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Comic Fans Turn on Creator’s Rights
Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 2:28 pm by Jami
Occasional Superheroine expressed a measure of surprise at the fan backlash to a federal court ruling that entitles the heirs of Jerry Siegel to a share of the domestic rights to Superman. The ruling leaves Warner Brothers the international rights to big blue. Superman was created by Jery Siegel and Joe Shuster in the 1930’s who sold the rights to the character to DC for $130. Shuster apparently left no heir so the court ruling would be between the Siegel heirs and DC Comics.
I always believed that as a comic geek, I was supposed to be firmly anti-”The Man.” Whenever someone was able to stick it to said Man, as a comic geek, I was always under the impression that I was to cheer loudly. Apparently not. A quick peek at the dreaded Newsarama boards indicates otherwise. I’m just as surprised as Val is about the backlash.
From a cursory glance, and that’s probably all one can stomach, Newsaramite outcry is hinged on the notion that the ruling means an end to Superman, not in the Doomsday “I-punch-you-til-you-die-in-the-streets-of-Metropolis-but-not-really” kind of end, and that DC comics is somehow being victimized. Clearly, few of these Newsaramites have ever worked in the comic industry. This is a historic moment for creators’ rights in a completely unregulated industry whose workers are continually exploited. Workers in other entertainment industries have unions to fight for higher wages, work protection, residuals. People who work in comics have Jack Squat. And comic companies exploit writers and artists on general practice. Let’s not get it twisted. DC is not the victim.
This could lead to a new era in creator’s rights. My hope is that the big two get the message and offer up bigger pieces of the pie as a preemptive measure against future lawsuits by creators or their heirs.
On a completely different note, check out the date on Action Comics #1. I’m not up on copyright laws, but isn’t the Superman copyright running out pretty soon anyway? Or has that been completely rewritten? I always thought that after seventy years, the work becomes public domain. It’d be really interesting to see what kind of weird stuff people would create with a public domain Superman. Bollywood Superman 2 is a no brainer. Maybe even a tokusatsu version of Supes! So dear readers, what would you do with a public domain Superman?
[Via Occasional Superheroine]
