Silver Sprocket Creators Release a Public Statement over Concerns including Royalty Payments

It’s been a rough few years for Silver Sprocket. In March 2026, the publisher closed its San Francisco storefront and in 2025 they faced numerous issues including rising debt for the store and publisher and launched a membership drive for support. Now, the Silver Sprocket Artists Collective has released a statement regarding concerns with the business practices of the company.

The collective, made up of 50 artists and writers, is made up of creators who have had their works published by Silver Sprocket and acknowledge its role in many of their careers and the publisher championing unique and diverse comics.

But, with the good, there’s the bad that includes issues “like systemic accounting problems, important financial miscommunications, concerns about treatment of staff, and a general lack of professionalism.”

In their statement, they state those concerns have been dismissed and they feel they have reached an impasse with the publisher leading to the release of the statement.

Issues began to be noticed in 2025 when several artists noticed “inconsistencies in the accounting and payment of royalties.” They attempted to raise the concerns with Silver Sprocket owner Avi Ehrlich and were asked to form a “small working group” to discuss changes and create solutions.

They collective saw it in another way, their requests and concerns were “baseline responsibilities of the publisher” like resolving overdue royalty statements.

As of June 2026, they collective has seen no progress addressing their concerns and a lack of accountability.

The concerns are:

1. Royalty Payments – Silver Sprocket provides a 50/50 net revenue split (profit split) though they see an issue with Silver Sprocket also acting as a retailer resulting in more of a 75/25 revenue split. There’s also questions about the lack of separation between the Silver Sprocket store and Silver Sprocket as a publisher when it comes to business entities.
2. Royalty Statements – Statements are received late along with late payments and include miscalculations.
3. Expenses – Unexpected expenses have been added to statements that reduce potential royalty payments. Examples mentioned are a “marketing bonus,” costs for a second printing, being charged for a flight.
4. Bookkeeping and Accounting – The collective states that Silver Sprocket is inconsistent with their methods of calculating sales data resulting in corrections in reported revenue. There’s a need for a professional bookkeeper to track the complicated expenses/process.
5. Communication – The difficulty in communicating concerns is mentioned including Silver Sprocket leadership speaking “poorly of artists and adjacent members of the comics community” as well as outright lying.
6. Treatment of Sprocket Staff – The Sprocket Artist Collective support the Silver Sprocket staff that have been unfairly let go and those that have left in frustration.

You can read more of what the Sprocket Artist Collective has to say and what they hope is the opening of better communication with the publishing leadership.