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Rebellion and Rights to Eagle Strips

Started by SmallBlueThing(Reborn), 11 September, 2020, 12:19:09 PM

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SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

Help needed with a clarification fellas. I'm a huge fan of the strip RAT TRAP, that originally ran in COR!! in the issues dated 29th July 1972 (#113) to 15th June 1974 (#211)* and live in permanent hope that Rebellion will print them- either as Meg floppies, Webshop exclusives like Janus Stark or trades/ hardbacks.

My love of this strip is down to a particularly vivid nightmare I had (presumably during the original run) in which Dr Rat came into my bedroom and blew a raspberry at me. My dad completely failed to subdue his traumatised son, mistaking my no doubt garbled explanation for night time terrified screaming as accusations our house was infested with vermin. I've never forgotten that dream, or the sense of utter terror and have deeply loved the strip ever since.

Rat Trap got a revamp with a new series running in the Eagle from 21st Oct 1989 (#396) to 21st April 1990 (#422) and therein lies the problem.

Does that mean that Rat Trap- in either incarnation- is off limits to Rebellion, and owned by the Dan Dare Corporation? Charley's War was reprinted in Eagle and that has seen various subsequent prints. Do I need to expect Dr Ratty Rat to languish in unpublished obscurity, or can I look forward to a possible volume on my increasingly crowded shelves?

Cheers

SBT

*with teasers in #111 and #112

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 11 September, 2020, 12:19:09 PM
Does that mean that Rat Trap- in either incarnation- is off limits to Rebellion

Given that he popped up briefly in the 2018 Misty & Scream special, I suspect not...  :)

Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Professor Bear

As I understand it from others more versed in the minutiae than myself and who have publicly made statements about it (Lew Stringer and John Freeman have covered the subject on their respective blogs as they have personal stakes in some of the material), if it began life in one of the publications Rebellion now owns, it belongs to Rebellion even if original material was later created for the New Eagle - see also: Death Wish, Charley's War, Monster, The Thirteenth Floor, One-Eyed Jack, etc.
We've already seen reprints of the Monster and Thirteenth Floor material from the New Eagle, so I'd say Rebellion own it outright, though I'd like to think there's some financial comp to DDC for the New Eagle material.

Richard

Why can't the Dan Dare Corporation just keep Dan Dare and sell everything else? It's not as if they're doing anything with Doomlord and Bloodfang.

broodblik

Quote from: Richard on 11 September, 2020, 01:34:02 PM
Why can't the Dan Dare Corporation just keep Dan Dare and sell everything else? It's not as if they're doing anything with Doomlord and Bloodfang.

Yes, I wish they would. They are not even doing anything with Dan Dare.
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

Not sure how I missed him in the special, and thanks. I must have reading with my eyes closed.
And yes, while I have bugger all interest in Dan Dare in any of his incarnations- beyond a vague nostalgia for the early New Eagle strips- Doomlord is so deserving of a massive hardback (and a relaunch in the prog or Regened, with modern photo strips designed by Clint Langley) it hurts that they arent available.

SBT

Professor Bear

Quote from: Richard on 11 September, 2020, 01:34:02 PM
Why can't the Dan Dare Corporation just keep Dan Dare and sell everything else? It's not as if they're doing anything with Doomlord and Bloodfang.

I'm just guessing, but Dan Dare stories often started on the covers of Eagle and continued inside, so to fully own all the Dan Dare story pages, DDC would have had to buy the rights to the Eagle logo and any characters that appeared on montage covers alongside Dare, so they may not be doing anything with them, but they still need to retain ownership to do anything with the pages they share with Dan Dare.  I gather from comments from those who've had direct dealings with them that DDC - a husband and wife team - are at best ambivalent towards the other Eagle characters, and don't want to dilute their business model.

It's a damn shame, as one of my all-time fave artists, Jose Ortiz, was pretty much a permanent fixture in the New Eagle for about 7 years on various strips, and we'll never see collections of that work - or Alan Hebden, Carlos Ezquerra and Mike Dorey's Comrade Bronski, which admittedly wasn't the greatest strip ever, but if you don't want to own a graphic novel that answers the question "what would Dirty Harry be like if he looked like a member of the Human League, drove everywhere in a dune buggy, and fought the KGB in Cold War-era Moscow?", then buddy, you and I are very different people.

