Dan Slott on downloading comics

March 30th, 2007 · 18 Comments

A few weeks ago Dan Slott appeared on Demonoid (a popular torrent site, don’t click the links under the quotes if you don’t want to view copyrighted material) asking people to not download comics he was a part of:

Hi,
I’m the writer of Marvel’s SHE-HULK comic, and I’m here to politely ask you to please stop downloading my work. She-Hulk, while it gets good reviews and enjoys pretty loyal and devot following, is stell a low selling title. It needs EVERY sale it can get to stay in the game. When you circumvent the intended path of sales you hurt the incomes of a LOT of people.

It works like this:
Retailers spend money and order the book, I write the book, Rick draws the book, Cliff inks the book, Dave S. letters the book, Dave K. colors the book– MARVEL pays us– Diamond distributes the book, a fan buys the book, and the retailer makes a profit. And then the cycle begins again.
If more people buy the book, the retailer ups his order. And the book stays healthy.
If less people buy the book, the retailer cuts his order. And the book becomes less profitable for Marvel to produce.
If enough retailers cut their orders, Marvel weighs the pros and cons of keeping the book. If the retailers continue to cut their orders, Marvel cancels the title.

Your sale acts as a vote.

When you download a comic without paying for it, no vote is cast. You’ve gotten all the benefits of My, Rick’s, Cliff’s, Dave Sharpe’s, and Dave Kemp’s work– and we didn’t get the benefit of your vote. That’s not fair. We work very hard to produce the best comic we can– and, in effect, you’ve stolen from us.

Please stop. You’re not just ripping off Marvel. You’re ripping off all the PEOPLE putting this book out– people trying to make a living and support their families.

If you want to try an issue or two of She-Hulk BEFORE buying it, Marvel offers 4 issues for free online:
SHE-HULK #1: www.marvel.com/digitalcomics
SHE-HULK #5: www.milehighcomics.com/firstlook/marvel/shehulk5/
SHE-HULK #8: http://www.marvel.com/dotcomics/SHEHUL008/
And SHE-HULK Vol.2 : www.marvel.com/digitalcomics

If you live in an area where you can’t easily get to a comic store, the first 25 issues of SHE-HULK are available in trade paperback form– easily purchased through sites like Amazon.Com.
The titles of these books are:

SHE-HULK: SINGLE GREEN FEMALE (collecting #1-6)
SHE-HULK: SUPERHUMAN LAW (collecting #7-12)
SHE-HULK: TIME TRIALS (collecting Volume 2 #1-5)
SHE-HULK: LAWS OF ATTRACTION (collecting Volume 2 #6-#13)

And while PERSONALLY I’d rather you buy the book in single issues, the sales of the TPBs ALSO help the continued longevity of the book.

In short…

PLEASE stop downloading my work. I know it’s easy to do. I know you enjoy doing it. But, as one of the people whose work you’re enjoying for free– it really feels like a slap in the face both to myself and the other members on the creative team. Please do right by us. Please.

Thanks for your time,
Dan

Source.

And:

Hello,
I am Dan Slott, the author of this work. And I am asking you to PLEASE stop downloading it. A lot of time and hard work went in to the making of this comic. How well it sells– the demand– the need for the comic, helps to determine what kinds of jobs I get in the future. In that sense, each comic that’s SOLD acts as a kind of vote towards my career– how high profile an assignment I’m offered– whether or not I should get a bump in pay– and so on.
By electronically downloading this comic– without paying for it– you effect my livelihood. Please stop. If you have downloaded this work, do right by me (especially if you enjoyed it) and purchase a copy the next time you’re at your local comic shop/book store.

If you live in an area where American comic books are hard to come by, well, you obviously have access to a computer, please go to a website (like Amazon.com) and order a copy of this work when it’s released in a collection.

I put a lot of time and effort in these stories. The comic industry is on a whole different scale from the music, television, and film industries. We do NOT make a great deal of money off of our work. Please help out. If the comic is worth your time and energy to download and read– it should be worth the time, energy, and money to go to a store and purchase.
Thank you for your time.
Dan

Source.

