What an interesting development. The Jerry Siegel estate won one of their legal battles with DC Comics over the rights to Action Comics #1. The material had been created before they got to Detective Comics, Inc. and has been found to be exempt from their work for hire agreement.
Mike Gold explains how this means there will likely be a settlement, but in the meantime DC and Siegel's estates are co-owners of the copyright of a small portion of the Superman mythos: his name, the cape, costume and "S" symbol, rocketing to Earth from the dying planet Krypton, super strength and invulnerability. Not included are many of the elements added long after that first issue, like flying, x-ray vision, heat vision, the Fortress of Solitude, his boss Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, Lex Luthor, The Legion of Superheroes, Bizarro, kryptonite and much much more.
It's fun to fantasize about what new Superman stories would be like if published today by an independent comic book publisher like ComicMix, but that's not likely to happen. As Mike explains, these are only the domestic rights and they would still be co-owned by DC. Smaller publishers don't have the muscle to do the licensing and distribution deal for a quarter of a million dollar movie.
Oh well.
Maybe we can focus our efforts on getting Batman or Spider-Man on ComicMix?
GrimJack
EZ Street
Jon Sable, Freelance
Add a Comment
Inappropriate or promotional comments may be removed. To create a clickable link, simply type the URL (including http://) and we will make a link for you. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br> tags, but if you're into that kind of thing, you can use any of the following tags: b, i, strong, em, a (href only), p and br.
Click one of the three commenter types below. Member comments are added immediately once you confirm your email address. Anonymous comments are moderated by our editorial staff.