Re: Zenith Reprints?

[Byron Virgo]

I think that's pretty harsh. I mean, imagine that you had spent years creating all these great characters, and then after they apeared in print your publishers said they owned them. You'd be screwing, and rightly so. No other artistic industry in the world operates under these work for hire practices, other than the comics industry. Look at the number ofpeople who were made penniless from having to work under these conditions, whilst the characters they created prospered and made their publishers millions: Kirby, Ditko, et al. In most industries, the author(s) always see some percentage of the total net or gross returns from their work, and have the right of intellectual property, unless they chose to opt out for a flat fee. If you'd written a book and the publisher claimed it was his intellectual property, you'd not only be mad, but you'd be in the legal right to take it back.

Of course, I'm not having a pop at Rebellion: I'm well aware of the state of the publishing industry, particularly in Briatain, that it wouldn't really be possible to pay and deveop ownership in the same way. Likewiser, I accept that Morrison must have known what the deal was when he accepted the comission from IPC. Those were the standard rules, and there's no way he didn't know it. Nevertheless, I can understand his annoyance with not owning the character and lack of consultation with the Titan reprint, whilst perhaps admitting that his methods leave a little to be desired (plus, although he didn't actually invent the characters, I think Steve Yeowell should recieve some recognition too, as well as Brendan McCarthy for doing the original design for Zenith).

There may be a veiled hint to the contractual problems in Morrison and Yeowell's contributuion to the 'Thargs Head Revisited'-type strip that appeared in prog 1280 for the 25th anniversary.

[Byron Virgo]

Why does this keep happening?

This is very strange.

[Mr D]

it's if you post on a blank page two I believe.