{"id":3473,"date":"2002-11-14T06:33:17","date_gmt":"2002-11-14T11:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=3473"},"modified":"2002-11-14T06:33:17","modified_gmt":"2002-11-14T11:33:17","slug":"face_front_true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/11\/14\/face_front_true.html","title":{"rendered":"Face front, true believers!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stan “The Man” Lee is suing Marvel comics<\/a> for a cut of the pie on the Spider-Man <\/i>movie profits. In so doing, he joins a raft of other comics creators from the 50s and 60s who have tried to make a little money on creations they made, generally as “work for hire.” Such suits have rarely been successful, except to the extent that they’ve produced a moral suasion to rectify the extra-legal injustice.<\/p>\n

(Remember that, next time media companies go on about Intellectual Property as being necessary to protect creators<\/i>. Creators are generally screwed by the financiers, and those are the folks that IP law tends to protect. Not that there isn’t some justice in doing so, of couse, but let’s not let the matter be over-sentimentalized.)<\/p>\n

Of course, as Art Buchwald could have told him, Lee’s being a fool to sue for 10% of the Spidey movie profits<\/i>. No matter what happens, that movie will never actually show a profit on paper; no movie ever does, so as to avoid taxes (and payments to folks who negotiatiated a share of the profits).<\/p>\n

What’s sort of interesting about this was that a few weeks ago, I watched a rather unfocused 60 Minutes II <\/i>segment on Marvel comics in the movies. Lee was on screen for much of the time, waxing eloquent and enthusiastic about Spider-Man, Daredevil, the Hulk, and so forth, all current or future movie projects. He’s been a hell of an ambassador for Marvel, grossly underpaid just for all the goodwill he produces.<\/p>\n

Then the interviewer asked him about whether he was making any money off of Spidey (nope, not one thin dime). And then pressed him about how he felt about it. Clearly he was unhappy, but just as clearly he wasn’t inclined to air the dirty laundry in front of the nation. That’s generally been his MO; he gets treated with respect, he gets to work on behalf of the characters he created and loves, and he doesn’t bitch about Marvel.<\/p>\n

Perhaps what pushed him over the edge was seeing the cuts back to Avi Arad, one of the high Marvel honchos, on the set of Daredevil<\/i>, telling the reporter that Lee had, of course, been compensated “fairly.”<\/p>\n

That comment might come back to haunt him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stan “The Man” Lee is suing Marvel comics for a cut of the pie on the Spider-Man movie profits. In so doing, he joins a raft of other comics creators…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-moguls"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":50220,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/29\/creators-creations-and-comics.html","url_meta":{"origin":3473,"position":0},"title":"Creators, Creations, and Comics","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 29-Apr-15 5:49pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I keep understanding more and more why more and more comics creators are working on indie comics, or for more consortium-like publishers like Image. While there's a lot to be admired for the big playground and shared universe of DC or Marvel, the corporate mentality of the vast entertainment conglomerates\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12528,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/04\/01\/siegel_heirs_get_partial.html","url_meta":{"origin":3473,"position":1},"title":"Siegel heirs get partial copyright to Superman","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-Apr-08 3:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Great Scott!\u00a0 A federal judge here on Wednesday ruled that the heirs of Jerome Siegel \u2014 who 70 years ago sold the rights to the action hero he created...","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/action_1_1939.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":41265,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/02\/the-sakai-project.html","url_meta":{"origin":3473,"position":2},"title":""The Sakai Project"","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 2-Mar-14 5:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I may have to make a point of hitting a few comic book stores in July and picking up copies for friends. \u00a0\ufeff Dark Horse Comics' 'The Sakai Project' To Benefit Stan Sakai - Geeks of Doom Dark Horse Comics has long been the home of Stan Sakai\u2019s classic series\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":471,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/04\/09\/boy_cott.html","url_meta":{"origin":3473,"position":3},"title":"Boy, cott?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 9-Apr-03 9:23pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Kevin Parrott has a long post related to survey of comic book creators regarding the war in Iraq. It's generally good (though there are places, while I agree with the...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130768,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/27\/captain-americas-big-secret.html","url_meta":{"origin":3473,"position":4},"title":"Captain America's Big Secret","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 27-May-16 4:33pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So, assuming this isn't some temporary brainwashing or quirk from the recent Cosmic Cube zaniness, this is probably the stupidest idea that Marvel has ever had. And I include the Hypno-Hustler and Secret War 2 in that category.If, as it seems (see more with Marvel executive editor Tom Brevoort on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43010,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/14\/for-those-who-follow-indie-comics.html","url_meta":{"origin":3473,"position":5},"title":"For those who follow indie comics","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 14-Jun-14 12:01am","format":false,"excerpt":"Some interesting numbers on what it takes a writer or artist to be able to afford an independent title. Also, on the significance\u00a0of buying the monthlies, rather than just waiting for the TPB collection.Reshared post from +Nicholas Yanes\"If Rocket Girl dips into the 8000s, we\u2019ll start thinking about when to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}