The Deal of the Art

I was talking with Lindsay Kramer of C.A.G. and the subject of "What not to do" came up. Now throughout the years, I have made plenty of mistakes the biggest of which is making "hadshake deals". Don't get me wrong, handshake deals can be very good and is common practice in many places. It'sjust that some of the ones I made werent too helpful.

For those of you that don't know, hadnshake deals are agreements between two people in lieu of a written contract. Most bets are done in this way.

Anyways, I have given time (and in most cases money) in return for services that I never got. this is no way to run a buisness (well, a sucessful one at any rate). So I want all of you aspiring comic book guys to GET A WRITTEN CONTRACT. Of course the saying goes that you can't get blood from a stone. So even with a written contract, you may still be (or in some cases, may not be) getting screwed over. After all, if you do work (or pay for work) and the other party does not deliver on their end and the have no money (or go bankrupt) you get nothing by taking them to court (which is really what you do with contracts). Well, that isn't entirely true. If it's small claims you might be lucky (or unlucky enough) to be contacted by a Judge show (it still hasn't aired).

So what does this mean? Should I not make handshake deals anymore and spend hours writing and then convincing people to sign contracts? No. I should be more careful who I do buisness with. Sometimes I feel that everyone wants the same thing, but turns out not as much as I (or have different wasys of going about it).