[...] disagreed publicly with him when he published freelancer work that he hadn’t paid for. He was that generation’s Rick Olney.) Moving to a bigger, more respected publisher should have addressed those concerns, but maybe the [...]

I’ve received complaints from all sorts of people concerning all sorts of companies – ones I’ve worked with, ones I haven’t.

The difference to me seems to be patterns of behaviour. Avatar seem to have had a clear sheet over the last few years, and work well with certain creators famed for having a problems with other publishers. Have you taken that into account?

Maybe you’re not getting Avatar complaints because of your opinions — we tend to see what we look for. You still haven’t addressed the original cases, the same behavior that caused a furor when Olney did it.

And of course it’s a valid comparison. Far more valid than your “well you would say that” critique.

Point on the other complaints, threats or legal action are rarely wise, and I hadn’t read the other complaints (not for almost ten years anyway). And that’s the thing, I’m not getting reports about poor behaviour towards creators at Avatar. Over the last few years I’ve received complaints and written stories over incidents concerning CrossGen, Speakeasy, Marvel, DC, Dreamwave, TokyoPop and more. But not Avatar.

Have you boycotted of the above as well?

You know that there are significant legal, professional, and ethical differences between an employee relationship for a set period of time and a freelancer/publisher relationship, so you know that that’s not a valid comparison.

You say you can’t find another instance, but the article I linked to lists two more instances of artwork theft alone plus the situation with the Gregorys. Nor do you address the stupidity of Christensen threatening to sue various Usenetters (aka “Ted Rall-like behavior”).

Johanna, you haven’t boycotted Marvel or DC despite some serious publisher/creator issues regarding theft and deceit there over the years.

All I can do is look at the pattern. Avatar/Pat Quinn does not seem representative of the company’s publisher/creator actions. I can’t find another instance. It’s also quite possible that more occurred than has been made public.

I see a big difference between that and TightLip, Dreamwave or the like where this kind of action was reflective of the company’s behaviour as a whole.

It’s a new world. Businesses will have to understand that they are under constant scrutiny via the internet. They will also have to understand that once on the web, info is always going to be available. Perhaps the internet will force companies to act ethically.

The Boys has the kind of material that Avatar would happily publish without content issues.

“A Small Killing” from Avatar should be reason enough. Aside from that, Dicks, 303, Wormwood, Strange Kiss, Black Gas, Apparat, Unfunnies, Hypothetical Lizard, Yuggoth Chronicles, Mortal Souls and Robocop, are all well worth checking out. Alan Moore’s Magical Words is an essential comics how-to text. And some sad fools even like Holed Up: http://www.thexaxis.com/misc/holedup1.htm

I take your point about the complaints being old, but I wouldn’t like time to result in “sinners” getting away with things just because readers were forgetful or distracted by the new.

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=99332

He’s begging for artists for Alan Moore and Warren Ellis projects. That can’t be right; Warren writes for the artist he gets, not a randomly-assigned artist. Something stinks.