The Answer Baby... answering those frequently asked Bissette-related questions! (Update July 4, 1999)

• Where is Tyrant® #5? Has the series been cancelled?
• Do you still recommend self-publishing one's own work? If so, what should I be mindful of?
• Will you ever draw Swamp Thing again? Will you, Alan Moore, and John Totleben work with the character again?
• Why would you even consider working for DC Comics again?
• Is it true you work at a video store?
• What's the story behind SpiderBaby Grafix, and why the weird name and logo?
• Appendix 1: More on Bissette and DC Comics

"Where is Tyrant® #5? Has the series been cancelled?"

Yes, Tyrant® has been cancelled. There are no plans to print collections or new work in the near future.

In brief: Publication of S.R. Bissette's Tyrant® has been suspended indefinitely, though work continues on the project. I hope to publish some or all of this completed work by 2001, but that will depend entirely on my own financial affairs and the state of the available markets.

Despite continuing listings in price guides, S.R. Bissette's Tyrant® #5 never saw print; to date, Tyrant® #4 was the last issue published. All prior solicitations and announced issues were cancelled two years ago.

Since #4 hit the shelves three years (!) ago, I have continued working on the series, completing the rough equivalent to three-four issues of Tyrant®. This body of new work -- which will constitute the rest of the chapter "Dreams and Bones" which began in #4 -- is almost complete. I have also begun work on a new chapter, "Daddy's Gone A-Hunting."

(For those of you interested in the creative process, "Dreams and Bones," like every Tyrant® chapter thus far, it has grown organically from the middle out; what I thought was the beginning of #5 two years ago is now the middle third of the chapter as it now exists, just as what I originally conceived of as Tyrant® #1 eventually became #3).

Tyrant®'s original format (i.e., 32 saddle-stitched black-and-white pages packaged exclusively for the comic book direct sales market) is a thing of the past. The comic book format is no longer a viable one for me, nor is the direct sales market. Though I have taken quite a beating on the comicon.com discussion boards for expressing this decision, no recent developments have altered my decision.

However, the new work will see print one day. Once completed, the new work will appear complete as a trade paperback graphic novel, and the comic book direct sales market will NOT be the primary marketplace in which it will be sold. Likewise, the Tyrant® trade paperback collecting the revised and corrected contents of #1-3 (the chapters "Knock Knock" and "Blood and Berries") will be targeted elsewhere, but it will be available to the comics market, in whatever form it still exists.

I apologize for the long hiatus and decision to cancel the series. No one aches for this work to see print more than I do. None of this has been easy to wrestle with, while I have had to direct considerable energies toward other projects to earn a living. But rest assured work continues, and will continue, on Tyrant®... and it will see print one day.

I appreciate the considerable tolerance, patience, and continued support and interest Tyrant® readers have demonstrated. I can promise that, once it sees print, it will still be the absolute best work I am capable of, and well worth the wait.

Keep your on eye on THIS TABLE for information.

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I still believe self-publishing to be the ideal means of self-expression in the comics medium -- however, the current state of the comics MARKET is decidedly inhospitable to self-publishing. The ongoing toll of the Diamond Exclusivity deals may indeed drive the final nails into the coffin. The internet has opened up seemingly endless possibilities, but the "Connect Sales Market" is still in its infancy.

In short, do what you can with the resources immediately available to you. Be realistic about assessing your work: is it salesworthy? Would YOU buy it? And if so, where would you look for it? Do not hold any expectations for selling through Diamond, do not count on the comics shops as such to support you. Give it your best shot, and proceed with caution.

The Direct Sales market is a playing field I recommend you steer clear of just yet... we all have to wait and see what's left once the dust settles. It may end up being a toxic crater; it may become a fertile field ready for a new growing season. This is a very delicate time, and one should not gamble with one's resources recklessly.

The relatively inexpensive option of self-publishing via photocopies and selling them via guerilla self-promotion on the net is a strong one. Then again, there are ways of covering a decent small print run on offset press for a thousand dollars or less. Just give the work itself your ALL; don't invest more money than you can afford to lose; and look at the effort as a brick in a foundation you are laying... and best of luck!

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Let me answer the second part of that question first: No. I am very sorry to say that it is highly unlikely you will ever see Alan Moore and I working together again in this lifetime.

