The V

I'm interested to see how much it would take to get you, the unknown author (and therefore likely to work cheap), to write a new Watchmen mini-series.  Presume you can have any artist you like.

= M

Hell, I'd pay them to let me write it. Just think of the infamy!

I would do it for $12,000 with a fair royalty schedule.

More than Diane Nelson?  Let's not be greedy.  I'd settle for her.

Quibble - I want to undercut you all and take $10,000. Or less!

And right here we have the reason there is no union organizing in comics.

= M

You make my scab-like behaviour sound like a bad thing!

Is 12k a normal asking price? That's around what I made last year at two part-time jobs. I'd write a letter declaring myself a transgendered mulatto space nazi if you handed me 10 grand today.

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_{I ATE YOUR HOUSE}

How did you pick these figures? Are they random or somewhere in the normal area for comics?

And I'd draw the pictures for free! Or have Marz draw them in a special musical tie-in. TRANSGENDERED MULATTO SPACE NAZIS..... IN SPACE.

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_{I ATE YOUR HOUSE}

Yeah, and think of the fun you could have.

Silk Spectre: Comedian, you're ... alive!?

Comedian: Yep, the Jester God spared me, and gave me new clown powers!  Now I'm off to Florida to make an honest woman of your mother!

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LiveJournal

$9,000, and I'll throw in Keenon!

I can think of less ugly forms of drawn out suicide by proxy, thanks.

If I were a comic book writer, it would take me a lot, because I'd pretty much be labelled an amoral whore for the rest of my life, and I'd deserve it. As I'm not a comic writer, I'll do it for way less than $12,000, because, hey, if you're getting in the door as an amoral whore, you've no reputation to lose, and you're in the door!

I figured that the lowest anyone should ever make to fuck with such a well-regarded work should be $2,000 an issue.  The last time I was paid for comics-related work was in 2004 and it was for about $24/hr.  $2000 an issue breaks out to about $80/pg, which is not at all what would be paid to a first-timer working this gig, but this is more to determine how seriously people would take the gig or if there are any nerd-obstacles to doing the gig.

Beyond the first figure, I just moved towards what I knew other friends of mine are making now in related fields for six months of work.

= M

An established writer for DC makes about $100 per page, give or take. The royalties for the singles of Watchman II would easily dwarf that figure, and if the trade sold, paperback royalties would be higher than page rate and issue royalties combined.

Enjoy your money. You'd likely never work in comics again.

>>You'd likely never work in comics again.<<

I'm really not in the habit of questioning subject matter experts, but I would like to understand this. The writer of W2 would have been hired by DC, and would be producing under their editorial direction. If they delivered a publishable product -- maybe even one with artisitic merit -- why would they be blackballed in the industry?  Especially if, as implied by your comment about royalties, they shifted a bunch of books?

I love WATCHMEN

ARGH! Premature post!

Sorry...

I love WATCHMEN to bits, but I just don't see it as being so untouchably sacred that anyone who touches it gets all burned up like Nazis looking at the Ark.

The fans would rightfully turn on the writer for doing exactly what the publisher told him to do. The publisher would then turn on the writer because, "the fans don't like him."

"The publisher would then turn on the writer because, 'the fans don't like him.'"

Jeph Loeb, Daniel Way, JMS, and plenty of other writers continue to find work, despite being hated by fans.

Who hates Daniel Way? And, jokes aside, ULTIMATUM sold well and I'm sure a lot of people really enjoyed it. To say "all fans ever" hate JMS because, what? ONE MORE DAY wasn't very good? I mean, as shit as ULTIMATES 3 was, TRANSFORMERS 2 was just as shit but the dudes who made that are getting primo jobs and shitloads of cash thrown at them. You'd have to look at people like Micah Wright if you wanted creators who the fans actually hated.

"Who hates Daniel Way?"

Other than Deadpool fans who love everything with Deadpool in it who doesn't? Seriously, his Wolverine works comprises the bulk of his comics work, and the reaction to it has been less than positive (Deadpool nutters aside).

"And, jokes aside, ULTIMATUM sold well and I'm sure a lot of people really enjoyed it."

Dwayne's claiming that despite selling, the Watchmen II authors will be blackballed because fans hate them. Loeb's stuff sells, but the man's written nothing that's been well received in years and between the Supergirl arc of Superman/Batman, Supergirl: Power, Ultimatum, and Red Hulk, he's written four of the most hated comics of the last five years.

"To say "all fans ever" hate JMS because, what? ONE MORE DAY wasn't very good? I mean, as shit as ULTIMATES 3 was, TRANSFORMERS 2 was just as shit but the dudes who made that are getting primo jobs and shitloads of cash thrown at them."

I never said all fans ever. Aside from people tricking themselves into liking the initial arc on ASM, JMS's comics have not been well received-- Rising Stars it Watchmen lite at best; ASM had the Spider-totem material that no one liked (eventually), Sins Past, the Other, Tony and Peter talking to the audience (FWIW, I did like that, but loads of fans hated it), some of the more ill-received Civil War tie-ins, and then One More Day; and his DC work hasn't gone over well.

"You'd have to look at people like Micah Wright if you wanted creators who the fans actually hated."

Aside from Portacio's art, Team Achilles was very well received among people who actually read it. I'm not sure where you're getting hatred for Wright from, at least, not while he was active in comics.

>>> Loeb's stuff sells, but the man's written nothing that's been well received in years and between the Supergirl arc of Superman/Batman, Supergirl: Power, Ultimatum, and Red Hulk, he's written four of the most hated comics of the last five years. <<<

No, Mr McDuffie is saying that Watchmen 2 Author-man will be blackballed because fans will hate them for a character defect, not for being bad. Nobody's made any judgement on how good this Watchmen 2 will be and, indeed, that is a rather moot point. Loeb's work is bad, but if people genuinely hate him, that's a bit pathetic. He's just writing comics, he didn't shit all over your dinner table or anything.

>>> Aside from Portacio's art, Team Achilles was very well received among people who actually read it. I'm not sure where you're getting hatred for Wright from, at least, not while he was active in comics. <<<

You know he wasn't ACTUALLY in the Army, right?

"You know he wasn't ACTUALLY in the Army, right?"

Wright was basically fired as soon as that came out (how about releasing that completed final issue DC?), hence the "active in comics" cavaet.

I give Wright slack given that his lies were no-where NEAR the sort of over-the-top but never questioned by his friends in the comic press lies Millar has told (IE the Eminem/Wanted fib), let alone the shit that Todd McFarlane has pulled.

Seriously, Todd's attempts to defraud Neil Gaiman are FAR FUCKING WORSE thant Wright's sins. Last time I check, Wright didn't commit fraud that could get you arrested and sent to jail, like Todd tried to do to Neil over the Angela royalties he tried to screw him out of.

I guess I just don't see a critical mass of fans boycotting a creator just because he did ancillary work on an existing property, even one as beloved as Watchmen.

>>fans will hate them for a character defect, not for being bad<<

Are all working comic creators free of character defects?

Doesn't Jeph Loeb's stuff sell really well?  If so, it doesn't matter what the fanboys think because he's actually popular with the majority.  So I suppose the question with Watchmen would be, is DC out to create a legacy or a quick buck?

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Yes, Loeb's stuff sells well, but so will Watchmen 2, which is why I'm not convinced that whoever writes it will get blackballed.

I think Dwayne's just applying exec-o-logic. If WATCHMEN 2 sells well but everyone seems to hate the author, then the Execs will convince themselves that the author was a schmuck and they could have sold twice as many of W2 if they'd got Geoff Johns. And so the author will be hated.

This is of course far more likely to happen if the author is largely unknown.