In an interview given when X-Men Origins: Wolverine came out, Len Wein said he got more money in royalties for Lucius Fox appearing in Batman Begins than he got for Wolverine appearing in 3 movies and two animated series combined.
Think it had less to do with how WB worked with a comic company and more to do with Paul Levitz. During his tenure he seems to have gone out of his way to ensure artists and writers got paid for shows and movies featuring characters they created.
@@greggepstein1164 thats good stuff. You owe the original creators a thing or 2 about how created their beloved characters. Regardless certain movies/shows, they are still respected.
He did try to get a writer's credit for crazy man. The greatest character creation of the last 40 yrs..... he was right. You can see how they're trying to sue Lee and Kirby's estate. They were commissioned to make comic books and not hired to make a character like Bob Kane hired Bill Finger to write and draw a character called batman. So that dude is 100% right
Did he sign the paperwork? where I come from if a man agrees to sign the paperwork and shakes the hands then a man doesnt whine and beg for handouts when things dont come up in his favor.
Disney is really stingy for the amount they make but it was fox then not Disney. Which makes this statement weird? Didn’t disney just acquire fox recently after a few years? And this video is 8 years old? Has disney owned fox for that long already?
Everyone in the comments is complaining about how much money he made off of DC and shouldn't worry about Fox/Marvel. That's not the point. He made the character and he is completely entitled to royalty, if you make a character and a studio puts it in a movie, then the creator is entitled to royalty. That's how it works. Doesn't matter how much or if he made money through someone else (in fact that it's completely irrelevant to the entire situation.) It's all about principal.
That's not how it works. I'm certain there's a contract. Whatever it reads in that contract? is how it works! It's called business. Neal is, and always has been, a whiner!
@@thegamersgalaxy2855 He has a perfect right to whine! I bet that contract said absolutely nothing about them using his character in a tv show or movie! He wouldn't be saying anything about it if it did!
The same case Jim Starlin experienced regarding his royalty cheques he received from Batman v Superman'ss KGBeast character. He was paid handsomely by WB than in contrast to his Marvel creation Thanos, Drax, Gamora etc.. who were major players in the MCU. Screw these greedy corporations who's not compensating well these creatives.
His deal was renegotiated after this was publicized and he was given a much more generous payment by Marvel which Starlin described as 'fair'. Some other creators have been given apallingly low offers though. Neal Adams case here is totally off base though. Those movies were made by Fox and Marvel had no part of them.
its pretty obvious Disney/Marvel dont care about the comics in anyway. They disrespect the greats who made Marvel and bring in shitty scriptwriters to write a comic book..... absolute disconnect
For the kids who are unaware, Neal Adams basically invented the modern Batman. After the end of the campy 60s Batman TV show, sales numbers fell off a cliff and Batman was looking at cancellation. Adams was the one who transformed 60s Batman into the grim, rooftop-lurking, gothic noir anti-hero we think of today.
@@creativedoof As far as I know, the last time Bill Finger created anything for the Batman comic was 1961, long before Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil created the modern Batman.
@@NoJusticeNoPeace Finger worked out Bob Kane's early concepts and designs into some of the stuff that we know today. Heck, Finger wrote the first Joker story, designed the Bat Cave and Bat Mobile, and might have created Robin. As you mentioned, this was done in an earlier era for DC. Wizard magazine did a backstory about Finger some years ago. You might be able to find it online.
@@creativedoof I'm quite aware of what Bill Finger did. I was referring to the _modern_ Batman, which was reinvented by Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil. They went from the silly Silver Age Batman fighting robot dinosaurs on top of giant typewriters to the Batman we recognize today, all grim and squatting on gargoyle-strewn gothic rooftops in the rain.
@@smorre4004 but he created the winter soldier, a brand new concept and character and without its creation the winter soldier movie wouldn't have existed because bucky wasn't like that
@nexus169 Len wein wrote hulk 180-181 which is Wolverines first cameo and appearance. He also wrote giant size x men 1. Claremont started solo writing x men at 094.
R.I.P Neal Adams. He was my mentor during Junior High school. I wanted to be a comic book artist. He was running Continuity comics during that time. He was nice and very encouraging.
@@djo-dji6018 not any more or less greedy than as the Image founders that blasted Marvel/DC. Stop fan boying Todd did the EXACT same thing that he purported was done to him! Aka hypocrite!
He was actually being impishly modest when he claimed not to know why DC was better on this front. He's the reason they are. When the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie came out and Warners and DC swung into heavy promotion, Adams made a huge public stink over the fact that Superman's creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were living in poverty. DC threw a bunch of money at them to make the bad publicity go away and that established the precedent. Neal benefited from being a decent guy and trying to get help for other creators. There's a practical example of karma for you.
I believe DC went so far as to establish a pension of the two co-creators (but given their advanced age at that point I doubt they lived to cash too many checks).
Dc learned their lesson but marvel hasn't and im still in shock that jim starlin got paid more because of kgbeast appearing in bvs then thanos. Ps jerry siegel and joe shuster got were granted 20,000 dollars per year and health benefits after the whole ordeal. Just goes to show that Dc cares about its creators more then marvel
@@theminotaur8015 most of their movies are trash, all their live action shows are straight garbage, their comics don’t sell cause they’re garbage, in what way DO they have their shit together
I met him at Boston Comicon the same year I had breakfast with Stan Lee during his last East Coast appearance. There was no one in line at all. I spoke with him for a good 30 minutes. I had him sign the three pieces I bought and he looked at me like I had three heads when I asked him where I could get them authenticated. He laughed and pointed to his left as if he couldn't fathom why anyone would pay the extra fee just to prove it was from him. To meet him and Stan Lee on the same day was such a huge pleasure for me.
"where I could get them authenticated" A photo with you and him while he's signing the pieces would probably have been best, or even just his posing with the pieces and you. Those COA's don't mean crap IMHO. It's just paper. Photo proof is better. They even argue with signature authenticators and you don't know if the secretary or auto-writing machine drew that signature! The "official" Walt Disney font more likely came from clean signatures his secretary did for him! I gave up on this authentication stuff. I don't care if something is going to stay in my collection and I have a few signed things. Never had the pleasure of meeting Stan Lee in person (closest I ever got was at least 40ft across in a convention hall and he LOOKED tired to me and I didn't want to bug the poor guy!) or Neal Adams. With Stan Lee, his signature is so common that the comics are worth more without his signature marring the covers/art! A lot of collectors DO NOT want a creators signature covering the art! I had people sign inside trade paperbacks and hardcovers IN THE FRONT inside cover away from the artwork.
