Marvel for the win!!!

I'm a comicbook artist and am all for our rights being honoured but these guys (including Siegel and Shuster i'm afraid to say) all knew what they were signing at the time.The fact that times have changed along with attitudes and the profile of their chartacters means nothing imo.They signed a contract.They were paid.They moved on.Crying in hindsight because you made a mistake and didn't push for all that the property may some day be worth is not the fault of the publisher.
In short,be careful what you sign!

@marvel72 we can only wish it was the movie rights and dude knew what he signed.

I'm a UK pro-musician and a published comic book artist/writer I've also collaborated with top notch writing talent. My first published work was printed in London - without the owners even ASKING to publish it. They made the print from badly copied photo-stats that I'd left with another company at a Comic Convention. I only discovered this when I tried to sell the same work to another comic company. They told me that they had seen it in print before. I threatened to sue - and realized that it wasn't worth it. It would have screwed up any chance of work with other comics. These people have NO respect for the artist/writers on their staff or free-lance. It is all about money. Always was always will be. I'm back in the 'music biz' now. Different sharks. But less of my soul paid. If you're trying to make it in the Comics Industry - watch your backs.

He knew...he just saw the movie and was like "I'm Suing!"

I tried to sue for my creative rights to Howard the Duck but..........

Morale of this story is (if his claim is even remotely true): ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT.

I don't understand why people on here are SO angrily against the creators.

Last I heard, DC doles out checks to creators when their characters are used in cartoons, films, TV shows, etc. Not b/c the law requires them to, but b/c they feel the creator is owed something for that.

It's a real shame, a little ridiculous, that Marvel doesn't feel the same way. But it's more ridiculous that the fans of that character are actually AGAINST the person who created him.

This is true, the lesson is ALWAYS Have an Attorney review a contract before you sign it.

In the 1970's there were no Marvel movies (though they had TV deals) so that thought probably did not cross his mind, versus cashing a check so he could pay his bills at the time. But then again, video Games, Home Video, and other media did not exist then either. So i can his point that how could he have signed away rights to something that didn't exist yet. Marvel simply looked at buying the character in perpetuity and prevailed in court.

That's the legal side, the moral side in my opinion?:

Come up with a standard percent to given to the acknowledged creators of a character in cases like this. Some funds SHOULD (again in my opinion) go to the creators. In this case those are Gary Friedrich, Roy Thomas and Mike Ploog. i do not know if Mr Thomas or Ploog received any compensation but I feel they all should. This can be done as a set rule by Marvel in order to give back to the creators of these characters.

In many cases the corporations such as Marvel make millions off the characters and the creators are broke. That's not a way to treat them.

Yikes. I met Gary Friedrich last year at WizardWorld Chicago, and he looked like he'd seen better days. He was kind enough to sign my autograph album, and after seeing this, I feel sorry for him. I say it's time that a comic book company/creator constitution be drafted to address messes like this and countless others--it's sickening.

(On a lighter note, I wish I'd written his name in print under his signature, cause now I can't tell which is his among these few in my book! Anyone know a signature-deciphering service or website?)

Boo Who! Siegel and Shuster were making the equivalent of more than $1 million a year each from DC ($75,000 back in the forties adjusted for inflation) after selling the rights to Superman to DC after trying to sell them for the prior six years and finding no takers (and even destroying their original creation out of frustration). Then they decided to sue because the character became a big success which no one could have predicted and so DC fired them and then they whined about DC firing them while they continued to sue DC. They ended up broke because they were greedy and spent all their money on lawyers.

Now we got this guy crying about all the money he is missing out because what he thought was actually wrong. I am not saying he is lying about thinking he had retained the movie rights even though at the time there weren't a lot of Superhero movies being made and Marvel didn't think there was much money in them given how cheaply they sold the movie rights to their big characters to various studios. No, I am not calling him a liar who thinks he can cash in now that movies are being made. Still, it just makes me think about how smart George Lucas was to make sure he had the merchandising rights to Star Wars and how the studio gave them up to him because they didn't think they would be that valuable.