As for the first part of the question, back in March I posted the answer here, "as of this update... it seems fair to say DC simply isn't interested in having me on board." However, I am working with DC again today. Thanks to the invitation and efforts of Neil Gaiman, John Totleben and I have reunited as penciller and inker to complete one more Swamp Thing story, a ten-pager Neil wrote back in the mid-1980s featuring Jack-In-The-Green, the Swamp Thing incarnation of Medieval Europe. The contract was signed in June, and I've completed half the pencils at the time of this writing. See the SpiderBaby News page for more information as it develops.

I parted ways with DC almost a decade ago, and fought hard for the creative rights DC habitually denied freelance creators at the time I'd worked with them. Since then, DC has responded to many of those issues, and the rights and benefits enjoyed by the current generation of creators (particularly those working under the Vertigo imprint) go a long way toward addressing many of the grievances that prompted my departure from DC. The Vertigo contracts aren't ideal, mind you, but at least the possibility of negotiating fairer terms exists today.

Responding to overtures from Vertigo in 1998, I proposed returning to SWAMP THING with as writer and possible penciller on a self-contained mini-series. I also proposed a project entitled "The Nukeface Manifesto," a follow-up to Alan's, John's and my two-parter "The Nukeface Papers," which would have featured a SWAMP THING cameo [For a limited time, these proposals are posted on the EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT... pages - SRB, 3/99]. John expressed some interest in the latter project, which sparked some tentative interest from DC. However, no further interest or activity followed, and the projects have been tabled.

Thanks to the invitation from Neil, and the weeks of negotiation with Vertigo founder, head honcho, and my primary editor on Saga of the Swamp Thing during the 1980s, Karen Berger, we have found enough common ground to reunite John and I for the Jack-In-The-Green tale. Only time will tell where we go from here.

(If you're interested in reading more on this topic, see Appendix 1 at the bottom of this page).

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Well, I can see where this would seem a pretty loaded question to some of you. It certainly is for me!

I parted ways with DC over a number of ethical and business issues. In the subsequent ten years, DC policies have come a long way in addressing some (but not all) of those ethical and business issues. Given the common ground that permitted the work currently being completed on Neil Gaiman's Jack-In-The-Green story (see answer above), if DC and I can negotiate terms and contracts both parties can live with, you may indeed see me working with DC again sometime in the future.

The particulars of many of the so-called "creator friendly" contracts offered by a number of publishers remain out of the public eye, but I've seen quite a few of them. The current Vertigo contracts I have had an opportunity to study and discuss are often quite fair. It would be interesting to test the waters (though self-publishing remains the ideal option in my mind, despite the toxicity of the current market conditions).

It is significant to me that many of the publishers who blow their own horns about "creator rights" have proven less than honorable in that regard. Though DC and I have our differences (and I've been pretty public in airing my grievances), the fact is that their current standard of doing business seems, in many cases, a cut above that demonstrated by the few remaining publishers open to new work. They have, at the very least, honored their contracts in regards to reprint fees and royalties, which is more than I can say for Heavy Metal, certain Image partners (and ex-partners), Dark Horse Comics, and others. There are precious few alternatives left for freelancers these days, and DC seems as viable an alternative as any other in the current scene.

[For more on this issue, see archival material posted at the bottom of this page - SRB, 3/99]

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This questions continued to pop up in the wake of a posting on Rich Johnston's "Ramblings '99" (http://www.twistandshoutcomics.com) earlier this year, which read: "Was that Steve Bissette one of our eagle-eyed readers saw working in a video store? Can anyone confirm this? And are there any other genius comic creators seen in their day jobs?"

Well, I can't speak for any other "genius comic creators" or their day jobs, but I can tell you about my own.

I've been a shareholder in a local Brattleboro, Vermont video superstore, First Run Video, since it opened its doors in 1991. Alan Goldstein, who used to own Moondance Comics (local comic shop and national mail-order venue), owns the joint, and we're excellent friends.

I've occasionally worked at First Run since then. I helped organize and showcase the store's original video library for the grand opening in November, 1991. While Rick Veitch and I were pencilling, editing, and packaging the 1963 series for Jim Valentino and the Image folks, working for peanuts in advance (against big returns on the royalties), I worked part-time at First Run as the advertising and marketing manager and stayed on in that position for almost three years. I was responsible for all the weekly newspaper ads, special events and promotions, and any and all marketing.

With the collapse of the direct sales market in 1997-98, I accepted Alan's standing invitation to return to work at First Run on a part-time basis.