It's not the money, it's the acknowledgement. I'm pretty sure he didn't care how much he received from DC, it's the fact that he even got something to say that "Yes, we know you created Ra's, thanks, now here's something from us" is a big thing. Not getting the slightest bit of thank you is another.
The companies are impersonal and management doesn't care. Marvel has been run from the top by impersonal a-holes since the beginning. I imagine it's THE WORST management in place in the company's history now; their sales and the fact that Disney hands over a lot of editorial edicts geared towards the MCU is why their new product is so execrable now. Disney is very anti-creator and anti-royalty. The Mouse has always gamed the copyright system to benefit the corporation. There are multitudes of reasons why people avoid working for Disney unless they have to. And they own Marvel now and it's in the worst condition it's even been because of the ruthless Disney management!!! Martin Goodman screwed everybody who ever worked for Marvel while he owned the company. Most of the people who ran DC for decades were the same. DC became a better company for contract/work for hire after Jenette Kahn came on board in 1976. I know she gets a lot of flack from certain corners but honestly a lot of the better policies for creators came in play during her tenure; DC was more humane to contract workers when she was the head of the company. Paul Levitz (as much as I disagree with that publishers letter he signed a few years back) was good for many creators, too. Likewise, Jim Shooter during his decade or so at Marvel was MUCH better with work for hire than previous editors or any of his successors. Shooter understood that you had to give people incentives and you got better results from creators if you rewarded them financially (for higher sales) and provided basic benefits. All those things have been taken away from creators (working for Marvel) since Shooter was fired in 1987. At this point, I don't care if Marvel or DC fail. It's sad to say I haven't seen anything REALLY GOOD published by Marvel since the mid-1990s; nothing of consequence from DC since DC: The New Frontier was published. Marvel Comics is really inconsistent and generally terrible now. DC is no better and their work for hire are destroying the classic characters. Absolutely no editorial oversight over the shit DC is publishing now! The people running these companies have no passion for comics and don't care.
R.I.P. sir. It was an extreme pleasure being able to communicate with you through the years. I admire the work you did, not only for yourself but for others as well. You will and are being greatly missed.
Hey Marvel, pay the man. Or since you waited this long, how about paying his family. Bunch of jerks. I met Neal Adams once at San Diego Comic-Con, he gave me the best portfolio and life advice I have ever gotten. RIP.
“Maybe it’s Disney, huh?” Yes. It is because of Disney. They have a hard time doing right by people. They threw Johnny Depp to the wayside before he could prove his innocence. The only good things about Disney are Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni.
Lmao false, disney had nothing to do with those films, they were fox owned, and it was WB, ya know, the same company that owns DC films, that threw depp away like a used toilet roll for fantastic beasts, so before you rub your hate boner all over Disleys name plate and get off to it, look to every company and tell me they aren't all the same.
Xmen is a fox franchise, everyone is so sure they’re right. It’s not marvel. It’s fox. They never treated the xmen right, why would they treat it’s creators right?
Those X-men movies everyone is complaining about were made BY FOX. Disney wasn’t even in the picture (see what I did there?) back then. (Everyone so ready to jump down Disney's throat it’s kinda funny)
Ok cool. I was wrong on that point. I agree. Still doesn’t make what he’s saying any less true. Disney doesn’t pay their comic artists properly. They only pay out 5k to the artists. Yes, that’s $5K US Dollars. That’s how it’s been for over 10yrs. Nothings changed. While they rake in millions. Don’t try and defend Disney. They’re leeches.
I know this was a little bit before Infinity War, but remember hearing Jim Starlin talk once about how he made more in royalties from KGBeast being in Batman vs Superman than he did from Thanos or any of the Guardians in the MCU. I watched Batman v Superman, I didnt even know KGBeast was in it!
When he said "maybe it's Disney, I dont know?" Got me thinking. I think those x men movies were FOX before Disney bought it tho. But did jim Starlin get paid for thanos and a couple other characters he created?
@@SynthApprentice or jim starlin for thanos or David aja for hawkeye art style and that is a list of few known cases where they got screwed by marvel Disney (just to be fair with fox)
Pretty sure that's not how it works. It's the IP licensor (Marvel) the one that has to pay the royalties to the creators. As far as the licensee is concerned, those expenses are not for them to manage.
@@SynthApprentice That is what a "licensing" means. Fox didn't purchase the intellectual property wholesale (as that would make them the copyright owners and thus the ones that would have to pay royalties), they purchased the screen use of them in a specific licensing agreement (originally slated for about 20 yrs with renewals if memory serves). It wasn't the best deal for Marvel, but then again, going into bankrupcy meant they took what they could get. Also: F#$% them regardless. People seem to forget that the "house of ideas" was screwing their creators since day 1.
I met Neil at Emerald City Comic Con a few years ago. I asked him about working with Carmine Infantino (he and Robert Kaniger created the "Barry Silver Age Flash") and he had some "words" to say about him AND Julius Schwartz, the DC editor at the time. Very funny guy AND VERY talented....he is truly missed!!
Havok was in the films X-Men: First Class (2011), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), and X-Men: Apocalypse (2016). These three movies were distributed by 20th Century Fox.
True, but DC Comics didn't make the movies, Warner Brothers did. Marvel Comics licensed the movie rights to Fox. If the publisher of DC Comics could give Neal a royalty check, the publisher of Marvel Comics should have done the same. Neal should be complaining about Marvel Comics.
DC had the advantage of having Paul Levitz, who was a creator himself, in charge for about two decades. My understanding is that since he left DC hasn't been much better.
Havoc has only been in Fox produced films, has nothing to do with Disney. Fox was the studio making money off the X-men movies at the time, why would Disney or Marvel pay him for something they aren't even making money off of?
Neal created so much, not just specific characters (which is the only way you get paid, it seems) but he rejuvenated the aesthetics of comic book art. I chatted with him about the philosophy behind Rama Kushna and Deadman. Fascinating stuff.
Marvel will always stink when it comes to compensation of creators. And they still haven’t learned, it seems. It’s curious what happened to Havok in X-Men Apocalypse almost a year after this video is published.
Jim Shooter (1978 to 1988) Marvel editor in chief changed the game and gave the artist "bonus's" based on comic book sales for the books they worked on. Shooter created an incentive program that benefitted the creators....unknow if Marvel kept it in tact after they fired him. Hate Shooter all you want but he got the creators more money AND kept the character continuity in line! When they fired him in late 80's, Marvel threw ALL continuity out the window and its been a total $hit show ever since. Shooter DEMANDED continuity.
