Creator ownership

Creator ownership is an arrangement in which the creator or creators of a work of fiction retain full ownership of the material, regardless of whether it is self-published or published by a corporate publisher. In some fields of publishing, such as fiction writing, creator ownership is a standard arrangement. In other fields — such as comic books, recorded music, or motion pictures — creator ownership has traditionally been uncommon, with either work for hire or publisher purchase of the material being standard practice.

Comic books

Origins

Most successful American comics have been traditionally either sold to their publishers before publication, or produced as work for hire. Consequently, creator's rights have long been a source of conflict, going back to the industry's late 1930s origins. Creator-owned titles began to appear during the late-1960s underground comix movement, and in the superhero genre with the mid-1970s creation of the short-lived company Atlas/Seaboard Comics.

Neal Adams and the Comics Creators Guild

During the 1970s, superstar artist Neal Adams was politically active in the industry, and attempted to unionize its creative community. In 1978, Adams attempted to form the Comics Creators Guild, with a contentious meeting in May attended by Cary Bates, Howard Chaykin, Chris Claremont, Steve Ditko, Michael Golden, Archie Goodwin, Paul Levitz, Bob McLeod, Frank Miller, Carl Potts, Marshall Rogers, Jim Shooter, Walt Simonson, Jim Starlin, Len Wein, and Marv Wolfman. The effort failed to get off the ground.

In addition, Adams, along with the Joker creator Jerry Robinson, notably and vocally helped lead the lobbying efforts that resulted in Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster receiving decades-overdue credit and some financial remuneration from Superman publisher DC Comics.

Marvel's mixed legacy

Marvel Comics had a mixed history of responding to the issue of creator's rights. In 1978, Marvel and Howard the Duck writer Steve Gerber clashed over issues of creative control, and Gerber was abruptly removed from the series. This was the first highly publicized creator's rights case in American comics, and attracted support from major industry figures. Gerber subsequently launched a lengthy legal battle for control of Howard the Duck, culminating in a 1981 lawsuit.

In contrast, in 1980 Marvel created the mature readers anthology Epic Illustrated, offering its writers and artists ownership rights and royalties in place of the industry-standard work for hire contracts. The success of Epic Illustrated led to the 1982 formation of the long-running imprint Epic Comics, which specialized in creator-owned titles.

Around this same period, however, industry legend Jack Kirby, co-creator of many of Marvel's most popular characters, came into dispute with the company over the disappearance of original pages of artwork from some of his most famous and popular titles. (Kirby had quit working for Marvel in 1979, angry over what he perceived as the company's mistreatment of him.) Best-selling creators like Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and many other stars became vocal advocates for Kirby. Neal Adams also petitioned to have his Marvel originals returned, and the pair won their battle in 1987, when Marvel returned original artwork to him and Kirby, among others. This decision helped lead to the modern industry's standard practice of returning original artwork to the artist, who can earn additional income from art sales to collectors.

Self-publishing

The late 1970s saw some creators take advantage of the then-new direct market distribution system for comics to self-publish their work. Dave Sim's Cerebus and Wendy and Richard Pini's ElfQuest were prominent examples of this approach. Self-publishers Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created and self-published the wildly popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles beginning in 1984.

Rise of the independents

Beginning in the 1980s, several new publishers and imprints went into business, offering comics writers and artists the opportunity to have their work published while retaining the copyrights to the characters and the stories. Publishers like Pacific Comics and Eclipse Comics were strong promoters of creator-owned superhero properties; their enticement of popular creators (such as Kirby) to their pages helped push the issue to the fore and put pressure on industry giants Marvel and DC. The alternative and independent publishers Fantagraphics and Dark Horse Comics entered the field during this period as well. Creator-owned properties allowed series to continue with multiple publishers as circumstances required; Usagi Yojimbo for instance has been published by four succeeding publishing houses.

In the mid-to-late 1980s, creator ownership became a cause célèbre among many comics creators, including those working in the dominant genre of superheroes. Creators' repeated clashes with DC Comics, First Comics, and other publishers led to an industry-wide debate about the issue; and in the fall of 1988, DC revised the company's work-for-hire agreements to give more power to individual creators.

British comics and Alan Moore

Writer Alan Moore became increasingly concerned at the lack of creator's rights in British comics. In 1985, he noted that he had stopped working for all British publishers except IPC, publishers of 2000 AD, "purely for the reason that IPC so far have avoided lying to me, cheating me or generally treating me like shit." He joined other creators in decrying the wholesale relinquishing of all rights, and in 1986 stopped writing for 2000 AD as well. Moore's outspoken opinions and principles, particularly on the subject of creator's rights and ownership, would see him burn bridges with a number of other publishers over the course of his career.

Creator's Bill of Rights

Main article: Creator's Bill of Rights

In November 1988 a number of independent comic book artists and writers drafted the Creator's Bill of Rights, a document designed to protect their rights as creators and aid against their exploitation by corporate work for hire practices. Issues covered by the Bill included giving creators proper credit for their characters and stories, profit-sharing, distribution, fair contracts, licensing, and return of original artwork. Through a series of meetings, a document was finalized at the "Northampton Summit," held in Northampton, Massachusetts, and signed by all in attendance. Scott McCloud was the principal author of the Bill; other artists and writers participating in the Bill's creation included Dave Sim, Steve Bissette, Larry Marder, Rick Veitch, Peter Laird, and Kevin Eastman.