With the current state of the market, I'm grateful to be back at First Run. I work as an assistant manager and buyer for two-three days a week. As a buyer, I work with Alan and First Run manager April Stage determining how many copies of which videos we'll be racking week to week. I have other duties, too, and actively participate in many of the store's promotions.

I'm thankful for the work these days, and it's the only way this freelancer has managed to gain any health insurance (a real nightmare for any self-employed creative person). It's also the only work environment hereabouts where my encyclopedic knowledge of arcane movie trivia is actually useful. I enjoy working with our customers, and I love the folks I'm working with.

The rest of the week, it's back to the keyboard and drawing board, though. As my college room mate Joe used to say, "See you in the funnies!"

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SpiderBaby Grafix and Publications was born in the fall of 1989, specifically to publish Taboo #1. Dave Sim, creator and self-publisher of Cerebus, was the midwife, and John Totleben (friend and fellow artist & co-plotter on Saga of the Swamp Thing) and Karen McKiel (at that time secretary and office manager at Sim's publishing company Aardvark Vanaheim) assisted.

Taboo had been initiated by John Totleben and myself for publication by Dave Sim's then-active publishing imprint Aardvark One International. By the time Taboo #1 was ready to see print after three years of hard work, Sim had decided to cease publishing the work of other creators and notified us of his decision to "pull the plug" on Aardvark One International. Dave was still willing to provide the finances and consultation necessary for Taboo #1 to see print, but nothing more.

At this critical juncture, John (who had no desire to handle publishing responsibilities) chose to leave the project. With the book ready to see print and another issue nearly completed, my wife Nancy O'Connor (now Marlene O'Connor; we are no longer married, but remain friends) and I chose to proceed, and SpiderBaby Grafix was formed.

Taboo #1 shipped in November of 1989.

SpiderBaby's name and logo emerged from a two-day brainstorming session Marlene and I had on our kitchen table in Marlboro, Vermont, overlooking a lovely view of the nearby swimming pond. She suggested my using or evoking my old nickname and comix "pen name" "Spider." While playing with the possibilities, I happened to glance at the TV screen while our children were watching a videocassette of The Camerman's Revenge, a vintage Ladislas Starevich stop-motion animated short peopled by insects. At that moment, a mother Stag Beetle was cradling her little infant beetle, and the name "Spider Baby" came to mind. I quickly sketched a grotesque variation of the Gerber babyfood trademarked baby on their labels. I drew a drooling baby with eight legs bristling from around its cherubic features, and we laughed like hell. SpiderBaby was born!

Though I was at the time aware of, and immediately savored, the association with Jack Hill's infamous low-budget black comedy Spider Baby, the name itself did not come from the film.

The original home-made SpiderBaby trademark logo appeared on the early issues of Taboo and much later on Tyrant® #1. In 1995, Mark Martin streamlined the logo to its present (and much more palatable) design.

Today, SpiderBaby Grafix is exclusively dedicated to self-publishing the work of its co-founder and current sole proprietor, Stephen R. Bissette.

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APPENDIX 1

______________________________________________________________________

More on Bissette and DC: Archival Notes

The following material is posted here for a limited time only for archival purposes.

Excerpts from the comicon.com Discussion Boards, Sept. 1998

The following excerpts were posted on the dates noted. If you wish to read the complete texts, they are still available on the archived "original comicon.com discussion board," as noted. These are relevant in that they reflect my moral concerns about working with DC in the current environment, though we recently reestablished enough common ground to contract work together on a Neil Gaiman story. Though I hope to continue nurturing a workable relationship with DC, I feel it is important to keep the moral issues on the table, and keep this material available for public consideration.

(Bissette posting on comicon.com discussion board:) “DC Do’s and Don’ts” (16:37 on 09.08.98), archived at (http://www.steveconley.com/adir/130.0.0.0.html)

This is a reply to Rick Veitch's request on the Wildstorm/DC thread that I discuss rumors of my possibly working with DC in the future. I don't wish to call inordinate attention to all this, but neither did I wish to digress too much from the considerable issues being discussed re: Wildstorm, which this hasn't a damned thing to do with that. But Rick tossed down a gauntlet, and I'm not going to ignore it! Here goes:

Yo, Rick. Thanks for responding. Tain't no secret I’m weighing my options with DC at this time -- check out the menu on my table ("frequently asked questions"). It's been posted there since August 1st, and I’ll update it once there’s real news one way or the other.

