PAT MILLS ASKS SHOULD CHARACTERS DIE WITH THEIR CREATORS?

[Art]

On the multiverse they are one and the same.

[Jim_Campbell]

I ask: should creators die with their characters...?

[Funt Solo]

Wouldn't be much left of Pat after all the times the ABC Warriors have been scrapped and hammered back together. Probably best to let them live.

[The Legendary Shark]

I ask: should creators die with their characters...?

Well, I do. Regularly.

(This "joke" would work much better if I was a stand-up...)

[Richard]

Well we still have Batman and Superman. Why should British characters be any different?

[Leigh S]

We dont have the Batman or Superman of 70 years ago though.  We might have a version of Dredd in the 30 years, but will he be the Dredd we have seen remain (mostly) consistent?

[Richard]

Would Pat Mills be mollified if someone did a very different version of ABC Warriors?

[sheridan]

Would Pat Mills be mollified if someone did a very different version of ABC Warriors?

Let me think for a moment...

[milstar]

A bit late to the party, but imo, if for example, John Wagner tomorrow drops dead (natural or unnatural causes), do I think that Dredd would also stop publishing? That he'll meet his demise, briefly mentioned in a Strontium Dog strip? I don't think so. Like Richard here said, Batman and Superman (and many others) continued for decades, why should British comics or any comics be different? The core ideas of these characters are practically the same.

[The Legendary Shark]

Given that Beowulf and Achilles are still cropping up I reckon that good characters never die.

[TordelBack]

Why should British characters be any different?

There was a time that we said their finite, linear nature was what made them special. Obviously a young man's (or a Kurgan's) conceit, but there was something to it.

I'd happily (not) read CyberLiefield & GregLandClone-37's Age of Strontium summer crossover event of 2050  if I thought it came with the approval and remuneration of the Wagner & Ezquerra estates. And in the highly unlikely event I was alive to (not) see it.

It's not actually about the mortality of creators or creations, it's about the control of creators over their creations: the right to say "nope", or just "pay me". Why do Tolkien's grandkids get creative oversight and a quarter-billion from Amazon,  while John Smith's characters - characters and settings that only Smith could ever have created - rumble on in a grim half-life? 

The only sane answer is "it's a totally different business in a very different time". Well yeah,  but does that make it right?  And purely selfishly, does it make for good stories? Or incentive to create new ones?

No-one is saying Pat's utterances aren't one-sided, abrasive or contradictory*, or that he's frequently egged-on by self-interested or ignorant parties, or even that he's made a decent living that younger creators can hardly dream of from the existing system, if not quite the solid gold house and the rocket car**. But improved creator rights benefit us all (caveats apply), and he's a highly visible and vocal source of pressure in that.direction.

Plus, he wrote Nemesis, Sláine and Defoe, so, y'know.


*Traits that infuse his writing and editorial style.
** Simpsons reference that alludes to the risks of this position.

[Woolly]

Would Pat Mills be mollified if someone did a very different version of ABC Warriors?

I think if you swapped the robots for, say, cowboys, and set in on Earth instead of Mars, maybe change it to a period setting instead of a sci-fi.... The Magnificent Seven anyone?

[The Legendary Shark]

A man made of X-rays, a Yankee trader, and a Zulu shaman go to war...

[The Corinthian]

Would Pat Mills be mollified if someone did a very different version of ABC Warriors?

I think if you swapped the robots for, say, cowboys, and set in on Earth instead of Mars, maybe change it to a period setting instead of a sci-fi.... The Magnificent Seven anyone?

I'd set it in 16th century Japan myself.

[GordonR]

Would Pat Mills be mollified if someone did a very different version of ABC Warriors?

Coming soon: Rory McConville's XYZ Guardians.