Alan Moore talks Mr. A and Steve Ditko

[David Swan]

Here are a pair of great videos

 

Alan Moore

 

Ditko himself

 

See more journals by David Swan

[SW3D]

Thanks for sharing the YouTube links.

 

It's sad to hear Alan Moore allude the notion that Ditko lived at times just above the poverty line while Marvel racked in the big bucks on his co-creations.

 

I don't think we comic readers truly understand nor appreciate the daily frustrations of writers and artists who help their publishers achieve profit while they themselves languish financially to eventually fade into obscurity.

 

There are plenty of artists and legends who come to mind.

 

I guess this is the way of a fuedal society... seems like all of America is caught in its grip!

 

George Carlin once said: "The American Dream... You Have to Be Asleep to Believe It!"

 

The world and its good citizens could use some real heroes now.

 

SW3d

[SW3D]

Dear David,

 

I saw the rest of the 7 parts of the BBC interview.

 

A bevy of who who's appear in the doc: Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Mark Millar, Joe Quesada, Stan Lee, and the legendary Batman artist and the Joker Creator... Ditko's artistic mentor Jerry Robinson.

 

My favorite part is when Ross and Gaiman arrive to Ditko's Manhattan studio's to see the recluse himself. That was funny.

 

Thanks for sharing this.

 

I have even greater respect for Ditko!

 

SW3D

[biggblaster]

Your posts inspired me to also watch the video clips. That being said do you think that Stan Lee is wealthy? And if so what do you think it is from? To clarify, was it his comic book contributions, was it his upper management and directional abilities, or was it his ability to go after whatever he needed to go after? I personally think it was and still is his willingness to do the work and to speak up for himself. That is not to say other creators do not have a right to some credit but they do not really go about it full force. You also have to look at the history of work. If you look at Ditko, he seemed to have had ample opportunity to “create” more legends but they never really panned out. Even Alan Moore, who I do love, has not really done more than re-envision other people’s creations. That is not a shot at him because he really did an amazing job at it, nothing like anyone else, but Watchmen, Swamp Thing, and Batman obviously were already there for his manipulations. While we are on the subject, how about Chris Claremont, he is a creator that does not really get enough credit for what he has done. Which is shape the way modern comic book stories are told. He along with John Byrne created an X-Men book and format that had paved the way for the next 30 years or so of comic book story telling. I know this post jumps around a little, and I also wish some of these creators maybe should get a little more for what they do, but I also understand that there are agreements that are made beforehand that both parties usually enter willingly.

[David Swan]

Ditko's situation may be somewhat one of his own making. Imagine working with someone whose ideal is Mr. A. Ditko's uncompromising black and white views are much better in theory than in practice. I loved Alan Moore's bewilderment and The Creeper saying that his only super power appeared to be his ability to laugh at will. Shade the Changing man just didn't go anywhere. Ditko may have appealed to a niche audience but he just wasn't going to have mass appeal in his later years.

[SW3D]

Dear BB,

 

Stan Lee's current net worth is $200 Million Dollars.

 

In my book he is wealthy!

 

How much is Steve Ditko worth? You would think after co-creating Spider-Man, creating Dr. Strange, The Question, The Creeper, Hawk and Dove, Mr. A... All characters that have survived from the 60's... he should be very well off.

 

Did Jack Kirby get his fair share?

 

Did Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel get there fair share for Superman?

 

By the way... V for Vendetta, From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Watchmen are some of the greatest creations ever to grace a four-color page. Alan Moore has done more to ligitimize comics since Lee/Kirby and Lee/Ditko. I cannot think of anyone who can trump him. Neither Gaiman, Frank Miller, Kirkman, McFarlane, or Mignola can come close to him.

 

I personally don't hold any negative feelings towards Stan Lee... i don't know the man... but if i was as lucky and privileged as he was to work with such outstanding talent... i would share the money and the glory with them. That's just who i am.

 

One day... if i am lucky... maybe i will make it. And if my visions make it to fruition with the help of others... i plan to compensate them properly.