I don't wish to nurse or curse the situation here. To be honest, the rumor mill seems to be paying this more attention then either DC or myself, which is interesting in and of itself...

The reality is, Stuart Moore offered me something back in January. I said “No, thank you, but what're your deals these days?”, opening broader conversation on the many ethical and business issues that concern me. Karen Berger called back. In the midst of a pleasant conversation with Karen, I made a verbal pitch.

Another editor called. A little unproductive back and forth. I offered story properties as adaptations (in which I retain the rights to my original short stories). No response to date on that possibility.... [3/99 update: the DC editor of note never did respond, though copies of two stories were sent upon request - SRB]

They approached me, and I replied. As far as I can see, we're still tip-toing around one another, but I just don't know. They want me to do something, I need them to do something. For all I know, just discussing it here might kill it.

As you can well imagine, this is a real dilemma for me. As you said (in private conversation), Rick, I’m literally between a rock and a hard place, and there are no easy decisions here, other than the one to once again just walk away.

Here's some of the issues for me:

Years of not working with a company is far more than a gesture. For years, when editors called, I said no thank you. Many times, I was in dire financial need, but no way. I took a stand and held it, made my point, and have openly discussed it in the public arena.

On the other hand, I've made my point. You made (and, for a number of reasons, hold) your [position]. Alan made his point, and Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, and many others have benefitted. A generation of creators that followed in my generation's wake benefitted greatly from our work and battles.

And in the meantime, kingdoms rose and fell: First, Eclipse, Mirage, Tundra, Image... we drank at every well that presented itself, didn't we, Rick?

I publicly "buried the hatchet" with DC last year in San Diego at the awards. It was the proper time and place to do so. As I say, I've made my point, many times over.

Of late, sad to say, any sense of being part of a community taking a communal stand against all that DC once represented over creative ownership issues has been eroded to the point of meaninglessness.

I can't ignore the willingness of many to embrace business relations that provide short term income at the cost of many of the issues "we" fought to change. The ongoing Image scenario has proven how little the "community" grasped those issues, and how quick many are to sell themselves and their partners short.

As stated at my table, in light of the treatment afforded creators working with the "creator friendly publishers," DC's at least doing business as a known quantity. As the SWAMP THING reprints proved, they at least honor their contracts. The 1983 Work-for-hire standard with reprint rates was better than the SUPREME deal, as far as I can see.

Consider: Fantagraphics' laughable page rates and contracts [based on offers I received in the 1980s - SRB, 3/99], Dark Horse's "business as usual" lunacy, Kitchen Sink's ongoing fiscal troubles [this was written prior to KSP's collapse - SRB, 3/99], McFarlane's raw treatment of Neil Gaiman, Rob's usury treatment of you, Alan, and various and sundry (and you guys were TOP of the pigpile), Jim Lee's -- well, you know.

(The last honorable publisher I worked with in this industry was Jim Valentino, bless him. As I’ve stated elsewhere, if Jim Valentino had been the “godfather” on the 1963 Annual, too, I believe it would have been completed. Another tip of the hat to Jim Lee...)...

Truth to tell, Kevin Eastman and the whole HEAVY METAL CD-Rom fiasco was the last straw on a personal and professional level. HEAVY METAL was one of my FIRST pro gigs, meant a lot to me. In the broader arena, METAL represented the FIRST New York comics publishing firm to respect creator ownership of work. And Kevin wiped his ass with it. [For the complete text of my first HEAVY METAL release/contract, see Appendix 2, below.] If creator-ownership contracts that were drafted, signed, honored, and expired literally two decades ago can be so blithely reduced to mogul toilet-paper, there is no honor left in creator/publisher agreements (I repeat: As the SWAMP THING reprints proved, DC at least honors their contracts).

If you can't or won't self-publish a given project, you're going to deal with one devil or another.

If I'm even going to entertain working with a comic publisher (if any will have me), DC is a known quantity to me. I’ve no expectations. I'm not wearing any blinders, and as Tim Truman continues to point out, he and many of our peers have done some fine original work there. If nothing else, doing business with DC seems worth looking into, given SOME of the progress represented by the Vertigo/Helix contracts and deals.

And to be honest, barring a single clause I would NEVER agree to [point addressed below - SRB, 3/99], the Vertigo deal is intriguing. Whether it could weather genuine negotiation, there's only one way to find out.