Hello,
I am Dan Slott, the author of THING Vol.2. And I am asking you to PLEASE stop downloading it. A lot of time and hard work went in to the making of this comic. How well it sells– the demand– the need for the comic, helps to determine what kinds of jobs I get in the future. In that sense, each comic that’s SOLD acts as a kind of vote towards my career– how high profile an assignment I’m offered– whether or not I should get a bump in pay– and so on.
By electronically downloading this comic– without paying for it– you effect my livelihood. Please stop. If you have downloaded this work, do right by me (especially if you enjoyed it) and purchase a copy the next time you’re at your local comic shop/book store.

If you live in an area where American comic books are hard to come by, well, you obviously have access to a computer, please go to a website (like Amazon.com) and order a copy of this work when it’s released in a collection.

I put a lot of time and effort in these stories. The comic industry is on a whole different scale from the music, television, and film industries. We do NOT make a great deal of money off of our work. Please help out. If the comic is worth your time and energy to download and read– it should be worth the time, energy, and money to go to a store and purchase.
Thank

Source.

Which is all fine and dandy, but there was immediate backlash to Slott because he has been a member of Demonoid for a while and has downloaded quite a bit of stuff:

This raises the question: should a creator practice what he preaches? If a creator doesn’t want to see people downloading his work shouldn’t he follow through with this and not download other people’s work?

Personally, I think Slott has a fairly valid point: if you want to see a series prosper then don’t download it - go out and buy it. But he has effectively ruined his credibility by admitting that he downloads things:

Here’s the thing– I don’t think all torrents are “bad”. And I have NEVER said that. There are a lot of forms of entertainment that can ONLY be seen via torrents (TV shows from overseas which have not been released on American region DVD, TV shows which are off the air and have yet to be released on DVD, as well as books which are out of print and have yet to be made available as reprints).

What bothers me is when someone gets a copy of my comic late at night on a Tuesday, runs home and scans it, and then puts it up online the SAME Wednesday it becomes available to the public.

I guess where I personally draw the line is AVAILABILITY. My comic is AVAILABLE at stores. That’s where it’s supposed to be purchased. If someone buys it and shares that physical copy with a friend– great. It’s theirs to do with as they please. When they scan that copyrighted material and share it with 20,000 friends– that’s another story. (I doubt 20,000 people can check out that copy at the library at the same time either).

Two quick things to note:
1) That message you’re seeing is a post on the thread with the actual torrent. I’ll ALSO send a politely worded Private Message to the person who’s posted the torrent. And I DO find that when I do that, they’re actually pretty decent about the whole thing and that the DO take the torrent down.

*Also– I DO get that it is FREE publicity and that it DOES encourage some people to go out and buy the comic– but what I want to know is– if THAT’S why you do it, WHY UPLOAD THE WHOLE THING?! Seriously. If you want to get people interested in the book, why not just upload the first 6 to 8 pages? It’s like Baskin Robins– they’ll offer anybody a little pink spoonful of any icecream they want– just not THE WHOLE CONE.

2) The second TORCHWOOD, STREET HAWK, or the live action CUTEY HONEY movie comes out on DVD here in the States, I’ll be the first in line to purchase my copies.

Thanks,
Dan

Source.

Isn’t that the same excuse people on sites like Kaskus - an immense Indonesian forum that is also a HUGE hub for pirated comics - use? “We can’t get it here, so we download it”.

Jeff Parker handled the whole thing without botching it… so purchase Agents of Atlas for him!

Tags: General · Creators · Web

18 responses so far ↓

Dan Rather » Dan Rather March 30, 2007 10:29 pm // Mar 30, 2007 at 9:28 pm

[…] of CBS? Dan Rather. ? Daily Kos - Daily Kos offers disseminating news and opinion from a …Dan Slott on downloading comics And while PERSONALLY I?d rather you buy the book in single issues, the sales of the TPBs ALSO help […]
Blog@Newsarama » A Marvel writer’s plea to stop downloading his comics // Apr 1, 2007 at 2:36 pm

[…] blog, Comics Crew, has been following the posts of Dan Slott, current writer of Marvel’s She-Hulk, on Demonoid, […]
SuperStories // Apr 2, 2007 at 4:15 am

Hello,

I am wondering if you already purchased the physical copy does it cause a problem when you get a second copy that is digitial?

