Write a huge check to buy a smaller check

[USArmyParatrooper]

that was written to someone else.

http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=448034

AWESOME!

In fairness, it really is a huge piece of comic book history. So $412. Who got the better of that deal?

[dan bailey]

Wow. I'm rather shocked to see that this isn't safely ensconced in DC's version of the Ark of the Covenant.

I'm no fan of his by any stretch of the imagination, but I love what Dave Sim wrote (as quoted in Duin & Richardson's Comics Between the Panels, which as mentioned elsewhere I read again just a few days ago) --

The Grail

DC changes personnel in the offices, people die, the freelancers come and go. Fortunes rise and fall, shares are transferred, the physical offices are moved, torn down, rearranged. Pages are kept. Pages are returned. And somewhere in the bowels of DC Comics is the grail of the industry, the centerpiece of the real DC Universe. The contract signed by Jerry and Joe. It is the only constant. An unchanging asset. It has moved millions and millions of dollars through the economy of DC, and each new generation of employees has suckled at its teat.

[InfoBroker]

I find it interesting that both Joe and Jerry had to sign the check twice, and that it is also bearing the historical marks of being an exhibit in court in the lower left corner on the back. I did not recall the legal custody issues started as early as the date shown (1939). Have to brush up on my law history.

-jb the barrister ib -

[Jezebel Bond]

I'd be pretty pissed if all I got for Superman was $130...I guess things were really different back in 1938 for two starry-eyed creators....

[dan bailey]

They spent the next several decades being pretty pissed. And for good reason, of course.

[CromagnonMan]

ha ha, its a bit like winning the lottery and losing your ticket.

[T GUy]

ha ha, its a bit like winning the lottery and losing your ticket.

... and someone else picking it up and cashing it in.

[Rasputin9977]

Man this check should be in a museum.

They spent the next several decades being pretty pissed. And for good reason, of course.

There is no reason to be pissed off about it. Dudes sold the rights away.

[CromagnonMan]

Man this check should be in a museum.



There is no reason to be pissed off about it. Dudes sold the rights away.

the only person they should be annoyed with is themselves for signing the contract!

[dan bailey]

And yet DC was eventually shamed, through the efforts of people like Neal Adams, into granting them a decent pension & recognition as creators of the character.

It's almost as if not quite everybody in the world automatically sides with management &/or big corporations.

Will wonders never cease?

[Jolly Mon]

And yet DC was eventually shamed, through the efforts of people like Neal Adams, into granting them a decent pension & recognition as creators of the character.

It's almost as if not quite everybody in the world automatically sides with management &/or big corporations.

Will wonders never cease?

Keep talking like that and people will think you're an anarchist. Or maybe even (gasp) a Democrat.

[dan bailey]

Here in Alabama, I'm pretty sure they're regarded as pretty much synonymous.

[CromagnonMan]

And yet DC was eventually shamed, through the efforts of people like Neal Adams, into granting them a decent pension & recognition as creators of the character.

It's almost as if not quite everybody in the world automatically sides with management &/or big corporations.

Will wonders never cease?

i dont automatically side with corporations..in fact i really dislike them. But once youve signed a contract, youve legally signed away your rights. i suppose i dislike people trying to get out of something theyve agreed to also.

[dan bailey]

Off the top of my head I can't venture to speculate where the DC (back then, I guess it was National) people fell on the spectrum, but back then signing a contract with a comics publisher was often tantamount to signing a contract with organized crime. Sort of makes me wonder if Siegel & Shuster might've have been looking at the equivalent of a swim in the Hudson with cement overshoes if they'd declined to do so ...

As for conspiracy theories, you should hear my ideas about CGC's nefarious behind-the-scenes activities.

[USArmyParatrooper]

Off the top of my head I can't venture to speculate where the DC (back then, I guess it was National) people fell on the spectrum, but back then signing a contract with a comics publisher was often tantamount to signing a contract with organized crime. Sort of makes me wonder if Siegel & Shuster might've have been looking at the equivalent of a swim in the Hudson with cement overshoes if they'd declined to do so ...

That's quite a conspiracy theory you have going there.