Other concerns:

You know, there have been times when I've tried, I've really tried, to mend fences and find some common ground with DC. I dedicated much time in the distant past to preparing various proposals for DC, working with friends to prepare second and third draft proposals on request, script outlines, art, complete issue breakdowns, cover roughs, etc., all for naught. Before I finally embraced the self-publishing option, there was OCTOBER BLACK (with Jack Butterworth), GRUMM (w/Tom Veitch), ECLIPSO (w/Keith Giffen), LITTLE BROTHERS (w/Rick Hautala and Michael Zulli, who also completed a fullsized oil painting "cover sample" for this [accompanied by complete thumbnail layouts for 2 of the 4 proposed issues - SRB, 3/99]), etc., dating all the way back to a brief dance around Alan, John, and I discussing a DEMON miniseries (shot down by Matt Wagner's), a graphic novel adaptation of Stephen King's THE MIST (told we weren't boxoffice enough, "only Wrightson could sell that one"), and John and I bringing Clive Barker up to the office before THE BOOKS OF BLOOD saw print in the U.S. to see if we could interest DC in the three of us working together.

My files and folios brim with ambitious proposals presented to DC.

Nah, they didn' t want 'em, or me.

I'm not going down that road again. I'll need some indication beyond polite overtures. I've not had time or inclination to pour effort into lots of "I hope, I hope" proposals, nor will I, which may nip all this in the bud by attrition.

Every five or six years, the nagging reality of John (Totleben) and Tim (Truman) and Neil (Gaiman) being able to continue to work with DC prompts me to try, try again. "Bury the hatchet," friends tell me. I am accused of being narrow-minded, obstinate, that I need to wake up and realize they're just a company. Well, it's been six years. Last time, Veitch, Neil and Karen (Berger) actively disuaded me from even attempting it after just two days of delusional behavior.

I have NEVER villified Tim, Neil, John, or others for continuing to work with DC, nor will I. We each make our own paths, and live by the trails we cut or follow. But I have no doubt that my even CONSIDERING doing business with DC will send a few (well-deserved?) brickbats my way.

Other issues:

DC has a history of shooting themselves in the foot.... we'll see if I CAN do business with them at all today.

I also have to wonder if another “DC implosion” is imminent. The conditions are ripe, and I have vivid memories of the real human devastation the mid-1970s implosion caused (some of those impacted were our teachers at the Joe Kubert School -- many tears, many fears). I’ve no interest in any courtship ending in such disaster.

If DC and I are able to do business in today's marketplace, so be it.

If not, c'est la vie.

I'll carry on without them as easily as they've carried on without me.

As I say, time will tell.

Self-publishing is still the high road for me, and that alone may kill this dance. But in the current environment, I've few options to do comics that will see print anytime soon. I'll NEVER abandon self-publishing, but it isn't a viable option for me this year. I simply CANNOT AFFORD IT at this time. Maybe next year...

Which leads to my final point:

We musn’t forget the role DC played, is playing, and will continue to play in destroying the market in which self-publishing was once (two and a half short years ago!) a truly viable option.

We’ve all made our own deals with devils, reaped the benefits, paid the prices.

Can I really afford to do business with DC?

Can I afford not to?

Can I create comics with them?

Can I create comics (that will see print soon) without them?

So, there it is.

And where she stops, nobody knows.

________________

[The first response was posted 20:16 on 09.08.98; archived at: (http://www.steveconley.com/adir/130.1.0.0.html). It read as follows:]

From: Noel Savory:

JEEEEEZ man.

It's been such a long time since I've seen new work by you, right about now I wouldn't care if you were being published by the devil himself, just to see some new stuff.

____________

[The first pro response came from my old friend Rick Veitch, and was posted on 09.09.98; archived at: (http://www.steveconley.com/adir/130.2.1.1.html). As follows:]

Congratulations, Bissette, on defining the single most important and infuriating problem facing all freelancers wanting to do comics in this day and age. With markets crashing, publishers burning, retailers bailing and corporations aquiring, the options are fewer and further between for creative folks. And for creative folks with a moral sense of outrage at the business history of our art form, the choices are dwindling (unless of course one is ready, or forced by economic circumstances, to close their eyes and give up on the future of comics).

As someone who woke up last week to find out how quickly and efficiently this mad game of monopoly could insert me between the rockiest of rocks and the hardest of hard places, I certainly understand the conflicts Steve so eloquently speaks of.

