Everyone seems to be talking about comics piracy today. It makes me think back to an early proud career moment, when a major site highlighted AND THEN EMILY WAS GONE as a book to buy, and someone replied, “What sucker would buy any of these books? I’ll just get them online.”

That made me so mad at the time, perhaps disproportionately so. But more than just the theft, I think it was the blatant disregard for the work of the creators, the outright defiance and entitlement of “Why SHOULD I pay for a fucking COMIC!?”

Though really, this sentiment that the work of comic creators, creatives in general really, has no value permeates through various levels of the industry.

We see the sentiment in complaints over comics being $3.99 or $4.99. I’ll go to bars at post-con socials and watch people without batting an eye drop £8 or £9 on booze that will literally be piss in a couple of hours, but £3 for the end product of countless hours’ work is OTT.

I saw the sentiment when a major website - one with a proper staff and infrastructure and clear money behind it - was super keen to publish DEEP-ENDER as a webcomic, lavishing us with praise, asking for page files ASAP. Then I enquired about pay rates and was instantly ghosted.

Look, I get that it’s not black and white. I’m not perfect. I’ve been known to watch films on YouTube. And though I don’t make a habit of it, I have on occasion watched a download of a film/TV show when there was no other means of seeing it.

(To be fair, I gave Snowpiercer at least a year to get a cinema release or a direct-to-DVD release or ANYTHING before giving up the ghost.)

And I’ve seen some people claim that there are no comic shops where they are, ComiXology doesn’t work in their country, the only way to read a comic in their native language is through illegal scans with the dialogue translated. Maybe sometimes there IS no other option.

But even in these extreme circumstances, I think it’s still important to concede that you’re doing a shitty thing out of necessity. It’s a bit brass-necked to argue like it makes you noble, or that you’re somehow not stealing money from the creator’s pocket all the same.

Honestly though, I’d say extreme examples like that are the minority. My gut feeling is much more fall into that camp I touched on earlier: “Why spend money on a comic!?” This idea that you want something, and so are entitled to it.

One baffling wrinkle is that I’ve literally offered SINK for free. At one point the whole first volume, even now still at least issue #1. And STILL I’ve heard it shows up on torrent sites (never looked myself).

SINK readers are the best. They are the textbook example of people who got something for free, loved it, and so then spent money on it once they had the chance to do so. That model CAN work.

It’s also what makes me side eye the torrent demographic. I am letting you read this book FOR FREE, all I’m asking is your email address, sign up to a newsletter, receive info on how to hypothetically buy it if you like. So torrenting instead suggests you have zero such interest.