Quote of the day | Stan Lee on character ownership, creator rights

Quote of the day | Stan Lee on character ownership, creator rights

'I've never been one of these people who worries about [that]. I should have been. I'd be wealthy now, if I had been. I always felt the publisher was the guy investing all his money, and I was working for the publisher, and whatever I did belonged to him. That was the way it was. And I was always treated well, I got a good salary. I was not a businessman. Now, a guy like Bob Kane, who did Batman ' the minute he did Batman, he said, 'I wanna own it,' and signed a contract with DC. So he became reasonably wealthy. He was the only one who was smart enough to do that. [...]  I haven't had reason to think about it that much. I think, if somebody creates something, and it becomes highly successful, whoever is reaping the rewards should let the person [who] created it share in it, certainly. But so much of it is ' it goes beyond creating. A lot of people put something together, and nobody really knows who created it, they're just working on it, y'know? But little by little, the artists and the writers now are a different breed than they were, and most of them, if they create anything new, they insist that they be part owners of it. Because they know what happened to Siegel and Shuster, and to me, and to people like that. I don't think it's a problem anymore. They make much more money than they used to make, when I was there. Proportionately. Everybody thought that I was the only one that was getting paid off, but I never received any royalties from the characters. I made a good living, because I was the editor, the art director, and the head writer. So I got a nice salary. That was all I got. I was a salaried guy. But it was a good salary. And I was happy.'

' Stan Lee, in a wonderful profile at Grantland, responding to a question about character ownership

• May 11, 2012 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
• Tagged: Bob Kane, comic books, comics creators, comics industry, creators rights, jerry siegel, Joe Shuster, Marvel, quote of the day, Stan Lee

2 Comments

Did you know that DC also has a verbose yes-man who makes excuses for a company that ripped off innumerable creators? His name is Grant Morrison.

Oh, Stan. If only the rest of the industry was as straightforward and optimistic as this quote.

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