Dearly missed & he is absolutely right about everything mentioned in this video is true. And by the way, if you can find the podcast he did with Kevin Smith, I highly recommend listening to it as it explains how he helped the creators of Superman get their credits back.
@@abloshow91 If you've ever heard Adams talk about this stuff, you'd know for him there's no "co" involved. In his mind he plotted and drew all this stuff and then gave it to a scripter to just put in the dialogue. It doesn't make me mad particularly, but I can tell you Thomas isn't happy about the way Adams re-writes history.
The writers are NO WHERE near intricate to the frikin ARTIST. THESE ARE COMIC BOOK CHARACTERS. People kno what a comic book characters are right??? Its a frikin DRAWING! THATS HOW THEY WORK!!!
@@jrpipik that’s the Marvel method that was used during the 60s. He’s not re-writing history. A writer sometimes says something like bring me a story where the X-men fight some robots, and then the artist goes home, plots and pencils the whole thing, gives it to the writer, in this case, Roy Thomas, and he adds dialogue. That’s all they really did back then. The artist was basically the real writer.
Had to be between 1972-1974. I was in grade school. I bought my first Batman comic. You had me in the highlights as a little boy. You will when I take my last breath. I'll miss your gifts.
Warner Brothers/DC learned its lesson with Siegel & Shuster. The fans care about the creators and it's a cheap way to get good press. Disney/Marvel only cared about Stan Lee and the myth that he created everything in a vacuum.
I’m not surprised but it’s still so shocking. Use to be DC was notorious for not paying creators. Then once Marvel’s head got too big with their movies they became the cheap bastards.
Sadly, this is misinformation on the part of Mr. Adams (whose work I always loved). Those X-men movies that had Havok in them were not made by Marvel but actually 20th Century Fox. This probably explains why they didn't come forth with a royalty check.
It would be in Marvel's wheel house to pay the royalties. Fox paid Marvel an initial fee plus agreed to pay Marvel off the back end for the movie rights. Any additional fees, such as royalties would come from Marvel as owners of the property.
It's unbelievable, and shameful, how Marvel keeps ignoring its greatest artist and author. Literally a father not just to comics but to modern storytelling, they should print Kirby's name. In golden letters before 90% of their movies, they should honor his design cues... And instead they keep jerking their ignorant fans for money without a ounce of respect.
Marvel have always screwed over their Artists and the person to blame for that is Stan Lee, who stole more ideas from writers and then claimed all the credit for himself. Disgusting company all round.
It's all outright owned by Disney now. Disney does NOT want to pay royalties to any creators. Disney sets the budget for its subdivisions like LFL and Marvel. This includes what money they pay comics creators and the royalty cheeks. They are NOT honoring Marvel or Lucasfilm contracts signed before Disney bought out those two companies. At this moment, there's a class action lawsuit ongoing against Disney by creators who worked for LFL on licensed Star Wars projects (novels, games, comics, etc.) that Disney hasn't paid royalties on for years. The Head Mouseketeers have to be shamed publicly and sued in court before they honor royalty contracts! Individuals and other companies are reluctant to sue Disney because Disney employs the most ruthless lawyers in show business. If they don't win cases outright in court, the Disney lawyers drag the cases out for years and try to "outlive" litigants. DC/Warners did the same thing to the Siegels when they tried to get the Superman copyright back and outlasted Joan Siegel! Joan died a bitter woman and I don't think accomplished much to be frank. The Siegel daughter is very ill and with the Superman copyright about to become public domain for the original 1938 version there's no point (unless she wants to waste away what life she has left!) going after DC for the copyright anymore. She saw what happened to her parents and was warned by her half-brother (before he died) about this situation.
But Havoc hasn't appeared on Disney Marvel yet, iirc. Wasn't First class made when the mutants belonged to Fox? Why should Disney or Marvel comics send him money when they earned nothing from that movie? (Edit: I'm honestly curious, maybe they had to send him money and I'm unaware of whatever law that would apply)
They are starting to get smart about royalty checks, they basically Made Jim Shooter take a 10,000 check to avoid a future law suit. He said "So that means your making it into a movie then?" "They said we can't tell you that." He said, "I think you just did." But he was seriously pissed for getting Nothing for the characters that they created Specifically for that event, not to mention the Black Spider-Man suit! And that was Sony and Fox with Venom!
Always read your contract. The issue of character ownership and royalties was pretty clear in marvel contracts and that's why many creators and artists left in the 90s. Disney's contracts are the same, going so far as saying that even if they do not accept your work that they own the submission. You have to read your contract, always.
Before all you people jump on the DC is good to its comic book creators bandwagon look up the history of what they did to Jerry Siegel and Jole Schuster
With Disney/Marvel it's ALL about money....for THEM!! This is not the 1st time I've heard stories like this. Not a name dropper, so I won't mention them here, BUT they do treat their employees (for a lack of a better word) like crap, whereas DC, doesn't!! Just another reason I like DC vs. Marvel!!
Seems to me DC will probably surpass Marvel soon if they play their cards right, so Neal will have the last laugh, though it'll be a posthumous victory (we'll laugh in your stead, Neal Adams!)
Sounds like a lawsuit. Reminds me of the way Simon and Schuster were screwed over with the superman movie and how bill finger never got credit for Batman until a few years ago.
Not sure DC is all that much better. Remember Neal had to shame DC into giving Siegel and Shuster their due for creating Superman when the first big budget Superman movie came out? I miss this guy. Two of the greatest comic artists of all time died recently within months of each other (Neal Adams and George Perez). I suppose sooner or later everyone goes. I'm glad I got to meet Jack Kirby while he was alive.
What a moron you are! As are the people who gave you a thumbs up. It will never be "antiquated" to demand viable compensation from gigantic corporations, raking in billions of dollars, based upon the creations of these people. They are entitled to their fair slice of the cake. If you think otherwise, you are part of a huge problem.
I don't understand why the movie companies need to pay royalties at all. If the artist/creator was hired by the comic book company to create a character and were paid for their character then that's business done. Also at that point would the character then belong to the company and not the creator? That's how I understand it anyway.
@@revbleech Yeah. She was an odd one. She didn't believe in hand outs or government help but ended up on Medicaid and Social Security. And she was a big time atheist. Go figure.
