to something like Gemstone - which already published the Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck comics. Now I've read that most of those comics (with the exception of Uncle Scrooge) have been put on hiatus, due to low sales, but I wonder if publishing it all under one comany might have done better for brand recognition - reminding readers where to find the comics, and promoting the company as the only source for Disney comics. Perhaps Gemstone just couldn't afford to add new titles to their print run.

[lime]

Well, that was a freakin depressing interview! I like some of their books, too..

[Nat Gertler]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

“When you’ve got an environment where someone can come in, cut their teeth with you, then turn around and walk out, taking the stuff that you put money into with them, it’s just not a healthy way to do it,” he said. “I would not offer creator-owned contracts, I’d own it; I’d own it all. And sure, maybe there would have been things that wouldn’t have come our way, but I guarantee you if we’d had an equitable way of taking those properties on, if I’d owned Johnny, if I’d owned Milk & Cheese, if I’d owned Lenore, if I’d owned everything I’ve published over the last 20 years, this company would be in a lot better shape as a company. So that’s what I would do differently, and that would be my advice: no creator-owned comics.”

I certainly understand that instinct, and what drives the able Mr. Vado to say that. However, I'm having trouble coming up with any other publishers from, say, the 10 years before to 10 years after Slave Labor started which have focused on publisher-owned properties (not counting where the creator is the publsher) and are still in the game. The strongest survivors from that era are Image (which owns none of its properties itself) and Dark Horse (which has certainly done publisher-owned works, but whose current publishing seems primarily a mix of licensed properties and creator-owned comics.) The publishers who have focused on publisher-owned products, the Valiants and Crossgens of this world, have fallen by the wayside (although I suspect the thought of a Malibu-like buyout sounds tempting.)

Perhaps a larger involvement in licensing without actual property ownership would've served him well (much as it seems to serve Dark Horse on some of their creator-owned works).

In any case, I hope that Dan finds a system that works for him and still allows him to bring to the market the sort of quirky books with strong quality creator vision that have shone as the SLG successes.

[The_Adventurer]

For the record, Vaistron was one of the best titles of last year. I really really want to see more of the raunchy sci-fi comic.

[avalone]

Oh And The Bit Where SLave Labor Publisher Bitches About Torrent's & Comic Sharing Look Most Of The Scan Groups Had Just Stopped Scaning Them At All

[dk2]

Yeah, looking at what Dan said about Disney's mentality of making their own books, he's right. My local comics store owner told me he thought that Disney could make their own comics like they did in the early 1990's, but would prefer to make money off the licensing fee. Dan is so right that Dinsey can always have the comics, they'd own it. They can always in the future reprint the comics themselves. They make money off a licencing fee and don't have to pay towards the comics' production for the present. Like Hasbro owns all the Transformers and GI Joe comics Marvel did, as well as any others after. And as we all know these have been one way or another been reprinted in the last couple of years in softcovers. Wizard Magazine said that 88MPH comics paid $10,000 to get the Ghostbusters license from Sony Pictures. I mean to me thats alot for a starting comic company to pay. I wonder what SLG paid for the whole 4 title Disney deal?
In the end its all about money for Disney, getting and not spending in the end.
But I'm glad I'll be seeing more Gargoyles for a few months sraight hopefully.

[Premitive1]

Originally Posted by avalone

Oh And The Bit Where SLave Labor Publisher Bitches About Torrent's & Comic Sharing Look Most Of The Scan Groups Had Just Stopped Scaning Them At All

He did mention that when they started their digital comics the torrent sites stopped carrying his comics and mentioned how with him doing it there was no purpose for the torrent groups to anymore so they just stopped.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by avalone

Oh And The Bit Where SLave Labor Publisher Bitches About Torrent's & Comic Sharing Look Most Of The Scan Groups Had Just Stopped Scaning Them At All

Did you read the report?

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by Premitive1

He did mention that when they started their digital comics the torrent sites stopped carrying his comics and mentioned how with him doing it there was no purpose for the torrent groups to anymore so they just stopped.

Yep.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

“Gargoyles we just mishandled from the get-go. On top of that, there’s just a real lengthy set of approvals that affects all the Disney comics that’s slowed them all down. For example, Gargoyles #3 has been done for three weeks, almost a month now, and we’re waiting for Disney to give us the go ahead to print it.”

Gargoyles #4, #5 and #6 will have a series of fill-in artists as SLG attempts to catch up.

When asked if Disney asks for a lot of changes, he said “Surprisingly no, but the process is not a quick one.” He said originally three people would review the comics before they were printed, but now around 10 people review them.

Ah, Disney... Sigh...

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

“Not do it. And I’m not kidding,” Vado said. “Knowing then what I know now, I definitely wouldn’t have done it.”

He added, “On the serious end, I would not publish creator-owned work. It’s a terrible business model as a publisher.” He said the successful companies in the industry own their characters, mentioning Spider-Man as an example.

“When you’ve got an environment where someone can come in, cut their teeth with you, then turn around and walk out, taking the stuff that you put money into with them, it’s just not a healthy way to do it,” he said. “I would not offer creator-owned contracts, I’d own it; I’d own it all. And sure, maybe there would have been things that wouldn’t have come our way, but I guarantee you if we’d had an equitable way of taking those properties on, if I’d owned Johnny, if I’d owned Milk & Cheese, if I’d owned Lenore, if I’d owned everything I’ve published over the last 20 years, this company would be in a lot better shape as a company. So that’s what I would do differently, and that would be my advice: no creator-owned comics.”

Ouch. Interesting points.

[vbartilucci]

Dan, you make full runs of your titles available at those prices and you've got my money.

I'll take a full run of It's Science, everything Evan's done, and I'll get back to you on the rest.

[EMeadow]

Originally Posted by Kolimar

Ah, Disney... Sigh...

That's two companies they've really raked over the coals in regards to Tron. Don't forget 88 MPH. (Then again, they didn't do themselves any favors with Ghostbusters either.)

[innocentboy]

interesting ...
the man seems kinda down.
hopefully this was said on a bad day, and there are other days when things look brighter still.

[bluetyson]

Interesting. At that price, I tried a few, and then discovered Carl Cthulhu. Excellent stuff, and pretty much no risk to trying things at 69c.

[gcoleman99]

Originally Posted by Kolimar

Now, that's what I call a nice price for digital comics.

Damn skippy! (Though even .69's pretty good in comparison to 2.99.)

[The_Adventurer]

Originally Posted by Kolimar

Ah, Disney... Sigh...

It's not just Disney. Most of your high profile licensed comics are hampered by this kind of approval processes It's #1 reason why those books are late. Everything from Transformers to Army of Darkness to GI Joe to Battlestar Galactica

[tiso_spencer]

You know, that EyeMelt site is interesting. I would be more than happy to go Digital with some of their comics like Emo Boy or get those 4 issues of Ursa Minors on my computer legally now.

[Scorned1]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

we’re selling our downloads for 69 cents

I am so frakking there.