After a few months of emails I was offered a contract from Platinum Studios editor in chief Lee Nordling to write a four issue mini-series based on the first story in the anthology package, Weird Adventures in Unemployment.  

Weird Adventures In Unemployment was to be a horror spoof influenced by EC Comics, and 80's comedies like Weird Science and Better Off Dead revolving around a character more or less based on myeself named Wrigley Barnes and his supernatural misadventures in his New England hometown usually involving his quest for a job to pay the bills.  At the end of each story he saves his hometown from zombies or ghosts but eventually gets fired from the job and is on to the next job/adventure.  

Unfortunately in my naive inexperience in the contract I signed over the rights of my creation in a work for hire agreement.

I excitedly buzzed through the treatments and scripts for the four issues in a speedy six months because Weird Adventures was going to be one of the first comics published by Platinum and come out in comic shops across the country.


PART 2

After I finished work I had to wait for an artist to become available, and waited, and waited, for a whole year until a pencil went to paper. Two different artists hired were eventually fired when their work never began. I figured at the time they must have been lazy or something but looking back I realize work for hire contracts are bad news. 

Lee Nordling was taken off editorial duties of Weird Adventures and replaced by another guy, Andrew Foley for this specific project before he eventually left the the company all together. Andrew got the comic moving and found an artist named John Keene who quickly started producing work that looked great and a even gave me for the first time a projected release of Spring/early Summer 2007.

The first issue was almost finished and then for more unknown reasons Andrew was relieved of his editor duties by a new EIC. Work was going to be stopped on my comic for about another year or so I was told because this guy was thinking it needed rewrites.

That was when I was tipped off that Weird Adventures wasn't really stopped at all but they were searching for a new writer to do those rewrites without me and that they thought my stuff sucked. They weren't even giving me a chance.

They were kicking me off my own creation. Apparently in the contract I signed they can do that. How was there even a comic without me?

It hurt pretty bad. The first two editors were telling me I my work was good. I thought my scripts were good too. I started to doubt my abilities. Maybe I did stink.

At this time now about a year ago Platinum finally started putting out comics. I read the first one on their webcomics site DrunkDuck.com, their flagship Cowboys and Aliens. If you ever seen it, it's got to be one of the worst comics ever made. Despite having somewhat of a cool idea of cowboys fighting aliens, the art sucked, and the story was beyond lame.  

That sting of Platinum's denouncement of my writing skills went away when I realized they're the ones who don't know SHIT about comics.

A few more of thier books trickled out to the racks at my local comic shop like their KISS comic and that HERO BY NIGHT stuff by the winner of their Comic Book Challenge contest I would get to know later and I have to tell you, I'm sorry but nobody is skipping an issue of Spider-man for none of those turkeys! 

More crappy cheap looking art on top of lame manufactured concepts. The whole company is built on this ridiculous model of having a library of characters to exploit into other media. Although nobody has ever heard of any of them, including mine, or cares about them. No wonder they have never turned a profit.


Read a great article about Platinum here at Comic Book Resources here.

No doubt that line...

"When I read about newbie creators having a fit because they didn't read their contract signed away their rights to Platinum, this is why I shake my head. Acquiring I.P. is what Platinum does."

...is a shot at me at action I took which you can read later on in this blog. I'm cool with it though.


My Weird Adventures was character driven, not concept driven which is what they didn't like. The concept was unknowingly the same thing as A Night At The Museum to boot. Platinum Studios are not artists and that's the reason why Cowboys and Aliens is lame and will never make it to the silver screen like they keep hyping and will continue to be failures. They don't understand why things are successful. Things like Family Guy or South Park are not successful because of their concept. It's because there was an art and a unique voice personality behind the characters. A unique voice is what catches on wth the public. That's where we had are differences and I had to go. I wanted to do funny charcters, they want to squeeze out a lame concept.


PART 3

This is where I started acting unprofessional.

I decided I had nothing to lose having been fired without being told and wrote a strongly worded email to the head of Platinum Studios Scott Mitchell Rosenberg telling him what I thought of his company for dicking me around going on three years at that point and that is was shady that they kicked me off my creation and replacing me without even telling me. I was pretty rough but I felt the email deserved it.

