A circle around Pat Mills' characters

[Art]

So.. how many house characters are there not created by Wagner or GFD?

[DavidXBrunt]

I've been thinking about this and all I can come up with is Burt but I don't think that really counts.

[Dudley]

Skizz?
DR & Quinch?

[DavidXBrunt]

But the thing with both those is that the creating artist was involved in the continuation of them, it's not like Spurrier and Roberts wrote new adventures of D.R. and Quinch or Dabnett and Elson collaborated on Skizz is it?

Though they'd both probably be a lot of fun.

[Dudley]

Spurrier & Roberts on D.R. & Quinch?  GOLD!

OK, I take your point, but it does mean that the writer has given up rights in the character (Moore's never allowed Ian Gibson to proceed with Halo Jones IV, has he?), and that weakens the claim to any one team having exclusive rights.

Bill Savage.

[DavidXBrunt]

That's a very good point, and Savage remains an interesting one because it wasn't just Gerry that wrote him, he also cropped up in Armoured Gideon, didn't he?

[Dudley]

As did Harry Angel and Shako - both series that I'd like to see done over by Gordon Rennie.

MACH Zero turned up there too, but unless Al Ewing at his most manic were writing it i wouldn't want to see the results.

[Matt Timson]

"Moore's never allowed Ian Gibson to proceed with Halo Jones IV, has he?"

I'm probably wrong, but I don't think that's the reason.  Anybody know for sure?

[Dudley]

Brigand Doom
Armoured Gideon

According to the...

Link: http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=prog&page=specials&choice=SCIFI92" target="_blank">1992 Sci-Fi Special

[Leigh S]

Alan Moore is an interesting element in all this -his characters have been unofficially ring fenced, so why shouldn't Pat as the creator of the comic, not be afforded the same courtesy?

[Satanist]

Zenith??? As reprints rights are fought what would the position be if(god forbid)someone else were to write some more?

[Quirkafleeg]

>what would the position be if(god forbid)someone else were to write some more?

Morrison would turn them into a frog.

[Funt Solo]

I'm still interested in the artist angle of the debate.

Whilst I'm hugely ignorant of the ins and outs of the situation, it would appear, purely at face value, as if writers have more control over characters than the artists that bring them to life.  Or do artists just care less?

[Jim_Campbell]

"Alan Moore is an interesting element in all this -his characters have been unofficially ring fenced,"

Have they? Didn't seem to stop Jim Baikie doing more Skizz? Jamie Delano also wrote the DR & Quinch problem page. I think the issue with Moore's stuff is that more that it would be pointless getting someone else to do it (as ably demonstrated by the Baikie books of Skizz).

"so why shouldn't Pat as the creator of the comic, not be afforded the same courtesy?"

And, as I have said, if Pat is to be afforded that courtesy then why not his co-creators? At which point the comic becomes untenable.

It's this simple: I've costed launching a 2000AD style magazine in the last few years. If you don't want to surrender your rights to material you've created, don't do work-for-hire. Raise at least ?500,000 of your own money and launch your own magazine.

If you would like some other poor schmuck to take all the risks, invest all the capital and do all the donkey work of editorial and distribution, then don't bleat and moan if they expect to be able to exploit the material that they have PAID you to create.

Bah. Rant over.

Jim

[Leigh S]

Thats all very well and applicable if you are arguing (like Morrison or Moore) that you have a moral right to the characters and are refusing to work on them.  

But Pats position is quite different - he accepts (grudgingly or no) that that is the situation and is quite happy to work on the characters he created and create more under the same conditions - all he seems to asks is that he gets the chance to write the characters he came up with, which i think is a perfectly understandable position to be in.  

I personally agree with your point Jim, - publishers take the risks after all - but thats not what Pats about as far as i can see