One of the most interesting (I think anyway) conversations with these new creators rights discussions began when Erik Larsen join in. Erik and Dave Sim were writing letters to each other concerning publishing rights ("The Right to Reprint"), the Neil Gaiman vs. Todd McFarlane feud, and The Creator’s Bill of Rights.
These letters from Dave, Erik, and then Steve Bissette are far too lengthy for me to post on this forum, so I’ve decided to post the links to these letters below.
A letter from Dave Sim 2: Erik Larsen and Dave Sim debate a creator’s right(?).Erik and Dave’s first correspondence starts here with "The Right to Reprint" debate.
Erik Larsen: "The whole Neil Gaiman situation I found to be particularly annoying, mostly because the characters Neil "created" were variations on Spawn himself. A female "angel" instead of a male "devil," medieval versions of existing characters, etc. It bothered me that Todd was stupid enough to let somebody "create" these characters and it bothered me that Neil would insist on owning something that he didn’t legitimately create."
Dave Sim: "The Neil Gaiman situation isn’t as cut-and-dried as you’re making it out to be. Neil knew what he was getting into at DC. Sandman is their character and Neil, as a novice scripter, decided he was going to do some interesting things with it and see what happened. Well, what happened turned out to be huge and, from what I understand, DC did the noblesse oblige "right thing" and magnanimously granted Neil greater—and entirely unprecedented—participation in Sandman and other ‘considerations’ in acknowledgement of what had happened. Whatever he got—and, again, none of us knows because it all took place behind closed doors—all he could do was to count himself lucky because he didn’t have a legal leg to stand on and, presumably, he knew it."
A letter from Erik Larsen: Erik addresses Dave Sim's letter concerning creator's rights and "The Right to Reprint".
Erik Larsen: "The Neil Gaiman issue continues to be a sticking point for a lot of people. Neil got $100,000 to script a funnybook. That he’d feel shortchanged boggles my mind. Spawn was selling gangbuster before Neil wrote an issue—how much hid his name drive sales? How much did yours? As I recall, ALL of the guest-written issues sold about as well as each other. So—what was REALLY brought to the table there?"
Dave Sim's letter to Erik Larsen: a letter from Dave Sim to Erik Larsen concerning creator's rights and publishing.
Dave Sim: "Angela, I would maintain was a different matter entirely and I would think that all of these "well after the point of creation" items could be better handled on an issue-by-issue basis. It would seem to me that Neil was entitled to a royalty on each appearance of Angela and on the action figure and if that seemed unreasonable to Todd—and, as I’ve said, I can certainly see Todd thinking that $100,000 should be you some consideration—then the easy answer, it seems to me, is to write Angela out of the book and discontinue the action figure. And I quite agree with you on who was driving the Spawn bus. As far as I know the sales on Spawn 9 were probably higher than on Sandman to a factor of ten. Just as the sales of Spawn 10 were higher than on Cerebus to a factor of 100."
A letter from Steve Bissette 4: Steve Bissette addressing Erik Larsen and Dave Sim's letters concerning creator's rights and publishing. I received this e-mail letter from Steve on August 9, 2005.
Steve Bissette: "That Todd presumed he could retroactively, claim every conceptual property in the respective issue as his and his alone "boggles my mind," Erik. That you and so many others, including Dave, continue to make insinuations about Neil's character and integrity while defending Todd's "boggles my mind." Neil wasn't short-changed -- the deal, as it was represented to Neil, was broken as soon as characters and concepts Neil introduced in his work for Todd began to surface in other comics and media (of course, once Todd dragged Miracleman into the fray as some aspect of the proposed legal settlement, he only further complicated matters, using a character that was never his, that he never had any claim to or creatively contributed a damned thing to, as a bargaining chip). That was NOT the deal, apparently, was it?"
Al's letter to Dave Sim 3: The following letter is one of many that I had written to Dave Sim addressing the continuing discussions of creator's rights. I've decided to post the entire letter.