Man back in the day I wanted to work for Marvel SO bad. All I drew was Guardians of the Galaxy, because I was (and still am) OBSESSED with anything that has to do with cosmic stuff. The main character of a comic I drew as a kid (now redoing), was an imaginary friend I created as a child and I had modeled him after a young Roy Batty of Blade Runner, and young Thouzer of Fist of the North Star, because I felt really bad for both of them as a kid lol. I later added a bit of Spider One, of Powerman 5000 (not the hair lol), into his design because in addition to being a soldier and Storm Wolf (space explorer faction), he was also the lead guitarist and vocalist to what is called a Strife Metal band, named "Ragnarok" (I loved that sword in Final Fantasy, and love Norse myth/culture) lol. When I was about 15, I started drawing him in ways I would have drawn Star Lord, if I worked on a GoG book. At this time Joe Madureira was my most favorite artist, next to Jim Lee (still is one, along with tons of Japanese artist like, Haruhiko Mikimoto and Tetsuya Nomura), and I LOVED how he drew Rogue looking so much like Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell! My mom showed someone from Marvel my work, they liked it, but told her I was too young, and that she really would need permission to show my stuff. I got bit by the game design bug later, and lost interest in wanting to do comics. Fast forward to 2018, I used drawings of my character to make him in Final Fantasy XV, and I started re-writing some of the story to the comic, though really got back into it last summer after being strongly encouraged to do so, after my friend passed. I was offered a job at Marvel this past winter... I said no thanks! (not in a rude way) But I do not like them today, they are an absolute mess (and I'm being nice). I am focused on my own project, and want to do my own thing. It also doesn't mean (especially to me), what it once did to work there today. I feel so bad for these guys, who don't get enough recognition they truly deserve, for their great contributions to Marvel. It was something I had also become afraid of after hearing stories like this when I was younger, mostly about stealing... On top of that, it must also be horrible seeing a character you created, be turned into something so unlike what you created, in both the current comics (yuck), and the films, which are fast turning into a mess as well.. If that happened to my character, who is very special to me, I would be beyond livid.
In an interview given when X-Men Origins: Wolverine came out, Len Wein said he got more money in royalties for Lucius Fox appearing in Batman Begins than he got for Wolverine appearing in 3 movies and two animated series combined.
Thank gawd for dc then
wow
WB owned DC longer. Their cinematic universe Maybe shit but they know their way how to work with comicbook company
Think it had less to do with how WB worked with a comic company and more to do with Paul Levitz. During his tenure he seems to have gone out of his way to ensure artists and writers got paid for shows and movies featuring characters they created.
@@greggepstein1164 thats good stuff. You owe the original creators a thing or 2 about how created their beloved characters. Regardless certain movies/shows, they are still respected.
R.I.P. Neal. You'll be missed.
He did try to get a writer's credit for crazy man. The greatest character creation of the last 40 yrs..... he was right. You can see how they're trying to sue Lee and Kirby's estate. They were commissioned to make comic books and not hired to make a character like Bob Kane hired Bill Finger to write and draw a character called batman. So that dude is 100% right
I didn't know he was dead until I read your post. :(
For a second there I thought Marvel put a hit on him...
Humpty Dumpty was pushed...BY WOODY!
He had TDS so no one will miss him.
"Maybe it's Disney."
Truer words have never been spoken, Mr Adams. May you rest in peace.
Nah, marvel’s been shit with royalties always. They’ve paid artist terribly since the ditko days (see: the marvel method).
Except it wasn't Disney. It was Fox who made First Class & Days of Future Past. 😆
Did he sign the paperwork?
where I come from if a man agrees to sign the paperwork and shakes the hands then a man doesnt whine and beg for handouts when things dont come up in his favor.
Disney didn’t make the movie that included havoc. Fox did.
Disney is really stingy for the amount they make but it was fox then not Disney. Which makes this statement weird? Didn’t disney just acquire fox recently after a few years? And this video is 8 years old? Has disney owned fox for that long already?
R.I.P Neal! Thank You for standing up for Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster! You are a Comic Book Legend!
Everyone in the comments is complaining about how much money he made off of DC and shouldn't worry about Fox/Marvel. That's not the point. He made the character and he is completely entitled to royalty, if you make a character and a studio puts it in a movie, then the creator is entitled to royalty. That's how it works. Doesn't matter how much or if he made money through someone else (in fact that it's completely irrelevant to the entire situation.) It's all about principal.
That's not how it works. I'm certain there's a contract. Whatever it reads in that contract? is how it works! It's called business. Neal is, and always has been, a whiner!
DC ripped off Siegel & Schuster until Neal got them $100K in royalties!
@@thegamersgalaxy2855 He has a perfect right to whine! I bet that contract said absolutely nothing about them using his character in a tv show or movie! He wouldn't be saying anything about it if it did!
But those movie rights were owned by fox at the time. Marvel had nothing to do with those movies. Fox should’ve sent him a check.
@Frank Cooper Neal always made damn sure he wasnt work for hire. He made a specific point of that.
The same case Jim Starlin experienced regarding his royalty cheques he received from Batman v Superman'ss KGBeast character. He was paid handsomely by WB than in contrast to his Marvel creation Thanos, Drax, Gamora etc.. who were major players in the MCU. Screw these greedy corporations who's not compensating well these creatives.
he said that he didn't even get a movie ticket for the first avengers movie, where thanos appears at the end
I can’t believe he got more from KGbeast than for Thanos, Drax, and Gamora.
Marvel is very disconnected
His deal was renegotiated after this was publicized and he was given a much more generous payment by Marvel which Starlin described as 'fair'. Some other creators have been given apallingly low offers though.
Neal Adams case here is totally off base though. Those movies were made by Fox and Marvel had no part of them.
its pretty obvious Disney/Marvel dont care about the comics in anyway. They disrespect the greats who made Marvel and bring in shitty scriptwriters to write a comic book..... absolute disconnect
For the kids who are unaware, Neal Adams basically invented the modern Batman. After the end of the campy 60s Batman TV show, sales numbers fell off a cliff and Batman was looking at cancellation. Adams was the one who transformed 60s Batman into the grim, rooftop-lurking, gothic noir anti-hero we think of today.
Bill Finger was also involved.
@@creativedoof As far as I know, the last time Bill Finger created anything for the Batman comic was 1961, long before Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil created the modern Batman.
@@NoJusticeNoPeace Finger worked out Bob Kane's early concepts and designs into some of the stuff that we know today.
Heck, Finger wrote the first Joker story, designed the Bat Cave and Bat Mobile, and might have created Robin. As you mentioned, this was done in an earlier era for DC.
Wizard magazine did a backstory about Finger some years ago. You might be able to find it online.
@@creativedoof I'm quite aware of what Bill Finger did. I was referring to the _modern_ Batman, which was reinvented by Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil. They went from the silly Silver Age Batman fighting robot dinosaurs on top of giant typewriters to the Batman we recognize today, all grim and squatting on gargoyle-strewn gothic rooftops in the rain.
