It’s been an up and down few weeks for comic publisher Scout Comics. Once a “hot” publisher, the company has cooled over the past year and in recent weeks they’ve faced accusations of lack of payment and unscrupulous business practices by creators.
Things kicked off last week when Jarred Luján went public with issues on Twitter:
If you’re a new creator, please avoid @ScoutComics like the plague. Haven’t paid me for a book out over a year. Won’t answer emails. We delivered a completed, profitable book and still got screwed.
Spoke to the Editorial Director and he implied we’d be blacklisted for complaining. CEO came in acting like he’d help and now he’s ghosting us too. If it’s like that at the top, you know why everything else sucks.
I’ve tried for a year to work with these people and its clear they have no intention of working with us. Nothing resembling a partnership.
I also got a single statement about book sales and not a single one since.
Can’t promote books, can’t pay creators, but they got a full @Whatnot schedule!
My last email a month ago was “hey can you just cancel our contract and we can move past the money you owe me” and they still didn’t answer. That would have cost zero dollars, for whatever thats worth.
From there, numerous other creators came forward with similar stories including Honor Vincent, Rebecca Good, Brian Wickman, Adam Barnhardt, Massimo Rosi, Matthew Erman, and Dakota Brown. Some have stated they’ve been threatened with blacklisting in the industry and others just ghosted after a while. For a while, many have spoken to us about a dissatisfaction over marketing and how their comics have been handled forcing them to market releases themselves.
One Scout creator, in a since deleted tweet, said:
Where was this accountability when we repeatedly asked for details and figures and were instead greeted with anger. Denied a contract termination unless we paid 75k for the huge overprint we didn’t ask for. This is a company full of grifters, don’t believe a word of this at all.
Scout has been accused of stating comics are unprofitable and also engaging in large overprints that were not asked for. This gets them out of having to pay creators and sounds like the “creative” bookkeeping Hollywood engages in that has claimed a film like Men in Black is unprofitable. While there are some legit costs to publishers, like warehouse storage/distribution, unauthorized overprints sound less so.
Scout responded back:
Dear comics community,
Scout started as and remains a company created by and for creators. We love comics. We love reading comics, making comics, and publishing comics for other creators. We love the comics community.
While Scout has always striven to maintain high levels of service to our teams, recently a creative team expressed their frustration publicly due to not having had a response to their concerns in several months. This is true. We dropped the ball by failing to respond in a timely manner. We take full responsibility for our lack of response at that time due to internal miscommunication.
Regardless, we will continue to strive to do better and improve communication with all of our creators. Despite the complaints we have seen online, Scout has had very few creators reach out to us directly with concerns. We have actually had several creators reach out and support, which we appreciate.
As with all businesses, there will be missteps. The most important thing is to learn. At this time, we are openly welcoming any creator with a title at scout comics to reach out to our COO Lesa Miller at [email redacted] with any concerns they may have. All concerns will be listened to and all inquiries will be responded to in a timely manner.
As creators ourselves we understand the issues that have been presented to us. Thank you for your patience and grace while we endeavor to learn from the feedback we are receiving.
The company has been erratic in recent years. They outsourced their marketing which has dried up. Announcements trickle out and previews and review copies are non-existent. This was after moving to a publishing schedule which caused a gap between the release of first and second issues for series. The belief was this would give time to build interest in new launches. Instead, it feels like it has killed momentum.
Instead the publisher has focused on gimmicks, throwing out ideas and seeing what sticks. They’ve focused heavily on the live eBay site WhatNot, publishing plates, a subscription box (which we subscribe to and is a good idea), cards to be sold in stores with keys for digital comics, and overall trying to go more direct to consumer. There’s been numerous problems with releases. Some just don’t happen, sometimes are announced multiple times (Maze Agency was announced twice about a year apart) or happen, then fizzle, then get relaunched (we’re looking at you Vanity). The company, like many new publishers, seems more focused on television and movie deals than publishing comics. Scout of 2024 looks like the dirt mall version of its former self.
Months ago we were sent a link to a Comicbook Round Up profile for “Bredeen,” teasing it was Scout CEO Brenden Deneen who was review bombing various Scout titles. The anonymous email said it was targeting specific creators. Unfortunately that account has scrubbed its reviews but the internet never dies and the Wayback Machine has captured some of what was reviewed. Six Scout Comics are reviewed in that link with an average score of 1.67 while three Image titles are reviewed and an average if 8.83, two of which were given a 10. Why a CEO would do this is a mystery but the email we were sent called it unprofessional (which it is), toxic (also that), and weird includes the company president James Haick. Add in a lot of comings and goings, it all points to a publisher with numerous internal issues beyond payments an marketing.
