Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons signed a shitty publishing contract for a creator-owned book, and given the general states of those sorts of contracts at the time, they thought they’d have the rights back a year after issue 12 hit the stands. It was instead successful beyond the wildest dreams of anyone involved.
(Incidentally, and this seems to be glossed over a lot these days, DC pissed off Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons originally because they started selling merchandise related to Watchmen, even though that wasn’t in the contract (if I remember correctly), and because they declared it was “promotional” and therefore Moore & Gibbons weren’t entitled to any of those profits. Rift created.)
Now there are spin-off books being released, and one of the original creators who feels taken advantage of by DC (and I happen to agree with that by the way, he’s been basically defiled by DC) doesn’t want anything to do with them. He feels that they’re being published by a company that does not ethically treat the people who work for it, and every inch he’s given them in the past has been taken for a mile.
A creator feels utterly mistreated by a corporation; the corporation is now making spin-offs of his original work and he is not okay with that.
You’re either okay with that or you’re not.
– Chris
Yeah, I don’t plan on buying these books.
We live in a golden age of media where a whole lot of the great stuff from years past in TV, Movies, Comics, Music and more is easily available. Plus there is some good new stuff as well. There is an overabundance of great entertainment available to us all.
So there is no reason to buy the stuff that goes against the wishes of a fucked over creator.
Very well said, sir.
“…they thought they’d have the rights back a year after issue 12 hit the stands… Incidentally, and this seems to be glossed over a lot these days…”
Yes, it does. A whole lot.
But then, I suppose that when you get down to it, “I want this and DC is giving me this and that grumpy old weirdo is not so he should just fucking shut up” doesn’t lend itself to a lot of nuance.
I assume the Beguiling will be carrying them, though?