Adams and Denny O'Niel reinvented Batman. It was a team effort, as are virtually all great stories and characters in comics.
Ed Brubaker made more from his cameo in the Winter Soldier movie than he did from creating the character
Bucky Barnes already existed. Granted, Brubaker reinvented him but it's considered a derivative
@@smorre4004 bootlicker
@@jorgequill I'm all for creator rights but Brubaker did not create Bucky Barnes. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby did
@@smorre4004 but he created the winter soldier, a brand new concept and character and without its creation the winter soldier movie wouldn't have existed because bucky wasn't like that
@@jorgequill it was work for hire though.
Len wein made more from Lucius fox appearances than Wolverine. Insane.
@nexus169 Len wein wrote hulk 180-181 which is Wolverines first cameo and appearance. He also wrote giant size x men 1.
Claremont started solo writing x men at 094.
"Maybe it's Disney" So prescient Mr. Adams so prescient. Godspeed and safe home Neal.
R.I.P Neal Adams. He was my mentor during Junior High school. I wanted to be a comic book artist. He was running Continuity comics during that time. He was nice and very encouraging.
SALUTE 2 A True Titan Of Comics
How are you doing now art wise?
This is why Todd Mcfarlane created Image!
So he could do the same thing to other creators. Read about why Neil Gaiman sued him.
And Neal created Continuity... not as successful but they made a lot of cool comics.. and way before Image.
@@joncarroll2040 Are you serious, do you know how much money McFarlane gave Gaiman for writing Spawn? My impression is Gaiman's just greedy.
Todd didn’t create Image, Rob did. and the first issues of Image Comics were published by Malibu (which also published Continuity)
@@djo-dji6018 not any more or less greedy than as the Image founders that blasted Marvel/DC. Stop fan boying Todd did the EXACT same thing that he purported was done to him! Aka hypocrite!
He was actually being impishly modest when he claimed not to know why DC was better on this front. He's the reason they are.
When the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie came out and Warners and DC swung into heavy promotion, Adams made a huge public stink over the fact that Superman's creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were living in poverty. DC threw a bunch of money at them to make the bad publicity go away and that established the precedent.
Neal benefited from being a decent guy and trying to get help for other creators. There's a practical example of karma for you.
I believe DC went so far as to establish a pension of the two co-creators (but given their advanced age at that point I doubt they lived to cash too many checks).
Dc learned their lesson but marvel hasn't and im still in shock that jim starlin got paid more because of kgbeast appearing in bvs then thanos. Ps jerry siegel and joe shuster got were granted 20,000 dollars per year and health benefits after the whole ordeal. Just goes to show that Dc cares about its creators more then marvel
@@hellfish3855 20k ? Lol wtf that's peanuts . MTA city bus gets more
@@Moodboard39 20 k back then was alot of money. If we adjust to inflation its like 50 or 40k a year with healthcare
Damn he was a nice guy and so so talented. He always had time for fans and up and coming creatives. He will be missed.
Damn right Neal !!! DC may not have their shit together in many ways but at least they did right by you !
How does DC not have it's shit together? They been making great movies, TV shows, and animation.
just because the DCEU Isn't as successful as the MCU (yet...) doesn't mean they don't have "their shit together"
@@NYvandal They have idiots who have no concept of how to release movies properly running the show. You fanboys can go whine to someone else.
@@theminotaur8015 most of their movies are trash, all their live action shows are straight garbage, their comics don’t sell cause they’re garbage, in what way DO they have their shit together
@@NYvandal Aren't dc comic sales at a all time low?
Rest in peace Neal the guy seemed like a genuine dude and a legend
I met him at Boston Comicon the same year I had breakfast with Stan Lee during his last East Coast appearance. There was no one in line at all. I spoke with him for a good 30 minutes. I had him sign the three pieces I bought and he looked at me like I had three heads when I asked him where I could get them authenticated. He laughed and pointed to his left as if he couldn't fathom why anyone would pay the extra fee just to prove it was from him. To meet him and Stan Lee on the same day was such a huge pleasure for me.
"where I could get them authenticated"
A photo with you and him while he's signing the pieces would probably have been best, or even just his posing with the pieces and you.
Those COA's don't mean crap IMHO. It's just paper. Photo proof is better.
They even argue with signature authenticators and you don't know if the secretary or auto-writing machine drew that signature! The "official" Walt Disney font more likely came from clean signatures his secretary did for him!
I gave up on this authentication stuff. I don't care if something is going to stay in my collection and I have a few signed things. Never had the pleasure of meeting Stan Lee in person (closest I ever got was at least 40ft across in a convention hall and he LOOKED tired to me and I didn't want to bug the poor guy!) or Neal Adams.
With Stan Lee, his signature is so common that the comics are worth more without his signature marring the covers/art! A lot of collectors DO NOT want a creators signature covering the art! I had people sign inside trade paperbacks and hardcovers IN THE FRONT inside cover away from the artwork.
It's not the money, it's the acknowledgement. I'm pretty sure he didn't care how much he received from DC, it's the fact that he even got something to say that "Yes, we know you created Ra's, thanks, now here's something from us" is a big thing. Not getting the slightest bit of thank you is another.
The companies are impersonal and management doesn't care.
Marvel has been run from the top by impersonal a-holes since the beginning. I imagine it's THE WORST management in place in the company's history now; their sales and the fact that Disney hands over a lot of editorial edicts geared towards the MCU is why their new product is so execrable now. Disney is very anti-creator and anti-royalty. The Mouse has always gamed the copyright system to benefit the corporation. There are multitudes of reasons why people avoid working for Disney unless they have to. And they own Marvel now and it's in the worst condition it's even been because of the ruthless Disney management!!!
Martin Goodman screwed everybody who ever worked for Marvel while he owned the company. Most of the people who ran DC for decades were the same.
DC became a better company for contract/work for hire after Jenette Kahn came on board in 1976. I know she gets a lot of flack from certain corners but honestly a lot of the better policies for creators came in play during her tenure; DC was more humane to contract workers when she was the head of the company. Paul Levitz (as much as I disagree with that publishers letter he signed a few years back) was good for many creators, too. Likewise, Jim Shooter during his decade or so at Marvel was MUCH better with work for hire than previous editors or any of his successors. Shooter understood that you had to give people incentives and you got better results from creators if you rewarded them financially (for higher sales) and provided basic benefits. All those things have been taken away from creators (working for Marvel) since Shooter was fired in 1987.
