My name is James Gibson and I run Archive Media, a small 3D company and desktop publishing company which specializes in comicbooks. We've recently signed a contract with an outside company to provide adult 3D material for use in their pay websites. This contract is valid for one year and we are desperately falling behind on quotas for material. If you are interested and would like to sell your Poser/Bryce artwork to us...we pay $5 per image. Not alot, but 10=$50...and it's extra cash for something you're already creating as a hobby anyway. We buy and keep full rights on your material. We prefer images to be 575x450 dpi in size and 72dpi in quality. All images we purchase must contain nude women in predicaments with aliens or monsters of some kind...or at least sci-fi settings. If you have old material you'd like to sell, we'll consider them as well. We ask that you email us one (1) and one only...of your best images to our hotmail address: archive_media@hotmail.com We'll review your sample and then get back with you if we deem your work suitable and up to par with our own. Samples will not be used for anything else. There are also no minimum/maximums on how many images you can sell us. We currently need around 100 a month. Thanks, and please include any questions you have with your submission image. ALSO: Please, no large files...nothing over 500x500.

Full rights for around $1.00 an hour? Is that full and exclusive reproduction rights for all media or non-exclusive reproduction rights for web-based usage? Does the artist retain any copyright to their creation?

Sorry, I meant Jag...not Jak.. Davo

Why would one sign a contract and not be able to supply the product needed or promised? When I first read this I thought, COOL... but looking at it again and deeper makes me wonder. Being that I was in the Comic Industry and in some ways still am, I know to create a book or something of this caliber, one must have a storyline to focus on and tailor the images to that. Rather than dump 50 pics into a pile and then write a story. What about altering the image and putting word balloons on them? Top that off with $10 an image??? What about contracts that cover the butts of the artist, let alone your's? I don't think this is very crediable... someone correct me if I am proven wrong. Jack

$5 an image seems pretty iffy to me... I have a friend who sells her computer generated images for around 50 dollars and image, and she tells me that's pretty darn cheap. --kristyn

Show us a sample contract....and talk real money here, my friend..... Scarab <-old enough to have bought reading glasses for fine print.....also recognizes "chump change" when he sees it...

I didn't mean to quible about the price. I'm sure there are several people who would give stuff away just to see it published somewhere. I only mean to let people know what it is that they are relinqueshing their rights to. There are many artists who create some very unique and well-done charicatures. If you give up all of your rights to that charicature then you have no right to use it yourself or to sell it to anyone else. That's OK as long as you know what your sellig.

Jack D? Just what books do you work on? I wrote,inked, and published three comics in 1998 for Forever Press comics entitled REICH CHILD...which broke independent records with Diamond on issue #2. I also published a short 3D comic for Hustler magazine last year which appeared in Brown Sugar. I've also written over 12 paid for, and published fictional erotica pieces in the last three years. Please, don't insult someone till you're sure they're not what they claim. Had anyone asked, rather than just assuming I'm an idiot, I'd have been happy to detail my background. And as far as making a contract I can't fulfill...I can fulfill it...I just would like more free time to work on other projects...and this stuff is taking up a lot of time. They are not comics...no need for balloons, etc...just plain erotic art pieces...that's all I need. Ms Kristyn... Does your friend make $2000 a month just on her computer stuff? I do. Thank you. Mr. Scarab... Keep your cheap comments to yourself. For your information, I only get around $7 for the resale, and so I'm not just being cheap. When's the last time you actually sold something anyway...nothing has value till someone else wants it! I just can't believe how rude of a bunch of people you all are...I just offered to help some folks who might want to get some stuff sold professionally and help releive some of my own stress in the process. No ripoff, no gimmicks... I've been up front and honest. Willf... Thanks for being a bit nicer than the rest. It doesn't usually take pros five hours to set up a scene and render it...so no, it doesn't really break down to $1 an hour. And the contract gives us complete, exclusive, permanent ownership forever and a day. Sorry, but that's just the way it is. If you wanna make a few bucks off your old images, this is a good thing...not something I'd advise as a profession, though... --James Gibson

Whoah...

JAG, you came in here and made a RIDICULOUSLY insulting offer and got upset when people scoffed at it. OK, let's say it DOESN'T work out to a dollar an hour. Let's say it takes ONE hour to do an image. You're still asking for someone to go to the trouble of creating an exclusive work of art for you, and signing away all his or her rights to it, for the price of a lunch at McDonald's. I could make more than that PANHANDLING.

Plus, of course, we've got to spend all the time necessary to get permissions off of various people (textures/props/hair etc) before we can even start. And 3.33 for total, exclusive, worldwide rights in perpetuity? Uh-uh, no way - the minimum wage here in the UK is 3.60/Hour. Paul

My comments and my art are not cheap, Jag....I think the subsequent responses from others have it about covered. We dont know you from "Poserdork" and you show up with this "I'm gonna do you all a favor" booshwah. Many people here have been ripped off or know someone who has been. You may or may not be the artist you describe yourself as, but if you feel "insulted" because your imprecise, uncertain offer is questioned, you dont know squat about business dealings. Top that off with proceeding to insult essentially everyone here and it is unlikely that you will get any takers. You want to be serious about this? Dont do a cattle call...review the galleries and contact the artists whose work best fits your needs and contact them by email with a one on one offer, prepared to negotiate. If your situation and offer is good, they will let everyone else know and you may end up with a good team for future work. Jack D's response is on the nail here, and he is probably the most trusted individual in the entire poser community, being snide with him did NOT earn you any points....understand? Scarab

I wouldn't sign away my intellectual property; porn or no porn for $5 an image. Whatever. I get paid $50+ an hour for freelance work, and that is below the going market rate. In other words, that is a deal. Also a lot of the people here are very professional artists, whom I believe you have greatly insulted by trivializing their work, and the time and man hours that goes into creating a great piece of "ahem" 'art'. Just because the work is erotic in nature, does not mean that it should be low quality, stamped out, mass produced.