What I am certain of is this: to rejoin the corrupt monopolists in any way is a short term strategy, since they have been in the process of eating their planting seed for years and are now carving up their own children. The direct sales market is coughing up blood and it won't matter who owns who when it finally gives up the ghost.

- Rick Veitch

________________________

[My first reply to above and subsequent comments addressed the clause in the Vertigo contracts which I objected to. My complete reply was posted on 09.09.98, and is archived at: (http://www.steveconley.com/adir/130.1.1.1.html). Here is the essential text:]

Trademark and copyright propriety and control are the vital issues, but since I'm being (however tentatively) courted, those didn't SEEM to be issues in the contracts I was offered and discussed....

No, my key objection was over a clause that, in effect, meant that (a) if all contracted work was completed and (b) accepted for publication by DC, but they (c) DID NOT actually publish the completed work within --- number of years, (d) all rights reverted to the creator(s) upon (e, and this is the kicker) RETURN OF ALL MONIES PAID.

Got that? You do the work, they accept the work, they sit on the work for -- years, and then, if you want it back, you pay them money.

No, no, no. That's completely ass-backward.

In the real world, that would be the time they pay the creator MORE money to extend their option, or they take a hike. It's bullshit, pure and simple. And if this is the deal breaker, so be it.

In the real world, these are called OPTIONS. In the real world, publishers, packagers, producers, studios pay OPTION $ to have access to a creative work/property for a clearly defined period of time.

If DC commissions and accepts the work for publication, and doesn't print it, that's an OPTION EXPIRED. They spent their money, the creator spent what then became HIS/HER money, and if DC for whatever reason drops the ball, tough shit. OPTION EXPIRED. Rights revert. Creator/author(s) keep all the money, and can go elsewhere with the completed work with no further legal entanglements with DC on that specific venture.

DC knows the game. They play it ALL THE TIME with the "big boys": Warner Books, Simon and Schuster, Hollywood.

When rights belong to the creator, Vertigo/DC is buying an OPTION to publish. That option should indeed have time constraints. If the option expires, NO FURTHER MONEY changes hands UNLESS DC wishes to pay more to renew their option. Got that? They should then PAY THE CREATOR to extend the option, or the deal's over.

That's how it works in the publishing world.

That's certainly how it works in Hollywood.

Only in comics (and perhaps only it DC's corner, still hedging their bets and commitments) are the creators expected to return money YEARS after the fact.

Have creators actually gone along with this bullshit? Have all the Vertigo contracts signed to date actually gone through with that clause in place? Tell me it isn't so, PLEASE.

So, that's the clause I was referring to. In the real world, it's OPTION being purchased, pure and simple. It's the one glimpse of the "old DC" I knew so well I saw peeking out of the contracts, still trying to keep the creative partner under their thumb through fiscal hanky-panky.

_____

[Much of the rest of thread (including a comment from Tim Truman, who declined to respond to any of the issues) was irrelevent. The only section of the thread with any further relevance involved a reply from writer Len Strazewski on 09.09.98; archived at: (http://www.steveconley.com/adir/130.2.1.3.html). Here's Len's message:]

On that topic and regarding that clause, I created a project for DC a bunch of years ago, received a pretty good advance and worked with an artist that DC hired to develop character sketches. After a couple of years, DC decided they really wouldn't ever publish it--even though they announced it in their preview stuff.

After a bit, an indy film producer friend offered to option it for a tiny amount of money (all he had), if I could get the rights back. When I inquired, I was told a lawyer would be in touch. Six months later, a staff attorney called to tell me that I would have to pay back the advance AND the fee DC paid the artist it hired for sketches.

I declined, impolitely.

- Len

___________________

(Here's my reply to Len, posted on 09.10.98; archived at: (http://www.steveconley.com/adir/130.2.1.9.html). Concluding:]

Len: Your painful case is a fine example of how this allows DC (and other companies who encumber development with legal ties you can rarely sever without payola) to invest minimally in a project, but then either be able to fish for option $ offering it to other media, or PREVENT the creator from doing so even eons down the road. In the meantime, DC has (and holds) a terribly inexpensive option on your concept under their terms.

Back in '86 or '87, I worked very briefly with a DC freelance writer on a project that was pitched to me BY DC as a "dinosaur comic." Excited by the possibilities, I spoke to the writer, put together some original character ideas and designs that were in tune with what the writer had described to me, and travelled (as always with DC, on my own dime) to New York for a pair of meetings.