At this point, I don't care if Marvel or DC fail. It's sad to say I haven't seen anything REALLY GOOD published by Marvel since the mid-1990s; nothing of consequence from DC since DC: The New Frontier was published. Marvel Comics is really inconsistent and generally terrible now. DC is no better and their work for hire are destroying the classic characters. Absolutely no editorial oversight over the shit DC is publishing now! The people running these companies have no passion for comics and don't care.
R.I.P. sir. It was an extreme pleasure being able to communicate with you through the years. I admire the work you did, not only for yourself but for others as well. You will and are being greatly missed.
I was at a sci-fi con in Houston in 1979, and I actually got to look over Neal Adams' shoulder while he drew a picture of Batman for Dave Prowse!
The great neal Adams he was great and spot on
Hey Marvel, pay the man. Or since you waited this long, how about paying his family. Bunch of jerks. I met Neal Adams once at San Diego Comic-Con, he gave me the best portfolio and life advice I have ever gotten. RIP.
Those movies were made by Fox not by Marvel.
Thank you, Fox did all X-MEN movies.
“Maybe it’s Disney, huh?”
Yes. It is because of Disney. They have a hard time doing right by people. They threw Johnny Depp to the wayside before he could prove his innocence.
The only good things about Disney are Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni.
Lmao false, disney had nothing to do with those films, they were fox owned, and it was WB, ya know, the same company that owns DC films, that threw depp away like a used toilet roll for fantastic beasts, so before you rub your hate boner all over Disleys name plate and get off to it, look to every company and tell me they aren't all the same.
Hold your breath on that.....they are hold out only for the moment.
Xmen is a fox franchise, everyone is so sure they’re right. It’s not marvel. It’s fox. They never treated the xmen right, why would they treat it’s creators right?
Those X-men movies everyone is complaining about were made BY FOX.
Disney wasn’t even in the picture (see what I did there?) back then.
(Everyone so ready to jump down Disney's throat it’s kinda funny)
Ok cool. I was wrong on that point. I agree. Still doesn’t make what he’s saying any less true.
Disney doesn’t pay their comic artists properly. They only pay out 5k to the artists.
Yes, that’s $5K US Dollars. That’s how it’s been for over 10yrs. Nothings changed. While they rake in millions. Don’t try and defend Disney. They’re leeches.
R.I.P. I'm glad Warner is leaving AT&T. This was pre AT&T. I always loved DC more❤️. Disney the movie company always rubbed me the wrong way.
Damn shame. Smh. Marvel makes so much money too
Well, the CEO lol the rest just get there regular salaries .
@@Moodboard39 yea
To be half fair, those X-Men were done under FOX before they got bought up. Creators are still woefully under appreciated and severely underpaid.
Image or especially independent is the way to go. Much more money to be made.
I like Marvel, but prefer DC.
RIP Neil Adams.. you will be missed so much. and thank you for adding to my childhood making it for more fun.
I know this was a little bit before Infinity War, but remember hearing Jim Starlin talk once about how he made more in royalties from KGBeast being in Batman vs Superman than he did from Thanos or any of the Guardians in the MCU.
I watched Batman v Superman, I didnt even know KGBeast was in it!
When he said "maybe it's Disney, I dont know?" Got me thinking. I think those x men movies were FOX before Disney bought it tho. But did jim Starlin get paid for thanos and a couple other characters he created?
No, Jim didn’t get paid for Thanos at all. That’s why he left Marvel.
In fairness Havok was in the Fox films before the Marvel/Disney acquisition. RIP Neal.
Sure, but try telling Ed Brubaker the same thing about Winter Soldier.
@@SynthApprentice or jim starlin for thanos or David aja for hawkeye art style and that is a list of few known cases where they got screwed by marvel Disney (just to be fair with fox)
Pretty sure that's not how it works. It's the IP licensor (Marvel) the one that has to pay the royalties to the creators. As far as the licensee is concerned, those expenses are not for them to manage.
@@zovni There was no licensing. Marvel did not own the screen rights for X-Men. Fox bought the rights from them outright.
@@SynthApprentice That is what a "licensing" means. Fox didn't purchase the intellectual property wholesale (as that would make them the copyright owners and thus the ones that would have to pay royalties), they purchased the screen use of them in a specific licensing agreement (originally slated for about 20 yrs with renewals if memory serves). It wasn't the best deal for Marvel, but then again, going into bankrupcy meant they took what they could get.
Also: F#$% them regardless. People seem to forget that the "house of ideas" was screwing their creators since day 1.
Neal Adams is speaking for all of us.
I was mentally commenting, "It's Disney", when he said it a second later. That Rat... I mean Mouse will cut you in your sleep.
I met Neil at Emerald City Comic Con a few years ago. I asked him about working with Carmine Infantino (he and Robert Kaniger created the "Barry Silver Age Flash") and he had some "words" to say about him AND Julius Schwartz, the DC editor at the time. Very funny guy AND VERY talented....he is truly missed!!
i hate it when hosts try to be too quirky. it’s not an improv class, it’s an interview! let him talk! stop cutting people off!!
A true genius, and somebody always cared about other artists.
I'm confused. When I looked up Havok, I didn't see Mr. Adams listed among the creators. Can someone clarify for me plz?
Neal Adams a comic book legend that is missed.
Havok was in the films X-Men: First Class (2011), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), and X-Men: Apocalypse (2016). These three movies were distributed by 20th Century Fox.
I agree, however Marvel Studios & Disney didn't make those terrible X-Men movies. Those were FOX flicks.
True, but DC Comics didn't make the movies, Warner Brothers did. Marvel Comics licensed the movie rights to Fox. If the publisher of DC Comics could give Neal a royalty check, the publisher of Marvel Comics should have done the same. Neal should be complaining about Marvel Comics.
DC had the advantage of having Paul Levitz, who was a creator himself, in charge for about two decades. My understanding is that since he left DC hasn't been much better.
DC never stopped being the best. Marvel comics, and their movies, are just boring, kiddie trash.
"I don't know, maybe it's Disney." How right he was
Havoc has only been in Fox produced films, has nothing to do with Disney.
Fox was the studio making money off the X-men movies at the time, why would Disney or Marvel pay him for something they aren't even making money off of?
@Grant Johnson And yet Jim Starling didn’t get royalties for Thanos or other marvel characters. Nice way to deflect and defend the mouse.
Well technically….Neal didn’t create Havok, Arnold Drake and Don Heck did.