I got the feeling he didn't know much about what I was talking about but he actually told me he would try to help me out and passed me off to Dan Forcey, VP of Development to finally finish this comic "in a way I'd be proud of" he said. I thought that was nice of him an wrote him back and thanked Mr. Rosenberg.

I emailed Forcey and he blew me off repeatledly until he passed me off to another guy named Adam Rosenblum, yet another EIC. I realized at that point Rosenberg was blowing me off to Forcey and him so on to Rosenblum who was also blowing me off all hoping I'd just go away.  

I finally got Rosenblum on the phone. There's been a lot of "finally's" in this blog hasn't there. Yeah I been through alot of persistant bullshit.

He finally was straight with me that they wanted another writer because he thought my scripts weren't professional enough and again I knew nothing about comics, but try to satisfy me (to go away) they would put what was completed by John Keene and I on Drunkduck.

I hestitantly agreed in fairness to the artist. He desreved to get his work shown to the world although I wished this thing would never see the light of day because I've grown to really hate the Platinum.

He apparantly called John Keene up to make some finishing touches. After a few weeks I wasn't updated on those finishing touches though and  justifiably fearing I was being screwed again, I myself contacted John Keene to see the finishes. It was pretty good but I thought a few bits of dialouge needed to be changed.

I wrote to Rosenblum and said I had to do a few slight rewrites confessing I peeked at the book. He hated the entire book so I figured it was no big deal but Forcey finally wrote me back (remember that guy) and told me I was fired (wasn't I already?) from the book for contacting the artist without an editor's approval.

I finally gave them a reason to remove me from (STEAL) my creation. Not like I wasn't pushed to take matters into my own hands an try and put out a comic that my GASP not suck!

I wrote a blog about this whole situation on Comixtalk.com back in June. It was a bit melodramtic but damning.  

read it here 

Well that blog got a whole bunch of attention. Namely from Platinum's number one shill DJ Coffman aka the contest winner and writer/artist of Hero By Night. We blogged against each other for two days and it got pretty dirty.

and the story got picked up in an article written by Heidi MacDonald on Publishers Weekly

read that here


PART 4

I came off as a naive rube for getting into this situation in Heidi's article but I confess I was. The system is flawed and I know I'm not the only one to have ever suffered this indignity so why shut up and take it?

Dan Forcey refused to comment on the situation, basically validating all that I had said by not saying anything. What could he say without lying? They WERE trying to kick me out the door and take my character away from me to crap it all up.

That must have pissed him off good. But he got his revenge on me. Months have passed and brought us up to today.  

A webcomic called WEIRD ADVENTURES IN UNEMPLOYMENT has hit Drunk Duck. If I was fired in June and it took me six months to write the original comics and John Keene about two months to draw, letter and color it this proves they already ditched me before officially firing me and said they were getting sombody else to do it now.  Although it was already being drawn as we spoke.

of course I blogged again...

read that here

I won't link that comic to this site like the blogs because honestly it sucks. I feel bad dissing the guy who rewrote MY characters and stories because he's just a dude trying to make some cash but from what I saw already it is greatly inferior to my original version.

MY version is a real COMIC BOOK with monsters that were scary and had an attitude, if you haven't noticed by now I have a lot of, not something weak that looks like a Dilbert cartoon. 

                                          THE REAL WRIGLEY BARNES!


An orginal concept sketch of Weird Adventures In Unemployment's main character and charicature of me Mike Strang, WRIGLEY BARNES. The art by John Keene which I don't own was very similar to this design.

This internet battle I've been waging most likely ruined any chance I had at a comic book career and I'm another casualty on the blvd of broken dreams. BUT there's something satisfying about artistcally sticking to your guns and giving the finger to your former employers which I've done here.  

Hell, CBR picked up the recent blogs and this time called me by name.

Click here, the blurb is in the middle of the page. Apparantly they hate Platinum too.

This is my website, I can say what I want!

MIKE f'n STRANG!