Creator's Bill of Rights

Creator's rights has long been a source of conflict in the American comics industry, going back to the medium's late 1930s origins. Creator-owned titles began to appear during the late-1960s underground comix movement, including the publishing collective Cartoonists Co-Op Press, and the Robert Crumb-led United Cartoon Workers of America. Similar movements began in the superhero genre with the mid-1970s creation of the short-lived company Atlas/Seaboard Comics.

During the 1970s, superstar artist Neal Adams was politically active in the industry, and attempted to unionize its creative community. In 1978, Adams helped form the Comics Creators Guild, which over three dozen comic-book writers and artists joined, including Cary Bates, Howard Chaykin, Chris Claremont, Steve Ditko, Michael Golden, Archie Goodwin, Paul Levitz, Bob McLeod, Frank Miller, Carl Potts, Marshall Rogers, Jim Shooter, Walt Simonson, Jim Starlin, Len Wein, and Marv Wolfman.[1][2]

Around this same period, industry legend Jack Kirby, co-creator of many of Marvel Comics' most popular characters, came into dispute with the company over the disappearance of original pages of artwork from some of his most famous and popular titles.[3] (Kirby had quit working for Marvel in 1979, angry over what he perceived as the company's mistreatment of him.)[4] Best-selling creators like Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and many other stars became vocal advocates for Kirby. Neal Adams also petitioned to have his Marvel originals returned, and the pair won their battle in 1987, when Marvel returned original artwork to him and Kirby, among others.[5][6] This decision helped lead to the modern industry's standard practice of returning original artwork to the artist, who can earn additional income from art sales to collectors.

Alan Moore himself became increasingly concerned at the lack of creator's rights in British comics.[7] In 1985, he noted that he had stopped working for all British publishers except IPC, publishers of 2000 AD, "purely for the reason that IPC so far have avoided lying to me, cheating me or generally treating me like shit."[7] He joined other British creators in decrying the wholesale relinquishing of all rights, and in 1986 stopped writing for 2000 AD as well.[8] Moore's outspoken opinions and principles, particularly on the subject of creator's rights and ownership, would see him burn bridges with a number of other publishers over the course of his career.[9]

Other creators' similar and repeated clashes with DC Comics,[10][11][12][13] First Comics,[14] and other publishers led to an industry-wide debate about the issue. On the other side, independent publishers of the early 1980s like Pacific Comics and Eclipse Comics were strong promoters of creator-owned properties; their enticement of popular creators (such as Kirby)[15] to their pages helped push the issue to the fore and put pressure on industry giants Marvel and DC. (In fact, in the fall of 1988, shortly before the signing of the Creator's Bill of Rights, DC revised the company's work-for-hire agreements to give more power to individual creators.)[16]

The impetus for the creation of the Bill was a dispute between publisher Dave Sim and Diamond Comics Distribution.[17] Sim was motivated to bring together the eventual signatories to the Bill by a 1987 incident surrounding The Puma Blues, a comic book published through his company Aardvark One International.[17][18] Sim had fallen into dispute with Diamond Comics Distribution over Sim's decision to sell directly to his readership instead of using Diamond to distribute the Cerebus graphic novel High Society.[17] By selling directly to readers and bypassing Diamond and other distributors, Sim made a profit of $100,000.[17] In response, Diamond National Account Representative Bill Schanes informed Sim: "If it is your intention to pick and choose which products you want distributors to carry, it should be our privilege to choose what we wish to distribute. Therefore, it is our feeling we should no longer carry and promote Puma Blues."[19] At that time, Diamond distributed an estimated 33% of the series' print run. (Ironically, Schanes had formerly been publisher of Pacific Comics, itself an extremely creator-friendly publisher.)

Sim soon enlisted the support of self-publishers, Mirage Studios founders, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, both of whom also used Diamond as a distributor.[17] Not including Eastman and Laird, ten of the eventual signatories to the Bill worked for Mirage, including Rick Veitch and Mark Martin. Signatories Gerhard and Michael Zulli worked for Sim. Signatories Richard Pini and Larry Marder were self-publishers. Sim hosted a creators' summit in the spring of 1988 where he spoke out about the issue of publishing and creator's rights.[20][21] Sim believed that if a consensus could be reached among creators at the summit, he could ethically justify bypassing Diamond and selling directly to readers of Cerebus.[17]

Through a series of meetings, in November 1988 a document was finalized at the "Northampton Summit," held in Northampton, Massachusetts, and signed by all in attendance. Scott McCloud was the principal author of the Bill;[22] other artists and writers participating in the Bill's creation included Sim, Steve Bissette, Larry Marder, Rick Veitch, Peter Laird, and Kevin Eastman. An early draft of the Bill was published in the July 1989 issue of The Comics Journal,[23] which had covered the issue thoroughly in its pages over the years.[24] The Bill's final draft was published in the September 1990 issue of The Comics Journal.[25]

According to Sim, the provision of the Bill that affirmed the creator’s right to choose the means of distributing his or her work "was the answer that I had been looking for when the process got started. I had the right to choose to sell the High Society trade paperback direct to my own readers. Kevin and Peter promptly published a hardcover of the complete Turtles and sold it direct to their readers, helping to reinforce the point—we have the right to do this."[17]

In the aftermath of the Summit, Diamond relented and continued to carry the Puma Blues. In the ensuing years, Sim continued to sell trade paperback collections of Cerebus, of which High Society was one of 16 eventual volumes, directly to readers via ads in Cerebus, Following Cerebus, and the trade paperback collections, until sometime during the publication of Following Cerebus prior to August 2005. Sim has now switched entirely to distribution of the trade paperbacks through the traditional retailers.[26]