@FUTURE DCEUWARRIORZLIFE Havok was created by writer Arnold Drake and artist Don Heck, Havok first appeared in X-Men #54 (March 1969).
it's cause DC got hit with the superman lawsuits early. they learnt to do right sooner
It depends on who holds the copyright, kids. It's not automatic. Siegel and Shuster ended up broke, while Bob Kane did pretty well.
I agree with him. If I saw a character, that I had created, in a blockbuster film, I’d want a cut. That’s my creation they’re making money off of.
And if you were already paid then you would be out of luck.
Hopefully, Marvel does something nice for him now.
Such as what; mention him in the credits?
Bit useless for him, by now, don't you think?
@@navelpicker I was thinking for his family and his fans. We live through the memories of others. They should honor his memory.
@@ComicCollectorGeek I wouldn't hold my breath.
Neal created so much, not just specific characters (which is the only way you get paid, it seems) but he rejuvenated the aesthetics of comic book art. I chatted with him about the philosophy behind Rama Kushna and Deadman. Fascinating stuff.
..."I don't know, maybe its Disney"...he called it, no truer words ever spoken.
yet those movies were made by Fox before the Disney acquisition lol know your ish before you try to talk ish
Jim Starlin said the same thing about the recent MCU movies that all include characters and full storylines he wrote.
Marvel will always stink when it comes to compensation of creators. And they still haven’t learned, it seems.
It’s curious what happened to Havok in X-Men Apocalypse almost a year after this video is published.
Jim Shooter (1978 to 1988) Marvel editor in chief changed the game and gave the artist "bonus's" based on comic book sales for the books they worked on. Shooter created an incentive program that benefitted the creators....unknow if Marvel kept it in tact after they fired him. Hate Shooter all you want but he got the creators more money AND kept the character continuity in line! When they fired him in late 80's, Marvel threw ALL continuity out the window and its been a total $hit show ever since. Shooter DEMANDED continuity.
Marvel is trash in every aspect.
I hope this issue got straightened out.
Dearly missed & he is absolutely right about everything mentioned in this video is true. And by the way, if you can find the podcast he did with Kevin Smith, I highly recommend listening to it as it explains how he helped the creators of Superman get their credits back.
Love Neal Adams! What a celebrity and legend. Miss this man and his soulful Batman. What a giant he was.
Typically, Adams says, "I created Havok," and "I created Ras al Ghul," completely leaving writers Roy Thomas and Denny O'Neil out of the equation.
Don't forget Jules Schwartz. He created the concept of Ra's Al Ghul and named him.
You mad cause he missed out. The prefix "co-"
@@abloshow91 If you've ever heard Adams talk about this stuff, you'd know for him there's no "co" involved. In his mind he plotted and drew all this stuff and then gave it to a scripter to just put in the dialogue. It doesn't make me mad particularly, but I can tell you Thomas isn't happy about the way Adams re-writes history.
The writers are NO WHERE near intricate to the frikin ARTIST. THESE ARE COMIC BOOK CHARACTERS. People kno what a comic book characters are right??? Its a frikin DRAWING! THATS HOW THEY WORK!!!
@@jrpipik that’s the Marvel method that was used during the 60s. He’s not re-writing history. A writer sometimes says something like bring me a story where the X-men fight some robots, and then the artist goes home, plots and pencils the whole thing, gives it to the writer, in this case, Roy Thomas, and he adds dialogue. That’s all they really did back then. The artist was basically the real writer.
I met him once. We talked for about 10 minutes about Batman art across the decades. He was a genuinely nice person. R.I.P.
Greatest artist of all time...for real
Had to be between 1972-1974. I was in grade school. I bought my first Batman comic. You had me in the highlights as a little boy. You will when I take my last breath. I'll miss your gifts.
Stan Lee took his royalty check. And credit for most of what the artists contributed.
Marvel didn't pay anything to Joe Kelly for America Chavez if i remember correctly.
Warner Brothers/DC learned its lesson with Siegel & Shuster. The fans care about the creators and it's a cheap way to get good press. Disney/Marvel only cared about Stan Lee and the myth that he created everything in a vacuum.
Marvel is very well known for treating their creators like trash.
I went to his signing and not only was he a jerk but his wife was a greedier jerk as well.
Yeah, DC is so much better.
Not like they stole Superman from the creators, or screwed Bill Finger out of Bat-Man Credit
They acknowledged what was wrong and did right by it, even it was several decades late
@@pauliegambino7832 they didnt acknowledge shit, they got cornered by adams until they conceded
I’m not surprised but it’s still so shocking. Use to be DC was notorious for not paying creators. Then once Marvel’s head got too big with their movies they became the cheap bastards.
Sadly, this is misinformation on the part of Mr. Adams (whose work I always loved). Those X-men movies that had Havok in them were not made by Marvel but actually 20th Century Fox. This probably explains why they didn't come forth with a royalty check.
It would be in Marvel's wheel house to pay the royalties. Fox paid Marvel an initial fee plus agreed to pay Marvel off the back end for the movie rights. Any additional fees, such as royalties would come from Marvel as owners of the property.
Best Batman, Green Lantern and Green Arrow artist in my opinion.
Had he been paid royalties, Marvel would have been paying Jack Kirby's estate a thousand fold.
It's unbelievable, and shameful, how Marvel keeps ignoring its greatest artist and author. Literally a father not just to comics but to modern storytelling, they should print Kirby's name. In golden letters before 90% of their movies, they should honor his design cues... And instead they keep jerking their ignorant fans for money without a ounce of respect.
Sadly both companies have screwed creators for decades.
As a kid Havok was one of my fave X-Men characters. Salutes to Mr. Adams and his many works!
Marvel have always screwed over their Artists and the person to blame for that is Stan Lee, who stole more ideas from writers and then claimed all the credit for himself. Disgusting company all round.
RIP Neal but fox owned xmen rights he would not of gotten a check from marvel
They paid marvel and marvel is suppose to pay Neal
They only owned movie rights
It's all outright owned by Disney now.
Disney does NOT want to pay royalties to any creators.
Disney sets the budget for its subdivisions like LFL and Marvel. This includes what money they pay comics creators and the royalty cheeks.
They are NOT honoring Marvel or Lucasfilm contracts signed before Disney bought out those two companies. At this moment, there's a class action lawsuit ongoing against Disney by creators who worked for LFL on licensed Star Wars projects (novels, games, comics, etc.) that Disney hasn't paid royalties on for years.
The Head Mouseketeers have to be shamed publicly and sued in court before they honor royalty contracts!
Individuals and other companies are reluctant to sue Disney because Disney employs the most ruthless lawyers in show business. If they don't win cases outright in court, the Disney lawyers drag the cases out for years and try to "outlive" litigants.
