Survival Stories
INSOMNIA PUBLISHING is no more.
While the demise of this British independent comics company may come as a surprise to those who considered it to have great potential, sadly to Speech Balloons a different story has been unfolding behind the scenes.
Paul H Birch and GM Jordan of the Comic Book Alliance, as have others, had been investigating matters and becoming concerned had advised a number of individuals to halt production on any material intended for Insomnia until clarification could be made.
This came to a head when Insomnia Publishing officially registered with Companies House to cease trading on 30th June 2010.
The problems may have started with the closure of Borders Bookstore on whose shelves the company hoped to gain greater public awareness and indeed sales. There has been talk of unpaid printing bills arising from this, but more publically has been the fact that creators involved were having their publishing rights challenged by Insomnia. Worse still for the creators they heard about Insomnia's demise second hand.
Something good may arise from this however.
The Comic Book Alliance is now working to settle copyright issues between Insomnia and its creators; while those individuals themselves being assured of what material is not in dispute intend to put an anthology of that work out as a collective known as The Sleepless Phoenix.
Survival Stories is the title of this 192 pages black and white anthology that will include material by Ben Bates (Sonic the Hedgehog), Martin Conaghan (Burke & Hare), Peter Forbes (Oz: Fall of the Scarecrow King).
After printing and shipping costs have been paid, The Sleepless Phoenix collective has generously donated profits to the Comic Book Alliance, to legally defend other such disputes.
Survival Stories will be released in October, in time for the British In ternational Comics Show (BICS) in Birmingham.
For a preview and information on how to fund and reserve a copy of Survival Stories click on the link below.
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Tim Pilcher/CBA is mediating for the Insomnia case.
All the books with Insomnia are creator owned. The contracts do not grant any copyright/IP ownership to Insomnia. They are a license for Insomnia to be the exclusive publisher of the work for a number of years (varies by book, I believe, and for Insomnia to represent the creative team in negotiations for adaptations.
What we are looking for as creators, is confirmation that now Insomnia is no longer trading that the license agreements are ended between the creators and the publisher.
Until then all the books, in print or in progress, are in limbo.
The reason being that until we have that piece of paper to show another publisher, to prove any previous contract is void, they cannot risk taking on a book that is technically still signed to another company.
The CBA are being wonderful in supporting us all in this.