Let's Talk About Substack

Hi, I'm David Harth, and yes, I'm going to keep starting these like this. Honestly, I feel like you can already tell I'm out of jokes because this one is stretched pretty thin. Pretty thin. Pretty… pretty… pretty thin. Anyone? Let's get started cause most of you probably didn't get that reference.

Now I feel pretty clever.

Anyway, if you pay attention to comics news like I do- and for me, it's like what the Kardashians and those Jersey Shore people were to teenage girls in the early '10s- then you've probably heard about a lot of creators announcing new comics over at a thing called Substack. You may have been asking yourself what Substack is and, if you're on Twitter, have probably seen people and their takes on the whole thing and wondered why you were seeing so much negativity. The biggest creators, getting to make comics on a new platform without corporate oversight, AND getting to own everything? That seems great for everyone and may make you wonder why so many hot takes are about why this is negative. So, I'm going to break it down for you.

Spoiler alert- I think the whole thing is bad, and I'm going to explain why. First, though, a little history on Substack and what's going on here.

Anyway, if you're on Twitter, you may have noticed a variety of creators, from Tini Howard to Gerry Duggan to Ryan Stegman to Matthew Rosenberg and more all have Substack newsletters they pimp. That is what Substack is basically- a subscription-based newsletter service. It's a platform where writers of any stripe can go and write what they want, connect with their audiences, and get paid directly by them. Substack take a percentage of the subs. It's OnlyFans for writers, except with no nudity.

So, what OnlyFans is going to become. Or was when I wrote this.

Anyway, seeing as how it's just a platform, it doesn't tell people what they can and cannot write. And for me, a big-time leftist SJW, that's a problem. Right now, as we speak, there are a lot of alt-right folk on Substack, spreading QAnon garbage, homophobia, transphobia, and racism. Good ol' Glenn Greenberg was one of the site's biggest stars for a long time (although I think he left, like, this week, which is why I used "was") and liked to be all kinds of transphobic and such. Now, I know what you're thinking- a lot of social media has bigotry, which, yeah. However, a lot of them actively try to stop that type of thing. Not Facebook, mind you. Their bread and butter are boomers spreading right-wing nonsense. Unless you listen to them to tell the story.

So, that's bad, and Substack is bad for allowing it. It's not Facebook or Twitter-sized either; it's probably not even Reddit-sized, and it's definitely not OnlyFans sized… well, current OnlyFans sized. Anyway, my point is that policing the platform shouldn't be that hard, and the fact they don't even attempt to do so is a huge red flag for me. Like, dude, Hickman is doing something there, and I am not going to sub to it because I don't want to support a platform that allows what they allow.

Now, before I go any further, I'm not saying that any creator who does something on Substack supports the type of bigotry that can be found on the platform. They all seem like upstanding folk and all that. They aren't the bad people.

So, Substack first started to make noises about comics when they gave Nick Spencer a contract. Now you know why he's leaving Marvel. As far as I know, Spencer isn't writing any comics for the site; he's just the recruiter. He knows everyone and gave them the deals. Now, I don't know the arrangements. I know you guys probably think I'm this illustrious comics journalist, sipping scotch at BarCons everywhere, but really, I'm a 40 year old with a bald spot who fangirls when I meet a creator in person. You should have seen me meeting Jim Lee. I went to MegaCon a few weeks ago, and since nobody came, I didn't get to ask anyone about their Substack stuff, like Donny Cates. He ended up buying a boat over that weekend. Must have been nice.

Anyway.

From what I understand, Substack drops a bunch of money in the creator's pocket, a grant of sorts, and then they publish their stuff through the website. James Tynion IV is all in on it, leaving any non-creator-owned book. He's not even going to use Twitter anymore. On top of the grant, they get their sub money (I've heard that Substack takes a large percentage of it after the first year, but I'm not sure). They also own everything, which is nice. In fact, when you look at the deal, it seems better than what, say, Marvel does for a lot of people, especially with the recent revelation about how they pay people whose characters they use in movies. However, there's a problem.

It's basically the Image deal.

Image Central, as I've heard it called when Robert Kirkman was describing the deals he can give creators with Skybound in comparison to what Image Central can give, lets the creators keep the lion's share of the profits. I'm not sure about the grant, which feels like the only difference at this point in time. However, Image must charge for printing and stuff like that because they aren't printing books out of the kindness of their hearts. So, there's that, too.