DC/Warners did the same thing to the Siegels when they tried to get the Superman copyright back and outlasted Joan Siegel! Joan died a bitter woman and I don't think accomplished much to be frank. The Siegel daughter is very ill and with the Superman copyright about to become public domain for the original 1938 version there's no point (unless she wants to waste away what life she has left!) going after DC for the copyright anymore. She saw what happened to her parents and was warned by her half-brother (before he died) about this situation.
It feels, for me, he's kinda joking. RIP.
I remember Jim Starlin posting on facebook about getting more money for KGBeast than for Thanos, Gamora and Drax combined!
Havok was Fox pre buy out right?
But Havoc hasn't appeared on Disney Marvel yet, iirc.
Wasn't First class made when the mutants belonged to Fox? Why should Disney or Marvel comics send him money when they earned nothing from that movie?
(Edit: I'm honestly curious, maybe they had to send him money and I'm unaware of whatever law that would apply)
A comic book owner who once met John Byrne told me he wasn’t very nice to fans back in the day.
Wasn't Havoc used by Fox?
They are starting to get smart about royalty checks, they basically Made Jim Shooter take a 10,000 check to avoid a future law suit. He said "So that means your making it into a movie then?" "They said we can't tell you that." He said, "I think you just did." But he was seriously pissed for getting Nothing for the characters that they created Specifically for that event, not to mention the Black Spider-Man suit! And that was Sony and Fox with Venom!
Always read your contract. The issue of character ownership and royalties was pretty clear in marvel contracts and that's why many creators and artists left in the 90s. Disney's contracts are the same, going so far as saying that even if they do not accept your work that they own the submission. You have to read your contract, always.
Before all you people jump on the DC is good to its comic book creators bandwagon look up the history of what they did to Jerry Siegel and Jole Schuster
I know that story.
DC was good paying royalties to Neal Adams and Marvel treated him bad.
Have a nice day
I meet him he was awesome
Wasn't Havok a 21st century Fox property when they put Havoc in?
SALUTE TO ONE OF THE KINGS 🤴 One Of My Favorite Artists In My Early Years 🖤🖤🖤
This man deserved every dollar for his work.
With Disney/Marvel it's ALL about money....for THEM!! This is not the 1st time I've heard stories like this. Not a name dropper, so I won't mention them here, BUT they do treat their employees (for a lack of a better word) like crap, whereas DC, doesn't!! Just another reason I like DC vs. Marvel!!
Seems to me DC will probably surpass Marvel soon if they play their cards right, so Neal will have the last laugh, though it'll be a posthumous victory (we'll laugh in your stead, Neal Adams!)
Well we will see
If they aren't contractually obliged to pay him royalties, why should they?
Because, They Didn't Want To Give Creators, A Bigger Piece Of The Pie! SELLING TO DISNEY, WASN'T THE SMARTEST MOVE, TO BEGIN WITH!!
Sounds like a lawsuit. Reminds me of the way Simon and Schuster were screwed over with the superman movie and how bill finger never got credit for Batman until a few years ago.
What a guy! You will be missed.
Love Neal Adams!
Not sure DC is all that much better. Remember Neal had to shame DC into giving Siegel and Shuster their due for creating Superman when the first big budget Superman movie came out? I miss this guy. Two of the greatest comic artists of all time died recently within months of each other (Neal Adams and George Perez). I suppose sooner or later everyone goes. I'm glad I got to meet Jack Kirby while he was alive.
The compensation and credit for these works are so antiquated. I hate hearing how these guys have any problems.
What a moron you are! As are the people who gave you a thumbs up.
It will never be "antiquated" to demand viable compensation from gigantic corporations, raking in billions of dollars, based upon the creations of these people.
They are entitled to their fair slice of the cake.
If you think otherwise, you are part of a huge problem.
R.I.P. Glad I got to meet him.
Marvel took Gary Friedrich to court and he was already bankrupt
I have new respect for Warner now.
I don't understand why the movie companies need to pay royalties at all. If the artist/creator was hired by the comic book company to create a character and were paid for their character then that's business done. Also at that point would the character then belong to the company and not the creator? That's how I understand it anyway.
I wonder if Jack Kirby's ghost haunts Marvel's offices? And Steve Ditko's as well?
Ditko's ghost is too busy going down on Ayn Rand's ghost
@@revbleech Yeah. She was an odd one. She didn't believe in hand outs or government help but ended up on Medicaid and Social Security. And she was a big time atheist. Go figure.
Man back in the day I wanted to work for Marvel SO bad. All I drew was Guardians of the Galaxy, because I was (and still am) OBSESSED with anything that has to do with cosmic stuff. The main character of a comic I drew as a kid (now redoing), was an imaginary friend I created as a child and I had modeled him after a young Roy Batty of Blade Runner, and young Thouzer of Fist of the North Star, because I felt really bad for both of them as a kid lol. I later added a bit of Spider One, of Powerman 5000 (not the hair lol), into his design because in addition to being a soldier and Storm Wolf (space explorer faction), he was also the lead guitarist and vocalist to what is called a Strife Metal band, named "Ragnarok" (I loved that sword in Final Fantasy, and love Norse myth/culture) lol. When I was about 15, I started drawing him in ways I would have drawn Star Lord, if I worked on a GoG book.
At this time Joe Madureira was my most favorite artist, next to Jim Lee (still is one, along with tons of Japanese artist like, Haruhiko Mikimoto and Tetsuya Nomura), and I LOVED how he drew Rogue looking so much like Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell! My mom showed someone from Marvel my work, they liked it, but told her I was too young, and that she really would need permission to show my stuff. I got bit by the game design bug later, and lost interest in wanting to do comics. Fast forward to 2018, I used drawings of my character to make him in Final Fantasy XV, and I started re-writing some of the story to the comic, though really got back into it last summer after being strongly encouraged to do so, after my friend passed. I was offered a job at Marvel this past winter... I said no thanks! (not in a rude way) But I do not like them today, they are an absolute mess (and I'm being nice). I am focused on my own project, and want to do my own thing. It also doesn't mean (especially to me), what it once did to work there today.
I feel so bad for these guys, who don't get enough recognition they truly deserve, for their great contributions to Marvel. It was something I had also become afraid of after hearing stories like this when I was younger, mostly about stealing... On top of that, it must also be horrible seeing a character you created, be turned into something so unlike what you created, in both the current comics (yuck), and the films, which are fast turning into a mess as well.. If that happened to my character, who is very special to me, I would be beyond livid.
Garbage