Credit where credit is due?

Now here is a weird situation that most of you have never had to deal with.  Brian sends me an email (yes I know we are married and he sits two feet from me most of the day but he emails me… go figure) asking if I will contact one of our clients and get Brian’s name REMOVED from the credits.

Doc Savage 1 has come out and Doc Savage 2 is on its way next week.  In the first issue they accidentally put Brian Miller or Brian Miller of Hi-Fi Design or something.  Brian hates when they do this.  He didn’t do the whole issue and doesn’t lie to take credit like he did.  Typically we get them to just put Hi-Fi or Hi-Fi Design or at least Brian Miller AND Hi-Fi.  DC used to have a policy that studio’s were not allowed to be credited, only individuals.  This has changed for them and for most publishers.  Sometimes covers still require one name and Brian use to sign them Miller but we’ve come up with a sneaky way around that, see if you can figure it out on some of the covers we regularly color.  

From the very beginning Brian wanted to start a coloring studio.  He didn’t like the idea of working solo for many reasons.  Some of the main ones are deadlines and cash.  Obviously, the more you do the more money you make, even if you are sharing it.  We can also provide color quickly because there are a bunch of us working on the same projects.  We’ve created a niche market for ourselves due to this.  We are the go to studio if you need something done overnight or in a massive hurry.

Because of this studio mentality Brian has only ever used his own name if he, personally & singularly, did the work or if they wouldn’t let us put anything else.  Practically all colorists use flatters (and they never get credit) and a lot of colorists use people to do backgrounds or even help them out in a bind (and they never–or rarely–get credit)… so we came up with Hi-Fi and use that to mean everyone.

It seems a little goofy talking about it but using Hi-Fi is a way that people who work with us can identify what they do without actually getting their name on something.  We hope it gives them pride and prestige.  Most people are ok with this idea or just want to work in comics and don’t care about whose name is where.  Some desperately desire to see their name in lights (or print) and don’t want to be a part of Hi-Fi because we won’t list their name.

[Even it we could try and list all the people that work on a book we’d sometimes need an extra page added!  We just had a small crisis here last weekend and had about 30 people working around the clock to fix it, but that’s a story for a later date.]

Our concept of a studio is to allow people who work with us to get a chance to work on top projects relatively early in their career.  Because Hi-Fi has a good reputation and has plenty of work we all benefit.  We will always try to give Hi-Fi credit and, therefore, credit to everyone.

Kristy Miller

VP, Development

Hi-Fi Design