Substack drops fat stacks of cash on you, and you don't have to pay back printing costs. Seems like a pretty sweet deal, and it probably is. However, I have a lot of questions on top of my "not supporting a platform that gives a voice to bigots" thing.

An indie book from Image, Boom, or Dark Horse is about $3.99, depending on page count. This is the industry standard. So, what's going to be the standard on Substack? Artists can only work so fast. Are we getting the equivalent of twenty pages of content a month for a comparable price? Are we getting more for cheaper? Because modern artists aren't John Byrne or Jack Kirby or John Romita Jr. twenty to thirty years ago- they aren't going to be putting out that much more than the equivalent of twenty-two pages of material once deadlines catch up to them. I'm reminded of some drama in the ContraPoints fan community. I'll explain.

ContraPoints is one of the best channels on YouTube, and we stan for our Dark Mother. She is the best, and I want you to go and watch her videos right now. I'll wait. Back? Okay, now you understand. However, what you don't understand is that she takes a long time to make videos. Looking at the production value and how well researched everything is, and her general fabulousness, that makes perfect sense. However, her patrons on Patreon pay for a certain amount of content every month, and it took six months between her last video and the newest one. Some patrons, the ones who don't truly understand our love for our Dark Mother, complained. I can see their point- they aren't putting up their money just to fund her lifestyle; they want content. So, while I disagree with them- being a patron of the arts means being at the whims of the artist- I get their point.

On the other hand, if I'm going to give, for example, James Tynion IV money every month, I want something every month because print comics give me something every month. Marvel gives me my books every month. So does DC, Image, Boom, AWA, and Dark Horse. I give them money, I get a comic. Twenty-two pages of story and art. So, am I going to be getting that for a comparable price? Or is it going to be supplemented by his newsletter, which I don't particularly care about? How does the whole thing work for me, the consumer?

Next concern- the artists. As of now, I only know of one artist on Substack- Ryan Stegman. Him and Donny Cates are doing something together (I think Snyder's new imprint is going to be on Substack as well, and all of those books have artists, but Dark Horse is handling physical releases of all of his stuff, so that's cool), so I can assume that he gets an ownership percentage of the book and characters. But what about the hypothetical artists on Tynion's books? Are they hired guns, or are they part owners? Who is looking out for them on this writer's platform? Is this work for hire for them? These are questions I would need answers to.

Last concern- how is the press going to work? Do we have to sub to get access to stuff for reviews or what? I don't think I'm going to surprise you when I say I don't actually buy too many of the books I review- in fact, I think I only buy two: Wolverine and Crossover. So, do we as press get review pdfs? Will an indie site like this one get the same consideration as everyone else?

Now, I'm a physical media person. I like to own physical copies of video games, books, comics, music, stuff like that. So, for me, that's another reason I'm not going to Substack- I only read digital for my reviews. I don't want to pay for anything digital, especially since what happens if Substack goes belly up? Do I get digital copies of my own, or are they all hosted? It's too many questions.

Basically, I have a lot of problems with the whole thing, starting from not wanting to give the platform any of my money on down. Indie comic companies have been the bastion of creator's rights for decades now and to run to this digital platform with no history of comic publishing is disrespectful to those companies, especially when for guys like Cates and Tynion, those indie companies have been really good for them. Cates owes his entire career to Image and Dark Horse. At least he's still working with Image and straight up- if Crossover goes to Substack, I'm out. And I love that book.

I'm not going to support this platform. That's all there is to it. I get that the Big Two can be stingy. Then go to Image or Boom or someone who isn't. I feel like in the short term, this whole thing is going to hurt the comic industry more than it helps. Plus, seriously, I want to reiterate- THIS IS A PLATFORM THAT DOESN'T POLICE THE BIGOTED SPEECH OF ITS CONTENT CREATORS. That's not getting my money. And I hope it doesn't get yours either. Sure, some of it is going to people you like, but some of it is paying to give bigots a platform.

So, there it is. If you've had questions about the Substack thing, I hope I answered them. I'm going to link an article about the service to this one so you can read more. Anyway, that's all. I think we might talk about Hickman leaving the X-Men next time. Or something else. See ya then.