YQII wrote...
The problem with older magazine releases isn't so much the cost but the extra work it creates for our Japanese partners. For every magazine and every month you have 15-25 different artists, and these are artists who might no longer work with Wani and could possibly have severed all ties, might no longer work with h-material at all and want no involvement with it or don't want their material reprinted, or in extreme cases they might not even remain in the country or be alive.
This leaves us with a few options:
1. Don't compensate any artist - while I think this is technically something we could do, we wouldn't want to due to moral/business reasons.
2. Only compensate current collaborators - similar situation.
3. Track down every artist and negotiate with them - a lot of work for our Japanese partners.
I don't mean to shut down the conversation. Feel free to carry on, but keep in mind that money is not the biggest hurdle when it comes to old magazines.
This said, the saddest thing about the H industry is there is little to no news at all about the artists (at least for us overseas readers). Unless you work for/with the publisher or such, you will never know what's going on behind the scenes, or what unfortunate things have happened to the creators of your favorite hentais. Truly a sacrifice being a H artist comparing to a normal Manga/LN one. :(