Super
PsiLance // Apr 2, 2007 at 12:46 pm

I was actually wondering the same thing (purchasing the physical copy and having a digital one afterwards). Since I already had cast my vote, so to speak, and it is easier to keep digital comics on my laptop as people keep music on their iPod, is there a problem in that case? To me, if you bought the comic, it is like ripping CDs you own so you can make a new one with only the songs you want to hear.

Psi
PsiLance // Apr 2, 2007 at 12:50 pm

Oh, and on the other end, who knows what Dan Slott has been downloading? And he didn’t say “Don’t use Bit Torrent”. Some video game updates even come over torrent now rather than a single server download.
axio // Apr 2, 2007 at 2:02 pm

SuperStories, thats the murky part of the entire torrent debate. If you own a physical copy of that issue, does it cause infringement if you’ve downloaded a copy also? I travel and don’t like my issues to get smeared with food, creased, etc on a plane. So I usually end up scanning a few comics before I leave and read them on the plane. Have I infringed on DC’s copyright by scanning my own comic and reading it? Honestly I think it is a non-issue, you’ve helped that book as much as you can already. Owning a digital copy of it doesn’t cause it double damage (or any damage for that matter).

PsiLance , Slott clearly states that he is downloading shows that aren’t available in the United States or haven’t been released on DVD. But I feel thats the excuse that people overseas use for piracy: “We can’t get it here so we are downloading it until we can get it here”.

Does downloading invalidate Slott’s point? No. It simply makes him look like a hypocrite. I think a lot of people are missing the point: purchase books that you want to support. If you don’t then that comic will die off. It sucks that distributors like Diamond have such a HUGE say in which books live and which books die - but thats the way the market works and it probably isn’t going to change any time soon.
New Yorker offers downloadable comics | Comics Crew // Apr 2, 2007 at 3:34 pm

[…] off, thanks to everyone for chiming in on the Dan Slott entry, I didn’t expect it to take off as it did. Following on the heels of the torrent debate […]
Sgt Pepere // Apr 3, 2007 at 6:51 am

Well, I live in Moscow and comics are hard to get. So I order them through Amazon. As I’m french, I buy my comics monthly and have them sent to my parents’ house in France. But sometimes, I can’t wait to fly back to France to read my favorte comic-books. So I download them.

Problem is that with any torrent or E-mule, you share the comic-book you download. So you’re not right by the law as you share something with others that you aren’t allowed to. Even if you purchase your own copy, who can say that others readers will purchase theirs.

I totally agree with Slott’s point of view. Everything depends on:
- availibility of the book
- the fact that you actually buy the book after or before you downloaded it (keeping in mind the sharing problem).

What would be very interesting : to be able to download the comic-book cover price and then to have it sent home by publishers or distributors.

Or to be able to download it cheaper than cover price with a poor image quality (just enough to read it on a screen) in order to appeal readers.

Anyway, She-Hulk and the Thing are great books. If you buy what you like, you will influence comics market and there will be more titles of quality and less quantity of crap.
Russ // Apr 3, 2007 at 9:46 am

To those who are wondering about the legality of scanning your own comics or downloading copies of comics that you own, I think that if they ever cracked down on downloading from a legal point of view, they would do it with a very broad brush and it wouldn’t matter if you plunked down your $2.50 for “52″ the day before or not.

Still, I think it’s a lot like making copies of your own CDs or DVDs: Most creators and publishers probably wouldn’t care that much as long as only one of them was being used at a time. Don’t scan it so that you still have a copy when you sell or loan away the other, scan it so that you can read it and keep the other in good condition, or so that you could replace it if everything in your house burned or something.

