It amazes me how little this article pays attention to the actual mechanics behind WHY so many creative folks get screwed in the comics industry.
First, writers can create a wide, expansive and deeply exploitable Intellectual Property much faster and cheaper than an artist can. This lays a foundation that artists can build upon, but those artists still work with other writers. Each new comic therefore expands the IP.
No one makes a multi-million-dollar movie on basis of a picture. They do it on basis of a story. The only place where art doesn't need story to go with it is in Merchandising. T-shirts, lunchboxes, baby diapers and adhesive strips don't need a writer to help them sell. But even then, the reason the images sell merchandise is because people remember and admire the stories that went with those images.
Second, Image was barely a notch above the standard corporate model, because only Original Creators got any extra benefits out of it. If you worked on Youngblood or any other Image title, but didn't own the IP, you were considered just another employee when the chips were down, just like anywhere else.
Don't believe that? Look no further than the case of Gaiman v. McFarlane, where Neil Gaiman had to go to court to prove he was a co-creator of certain Spawn characters. McFarlane, who had originally welcomed and declared Gaiman as a "co-creator" when working on the project, tried to reverse himself and claim Gaiman was just another "work-made-for-hire" employee. Absent any such contract, that was a lie, but the money became more important than honor amongst artists.
By the by, Gaiman won.
Third, the comics industry is exceptionally incestuous.
If you are not a networker and cannot schmooze, you had better have someone who can in your corner, because for every decent-paying job in comic books, there are literally a thousand people capable of filling the slot. When you do get into that rarified air, talent tends to be so ubiquitous that it's taken for granted. Thus, people often get slots on a book because of whose name they can drop, or whose kids were babysat by whom last weekend, as opposed to how well they know or care about the characters.
None of this can be fixed by unionizing. In fact, it's arguably true that the third factor would be made WORSE; have you ever seen a union shop with such a dearth of work compared to workers, in action? It's a shark pit.
Until there are enough jobs in the industry to support enough workers to break up the cliques, it doesn't matter who owns the IPs. They'll remain the lords and masters of anyone who takes a paycheck from them, and Devil take the hindmost.
