Living With Comics

Artist Vince Aparo showed us the Super Bowl through a comics illustrator's pen.  Patriots vs. Giants!  As a comic fan, I feel like this scenario would turn out much the same way last night's game did.

Chris Mautner wrote about Before Watchmen for Robot 6 and, personally, I think it's the definitive opinion piece on the subject.

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/02/weve-come-so-far-on-before-watchmen-and-creators-rights/

Brandon Graham unearthed this blog entry about creating interesting fantasy backgrounds in comics and animation from Filipino illustrator Floro Dery.  Dery was the designer on Pirates of Dark Water, a cartoon I loved as a child and am seriously considering revisiting after reading this entry.

http://comicsillustration.blogspot.com.au/2007/12/chapter-29-creating-unique-fantasy.html

Here's the link to the "Creator's Bill of Rights" created by various comic book creators in the late-80s, early-90s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creator's_Bill_of_Rights

The CBR was in response to the growing feeling among comics creators that the major comics publishers did not have their best interests at heart.  Many creators, including Jack Kirby, felt that Marvel and DC were exploiting the work they did, and so they banded together to try and do something about it.  The movement led to the creation of imprints like Valiant and Image and the creation of creator-owned titles at major publishers, such as the Vertigo line for DC.

1. The right not to have our work published by publishers turned off by this.
2. The right to full ownership of what we fully create.
3. The right to full control over the creative execution of that which we fully own.
4. The right of approval over the reproduction and format of our creative property.
5. The right of approval over the methods by which our creative property is distributed.
6. The right to free movement of ourselves and our creative property to and from publishers.
7. The right to employ legal counsel in any and all business transactions.
8. The right to offer a proposal to more than one publisher at a time.
9. The right to prompt payment of a fair and equitable share of profits derived from all of our creative work.
10. The right to full and accurate accounting of any and all income and disbursements relative to our work.
11. The right to prompt and complete return of our artwork in its original condition.
12. The right to full control over the licensing of our creative property.
13. The right to promote and the right of approval over any and all promotion of ourselves and our creative property

Interestingly enough, Len Wein, the creator of Swamp Thing and Wolverine, was one of the most vocal proponents of fair rights for creators.  At one point, he and Alan Moore, creator of Watchmen and the man who reinvigorated Wein's Swamp Thing creation in the 80s, were on the same side of this debate.  I wonder what Alan Moore would have to say to Len Wein now that Wein is one of the creators attached to Before Watchmen.