Peter Parker succumbs to the symbiote on Dustin Nguyen’s variant cover to Spider-Man: Black Suit and Blood Vol. 1 #3 (2024), Marvel Comics
Far from just pissing off readers with their terrible business decisions, Marvel Comics’ apparent corporate greed has prompted a number of noted industry artists to come out and publicly lambast the publisher for financially mistreating their illustrators.
Logan takes a trip down memory lane on Dustin Nguyen’s Wolverine 50th Anniversary variant cover to Incredible Hulk Vol. 4 #8 (2024), Marvel Comics
This latest controversy for the former House of Ideas kicked off on the morning of March 11th when, seemingly apropos of nothing more than his own frustrations having reached a boiling point, veteran Detective Comics Vol. 1 and Batman: Streets of Gotham Vol. 1 artist Dustin Nguyen posted a Story to his personal Instagram account declaring, “In N Out paid me $6.25 an hour to clean their gutter fries s–t way back and it’s still better than spilling my hear and love on a Spider-Man cover gig and getting 5 (ok maybe 10 free copies in the mail) free issues.”
Dustin Nguyen (@duss005) via Instagram
From there, Nguyen would continue his thoughts in a proper post, therein declaring, “Everyone I’m NOT working with at Marvel Comics can [middle-finger emoji] themselves.
“I’ve asked nicely for the past 15 years on behalf of every artist,” said the artist, his Marvel portfolio currently encompassing a number of variant covers across such books as Ultimate X-Men Vol. 2 and Spider-Man: Black Suit and Blood Vol. 1. “Stop f–king creators over, you’re not getting another cover from me until then. Drown me, I’m ok with your minimum wage bullshit.”
Dustin Nguyen (@duss005) via Instagram (Click to enlarge)
Adding to his thoughts in the post’s caption, Nguyen further asserted, “If this bothers you I’m sorry, Marvel Comics has been undercutting creators from the start, unless you’re getting 6-7k a cover – then godbless. I hope you’re getting a piece of the MCU and after sales.”
“Between them and @dcofficial, they are the ONLY one that DOESN’T pay a royalty for overseas sales,” he said. “THINK – AMERICA is the originator of Superhero comics (Japan has manga which we love, Europe has that cool ass s–t we love but can’t describe) and wtf? They’re not paying creators a piece? COME ON. F–K this F–KING S–T. Also, merch? lunch boxes and tees – good luck.”
I got a buncha dms from people telling me I gotta be careful, “Don’t cross Marvel, they’re a major player, the only two in the mainstream”. Omg f–k them. Man, like I give a FLYING F–K. F–K @marvel comics, f-k anyone that I’m NOT in directly working with. (I LOVE my Marvel editiors because they get you your BOOKS OUT TO YOU ON TIME) the direct staff has no control, they don’t juggle the stupid f–king numbers.”
Armor and Maystorm are ready for The Maker on Dustin Nguyen’s variant cover to Ultimate X-Men Vol. 2 #3 (2024), Marvel Comics
“I’m gonna break it into simple ass fucking terms – You’re an artist. you draw shit. you wanna get paid for shit. Now. In the future. FOREVER . You draw NOW AND IN THE FUTURE. IN COUNTRIES EVERYWHERE INCLUDING THE ONE YOU DON’T LIVE IN. F–k this current Marvel contract. I’m too small in the tier and can’t negotiate a better one for you. those in control, those whose work pull, please work for the rest of us.”
“DC isn’t far from them because after all, they are a conglomerate of things- owned by WB doesnt help your argument. BUT when I ask for things, DC works with me. I’ve asked Marvel for like.. I SWEAR, $75 PAGE RAISE in the past 15 years (the minimum wage in CA is doing better than them, probably in a decade, even that a–hole Trump will do better than Marvel given a month), I don’t even need that shitty chump change, but I want to see how cheap they are. All this equaling maybe a royalty that’s the ‘Please sir, can I maybe have .15 cents after you’ve made your thousands?’ in things.”
“No response. So what am I treading carefully for again? I seriously forget.”
Wanda Maximoff arrives on Dustin Nguyen’s Hellfire Gala variant cover to Doctor Strange Vol. 6 #5 (2023), Marvel Comics
Later returning to Instagram Stories with a brief follow-up, Nguyen would once again reiterate, “Please don’t get me wrong, my editors at Marvel Comics F–KING KILL and I LOVE THEM. I will fight tooth and nail for them, but it will probably be against Marvel itself which we’ll all lose.”
