Wednesday, April 16, 2008

A Lesson From Captain America

Here's an interesting article Shawn pointed me to in the New York Times: "Creator of Captain America Keeps Fighting On." It's not only an interesting article for fans of Cap, but also a cautionary tale for all writers. Joe Simon, like Jerry Seigel (the creator of Superman) before him, lost his copyright to Captain America and has seen hardly any royalties for his creation. Here's a bit of a teaser from the article:

“People in comic books have a very sad history in dealing with their creative people,” he said.

Todd McFarlane, 47, who in 1992 helped found Image Comics, agreed. “I read the stories of Joe Simon,” he said. “I read the stories of Jack Kirby. I read the stories of all those guys in the ’40s, ’50s and even the ’60s. I kept coming across this repetitive story: the creative guy got the short end of the stick.”

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