posted by Dan Guy
Mr. G sends "a small treat" to help us pass the time in his absence. He writes:
A small treat for Good Omens fans and audio book fans and just people who like quality. This is the first scene in the Harper Audio version that'll be out on Nov 10th, read by Martin Jarvis. (Out of the US people will have to buy the CD version as it won't be on Audible or iTunes for them I'm afraid.)
Download.
There are currently twenty-seven independent book stores plotted on
the Graveyard Book Halloween Parties map, and that number is still slowly growing. Check back periodically to find one near you, and then please go and support independent book sellers!
LiveJournal user "lysythe" plans to hand Mr. G a bag full of well-wishes in Singapore at his 1 November talk. If you wish to contribute your own, you may do so by replying to
this post on the "neil_gaiman" LJ community.
The Super Assistants Team-Up of Fabulous Lorraine and Beth have been
saving cats. If you would like to help, you should follow them on Twitter (
@fabulouslorrain /
@bethofalltrades) and await the next SOS.
I'd happily go to the mailbag at this point, in hopes of prolonging my blogging stay by playing "Mr. Answer Goblin", but no one has
written me recently.
Running for a plane....
Dear Neil,
I've been thinking about the Siegel & Shuster families regaining the rights to Superman, and it raised some questions to which I can't find ready answers and thought you might have.
(I'll use your works as illustrative points since you know what rights you have to your works.)
If a character is created by more than one artist (Superman by Siegel & Shuster, Tim Hunter by yourself & Mr. Bolton), do both artists or their estates have the right to separately sell licensing, merchandising rights, etc? Could the Siegel estate sell the rights to a Superman movie to Fox, the Shuster estate sell the rights to a Superman movie to Universal and DC still make films with Warner? Also, do you have the rights to just the characters, or do you have the rights to sell the stories you wrote for, say, "Sandman" or another serial owned by another person or company?
It bothers me that there might be a potential for a David Niven "Casino Royale" situation with other characters of whom I'm fond, especially the Man of Steel.
Cheers!
-Kerwin
I think you mean "Thunderball" not "Casino Royale" -- the problem with "Casino Royale" IIRC was simply that someone else owned the film rights,and used them to make a parody after the bond films had become successful. Thunderball was co-written (started out as a film treatment with someone else, which Fleming then novelised, and the someone else sued and established that they co-owned the copyright on the treatment) which allowed "Never Say Never Again", which has the same plot, to be made...
The short answer is, Yes you do. And it's not as simple as that, because there's trademarks and suchlike to consider, and most the comics examples you're pointing at are Work For Hire and owned by the company.
Look over the Posner decision (which is up at http://www.projectposner.org/case/2004/360F3d644/ -- the link from two days ago seems to have died.) If I feel like licensing out a Medieval Spawn comic -- or Medieval Spawn underpants -- I can. It's co-created, not work for hire, and co-owned.
If DC Comics wished to avoid future problems with Superman, I cannot help feeling that, seeing they knew what the law said, they should have done a sensible deal with the Shuster family in 1999, rather than forcing them to fight a nine-year law case. That was the Shusters go "Thenks for the money, of course everything will stay like it is," rather than, "Eww. You people are nasty. We'll go and talk to Marvel and Twentieth Century Fox" It's what I would have done, if I was DC and Warners anyway.
My assistant has just pointed out that I am leaving for a plane to Australia in 40 minutes and am blogging in pajamas so will I kindly back away from the keyboard...
Only time for a quick link to the Neverwhere circus-play at http://www.actorsgymnasium.com/site/epage/46772_314.htm If you get to it, send a review and I'll try and post it or link to it...
Off to airport. But first -- clothes!
LOL.. I think you've just sketched out how I'm feeling right now!!!
Great work!!! Congrats on the bus print!!! Funny story!