It’s a tricky issue in general, and the lack of comment by publishers (who don’t want to box themselves into a particular viewpoint for obvious reasons) doesn’t always help clarify things.
Demonoid // Apr 3, 2007 at 12:21 pm

Don’t forget to download Avengers: The Initiative #1 tomorrow! Only at Demonoid!
Adam Wamer // Apr 3, 2007 at 9:10 pm

My issue is that you’re presupposing that if i don’t download the book, that i will go buy it. Which i hate to tell you, i will most certainly not. When i do buy comic, it’s for books that i really enjoy and need a physical copy of. I don’t “risk” my money on books that may or not be enjoyable to me. I simply don’t have the money for it. So it’s either a) download it, read it, and buy the trade if i have the money at some point in the future or b) not download it, not read it, and leave no possible chance of my purchasing it.

I’m not costing you any money, i’m just a fan who is enjoying your work the only way he can.

You can’t count my reading/listening to music/viewing of a film as lost currency because all those acts would not have occured without my being able to download it. It’s not lost money on your part, it’s just an experience enjoyed on my part for free that i never would have had otherwise. Good Stuff.
CapVsBats // Apr 4, 2007 at 2:22 am

I understand where Dan is coming from, but I think he is pleading with the wrong people.

If you ask Zcult to stop torrenting your comic, they will remove it from the weekly dcp torrents (the guy who does Tarot has done this and his comic is no longer torrented there.) Zcult gets up to 11,000 downloaders alone on the weekly torrents, so that would stop a lot of the illegal downloads.

Also, he should be talking to Marvel about providing backissues of She-Hulk in cbr format. More and more companies are doing cbr format now. Marvel and DC need to consider it.

- Jim Shelley
Author of the first comic ever developed specifically for CBR format
at www.flashbackuniverse.com
DiRT // Apr 4, 2007 at 5:55 am

This is damn silly.

Hey Dan, your point would be valid if ALL comics were seeing sluggish sales. But since it’s YOUR book(s) facing the axe in the 6th straight year of comic industry growth, maybe the problem is… your writing.
Adam Wamer // Apr 4, 2007 at 2:04 pm

I just felt the need to clarify, i really enjoy She-Hulk, and if i go into my Comic Shop and i see a trade available i’ll probably buy it, just as soon as i finish collecting some JSA
Comics Radar » Blog Archive » Some more News stories. // Apr 8, 2007 at 8:13 am

[…] “Do as I say, not as I do” says Dan Slott on bitTorrent downloading. […]
rocky // May 10, 2007 at 8:24 pm

woe I love Dan but that seem A TAD hypocrtical

I dont download comics. Not out of moral reasons but it bad on the eyes. Really a pain to read
Irving Forbush // Sep 25, 2007 at 6:02 am

11 GBS of downloading yourself Dan? Listen you arrogant hypocrite dont give us the bs that you only download what is not readily available to buy. I agree with Adam Wamer I WONT buy your shehulk comic because I spent all my money on the BETTER SELLING (ie better written) comics. deal with it dude. I just do not have the resources to gamble on a book I have no history with. I would never have bought she hulk.

At least by downloading it I can see if I like it and maybe buy it (remember MANY comic readers are collectors even if they have a digital copy of an entire set they will still want a physical copy for their collection). If you expose these non-SheHulk collectors to getting all the shehulk digitally they might fall in love with your depiction of marvels favorite amazon and go out and buy the whole set so far!

I should know its what happened with me and moon knight books.

So puleeeeeeeease stop your whining, sales are never hurt by free downloads. What hurts sales is far than steller WRITING dan kapeesche?

‘Nuff Said
Mightygodking.com » Blog Archive » NEWSFLASH: Media companies do something stupid, film at 11 // Nov 23, 2007 at 5:05 am

[…] that I represent the norm for comic downloaders, despite the fact that our doing so irritates Dan Slott terribly. (PS: Dan Slott, She-Hulk is on my trade to-buy list, although right now I’m […]