A long discussion over on The Beat about the ethics of carrying Before Watchmen.
Alan Moore feels that he was screwed by DC with his original contract, and has been very vocal about DC using the characters that he invented to make money. Especially, The Watchmen. He had his name removed from the movie, for instance.
So there are a few comic shops that are actually refusing to carry the title.
There is also the long history of both DC and Marvel more or less leaving the creators of their money-making titles out of the financial loop. Jack Kirby, being the prime example -- a co-creator with Stan Lee on most of the major characters. (Especially pertinent right now, The Avengers.)
As a retailer, I have to make decisions all the time about what to carry and what not to carry. Certainly, if I believe a comic company has acted badly, it weighs into my decision.
But if were to try to cut every title where the creator was treated unfairly, I wouldn't have a store. Going all the way back the Siegel and Shuster, the creators of Superman, and then on to Jack Kirby, and then Alan Moore. But really, if you get right down to it, just about every company character ever created has made money for the corporations that was not shared with the creators. They signed work for hire contracts, but more to the point probably never expected that one day, a Billion Dollar Movie would be made of the Avengers. A lowly comic book.
I also feel an obligation to my customers. It isn't up to me to make the buying decisions for them. Sure, when I make choices of what to carry and what not to carry, I'm making that decision -- but in the case of a major title, something that will be sold just about everywhere and which will be in the media, it would be a pretty arbitrary decision for me not to carry the product.
I feel badly for Alan Moore, but don't feel that I can decide not to carry what might be one of the most significant events of the year.
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3 comments:
Sorry I missed the BEER&WATER debate in Bend, .. let's continue this debate.
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Good water is required, that's why its in Tumalo, Washington.
PDX has good bull run water.
The deschutes water is not that good for beer.
Water is essential for beer HBM, that said UK beer is famous for hits high salt content water making brackish beers.
Your all forgetting the Suterra was DUMPING nerve toxins for years into the soil and the lead from bullet house near the brewery. The fact is nothing about Bend is good.
All the golf courses get their 100's of 1,000's of gallons a day from the ground water and that is drying up quick under ground, like everywhere the water table is going down.
Deschutes was FIRST a restarurant, gary fish never knew a fucking thing about making beer, it was an after thought, then when they got to Big they opened the new plant next to Suterra toxic waste site, where it is now, and Suterra moved their buildings to juniper-ridge but all the soil around that area is toxic from years of producing cyanide based nerve gas for the DOD.
I wonder how much Alan Moore paid to Bob Kane after his run on Batman?
Surely Moore understands the irony of him making money on someone else's character while complaining about this.
Oh wait, he's crazy.
I'm sorry, but look at the medium here. There have been many, many writers on most characters. This isn't Image, so why would Moore expect to be treated special?
Did Alan Moore create the characters? Are they revisions of the Charleton Comics characters that he was hired to do a treatment to?
Nothing is ever simple.
Brett
Heroes Haven
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