Al Nickerson: "I also enjoyed Steve Bissette’s latest letter (August 9, 2005, which is enclosed). Steve makes some excellent points. I agree with Steve’s statements concerning Neil Gaiman and his work on Spawn. I cant believe someone like Erik Larsen (who I do think is a nice enough fella) who works on his own creator-owned comic and works for a creator-friendly publisher can’t see that Neil, at the very least, should own the characters that he created for Spawn (there might be some gray area there concerning Medieval Spawn, but Angela and Cogliostro should belong to Neil). I’m just scratching my head on this one."
A letter from Dave Sim 8: Dave addresses Steve Bissette’s previous letter, comments from the Comicon.com forum and The Pulse forum.
Dave Sim: "If I were in Neil’s situation and I had created a character in Spawn that Todd went on to use in the film and the animated cartoon and as an action figure, I would hope that what I would say is "Okay, instead of getting paid $100,000 for writing a funnybook, I got—let’s say—$65,000 for writing a funnybook, $10,000 for the character being in the film, $10,000 for it being an animated cartoon and $15,000 for the action figure." You can move the amounts around from category to category whichever way you want, I think they still come out to excessively, mind-bogglingly generous. You know any other place on God’s green earth from 1938 on that would pay you $100,000—or even half that—to write a funnybook?"
A letter from Erik Larsen 2: Erik Larsen addresses Dave Sim's letter concerning The Creator's Bill of Rights and the Neil Gaiman vs. Todd McFarlane feud.
Erik Larsen: "The Creators’ Bill of Rights was always a puzzle to me. It seems as relevant to me as eight random human beings hanging out at a street corner getting together and making rules for mankind. It’s not as though anybody put them in charge of anything or have any reason to acknowledge or adhere to their rules. Those who drafted and signed it, talk about the Creators’ Bill of Rights as though it’s a document of some historic import, I’ll grant you, but outside of those who signed it—I’ve never had it brought up or even mentioned in passing to me by anybody in the industry. And really, I’m not sure why anybody should mention it. To call it a Creators Bill of Rights is a bit of a misnomer. It ISN'T a Creators Bill of Rights--it's the conditions under which these eight (or however many it was) individuals are willing to do business."
Erik Larsen: "The McFarlane/Gaiman thing still burns me up in the basic unfairness of it all. As you said, "Had the judge asked them, I’m sure the all-female jury would have been happy to give Neil the rights to Spawn, Todd’s house and cars, Madonna’s uniform from A League of Their Own and the Mark McGuire baseball and anything else Neil expressed an interest in" and that’s not right. (Insert blanket condemnation of the American Judicial System here). Giving Neil Medieval Spawn is unfair. Had a jury let Todd own Medieval Sandman, Neil’s fans would be screaming bloody murder. Medieval Spawn is Spawn on a horse (and it was Todd who named him "Medieval Spawn," incidentally, when he made a toy based on his own design—Neil referred to his throughout his script as "Spawn."). To me, Angela is very much a derivative character as well. She could not have been created in a vacuum. She’s the opposite of Spawn. He’s from Hell—she’s from Heaven. He’s male—she’s female. He’s black—she’s white. She hunts Spawns, for cryin’ out loud! She’s the Spawn equivalent of Spider-Man’s Spider-Slayers. Todd eventually DID write Angela out of the book."
A letter from Dave Sim 9: Dave Sim to Erik Larsen concerning creator's rights and publishing.
Dave Sim: "Well, clearly no one is saluting the Bill of Rights as it stands nor do I really expect them to. It came about because I wanted to know where my rights ended and Diamond’s rights began when it came to selling books direct."
Dave Sim: "I think a template contract is definitely more than worthwhile. It might take five years to put one together and once we put it together, yes, everyone will just ignore it. And then maybe fifteen years after that someone will say, "Hey what about that template contract that Dave Sim and Al Nickerson and Steve Bissette and Erik Larsen came up with?" And twenty years after that every editor, publisher and creator might very well have a copy of it in their top drawer and they have most of it memorized because it makes everything work better and far fewer people get seriously screwed when you use it than get seriously screwed when you don’t use it."