Guys! Let's cut him some slack here. It's not like the forum is overflowing with offers of cash. He never said all your hard work was only worth $5, he just said that was all he could pay. And, so far as I recall, this IS the high bid around here. Jag, it was an interesting offer, thanks for presenting it here even if it (perhaps understandably) rubbed some creative ego's the wrong way. This has never been a hangout overflowing with right-wing capitalists so the concept of "price/utility" may be somewhat alien.

I don't understand people sometimes. I make paintings with poser and have sold a few for over $600. Those paintings take me about six to eight days to complete. But in the process I make gigs of images that I don't use and just delete. I would definetely benefit from getting at least $5 a peice for work I have done. I also just play with Poser very often and the images just hang on my desktop till I create a new one. I would not mind selling them either. I would not sell a painting for $5 but a little extra income could be of use to many. I will be getting in touch Jag. I'm interested.

That is fine Xurge, more power to you and I hope you can help Jag out....my take on this was less one of "insulted artistic egos" than simply ragging Jag a bit about the imprecision of his offer....As I said, give a sample of the contract (and five bucks does sound kinda sucky)...Jack's point was, tell us or reveal to us a little more about yourself (Jag)... One cannot be too careful on the web. Remember, until you see in print what the deal is, Xurge, Jag could end up owning rights to characters you do or themes you have that you ARE trying to develop into $600 paintings. For instance, if I owned the rights to the ideas shown on some of the innumerable pencil sketches that became R2D2 or the Terminator....well, I would be sitting damn pretty and could conceivably control the royalties and earnings from a LOT of later merchandising. Most everybody here would like to make money, and I dont think any of us intended to be hostile to Jag as a person....his approach and certainly his followup to the concerns and (yes) criticisms were not,however, a good approach. Although I would have to describe my second note to him as "Dutch Uncle" in it's tone, I was trying to offer him some good advice. Try contacting those artists that he can SEE meet his needs and offer them the deal to try out the relationship...if it is truly a good one and works, well....Jag,whereever you are, if Xurge comes back and convinces us youre offering a good deal, we'll all likely come kiss your heiny....ok? Dutch Uncle Scarab

What's polite got to do with anything? This isn't a tea party it's a bussiness offer, you should expect people to analize your offer and raise objections if they have any. I think all the points made here are valid and the artists are just being practical. Now at least anyone who responds can't say they didn't know what they were getting into and it's better to have things out in the open. I personally would never ever sell exclusive rights to an image for $5-. I'm not saying your cheap I'm saying the offer is too low. (This is in response to post#8 'just plain rude')

Jag, While you may have taken offence at my questions, I assure you that "anyone" in the comic industry has reason to narrow their eyes at this offer. In the comic industry it is a dog-eat-dog world and everyone tries to screw someone at some point. As for my involvement in that industry, I did work writing for some major companies as a freelance writer. Refused to sign over my complete rights to my characters and work and started my own company, Dark Soul Images. Yes, an Indy Press company... Though Mr. Leaf from Diamond was very helpful in trying to get our issues mainstream, our issues were mostly popular in Colleges and Home Based stores. Wizard Press did an artical on us and you are in the result of that company now... this forum.

--continued-- I questioned your methods simply because is sounded to me like the same thing that was handed to me by Marvel. Telling me that if I signed the contract, all rights, materials, characters, plots and storylines were theirs to use...forever. And all I would get was a little check to show for my work. Why do you think Todd left them? Frankly, that is what your offer sounds like to me. I am sorry if that upsets you. Perhaps you will have to think of a better selling strategy then. Bottom line: I am not condemning you. But being that you have been in the industry, I would hope that you would have more concern for the artist's rights then me, a simple writer, would have. You never gave specifics of what you were looking for, nor did you give a "theme" other than erotic...that here, is a broad subject. Organization, dedication for those that work for you or with you, that is what I look for when I apply for work with anyone, not past history of what you have done, tell me what you CAN do for ME and the other people here...and without attitude please. Jack D. Kammerer

Oh, just one other minor question that sort of stuck out at me, Jag.... You said, and I qoute: "And as far as making a contract I can't fulfill...I can fulfill it...I just would like more free time to work on other projects...and this stuff is taking up a lot of time. They are not comics...no need for balloons, etc...just plain erotic art pieces...that's all I need." While I can appreciate that you would like to free up some of your time, I do have a question regarding that statement, which is: Are you planning to sell this stuff off and sign it as YOUR work, or will the actual artists be getting credit for it? Jack

Hmmm...sorry warning bells just keep sounding in my head, so please, please forgive me... Granted you are a small company as you say you may be... by why a HOTMAIL addie? Why not a JGibson@3darchive.com address and website? Why do I send you the image first, prior to any contract stating that you can't use it until such point that I have received payment for it? It is like me telling you, let me take your car and drive it around a little while, don't worry where, but if I like it I will pay you for it. You just going to hand me the keys and HOPE I come back? Hell, I am not even an artist and the thought of send you my work and hoping not to find it on the net somewhere, even though you said you wouldn't use it, gives me the willies! Faith...you asking me to opperate on faith and sir, with all due respects to you and what you may be trying to do, I don't work on Faith and Trust of people, I want something tangable before I give out anything. More than someone's words... and it doesn't seem to me that you are willing to give more than that. AND that, Mr. Gibson, is why I question you. Not being rude, just looking out for my best interest and the interests of the members that come here. Jack

Jag, are you there? I sent you something and heard nothing...I hope you didn't get scared off. Gimme a buzz, I have some old stuff that I don't care about and don't necessarily want credit for and could use 5 bucks a pic ;)