Magnificently talented fantasy author/artist Phil Foglio just found out his publisher is bankrupt. The bad news? They're trying to sell his contract to another company at an abysmal rate:

You see, there's the whole tedious business of disengaging ourselves from Night Shade, which has decided to sell our contract to another publisher in order to cover their debts. This other publisher, Skyhorse, is perfectly willing to buy Night Shade's assets (our contracts). However, they will rewrite them and everybody now gets paid a flat 10% of net sales. Let me put this another way; If I was a monkey, I'd be throwing this.

The much better news? Read on:

A certain percentage of Night Shade authors have to agree to this hose job before the deal goes through. Yay! We're safe! You'd have to be an idiot to sign onto this! True– So let's bring out a stick and threaten you! If they don't get enough authors willing to eat this crap, then Night Shade has no choice but to declare Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

I first became aware of as the artist on a bunch of Magic: The Gathering cards. The story of his Girl Genius books' independent success has been inspiring to watch over the years. If you're into the Facebook thing, lend him some support however he asks for it.