The Wheel of Karma: Gerry Conway’s Comics Equity Project

There’s been a lot of talk recently, in these days where The Avengers makes a billion and a half dollars at the box office and Robert Downey Jr. can make something like 20 million bucks for acting like an erratic drunk for a few hours – something he did for years for nothing, mind you – about how the actual comic creators who came up with these characters are often getting bupkis in exchange for their creations. Just a couple of weeks ago, Mark Waid made it clear that, despite having elements from his Superman: Birthright story used in Man of Steel, he will not be receiving, nor even expecting, any money:

So, no, I get no financial compensation for Man of Steel, nor does Grant Morrison whose words in ALL-STAR SUPERMAN were given voice by Russell Crowe, nor does John Byrne (maybe something for having created the robot Kelex, since that’s a character, not a concept like “Room full of Kryptonian embryos”), nor do the other writers and artists (other than creators Siegel and Shuster) whose contributions to the Superman myth were used in the film. And that’s okay. It’s not optimal, but we knew the rules going in. Hell, for me, honestly, the smile I got on my face the first time I heard lines from BIRTHRIGHT in the MoS trailer–the confirmation that I really did give something lasting back to the character who’s given me so much–is worth more to me than any dollar amount. (Your mileage may vary.)

And I have taken the sometimes unpopular stance that, while on a karmic basis, guys like Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Joe Shuster, and Alan Moore might deserve more substantial financial consideration for their creations, the fact of the matter is that for the most part, that wasn’t the deal they signed. They signed work-for-hire deals, which meant that they got paid for the scripts, and whatever was actually, you know, in those scripts belonged to the guys writing the checks. And that is a harsh stance to take about an industry that produces some of the stories I love most in the world, and which despite billions in intellectual property value still requires things like The Hero Initiative to provide a safety net for creators, but the law is the law and the contract is the contract. I might have a more jaundiced view of such things than most, as my day job is with a technology company who required me to sign an agreement that any program I noodle out to solve a personal problem technically belongs to them, but regardless, the facts don’t change: if the contract doesn’t say you get any money, you don’t get any money.

Sometimes, however, the contract does say that you get some money… provided you can prove that someone is using your creation. Enter Gerry Conway, his (and many other creators’) deal with DC Comics, and the Comics Equity Project.

I need your help.

DC Comics is a great company.

It was the first major publisher to offer creator contracts on a regular basis, allowing the men and women who create characters for DC books to share in the profits those characters generate in other media. You may say, that’s only fair, but until the mid-1970s it was standard policy for comic book publishers to buy all rights in perpetuity upon payment for a single story. Writers and artists received no further payment for their work after that first check — no money for reprints, no money for toys based on characters they’d created, no money for movies or TV shows or games or trading cards.

Nada, zip, zilch.

DC Comics changed that.

Starting in the mid-70s DC offered creators an opportunity for what they called “equity participation.” With the appropriate paperwork submitted and signed, DC creators would receive a share of the profits generated by their creations. Like I said, you may think this is only fair, but in the ’70s it hit the business like a revelation. And for more than thirty years it’s given quite a few creators an extra bit of income — in some cases, for some older creators, the only real income they receive from comics.

So, to repeat, DC Comics is a great company.

But, like all companies, it’s a business, and its first priority is to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and maximize profits. So tracking which character was created by which writer and artist team thirty or forty years ago isn’t part of their business plan. It’s just too much work, and it requires a dedication and devotion to detail that only one group in the world has in abundant quantities:

You, the fans.

A personal note. I started this site because some of my fans alerted me to the use in the TV series “Arrow” of characters I co-created in the late 1970s, early 1980s. Without those fans I wouldn’t have known those characters were appearing. I wouldn’t have filed equity participation paperwork with DC. And neither I nor the artists I worked with would be eligible to receive money for the use of those characters. DC does not make payments retroactive. If a creator wants to claim equity participation in a character he or she co-created, they need to do so proactively.

Which is where you come in.

If you’re a fan of DC comics published since 1975, you can help your favorite pros — not just me, but any writer or artist who worked on DC’s titles. Go through your collection. Look for the first appearances of any character, major or minor, hero/villain/sidekick/bystander from the years 1975 on. Download and fill out the DC Comics Character Equity Request form (you’ll find the link below) and email it to the creators involved. Most creators have an active presence on the web, either on Facebook, or Twitter, or through their own web sites or fan pages. Reach out to them. Encourage them to file the paperwork you prepared with DC.

Help them get their fair share.

Obviously, I include myself (Gerry Conway) in this list. I can use your help, too.

Between 1975 and the mid-80s I wrote literally hundreds of comics for DC and created dozens of characters. FIRESTORM, JUSTICE LEAGUE, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, BATMAN, SUPERMAN, WONDER WOMAN, on and on and on. There’s no way I can single-handedly track down each and every character who made their first appearance in a story I wrote. But all of you working together, each doing one or two characters — you can crowd-source it.

Download the form, fill it out, attach a piece of art identifying the character, and send it to the email link below with the subject line EQUITY. To prevent duplication of effort by fellow fans (and to claim credit for your help!) post a comment to this blog identifying the character you’ve discovered.

On behalf of all the DC creators who would otherwise never know, literally, what they’re missing, thank you.

Look, I’m not gonna bullshit you: I’m not about to dig through the equivalent of 50 or so longboxes and keep a spreadsheet of what creators came up with what characters just in case I happen to see one in a movie or on a cartoon… and frankly, neither are you. Hell, I can barely keep a catalog of what books I own and what longbox they live in, let alone which one contains the first appearance of some character I might see in the background of a Green Lantern crowd scene.

But what you can do is keep the Comics Equity Project in mind when you’re watching a DC Comics movie or TV show or direct-to-video movie. And when you get that charge of seeing a character you remember show up? Maybe you can go through your books and find the one where that character appeared. Or at least maybe you can hit the DC Wikia and do a quick search to see who came up with that character.

Conway requests, if you see a character that might make a creator eligible for some extra scratch, that you complete a Character Equity Request form and email to comicsequityproject@gmail.com… but again, I’m probably not gonna do that, and neither are you. But I imagine that a simple email identifying the character, the creators, the thing you saw the character in, and a link to that character’s page on the Wikia (or somewhere else) so someone can let the people affected know they should take some action would still be appreciated.

Is this appropriate remuneration for guys like Kirby who got the shaft while their employer makes literally billions from their work? Of course not. Is it completely fair that the onus falls on creators to discover that their creations have been used, rather than the users proactively cutting checks? No, but we are talking about corporations here, and a corporation wouldn’t cross the street to piss down your throat if your heart was on fire unless they could bill you for their time and the Cristal they drank to build up the reservoir (so to speak).

Is this a small thing you could keep in mind while watching TV that might help out a guy or a woman who created something you love, and maybe balance the karmic scales a tiny bit? Yeah, it is.

Does this mean that Conway’s Firestorm: The Nuclear Man will now never, ever appear in the rumored Justice League movie? Damn right it does. See the legal precedent of Street, Heart and Fire vs. Piss.

(via Bleeding Cool)