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Post by fanboystranger on Jul 5, 2015 21:18:44 GMT -5
Vertigo in its heyday gave creators a better deal with partial stakes in the creations, but never actual creator ownership to my knowledge. And these days gives the creators far less. EPIC had genuine creator-ownership. According to Wiki "Vertigo was the first successful imprint of DC Comics to routinely publish creator-owned series, right from its launch, with Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo's Enigma." I guess the contentious word in that sentence would be "successful". Piranha Press would have been the first. |
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Post by fanboystranger on Jul 5, 2015 21:24:15 GMT -5
I seem to recall the arrangement for the creator-owned titles was that if DC/Vertigo kept the titles in print, then they would have to remain with Vertigo. If the title was not available for 'x' period of time, the rights fell back to the creator. Much like Jamie Delano's 20/20 Visions, which he took elsewhere to be reprinted. I can't confirm this as fact however. This is the case. I believe the window is five years after the last publication of either an issue or a collection. After that, if DC has no further use for the title, the creator(s) can purchase the full rights for a small fee.
It's become industry folklore that Paul Levitz spent his last day as publisher liberating a bunch of Vertigo properties for their original creators. Steve Seagle was able to buy back almost everything creator-owned except House of Secrets (because of the title) and American Virgin, which hadn't reached the end of the window yet.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2015 21:50:27 GMT -5
I seem to recall the arrangement for the creator-owned titles was that if DC/Vertigo kept the titles in print, then they would have to remain with Vertigo. If the title was not available for 'x' period of time, the rights fell back to the creator. Much like Jamie Delano's 20/20 Visions, which he took elsewhere to be reprinted. I can't confirm this as fact however. This is the case. I believe the window is five years after the last publication of either an issue or a collection. After that, if DC has no further use for the title, the creator(s) can purchase the full rights for a small fee.
It's become industry folklore that Paul Levitz spent his last day as publisher liberating a bunch of Vertigo properties for their original creators. Steve Seagle was able to buy back almost everything creator-owned except House of Secrets (because of the title) and American Virgin, which hadn't reached the end of the window yet.
That is no longer the case as of at least 2012. Now it's whenever DC no longer commissions the creator for new work. Keeping a TPB in print forever will no longer keep creators from having full rights. I don't know if there is a purchase involved when the arrangement comes to an end or not, but they're not doing that to their creators anymore. |
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Post by Cei-U! on Jul 6, 2015 5:53:02 GMT -5
Definitely Big Two.
Cei-U!
I summon my two-bits' worth!
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Post by MDG on Jul 6, 2015 10:58:02 GMT -5
I'll be the outlier here. Can't talk much about Epic, but when it first appeared (okay, was spun off), Vertigo pretty quickly felt separate and distinct from DC, to the point where there was a sizable contingent of Vertigo fans (based on what I saw at shows in the 80s) who wouldn't be caught dead reading DC (or Marvel). Also, though it did have DC behind it, that was no guarantee that it would succeed (which is why we're not talking about Helix).
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Post by fanboystranger on Jul 6, 2015 11:06:39 GMT -5
This is the case. I believe the window is five years after the last publication of either an issue or a collection. After that, if DC has no further use for the title, the creator(s) can purchase the full rights for a small fee.
It's become industry folklore that Paul Levitz spent his last day as publisher liberating a bunch of Vertigo properties for their original creators. Steve Seagle was able to buy back almost everything creator-owned except House of Secrets (because of the title) and American Virgin, which hadn't reached the end of the window yet.
That is no longer the case as of at least 2012. Now it's whenever DC no longer commissions the creator for new work. Keeping a TPB in print forever will no longer keep creators from having full rights. I don't know if there is a purchase involved when the arrangement comes to an end or not, but they're not doing that to their creators anymore. It's still the case as far as I know, although it's possible that the window may be have been reduced. Ian Edgington mentioned that he may buy back the rights to Hinterkind when its window has expired. The final Hinterkind tpb will be published early next year.
I do know that Vertigo has loosened up their contracts somewhat since so many complaints a few years ago. It's still not as generous as Image's agreement, but you do get a guaranteed paycheck each month.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2015 11:33:14 GMT -5
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Post by fanboystranger on Jul 6, 2015 16:41:51 GMT -5
Hmmm, that's interesting info, but I wonder how it applies to more successful titles. I, Zombie wasn't particularly succesful in print, but with the tv show loosely adapted from it, I don't see DC giving it up.
Also, the fee is for legal fees associated with transferring a copyright and trademark. It's an administrative fee, not DC trying to squeeze out every last drop.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2015 17:46:17 GMT -5
If the TV show is profitable I'm sure DC would have several ways to entice him to stay without pulling a Watchmen on him. I think they saw how bad that kind of corporate policy is for them now that there are other publishing options out there. Not that there weren't in 1984, but now there's high profile third party publishers with countless success stories. In the first issue of Epic's Groo there's a one page story about how Aragones was shopping Groo around and all the publishers were saying they couldn't print it unless they had rights to the characters until he finally found one willing to publish it as creator owned, and then all the sudden all those other publishers were suddenly willing to publish it as creator owned as well.
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