Comic Artist Calls Out Marvel: ‘Stop F—ing Over Creators!’

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The cover of issue No. 4 in Marvel‘s 2023 Loki comic series states, ‘Truth Hurts.’ Interestingly, the artist responsible for this cover, Dustin Nguyen, expressed some painful truths towards the comic publisher in a strongly-worded social media post, which was filled with profanity. In this post, he announced that he has ended his partnership with Marvel Comics, calling for higher compensation and royalty payments for creators.

Nguyen expressed his frustration in an Instagram post by saying, ‘Everyone I’m not collaborating with at Marvel can take a hike.’ He has been politely asking for fair treatment of artists for the past fifteen years. Until they stop exploiting creators, he won’t contribute another cover design.

Following his criticism of so-called “minimum wage nonsense,” Nguyen stated that earning $6.25 per hour at his previous fast food job was preferable to pouring out my emotions on a Spider-Man cover project and receiving only five to ten complimentary copies by mail.

After denouncing what he referred to as “minimum wage nonsense,” Nguyen commented that making $6.25 an hour at his old fast food job was more appealing than working on a Spider-Man cover assignment and receiving only five to ten free copies in the mail, which was all I received for expressing my heart and love on the project.

In his latest work for Marvel Comics, Nguyen has contributed a variant cover for issue #3 of “Spider-Man: Black Suit & Blood”, where he also wrote and illustrated a five-page story titled “Dysmorphia” in the series’ first issue. Additionally, he designed a team-up variant cover for the upcoming issue #3 of “Doom’s Division”, featuring Karma (a mutant) and Gun-R II from Tiger Division. Beyond this, Nguyen has created covers for various Marvel titles such as Jonathan Hickman and Valerio Schiti’s “G.O.D.S.”, Peach Momoko’s “Ultimate X-Men”, and the anthology “Alien: Black, White & Blood”.

As a passionate cinephile, I can’t help but express my admiration for the extraordinary work done by my editors at Marvel Studios. They’ve got an uncanny knack for crafting scenes that leave me awestruck, and it’s this talent I eagerly champion. However, I must admit that there might come a time when I find myself locked in a fierce battle… not with my esteemed colleagues, but rather against the Marvel empire itself. Alas, in such an epic struggle, we may all succumb to its unyielding power.

Later on, Nguyen explained why he decided to break away from one of the major comic publishers, sharing his thoughts with over 125,000 Instagram fans in a follow-up post.

[Marvel] has historically shortchanged creators unless you’re making around $6,000 – $7,000 per cover; I hope you’re earning a share of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and secondary sales. In comparison to [DC Comics], they are the only one that doesn’t compensate creators for overseas sales. The United States is where superhero comics originated; it’s disappointing that they don’t return the favor by sharing profits? This is infuriating. Additionally, merchandise like lunchboxes and t-shirts – good luck trying to claim a piece of that too.

Nguyen, who has worked extensively with DC Comics on projects like the epilogue of “Superman Unchained” by Scott Snyder and Jim Lee, “Batman: Heart of Hush” penned by Paul Dini, and others, decided to ignore what he perceived as warnings against collaborating with Marvel due to their dominant position in the industry.

In a candid post, Nguyen expressed his disregard for Marvel, stating that he didn’t care about their warnings. He went on to express frustration with Marvel Comics and anyone he wasn’t directly working with, praising his Marvel editors for ensuring timely delivery of comics. However, he criticized the upper management, stating they had no control over the situation and were only causing unnecessary complications.

He further emphasized that as an artist, his goal was to earn a living by creating art, both in the present and the future, regardless of where the work was published. He criticized his current Marvel contract, stating that he lacked the negotiating power to improve it for himself or others. However, he noted that while DC and Marvel are similar due to being divisions of larger companies (Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney), he found DC more cooperative when it came to meeting his requests.

In particular, Nguyen mentioned asking for a $75 per-page raise over the past 15 years, which equates to making only 15 cents after the publishers made thousands from his work. He questioned why he should tread carefully in such circumstances.

Recently, it was announced that Rob Liefeld, one of Deadpool’s co-creators, is leaving Marvel. This decision appears to have been made due to what he described as unfair treatment from Marvel Studios, led by Kevin Feige, during the premiere of Deadpool & Wolverine in July. (Liefeld’s criticisms of both Feige and Marvel became public around the same time as the release of his last Deadpool comic.)

2017 saw Jim Starlin, co-creator of Thanos, disclose that he received a significantly large payment from DC for K.G. Beast’s minor appearance in the 2016 film “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” This sum was far greater than anything he had previously earned for portraying Thanos, Gamora, or Drax in any of the Marvel movies they featured in, including “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Avengers,” collectively.

In 2021, Ed Brubaker, who brought Bucky Barnes back to life as the mind-controlled Winter Soldier in a comic book series that was the basis for the movie “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014), criticized Marvel during an appearance on the podcast “Fatman Beyond” with Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin, following the release of the Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”. Brubaker stated that he earned more from residuals for his cameo in “The Winter Soldier” than he did from creating the character.

As a movie enthusiast, I’ve got to share some exciting news. In 2021, the legendary comic creator, Stan Lee, disclosed that he had successfully renegotiated a lucrative deal with Marvel Studios, following the staggering box office successes of “Avengers: Infinity War” in 2018 and “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019. This is a testament to the enduring power of these blockbuster films!

Starlin stated earlier, “It’s often said that a noisy wheel gets oiled.” However, these contracts allow Disney the flexibility to be more generous if they choose. The conditions themselves state clearly that they can modify the terms to improve the deal.

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2025-03-11 22:47