Dustin Nguyen (@duss005) via Instagram
However, rather than being left to stand alone against the Disney subsidiary’s predatory operations, Nguyen’s was soon joined in his criticism by a number of industry artists, many of whom had their own first-hand experience with Marvel Comics’ greedy dealings.
“Seconded,” signed the eponymous creator of DC’s Batman ‘Murphyverse’, Sean Gordon Murphy. “This is why I’m more loyal to DC. I recently found out I’ve been blacklisted from Marvel for around 10 years. I tried to fix it, without much success. Maybe if I offered to cut my DC rate by 1/3 and take a 3rd tier title for a few years, they’d consider hiring me.”
Sean Gordon Murphy (@seangordonmurphy) via Instagram
Recapping her freelance work producing the initial visual concept for the latest Spider-UK, Zarina Zahari, Hack Slash interim writer and Poppy’s Inferno artist Zoe Thorgood detailed, “The only time I worked with Marvel was for a character design (they paid me $100 lmao but I thought it would be cool just to have done it so I agreed) they then, without my knowledge, used my concept art as a cover with zero compensation and I got so much hate for it because IT WAS NOT COVER ART, IT WAS AN $100 SKETCH.”
(It should be noted that despite her recollection, Thorgood also drew Jordan Bellaire’s eight-page ‘Showing Up’ story in the 2022 Women of Marvel Vol. 3 one-shot.)
Zoe Thorogood (@zoethorogood) via Instagram
Yanick Paquette, whose recent Marvel Comics cover work includes the entire four-issue run of the X-related Children of the Vault Vol. 1 and a variant cover for the upcoming Doom Academy Vol. 1 #4, added, “Marvel as been taking advantage of it almost monopole of mainstream comic for years. EVERYBODY pay me better for a cover. DC, Boom, Image, DarkHorse, Oni, some joe starting a Kickstarter. Marvel is dead last. Their argument is that the Original would sale better (and they are right of course) but the original sale revenue is mine, we fought for this, and paying under the market is their way to claw back at this extra revenue.
Yannick Paquette (@yannickpaquette) via Instagram
Author and illustrator of the grade-school graphic novel Shang-Chi and the Quest for Immortality Victoria Ying likewise recalled, “I was told marvel doesn’t do royalties AT ALL for any projects, here or overseas. I still did a book because I thought it would be a career boost and I’m still proud of that book, but it was definitely the worst deal of my career.”
Victoria Ying (@victoriaying) via Instagram
“Cheers,” praised What If? Age of Ultron Vol. 1 and What If? The Punisher Vol. 1 cover artist Chris Stevens. “I stopped working for them in 2018. I asked for a rate increase. I didn’t ask for a specific amount, just ANY increase and they wouldn’t do it. Id been doing covers for them for 10 years and still had the same rate. They dont need us though. They know someone will gladly take the job for peanuts, so they have little incentive to pay better.
Chris Stevens (@chris_stevens_illustrator) via Instagram
Dark Horse Comics Alien franchise artist Tristian Jones, whose lone professional interaction with Marvel Comics concerned artist Greg Land’s apparent tracing of his own past Xenomorph illustration for the publisher’s 2020 Aliens Omnibus reprint, wrote, “I was in a similar boat with Marvel a few years ago and the thing that bothered me more than the people inside that company not giving a s–t about ethically dubious creative choices was the absolute silence met from other creators — particularly writers — because they would rather be a part of an abusive corporate chain that doesn’t ultimately give a f–k about them than maybe help stand up for other creators and maybe hold companies accountable for shitty practices.”
“A lot of artists I’ve never met came forward in support and I’ll never forget who does and doesn’t have your back when it,” he added. “Seeing everyone’s stories here should make it abundantly clear that change needs happening across the board, and the only way that happens is when creators come together to demand better and stand strong in that, so thank you for putting your foot down too!”
Tristan Jones (@tristan_bones) via Instagram
As of writing, Marvel Comics has yet to offer any formal public response to any of the above artists’ posts.
Mentioned In This Article:Chris StevensDustin NguyenMarvelMarvel ComicsSean Gordon MurphyTristan JonesVictoria YingYannick PaquetteZoe Thorogood
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Numerous comic book artists, including Dustin Nguyen, Sean Gordon Murphy, and Yannick Paquette, are fed up with Marvel Comics’ stinginess. Read More