Why was there not a graphic novel of Smegazine strips in the 90s?

[tombow]

I only got into RD after the Smegazine was finished, and I always thought the strips sounded good from what I heard about them, but I never saw old copies anywhere. You’d think with the huge amount of books and merch in the early/mid 90s they would have cashed in. Is it because they weren’t written by Grant Naylor so weren’t seen as important?

Topic

[Warbodog]

Sonic the Comic from the same publisher didn’t have any collected editions either, despite all the tatty Sonic books put out by other publishers. 2000 AD did though, so I don’t really have a point.

[International Debris]

There really was quite a splurge of Red Dwarf based literature in the VI-VII gap, so it is a bit odd that it never came out. It would be far more worthy a tome than some of the crap that came out with the RD logo on.

Could it be a licensing issue? The writers and artists might have been paid for their contributions to the magazine, but would need additional contracts and permission for the comics to be reprinted in a different format? And with so many people involved in such a range of strips, that might have just made it extremely complicated.

[Dave]

Could it be a licensing issue? The writers and artists might have been paid for their contributions to the magazine, but would need additional contracts and permission for the comics to be reprinted in a different format? And with so many people involved in such a range of strips, that might have just made it extremely complicated.

Yeah I wouldn’t be surprised. Back in those days it was far less common for comics and strips to get collected book editions, so it may well be that the legal arrangements weren’t in place for reprints. Plus, UK copyright law is comparatively more complicated than the standard practice for comics in the US, so it might have been complex to get everything lined up to allow Smegazine reprints.

[Warbodog]

The boring in-character prose pieces and “activity” pages were ready made for a Red Dwarf Annual 1993, interspersed with Ref Dwarf and some of the blander, less eccentric strips.

[tombow]

seems sad if it was rights though…I mean, they’d want to be paid but surely they’d rather have their work last in a more permanent form than just have it not come out. 

[Podey]

I mean, the comic was cancelled. So because of whatever reason it wasn’t deemed profitable enough to continue (probably low sales), I’d imagine. 

[Podey]

seems sad if it was rights though…I mean, they’d want to be paid but surely they’d rather have their work last in a more permanent form than just have it not come out. 

This is a punch in the gut to read as someone who has worked in comics where the pay is terrible and the work is undervalued enough as it is. Most are earning way less than the minimum wage, it’s only really the ones who get to work on DC/Marvel that are paid well.  

Apologies if I’ve jumped on you a bit but this is exactly the kind of thing that artists hear all the time (“you should just want to do it because you enjoy it, never mind the money”) and it really gets my heckles up, as Cat would say.

Now don’t call me tetchy…!

[Moonlight]

Sonic the Comic from the same publisher didn’t have any collected editions either, despite all the tatty Sonic books put out by other publishers.

That’s because Fleetway Sonic is a raging cuntwagon and they didn’t want to corrupt the children with his hilarious burns against Tails.

[Rudolph]

I really think it’s down to there not being enough perceived interest to justify the cost. And who owns them, these days? Would it be Rebellion, given they bought the Fleetway library from Egmont in 2016?

And yeah, the UK comic industry is a bit crap. Neil Gaiman and Alan Grant go off in Future Shock, the 2000 AD documentary, about how all their cheques from Tharg the Mighty had ‘By Cashing This Cheque, You Tacitly Give Up All Rights to the Characters and Stories Created’ stamped on the back. Pat Mills has also written about how he makes literally pennies from the reprints of Nemesis the Warlock.

[Dave]

And yeah, the UK comic industry is a bit crap. Neil Gaiman and Alan Grant go off in Future Shock, the 2000 AD documentary, about how all their cheques from Tharg the Mighty had ‘By Cashing This Cheque, You Tacitly Give Up All Rights to the Characters and Stories Created’ stamped on the back.

This was frequently the case in the old days of the US comics industry too, “work for hire” cheques.

[Author]

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