I love Stan. I think the arguments and criticism about who created what and who did the work are more than valid, but they were kind of going by an old-world system back then. I understand Kirby and Ditko's fustration, and nobody's a bigger Kirby fan than me. I think Kirby was right to feel the way he did. On the other hand, Stan made us feel like we were all in on the the joke and part of the party, and made those comics fun to read. The stories, the covers, the letter pages, the soap boxes, the merchandising, the whole cornball thing ("Know ye these, the hallowed ranks of Marveldom!") was given with a wink and a grin and the reader couldn't help but feel like he was part of the whole crazy enterprise. Which I guess we were!
-mlp. R.F.O., Q.N.S., and K.O.F. (Keeper of the Flame)
That was the system back then. Writers and artists were work for hire, and that was it. It wasn't until Neal Adams and Jim Steranko came in that things changed; those two had incomes from advertising, book covers, etc. and could stand up to Marvel or DC without worrying about not having work in consequence.
Kirby and Ditko DID contribute a lot to early Marvel, but I had all those issues. In the letter pages and announcements and interviews from that time, Lee always praised them for doing so much. In fact, he was the first editor to give credits on the splash page, something DC was reluctant to do for years.
In a recent interview, Lee (who must be a thousand years old by now) explains that twice he offered the position of Art Director to Jack Kirby, which would have meant an equal salary. But Kirby preferred to remain a free-lancer (which agrees with the impression I have of his independent personality).
Yeah, I think it's easy to forget that Lee himself was pulling a salary back then too. He wasn't calling the shots and he didn't create the system. But, I still understand the grievance. I think it has more to do with the nature of corperations. They could've done more to make it right and should have. They at least made some attempt to make a financial gesture to the guys who created Superman. There were good people that had to fight just for that.
Corporations have no sense of right and wrong. They're like alien intelligences that only care about profit. If we didn't force regulations on big businesses, they'd still be pouring waste into the rivers and working ten-year-olds for pennies a day.
The only comics creators who did well financially were those who were shrewd and tough-minded enough to negotiate terms. (Milton Caniff was smart enough to drop TERRY AND THE PIRATES and start a new character he owned, STEVE CANYON, where he got a decent cut of merchandising and reprint rights.) This was a scary prospect if you had a family and a mortgage and at any provocation Mort Weisinger could just throw you off your assignments and give them to someone else. Freelancing is nerve-wracking at best.
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Neither exhaustion, annoyance, nor the need for sleep shall stop the forward march of mighty Marvel!!! Nuff said.
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On the other hand, Stan made us feel like we were all in on the the joke and part of the party, and made those comics fun to read. The stories, the covers, the letter pages, the soap boxes, the merchandising, the whole cornball thing ("Know ye these, the hallowed ranks of Marveldom!") was given with a wink and a grin and the reader couldn't help but feel like he was part of the whole crazy enterprise. Which I guess we were!
-mlp. R.F.O., Q.N.S., and K.O.F. (Keeper of the Flame)
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Kirby and Ditko DID contribute a lot to early Marvel, but I had all those issues. In the letter pages and announcements and interviews from that time, Lee always praised them for doing so much. In fact, he was the first editor to give credits on the splash page, something DC was reluctant to do for years.
In a recent interview, Lee (who must be a thousand years old by now) explains that twice he offered the position of Art Director to Jack Kirby, which would have meant an equal salary. But Kirby preferred to remain a free-lancer (which agrees with the impression I have of his independent personality).
Reply
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The only comics creators who did well financially were those who were shrewd and tough-minded enough to negotiate terms. (Milton Caniff was smart enough to drop TERRY AND THE PIRATES and start a new character he owned, STEVE CANYON, where he got a decent cut of merchandising and reprint rights.) This was a scary prospect if you had a family and a mortgage and at any provocation Mort Weisinger could just throw you off your assignments and give them to someone else. Freelancing is nerve-wracking at best.
Reply
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