Industry changes

In 1989, DC created the Piranha Press imprint, which featured creator-owned alternative titles. Piranha published a modest collection of original series and graphic novels until going defunct in 1994.

In 1990, Creator's Bill of Rights signatory Kevin Eastman founded the creator-friendly Tundra Publishing to embody the ideals of the Bill from a publishers' standpoint. As part of the initial group who "got together to form the" Bill, Eastman felt obligated to expand it beyond theory and into practice, providing a creator-friendly forum for comics creators to work for a publisher while maintaining ownership of their work. Tundra went bankrupt in 1993.

In 1992 a number of popular Marvel artists formed their own company, Image Comics, which would serve as a prominent example of creator-owned comics publishing. Propelled by star power and upset that they did not own the popular characters they created for Marvel, several illustrators, including the X-Men’s Jim Lee, The New Mutants/X-Force’s Rob Liefeld, and Spider-Man’s Todd McFarlane formed Image, an umbrella label under which several autonomous, creator-owned companies existed. Image properties, such as WildC.A.T.s, Gen¹³, Witchblade and especially McFarlane’s Spawn provided brisk competition for long-standing superheroes. Many popular creators followed Image's lead and attempted to use their star power to launch their own series; ones for which they would have licensing rights and editorial control. Chris Claremont, famous for his long run as the writer of Uncanny X-Men, created Sovereign Seven for DC; Joe Madureira, also made popular by Uncanny X-Men, launched Battle Chasers for WildStorm Productions; and Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, and Brent Anderson created Astro City for Image.

DC's Vertigo imprint, launched in 1993, was the company's first successful attempt to routinely publish creator-owned series (right from its launch with Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo's Enigma). From the start, Vertigo founding editor Karen Berger was committed to creator-owned projects, working on several "[her]self with new writers and artists" as well as established names, with the express intention of "trying to bring new people into the industry, as well as use some of the best creators in comics." In addition to creator-owned series set in their own continuity, such as Enigma and Fallen Angel, DC published several creator-owned series, such as Sovereign Seven and Xero, that were set within the DC Universe.

In 1994, Dark Horse Comics founded the Legend imprint in part to provide star creators like Frank Miller and John Byrne an avenue for creator-owned projects.

Pros and cons of creator ownership

The financial advantages and disadvantages of creator ownership vary. Popular writer Peter David has frequently pointed out that his creator-owned works have sold a small fraction of the series he writes featuring popular publisher-owned characters as work-for-hire. In contrast, artist Marc Silvestri has asserted that a creator can make more money compared to working with company-owned characters, arguing "If money is in the equation, and everybody likes that, the money doesn't come from the number of the sales, it comes from the amount you get from those sales."

See also

• Creator's Bill of Rights
• Self-publishing

Further reading

• Groth, Gary. "Editorial: Creator's Rights: The Latest Panacea," The Comics Journal #87 (Dec. 1983), pp. 6–8.
• The Comics Journal #121 (April 1985) — special issue on creator's rights and DC Comics:
  • Friedrich, Mike. "Ownerous Differences," p. 21.
  • Grant, Steven. "What Dick Said," p. 24.
  • Slifer, Roger. "Screwed by DC," p. 25.
  • McEnroe, Richard S. "Lies, Damned Lies, & Dick Giordano," pp. 25–27.
  • McEnroe, Richard S. "Copyrights & Consequences," pp. 41–44.
  • McEnroe, Richard S. "Packaging: Work-For-Hire in the Real Publishing Industry," p. 44.
• The Comics Journal #137 (Sept. 1990) — special coverage of the Creator's Bill of Rights, including the full text of the Bill:
  • "Creator's Rights," pp. 65–71.
  • "What Are Creators' Rights?," pp. 66–71.
  • Groth, Gary. "Steven Bissette and Scott McCloud," pp. 72–92.
  • Groth, Gary. "Creator vs. Corporate Ownership," pp. 101–106: on "creators' rights," Mark Askwith, Steve Bissette, Steve Saffel, and Bill Sienkiewicz.
• "Alan Moore Refuses Marvel Permission to Reprint Dr. Who Work," The Comics Journal #102 (Sept. 1985), p. 19.
• "The Work-Made-For-Hire Contract, a Legal Definition," The Comics Journal #104 (Jan. 1986), p. 11.
• "Comics Contracts: What the Various Companies Offer," The Comics Journal #113 (Dec. 1986), pp. 19–232.
• "UK Creator Rights Panel Argues the Kirby-Marvel Dispute," The Comics Journal #114 (Feb. 1987), pp. 23–24.
• Plowright, Frank. "And As Ye Reap Shall Ye Sow," The Comics Journal #122 (June 1988), p. 11: Editorial on British comics and creators' rights.
• "What the Copyright Law Says," The Comics Journal #130 (July 1989), p. 12.
• "Creator's Rights in the Real World," The Comics Journal #139 (Dec. 1990), pp. 110–114.
• Berntsen, Christian and Relkin, Richard. "Cultural Corner," Comic Culture vol. 1, # 3 (Jan./Feb. 1993), pp. 16–17: on creators' rights; includes text (draft) of "A Bill of Rights for Comic Creators."
• Rodi, Rob. "Blood & Thunder: Rights and Reason," The Comics Journal #171 (Sept. 1994), pp. 2, 6.
• Mescallado, Ray. "Fanboi Politik: Creator's Rights in the Mainstream," The Comics Journal #215 (Aug. 1999), pp. 119–120.