fujishig

I do think it's a bit messed up that the movies (and cartoons)take so many cues from classic comic book stories and don't credit the creators. Like X Men 2 and God Loves Man Kills.

Preterite

I haven't seen the quote, but I think he might have been more motivated by his political beliefs. I do remember the In Search of Steve Dikto documentary mentioning that Dikto refused the money freely offered to him when the first Raimi Spider-Man movie came out because of his principles.

I have also read (in Back Issue, IIRC) that Dikto left Marvel because he was pissed that he was not getting writing credit on Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, since all Stan was doing at that point was filling the word balloons. So there was a time when he had at least some desire for more credit, perhaps back before he completely fell into the Randian abyss.

The Valeyard

True. That documentary also mentions how Ditko had an issue with how Stan worded his involvement as Spider-Man's co-creator - "I have always considered Steve Ditko to be Spider-Man’s co-creator." Steve did not like the word "considered."

movieguru

Part of the problem with early comics is one person comes up with the idea and another person fleshes out the look and design of the character. A lot of the Marvel characters were probably initially thought of by Stan, then he writes down the idea and the artist creates the visuals from the description. So I guess it depends on what you consider "created" to mean. Does it mean just the "idea" or also the "implementation" of the idea.

The Valeyard

For Spider-Man, the story goes....

Stan had an idea for a teenaged hero named "Spider-Man." He pitched it to Jack Kirby who revamped his old Fly idea (while at Archie during the 50s) and drew up a few pages. Stan didn't like it and asked Ditko for his version of the idea. Ditko pretty much did everything else.

John Pannozzi

DC/WB doesn't own the movie/TV rights to Y the Last Man or Preacher. I think the rights to Vertigo titles vary on a case-by-case basis.

Josh-da-man

I think they've always had right of first refusal on creator-owned properties, but once they turned them down the creators were then free to shop them around to other producers.

I think that the Vertigo contracts have become less favorable to creators in recent years, which is why we're seeing so few Vertigo titles from a-listers, with most of them taking their stuff to Image or Avatar.

PhantomStranger

I consider Ditko the true creator of Spider-Man as we know him, at least much more than Stan Lee.

brayzie

That's why I don't like buying DC products. They screw over their artists and writers and as a result no one wants to create anything new for them, which is why we get "new" characters like Blue Beetle IV an Uncle Sam III. The company just regurgitates the same material on a monthly basis, with 20 different variations.

The Valeyard

Ditko would not like the way you phrased that sentence.



To be fair, Marvel does the exact same thing when it comes to creators and regurgitation. Look at Miles Morales (Ultimate Spider-Man II) or the female Thor. And Jack Kirby's heirs had to sue just to get his credit on the books, something Marvel should have done a long long time ago. The disrespect Marvel has shown to Jack Kirby lasted for decades. Not to mention all the other Marvel creators who weren't lucky enough to be Brian Michael Bendis.

PhantomStranger

I think Marvel knew that Kirby had a legitimate claim to a lot of their intellectual property as at least co-creator. Their lawyers probably told them over the decades to minimize Kirby's credit so it wouldn't be used against them in a lawsuit.

brayzie

I stopped buying Marvel Comics when they used one page of the already 22 page count just for re-telling what's been going on in previous issues and then raising the average price of their comics to $4.
But I still watch some of their movies so I'm going to stop that too.

Spiderbite

I don't necessarily disagree with you but it is said that Stan's idea was to make him a teenager with real world problems which is what really pushed that character into the stratosphere, at least popularity-wise, at the time.

PhantomStranger

Stan definitely had a hand in Spider-Man. I am not sure if the character ever becomes as popular as he became without Ditko's influence.

ytrez

Stan had the initial idea. Spider-Man started with him so he deserves the creator credit for that alone. Ditko took that idea and gave it form and shape; quite necessary in a graphic medium. So he deserve creator credit for that. Clear cut case of co-creators in my book.

Undeadcow

Neil Adams chimes in: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/05/...-gerry-conway/

fujishig

Just reed this article about the creator of Gordon's wife, used on Gotham. He states that the check is only like 45 an episode anyway, but they still wouldn't pay:

http://comicbastards.com/comics/77685/

Mark Waid on the topic of royalties, and also brings up Levitz:

http://thrillbent.com/blog/how-dc-contracts-work/

Spiderbite

Roy Thomas recently stated this:

Full article: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hea...-thomas-791320

PhantomStranger

It's definitely why Marvel and DC haven't come up with a lot of new characters in the past twenty or thirty years.

Sean O'Hara

That reminds me of when Star Trek: Voyager started. Originally Robert Duncan McNeil was going to reprise his role as Cadet Locarno from the TNG episode "The First Duty," but when the producers realized they'd have to pay royalties, they changed the name to Tom Paris and modified his backstory very slightly so they could claim he was an original character.

Later on they were going to have a Vulcan engineer named Taurik who had been in another episode of TNG, but they changed it to his twin brother Vorik for the same reason.

John Pannozzi

The plot thickens...


http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/05/...so-succinctly/

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/05/...s-to-creators/

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/05/...ator-payments/

Trevor

Maybe reason for optimism, but I'll believe it when I hear it from the creators.

stingermck

And the apology from Gerry

http://gerryconway.tumblr.com/post/1...-dan-didio-jim