The Valeyard

So I'm a friend of Scott Shaw on Facebook and he's repeatedly mentioned that DC/Warner has been ducking him on payments for Captain Carrot. Roy Thomas is going through the same thing. At a previous Comikaze Expo, Scott mentioned that they also still hold a small percentage of ownership to the Zoo Crew characters. Not that Warner is paying attention.

Anyways a couple of days ago, a bunch of us were talking about it on Scott's page. I mentioned this to Rich Johnson last night and now there's a Bleeding Cool article about it. Hopefully, this will turn out like the Gerry Conway situation and all will be made well.

Bleeding Cool

majorjoe23

He did mention in a follow up that his contract calls for royalties when CC is used in other media, not appearances in DC Comics. But hopefully the pay will come through for the Scribblenauts and Robot Chicken usage.

That does suck, though. I was just reading Usagi Yojimbo 100 the other day that had a section by Shaw and Mark Evanier, with an unnamed Captain Carrot appearing in silhouette, saying they couldn't name him for fear of Warner's lawyers (or something like that).

PhantomStranger

I am starting to get nervous that this kind of news is going to end up with Warner issuing edicts to their creative personnel in movies and shows that some characters are off-limits simply because they may not own them outright without paying royalties.

That is where I see this possibly going.

davidh777

I don't think I've thought about Exclamation Point since I was actually reading Captain Carrot.

I hope this ends well, but I share the concern about certain properties or past materials becoming unavailable because of bean-counters.

madcougar

Ok, I'll bite. What comic books have these guys appeared in recently that these guys are owed royalties for?

Trevor

I imagine it's Convergence.

fujishig

Yeah, Captain Carrot (a non cartoony version) is in Convergence and will also be in the DC Universe in some way afterwards. But that's all DC comics.

The Valeyard

Most recently - Captain Carrot had a large role in Multiversity. There's also been some Convergence appearances. A few years ago, DC created the New 52 version named Captain K'Rot but I'm sure since it's a "derivative," that one doesn't count.

The residuals are for the non-comic appearances in movies, tv shows, video games, etc.

Hokeyboy

With the preponderance of Captain Carrot toys, merchandise, and TV and movie appearances, plus that best-selling orange-vinyl long playing record album I got from the school Scholastic catalog, they should be rolling in dough! Shame on National Periodicals for their devious chicanery!!

Trevor

That reminds me, I want my line of Plop cover action figures.

The Valeyard

DC/Warner continue to ignore both Thomas and Shaw's regarding Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew's media appearances in the Robot Chicken DC Superheroes Special and the Scribblenauts video game. I know Scott owns 10% of the characters. Not sure if Roy Thomas shares that 10% or has 10% of his own.

kvrdave

Wouldn't Robot Chicken be considered parody, and thus there is nothing paid to DC, and thus nothing paid to these two? I haven't seen scribblenauts, so I got no idea there.

Hokeyboy

I mean, it's "Captain Carrot". Not that those characters ever had a "prime", but even in their heyday they were instantly forgettable.

kodave

At a certain point it probably was parody or could be considered parody, but I would be very surprised if Robot Chicken didn't have a license or express permission to use DC characters considering they've done a whole special about DC Comics characters. Although the show is produced by a division of Sony television, it's distributed by Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, which is owned by Turner Broadcasting System, which is a division of Time Warner, which also owns DC Entertainment, Inc, of which DC Comics is the publishing unit. I have almost no doubt there's an agreement in place given that corporate structure.

Scribblenauts is published by WB Games, which as you might guess, leads you down the corporate rabbit hole back to Time Warner.

There's no reason for DC to not be paying royalties if that's what the contracts call for.

The Valeyard

It's exactly what's called for. Doesn't matter if it's "only" Captain Carrot. The contract states that Shaw and Thomas get royalties for any non-comic book usage of the characters. There have been several calls and emails but Warner is completely blowing them off.

If the characters were so "forgettable," DC wouldn't be using them so much lately. Convergence notwithstanding, the Captain and Crew has cropped up in Multiversity and the New52 proper.

kodave

I'm not following this too closely but if DC is blowing them off, and the creators can't rile up the fan base or certain "cool" websites to write about their predicament to get DC's attention, then they need to lawyer up. DC/WB's lawyers will pay more attention to another attorney if they're ignoring the creators themselves. I'm not saying file lawsuits or anything right away. But a lawyer getting on the horn or writing some demand letters probably is a good next step.

Will it cost money? Obviously. But they don't need huge price gouging attorneys. Just a reasonable one. And believe it or not, there are some reasonable attorneys out there. I have no idea how financially sound Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw are, but they've both had many years of consistent work in the industry/entertainment industry. My guess would be between the two of them they could afford a reasonable lawyer for this one matter if it was important enough to them. Comics might not make most creators wealthy but this isn't exactly Siegel and Shuster selling Superman for $130.

Retaining counsel shouldn't be the way this works normally, but it doesn't sound like they're making progress on their own with DC. Then if WB/DC still won't pay up, the lawyer can go ahead proceed with filing suit or whatever the next step should be. If the potential royalties aren't worth the cost of hiring an attorney, then that's a judgment call the creators have to make. They can fight for what's is contractually theirs, or they can continue to play this ridiculous game with DC.