Scout’s story seems to be one that has been familiar in recent years. Action Lab, AfterShock, and we’ve heard rumblings of more, have all seen issues when it comes to payments, creator rights, marketing and more. The bubble of small publishers banking on VC money and television/movie rights for profits looks like it has burst. The collapse of so many small publishers could also be a factor in recent woes at comic shops as the bottom 300 sales (which many of their releases were found in) were booming pre-pandemic, but that’s an article for another time.
But, as we were wrapping up our coverage a new wrinkle has been added. Scout Comics has announced a partnership with Element Media Global, a subsidiary of Element Global, Inc.
The release calls the deal a “partnership,” but it sounds more like a bailout with mention of the launch of Dark Harbor Comics, a new horror/thriller imprint. Scout has relied on other imprints in recent years like Chispa and Black Caravan. In 2020 alone they announced six new imprints. Some of those imprints haven’t seen releases and a few of the announced plans in 2020 never came to fruition.
The release also states a “re-launch” for Scout in the Summer of 2024. It’s hard to not see this announcement as a scramble in reaction to many of the company woes mentioned above.
You can read the full release below:
Scout Comics & Entertainment Holdings, Inc. will partner with Element Media Global, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Element Global, Inc. (OTC:ELGL) to expand further into the comic book, original graphic novel, gaming, and multimedia space. This new iteration of Scout will also include the launch of Dark Harbor Comics, a new horror/thriller imprint. Under this deal, Scout and Dark Harbor Comics will re-launch in Summer 2024 with a genre-spanning line of comics, including both previously- announced titles and several recently signed books as well.
Steve Gagnon, co-CEO of Element Media Global, Inc., said, “We are incredibly excited to be partnering with Scout to expand into the comics and graphic novel space. They have a proven track record of producing quality comic books while having an impressive ability to sell their IP into Hollywood, as well as proving themselves to be incredibly nimble in a rapidly evolving market across all of our media brands.”
James Haick, President of Scout Comics, said, “The collaboration between Element and Scout is the beginning of something very special. Our shared visions and collaborative efforts are poised to help revolutionize the comic book industry. These initiatives will not only benefit our creators and employees, but comic fans in general. One of these initiatives is called SCOUT LAUNCH, which will bring new paying jobs to writers, artists, colorists, and more. We couldn’t have arrived here without the hard work and dedication from our current back-office team, our amazing printer Comic Impressions, our Scout HQ employees, and of course our talented creators. With July on the horizon, we all look forward to building anticipation for the extraordinary developments ahead.”
Richard Rivera, Publisher of Scout Comics, added, “I’m excited for the possibilities that will come from the re-launch this summer and confident that our amazing creators and important retail-partners, the local comic shops, will benefit from a streamlined, reliable publishing schedule. It will shake things up, but in a great way, and Scout is eager to get everyone on board with the new vision. The partnership with Element is going to be game changing.”
About Element Media Global, Inc.
Element Media Global, a wholly owned subsidiary of Element Global, Inc. (OTC:ELGL), is involved in the development, and production of original films and television and the company centers its efforts on the expansion of streaming digital media that is changing the way individuals throughout the world consume content. Leveraging proprietary technology, Element plans to deliver interactive content in a more efficient and concentrated platform, resulting in a truly unique new fully interactive consumer experience. Element has recruited senior executives from across multiple verticals, including top producers, writer’s, director’s, development and distribution, technology executives and influencers. Element senior management team have combined this expertise with a portfolio of IP technology groups that can be integrated to deliver on Element’s platform promise as well as across all platforms in the market – www.elementglobal.com/subsidiaries/media.php.
About Scout Comics & Entertainment, Inc.
Scout Comics & Entertainment was founded in 2015 and has over 300 titles in their catalog. They have published Ringo Award-winning titles and several of their books have been selected by the National Library Association. Scout books have sold to Disney, Amazon Studios, Warner TV, State Street, Rooster Teeth, and FilmNation, among many others. Rounding out the executive team with Haick and Rivera are Brendan Deneen, Founder/CEO, and Lesa Miller, COO – www.scoutcomics.com/
Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer:
This press release contains forward-looking statements within Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “ongoing,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “will,” “would,” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements do not guarantee future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indications of when such performance or results are achieved. This press release should be considered in all filings of the Companies contained in the Edgar Archives of the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov.
