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Been gainfully employed outside comics publishing for almost five years now, and fwiw, I think the NFT outrage misses one key systemic problem: Comics, as an industry, will kill you.
Freelance employment as a lifestyle means you need to do and pay your own taxes, buy your own health insurance, setup (if you can) your own retirement savings.
How many comics pros over the years — successful legends, often — have had to lean on the Hero Initiative or GoFundMe for medical expenses? Comics does not support or take care of creators, it bleeds them dry.
This is not to excuse anyone participating in NFTs. It& #39;s selfish short-term gain with long-term consequences, but that gain is about a very human thing: safety and security.
In a society where value is placed on flipping commodities (comics to movies and TV) instead of a society where artistic endeavor is valued, starving artist is not just a vague term, but can be a reality.
And how many independent comics that actually make creators big money in Hollywood exist? You can give Marvel or DC 20 or 30 good years and they can make billions off it while you end up for a massive bill you can& #39;t pay for basic medical issues.
In pop cuture-based art like comics and often music, rarely are creators likely to see consistent success decade after decade. Once your name stops selling, the support and the jobs dry up.
NFTs are the perfect predatory silver bullet solution. They offer big money quick that can replace the lack of healthcare and retirement in the industry.
So, while I think every single creator that participates in NFTs should be taken to task, I also think we have to look at the way the publishing industry at large benefits from creators without taking care of them.
Comics has been cannibalizing the same shrinking direct market audience with a flood of new comics expecting new results. New perspectives are needed, not new harmful get-rich-quick schemes.
In so many ways, NFTs are variant covers and the speculative market all over again, but this time the creators are going, "Let me get my nuts before the bottom drops out."
*Nut
But when all is said and done, NFTS are what creators who have been taken advantage of are using to take advantage of others, and it& #39;s discouraging to see how quickly the cycle shifts.
But when you& #39;ve been churning on five books a month for Marvel or DC and you& #39;re still living in a two-bedroom apartment one broken leg away from draining your savings on medical bills, NFTs have to feel like a "damned if you do, damned if you don& #39;t" reality for some folks.
Especially folks who may enjoy Big two success and notoriety but who, in many instances, likely don& #39;t see that success equate to a large-scale change-of-life in their bank account.
Some make a great living as creators, but man, when you do some math, you can see why — as an example — many writers are writing a dozen freaking books. I am sure it can appear fun to have all that work, but overworked does not equal successful.
And if you have to — as is often the case — take a loss on a self-published gig (or gigs) to get the paying jobs to land ENOUGH paying jobs to make a living, just so you can potentially take a loss on creator-owned work that eventually gets optioned for the actual big payday...
Where& #39;s the money for retirement, healthcare, a down payment on a home in that? It& #39;s a GRIND until you stop selling and have no resume beyond "comics creator" which I can tell you is hard to explain in job interviews.
All this is to say that the systemic problems of the industry are the reason that NFTs are gaining a foothold, but creators that need them to "make a living" or "survive" or whatever they are telling themselves... is that an okay trade-off for you?
While it& #39;s more complicated than many suggest, and that is my main point, I do think if to "make it" as a creator you have to break it (It being the environment, your morals, the industry, whatever) than are you really winning or just destroying everything you love faster?
If you have to live a nightmare for your dream job, is it worth it? FWIW, it wasn& #39;t for me and I sleep better at night because of it.
Addendum on all this: I love comics and would love to work on nothing but comics, but between an abusive boss, toxic work environment, and low pay, it wasn& #39;t something I could sustain. Finding something new has led to a lot of good stuff in my life too.
A last thought: the timing of NFTs is pretty insidious. After a year of comics pros and musicians seeing how fragile things are without the income stream of shows, how could they not feel like a life line?
