The New York Times reports Zestworld, a new subscription-based comics platform, will launch in early 2022. The publisher will specialize in creator-owned comics, with writers and artists becoming stockholders in the company, and earning revenue from collectibles or adaptations of their books. Currently announced creators onboard for the venture include Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, Phil Jimenez, Alex Segura, Peter Tomasi, and Eric Canete.
Segura will collaborate with co-writer Michael Moreci, and artist Dean Kotz, on a superhero murder mystery called “The Awakened” (pictured above), while Palmiotti and Conner are working on “a story about Booty Powpow, an immortal woman from ancient times who wakes up in the present day. Palmiotti is also writing ‘Found,’ with art by Juan Santacruz, about the discovery of a spaceship on Earth.”
The company’s founder and CEO, Chris Giliberti, is a film/TV producer whose credits include Amazon’s Homecoming, and who previously served as Head of TV & Film at Spotify from March 2020 to June 2021. He told the Times, “In setting out to build this, we started with the problem statement that this industry is broken for creators; and it’s broken in publishing and TV and film; it’s also broken in events and collectibles. We wanted to build something that’s useful across all areas of their business — anywhere they generate income.”
Palmiotti commented he and Conner were swayed by Zestworld’s mandate because, “They put their money where their mouth was. They came to us and said, ‘You guys can do whatever you want. We want you to create some comics and characters. You guys own them, you guys control them.’ Nothing’s being done without sitting with us and talking to us and nothing is being made without it benefiting us. It’s the kind of transparency all creators need.”
The issue of creators’ revenue from comics gained wider attention this year, after Ed Brubaker publicly commented on the lack of royalties or recognition from the Winter Soldier’s appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, despite the billions characters created by freelancers like him have raked in for the company. Several high-profile creators began self-publishing new works via subscription newsletters on Substack this year, but many readers expressed concern about them using a site that platforms prominent right-wing columnists.
You can sign up to updates from Zestworld at their site here.