The Amstor Computer

Quote from: Professor Bear on 11 September, 2020, 03:22:45 PM
It's a damn shame, as one of my all-time fave artists, Jose Ortiz, was pretty much a permanent fixture in the New Eagle for about 7 years on various strips, and we'll never see collections of that work - or Alan Hebden, Carlos Ezquerra and Mike Dorey's Comrade Bronski, which admittedly wasn't the greatest strip ever, but if you don't want to own a graphic novel that answers the question "what would Dirty Harry be like if he looked like a member of the Human League, drove everywhere in a dune buggy, and fought the KGB in Cold War-era Moscow?", then buddy, you and I are very different people.

Both The Tower King and House of Daemon were collected by Hibernia (Tower King even got a limited second printing) and we managed to squeeze a bit of Comrade Bronski into the Eagle Adventure Special a few years back  :) That other New Eagle stuff hasn't appeared yet is very much not down to lack of interest in reprinting it (or a lack of interest from potential readers).

It's a real shame, as there are some gems in New Eagle aside from the extended run Ian Kennedy had on Dare - the aforementioned Doomlord and Bloodfang, but even stuff like Manix (particularly the Hitler storyline) is good, pulpy fun and would be worth collecting.

broodblik

I can remember Manix. I enjoyed at the time and for me the art was quite good as well. Would like a collection with Doomlord and Bloodfang
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Woolly

I want to say "DDC should just sell the rights to Doomlord and be done with it", but I can't back that up with anything even close to actual financial advice!

Would it be in their interests to do so? I'm hoping a better informed squaxx can answer this one!

IndigoPrime

Depends whether they think they're sitting on a goldmine, and also whether any potential buyer wants to spend a great deal of cash on a property that's very niche.

If nothing else, this does make me happy Rebellion owns so much, because they don't just sit on the material — they do something with it. (Rumours were Titan wanted the stuff Rebellion bought. I shudder at the thought.)

Richard

If DDC sold the rights to the non-Dare strips, the contract could include a clause that allows them to print Eagle covers with non-Dare characters on them.

Colin YNWA

I still dream of a hardcover Complete Doomlord collection. Maybe one day, one day.

Since learning about Bloodfang (its got Jim Baikie art if I recall right???) I'm mad keen on getting that too.

Damn you Dan Dare Corporation!

Professor Bear

Quote from: The Amstor Computer on 11 September, 2020, 03:52:41 PMBoth The Tower King and House of Daemon were collected by Hibernia (Tower King even got a limited second printing) and we managed to squeeze a bit of Comrade Bronski into the Eagle Adventure Special a few years back  :) That other New Eagle stuff hasn't appeared yet is very much not down to lack of interest in reprinting it (or a lack of interest from potential readers).

Reprint The Fifth Horseman, you cowards.

I have the Tower King, House of Daemon and both Thirteenth Floor collections from Hibernia, and am currently waiting for the Kid Cops book I know is definitely in the works.

The Amstor Computer

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 11 September, 2020, 06:04:38 PM
I still dream of a hardcover Complete Doomlord collection. Maybe one day, one day.

Since learning about Bloodfang (its got Jim Baikie art if I recall right???) I'm mad keen on getting that too.

Damn you Dan Dare Corporation!

First Bloodfang was all Baikie, and it's lovely (if now palaeontologically-incorrect) work, and one of my favourite Baikie-illustrated strips. Second, more Flesh-inspired, Bloodfang was Carlos Cruz IIRC.

Quote from: Professor Bear on 11 September, 2020, 06:10:39 PMReprint The Fifth Horseman, you cowards.

I have the Tower King, House of Daemon and both Thirteenth Floor collections from Hibernia, and am currently waiting for the Kid Cops book I know is definitely in the works.

Would love to work on The Fifth Horseman (or Bloodfang, or the Doomlord photo-strips, or a couple of other things I scanned hoping that the DDC might be amenable) - maybe one day...

Also: Kid Cops? Only after a deluxe hardback edition of Saddle Tramp!