 

SW3D

[David Swan]

The creations of Alan Moore are huge. Top 10, Tom Strong, just about every character in the America's Best Comics lineup. Alan Moore really is the greatest ever.

 

I'm not sure I would agree that Mr. A has survived until today. Ditko occasionally uses the character but Ditko is getting pretty old at this point and I don't see anyone else with any desire to use the character.

[biggblaster]

Hi Screenwriter,

You seem to dance around what I have said and not specifically answer the questions that I have posted. I do not know when Stan Lee became wealthy but I think it was long after he was creating characters. I remember when Marvel was bankrupt and even later when Stan was suing for some kind of royalties. I do not know the particulars so it may not be accurate but why didn’t others do the same thing? Again, though I must say that these people entered into an agreement willingly. You work for a company, you produce some kind of material, and you get paid for it. I know this really isn’t quite the same but I make sheet metal for a living and install it. I get paid pretty well for my talents on a job that not everyone could do. That being said when the homeowner makes a home run down the line and sell for a high profit, I do not go back and say I had a hand in this I want some of that profit or when the business I am working for becomes rich later say I made the company, I want more The time for that is during the good years. So when some of these characters then became larger than life more money and creative control should have been fought for then. Look at the image guys. They knew their art and some of their ideas was the real driving force behind how much Marvel was making in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and guess what, they did something about it. They didn’t say we want part of Spiderman or the X-men, they took the big risk and started their own company and became millionaires (most of them anyway) for it. About Alan Moore, I am not taking anything away from him and his writing or what he has done for the medium but that is not what we are discussing. We are discussing creator rights and control. On almost everything you mentioned of his he did not create it. He revamped someone else’s creations. For that matter he is a hypocrite, complaining when others manipulate or expand on his work which is what he did prior to them. Again I want to say all of these creators have had other outlets and media attention that may have garnered them the money they were looking for. How about their artwork? Wouldn’t and doesn’t Kirby and Ditko original art go for crazy money? Shouldn’t they have kept it with this foresight in mind? They may well have I do not know. Jim Starlin signed a cover for me and said it was his first cover of so and so and that he had it hanging his wall until he sold it. I, of course asked, why did you sell it? He said it became worth more than the walls it was hanging on.

 

[biggblaster]

Hi David,

Tom Strong may or may not be great, as well as all of his other actual creations, but they do not stack up with, in terms of recognize-ability and profits that Watchmen and the others do. And that is my point, Moore has had, and still does have, his chance to create whatever he wants and make a fortune off of it. His Watchmen characters are not his. They are copies of Charlton characters and other before that. Obviously Mr. A as well. He should not receive any right to them any more than someone who wrote an elseword or what if story. He did not take any of the financial risk involved in these stories and was still paid even if the story would have been a flop.

 

[David Swan]

The Warchmen characters were theoretically based on Charlton heroes but we only know that because it's been admitted. Once he found out that the Charlton characters were unavailable he made the Watchmen his own. Dr. Manhatten is nothing like Captain Atom and although Rorschach was inspired by The Question and Mr. A the differences are huge and Rorschach in my opinion was a much more interesting character. The Comedian is unrecognizable as Peacemaker as are most of the Watchmen. If you read the Charlton stories you'll see had dramatically different the characters are.

 

The reason Alan Moore stopped working for DC was because he was promised the rights to the Watchmen and DC used a little chicanery to keep control. Later, they offered Moore the rights to the Watchmen if he would do a story but he declined saying he no longer had interest in the rights. As far as I'm concerned the Watchmen were entirely created by Alan Moore regardless of who legally owns the rights.

 

As for Tom Strong he doesn't have the name recognition of Watchmen or hundreds of other characters but he was still an Alan Moore creation and his stories are brilliant. If you haven't read them you should. Top 10 also is a fantastic series. Perhaps the funniest I have ever read. As if Alan Moore was scary talented enough he's also perhaps the funniest comic writer ever.