Basement X

Arn's story about doing work for the comic book industry by way of Greg Rucka just reminded me of something that took place at my local comic book store.

Two weeks ago, I ran into this older guy I sometimes see in the store. He was talking about Miracle Man and it caught my attention because of the news that Marvel had bought the rights to the character, but it was uncertain who owned what and who would get a share of what, if they reprinted/recollected the old stories.

This dude in the store owns all 702 issues. One of the artists, who he knows (can't remember the name) put Marvel in contact with him. They've hired him to catalogue his entire run. Turns out Marvel haven't got their hands on all 702 issues themselves. I guess that makes sense, considering how old the series is.

I saw him again yesterday at the store. So far he's catalogued 17 issues. He does two part time jobs on the side, so he's obviously not got a lot of disposable time to catalogue, which is why he hasn't made much head way. Plus it's not just simple data entry into a spreadsheet. You've got to open up all your comics and pick out all the key info (writer, penciller, colourist etc) and then seal them up again. Can get tedious and laborious real fast, I guess.
Just as well he hasn't made much headway, I guess. Turns out Marvel only recently asked him to add other information to the spreadsheet that they didn't previously ask for, such as the credits for the back up stories in some of the issues. Apparantly, Marvel don't have the rights to print those, so presumably it's mere curiosity that's led them to suddenly ask for this information.

If I remember correctly, he's not cataloguing in chronological order either. It would seem Marvel have asked him to start with specific artists. Presumably to get the runs out in collected edition that have a bigger chance of selling.

The dude also has to scan the pages at some point too.

Cam, with all the collections you have, you need to get your name out there to the big companies. You may be sitting on several comissions.


Oh, in other LCBS news, did I mention Warren Ellis used to work for my LCBS owner? Isn't that funny. Rumour has it that Mr. Ellis was let go, because he was a bit of a merchandise 'tea leaf' (cocky rhyming slang translation: 'thief'). Isn't that funny!

702 issues for Miracle Man? Explai this to me, please.

Miracle Man was created way before Moore and Gaiman got their hands on it. Like in the fifties or something like that.

You know, if I think I'd love to have a job like that old guy has. Did he mention anything about how much money he is going to get?

MGM wrote:702 issues for Miracle Man? Explai this to me, please.

I don't know what you mean. Are you saying there's something wrong with total issue count? I may have misheard the guy. A quick google search leads me to believe there's over 300 issues atleast.

I don't know too much about the particularities of when the character became Miracle Man after Marvel pursued legal action due to the name Marvel Man. I don't know how many issues were printed under each name.
I also have no idea how many issues of the entire run were actually reprints of earlier issues with or without backup strips as extra.

All I know - or perhaps more specifically, take for granted from the nice gent - is that he owns every issue, it's rare to own every issue, and because he owns every issue he's been asked to do some basic cataloging and Marvel are paying him for his service.

XIII wrote:Miracle Man was created way before Moore and Gaiman got their hands on it. Like in the fifties or something like that.

You know, if I think I'd love to have a job like that old guy has. Did he mention anything about how much money he is going to get?

Oh I see. This is likely what Mitch was getting at. I guess there's a strong association of the character with Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. So, thinking about their professional age, 700 odd issues would seem unlikely. Still, maybe I did mishear him, but I'm reasonably certain I heard him right.

The old gent didn't think it was a big amount Arn. I'm inclined to agree with him, although I don't know what would be average or good for this type of work. $15,000 is the sum that I seem to remember.
Although I am inclined to agree with him, it's not bad either, and I don't remember him thinking it was bad, too. Who wouldn't want more though, considering the amount of time you're going to spend unbagging and resealing issues?
If I've got the price right and I've got the issue count right (I don't know about deadlines), then it roughly works out as $21.36 per issue catalogued.
No idea how long we should expect this type of task to take, which is also a factor to consider when pricing work.
So, doesn't seem bad. Just not as appealing as we'd certainly love to imagine any comic related job to pay. It would be interesting to see other examples of work like this and the going rate.

I certainly wouldn't mind taking a weekend job cataloging rare comics into a spreadsheet and basically earning good holiday money.

I'd accept it in an instant. I mean, we're talking about entering names in a spreadshit and scanning pages. Also, I'm just thinking that if the price isn't right, the old man could still have told Marvel to go fuck themselves and find the info some other way.