I was first asked to SIGN a letter of agreement, assigning all rights to my drawings and concepts to DC. I declined, though a paltry check (which I'm sure I sorely needed) was offered in compensation. I was polite as all get out, saying I just wanted to see where the project went before signing anything. Fine.

That afternoon, it quickly became apparent my ideas, though considered interesting, had little application to the series which, in a matter of days between phone conversation and in-person meeting at the offices with the writer and prospective editor, had devolved into JUST ANOTHER GODDAMNED DC SUPERHERO SERIES.

"The first issue starts on an airplane, as a highjacker is confronted by our hero -- " the writer began, light years away from the compelling series concept he'd originally pitched. Yawn. I slipped my drawings (which were, thank God, still MY drawings) into my folio and fidgeted through the rest of the meeting.

There were still dinosaurs, I was told -- when the superbeings got excited or angry, they would metamorph into humanoid dinosaurs. Oh, but the lead character (originally a T. rex surrogate, and very dangerous -- sort of a DC spin on Wolverine) was no longer a carnivore, and would never harm anyone. They were SORT OF like dinosaurs, but benevolent.

I thanked everyone, said I'd think about it, and promptly bowed out of the mess. [P.S.: The writer was Cary Bates, and the series, ULTIMUS REX, never did come out - SRB, 3/99].

A year or two later, when Peter Laird approached me about working with him on a concept he had called COMMANDOSAURS, I dug out my sketches for that aborted DC venture. Pete liked what he saw, which led not only to my re-vamping his characters, but offering a whole stable of complementary "dark" saurian characters called the TERRORSAURS, based on those old proposal sketches.

We had fun working on COMMANDOSAURS before the TURTLE movie wave swept Peter far away from our plans. Years later, I was free and clear to sell the property back to Pete for a princely sum and royalties on any and all future dealings involving the characters.

A deal I would NOT have been free to cut at all if I'd signed that piece of paper at DC that afternoon in their offices when I sorely needed a few dollars.

Hey, we've all got short-term needs, most of them financial. But you've GOT to keep an eye on the long-term repurcussions.

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[End of Appendix 1]

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APPENDIX 2

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The Original HEAVY METAL Release/Contract

The following material is posted here for a limited time only for archival purposes.

To clarify the matter of the Jan. 1998 attempt by Kevin Eastman and HEAVY METAL's current management to produce and sell a CD-Rom set of the complete run of HEAVY METAL, I offer for your consideration the complete text of my first signed agreement with HEAVY METAL, dated 3/16/78.

As you can see, it is a very straightforward document, of historic interest not only for its relevance to the 1998 CD Rom matter, but representative of the first creator-ownership contracts ever offered by a New York City-based comics publisher. Since there was no non-disclosure agreement of any kind, and the contract had been completed and fully executed over two decades ago, its appearance herein does not represent a wrongful publication or transmission of the document.

Despite the attempts of the current HEAVY METAL management to evoke the controversial (and still untested) Tasini vs. The New York Times ruling of 1997, this contract makes it clear that HEAVY METAL had no rights to in any way reprint the work without prior negotiation and fair payment.

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[Complete contents of "Author's and Artist's Release" between HEAVY METAL, publisher, and Stephen R. Bissette, Author/Artist, dated March 16, 1978, with my name hand-written across the top:]

AUTHOR'S AND ARTIST'S RELEASE

The undersigned hereby grants to HEAVY METAL, one-time world magazine publication rights in the article/art work tentatively entitled "Colonization." The undersigned acknowledges receipt of full payment for such rights. The undersigned warrants originality, authorship, and ownership of the aforesaid article/art work, that it has not been heretofore published, and that its publication will not infringe upon any copyright, proprietary, or other rights.

Should at any time your work be selected for reproduction as a HEAVY METAL poster, you agree, unless a poster already exists of said work, that HEAVY METAL shall have the rights to said reproduction.

For such permission you shall be paid a royalty of 10% of all gross incomes derived by HEAVY METAL from the sale of this poster.

[This text is followed by my signature, the date, my then-current mailing address and phone number, and my social security number. This is followed by the hand-written note: "Payment enclosed: $100," and it is initialed "JS" (Julie Simmons). There were no attachments; this is the complete text. The one-page piece contracted for here was published in the Sept. 1978 issue of HEAVY METAL. - SRB, 7/4/99]

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[End of Appendix 2]

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