What a comic collaboration agreement should cover
This guide is general information, not legal advice. For anything with real money or rights at stake, talk to a lawyer where you live.
A handshake works until the first missed deadline. Writing the deal down, before any pages are drawn, is the cheapest protection a writer and an artist can buy. Here's what it should cover.
The terms to agree
The middle column is what to decide on any project. The right-hand column is how renaissBlock's Collaboration Payment Agreement (version 2.5), which both sides accept before a paid collaboration starts, handles it.
| Topic | What to decide | On renaissBlock |
|---|---|---|
| Scope and price | Pages, stages, deliverables, the total and the price of each milestone. | Set out in the writer's invitation; the artist accepts, declines or counters, and the terms lock when both agree (§2.1, §2.2). |
| Fees | Who pays any platform or payment fees. | 3% when a milestone pays out; the writer picks writer-pays, artist-pays or a 50/50 split, and both see the breakdown before committing (§4.1–4.3). |
| When the money is committed | Whether payment is set aside before work starts. | When it's the artist's turn, the writer funds their work into the vault within 14 days; the artist then confirms on-chain, and each milestone's deadline runs from when it goes live (§2.3, §2.2a). |
| Deadlines | A date or duration for each milestone, and what happens if it's missed. | Deadlines run in days from activation. A missed deadline opens 48 hours of grace in which the writer can extend, re-offer the work or cancel; if nobody acts, the milestone's funds return to the writer (§8). |
| Review | How long the writer has to respond to delivered work. | 72 hours from delivery. If the writer doesn't respond, the milestone is released to the artist (§5.4). |
| Revisions | How many rounds are included in the price. | Two rounds for the whole collaboration with each artist. Work isn't returned for a refund because the rounds are used up (§5.5, §7). |
| Ownership | When rights pass to the writer, and the artist's portfolio rights. | Each milestone's work transfers to the writer when that milestone is released; the artist keeps all rights before that, and portfolio rights after unless the project's terms restrict them (§6.3). |
| Originality | That the work is the artist's own and infringes no one. | The artist warrants originality when accepting (§2.4). |
| Cancellation and refunds | What each side gets back if the project stops. | The writer can cancel a milestone within 24 hours of it starting, or any time before it starts, for a full refund including the fee. After that, a started milestone ends by mutual cancellation, for cause, under the deadline rules or the inactivity rule. Ending a milestone also ends the ones that depend on it (§9.1–9.4, §9.2a). |
| Disputes | How disagreements get resolved. | Creative disagreements aren't mediated. Payment disputes can be escalated to support, which reviews the records and tells both sides what the agreement requires; it can't move funds itself (§11). |
What to settle separately
- Credit. How each person is named on the cover and in the book.
- Revenue share or royalties. Our agreement covers paid, milestone-based work; a share of sales is a different deal and should be written down on its own (§1.1).
- Sequels and adaptations. Whether the artist is offered future issues, and what happens if the comic is adapted.
Who the agreement is between
The work agreement is between the writer and the artist. renaissBlock isn't a party to it; it runs the vault and the tools around it (§1.2). The money sits in a smart contract rather than with renaissBlock (§3.1); the agreement's risk section explains what that does and doesn't protect against (§12).
Read the full Collaboration Payment Agreement, or see how it works step by step.