Rebellion and Rights to Eagle Strips

[broodblik]

The pity for my is that their is a few of the New Eagle strips I would like to get a reprint on: Doomlord, Bloodfang and naturally Dan Dare

[nxylas]

I checked on the Downthetubes "who owns what" page, and it looks like it is only Doomlord that is disputed. Apparently, John and Alan challenged "The Dan Dare Corporation" to prove that he owned the rights to Doomlord, and he was unable to do so, which makes any reprint unlikely for the foreseeable future.

[Steve Green]

Hibernia already reprinted some of it, I'm not sure if that was before John challenged DDC over it though.

Not the Photo-strips though, I vaguely remember something about model release forms could be an issue (not necessarily for Doomlord but in general)

Or reproducing them was more of a headache/questionable popularity than the drawn strips?

[IndigoPrime]

DDC certainly claims rights. Years ago, I wanted to write a Computer Warriors piece for Retro Gamer. I have a (short) interview with Alan Grant about that somewhere. (At the time, I couldn't get in touch with John Wagner.) My plan was to bulk that out with explanations of some of the stories, which would compare them against the game – and that would mean twinning screen grabs and some artwork. DDC did (eventually) give me the go-ahead to do so, although it did very much seem to be down to who at the time the email landed with.

(A pity that article never went anywhere. I spent quite a bit of time working on bits of it, but it never came together, because I couldn't secure the comics for scanning, and I really felt like I needed a bit of Wagner in the mix too. Oh well.)

[The Monarch]

another strip i would love to see reprinted but i bet thats even more of a legal ballache considering the amount of owners of the original games you would need to deal with as well as the ddc

[IndigoPrime]

Yeah. Computer Warrior would be a nightmare now. Even though the games were mostly published by a smallish number of companies (mostly US Gold), the rights for those now would be all over the shop. Not least given that a number of them were arcade conversions owned by companies like Capcom and Sega. And some were film licenses (Ghostbusters; Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) to further complicate matters.

[karlos]

I asked Pat Mills years ago (because that's how I roll) about reprints of his New Eagle Dan Dare stuff.  Wish I could remember his exact wording but it was basically "it's not happening". I still live in hope, though.

Put me down as someone else who'd love to see The Computer Warrior get a reprint, though.  It was batshit and I loved it.

[Richard]

Not the Photo-strips though, I vaguely remember something about model release forms could be an issue (not necessarily for Doomlord but in general)

Really? The stories already been published, do you need to get a new model release form every time?

I love the stories Pat Mills was writing for 2000AD in the 80s, but his work on Dan Dare for the new Eagle was, to put it as kindly as possible, not his best. I can live without it being reprinted.

Would be great if Doomlord and Bloodfang could get another outing thought, they're brilliant. I say publish and be damned! (It worked for Zenith.)

[nxylas]

I love the stories Pat Mills was writing for 2000AD in the 80s, but his work on Dan Dare for the new Eagle was, to put it as kindly as possible, not his best. I can live without it being reprinted.

I don't know how much of it was really his work. It was adapted from a film treatment by him and John Wagner, and their names appear on the credits, but I know that at least the first episode was actually scripted by Barrie Tomlinson.

[Jim_Campbell]

do you need to get a new model release form every time?

If the contract existed with a company that's no longer a legal entity, or no longer the holder of the rights to the material, then it's possible that the contract itself might be void. Obviously, I'm not a lawyer, but if there's even a question mark on that score, given the very limited audience for this material, I could see why any potential publisher would give it a miss.

No one wants to get tied up in a legal mess over material that's never going to yield more than a marginal profit, at best...

EDIT TO ADD: Also, IPC/Fleetway were pretty rubbish about issuing contract/release forms to dot the 'T's and cross the 'I's on this stuff. See: the Zenith/Hilary Robinson messes.

(Also, not a high value property, and neither Kev nor I would ever make a fuss about it, but we were told '"The Inspectre" is a Dredd series so you don't own the rights to it.' I'm not sure that would stand up in court without a piece of paper with our signatures on the bottom. Like I said, their legal department was pretty rubbish—Games Workshop certainly made sure we'd signed over our rights on penalty of the forfeiture of our immortal souls.)

[Steve Green]

My memory on this is hazy, maybe it's along the lines that the contract was for Eagle itself, but not any collected editions.

I can't remember where I read it I'm afraid, might have been facebook, might have been an article, or it might have been cobblers.

They're just a bit of a curiosity for the most part I guess.

[M.I.K.]

RE: Doomlord photo strips...

You could always get someone to redraw them.