--- In SkunkworksAMA_at_yahoogroups.com, "James La Bella" <
cheetah5_at_b...> wrote:
> Jim's pretty much ok, his eyes are still as bad as they where ,
he
> couldn't get the surgery done, because a lot of fund raisers
(read
> "RADIO COMIC") haven't held up their end of the deal... He's
still
> chocking up money and time to do it on his own , he's been
working a ton
> of hours at work to keep caught up... Doesn't really have time
for art
> right now , but after all this holiday stuff finally dies down you
may
> hear from him again...
>
> Last time I talked to him was about 6 days ago, so that's pretty
much
> it..
Um, okay, nice.
The fundraiser book? Skunkworks: Reflections? That cost us
$2500 to print. We got screwed by the printers on it when they
added a bunch of extra charges in that weren't in the quoted
prices (it was quoted to cost similar to one of our regular
comics- which should have been around $1500). Jim has
always known that once the book covered the printing costs, all
the rest would be his. The comic didn't sell that great through the
distributors, sadly, as it was an adult comic and a lot of comic
stores are refusing to carry adult comics due to paranoia
generated from the recent arrests in Dallas. (Basically a comic
store employee was arrested for selling an adult comic to an
adult- who happened to be a police officer. You can find out more
at the Comic Book Legal Defense Funds website...) So, when
we got paid from Diamond Distribution for the book, we were still
in the hole about $1500 on the book. We have tallied up all the
comics we've sold, and have finally made the printing costs
back, so Jim will be getting a check pretty soon.
The unusually high production cost of this book wouldn't have
been a problem if a bunch of our distributors had paid us on
time or at all- this last year and a half, it's been like pulling teeth
to get paid for stuff we've shipped, with the exception of
Diamond. (The major distributor.) One of the small ones actually
went a year and a half without paying (until we started legal
action), and a couple of others have decided they have up to six
months to pay us instead of the usual 30 days. This has made it
a tough time for us, but we're sticking it out. All of us at Radio (all
three of us) have been taking on extra work to keep things going-
we are by no means getting rich off this charity book (or any of
our books for that matter). The comic distribution system works
great- if everything happens on time. When we don't get paid for
six months, it can really screw up the cashflow- especially since
the printer needs to paid on time, the tax man needs to be paid
on time, etc. (And the way all our books work is the same- once
the printing costs are paid off, then the artists get paid next.
Radio only gets a cut if there's anything left after that.)
Sadly, I ran some auctions before the book came out to try to
make up some of the cost of the printing, but didn't really get that
much. And I've also run some other charity auctions for Jim's
benefit where I had the winning bidders pay Jim directly for the
items (about $500 was raised, which went straight to Jim). But I
guess that doesn't really count in the grand scheme of things.
Just thought I should explain things before the rumor mill got out
of hand.
--Elin Winkler at Radio Comix
Received on Thu Jan 08 2004 - 16:16:31 CST