Posted in: Comics | Tagged: clifford meth, comic book babylon, Comics, Dave Cockrum, entertainment, marvel, Marvel Comics, neal adams, x-men

Comic Book Babylon Launches Today, Ten Years After Dave Cockrum Settlement

Ten years ago, Marvel Comics settled all rights arguments with X-Men artist Dave Cockrum and his characters Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus and more, in a deal negotiated by Clifford Meth and Neal Adams, while Cockrum was in a hospital bed.

Today, Meth's publisher Aardwolf Publishing is putting out Comic Book Babylon about that legal battle and many others. Meth says,

"Behind the scenes of their imaginative creations, writers and artists fight a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and an equitable share of the profits denied to them by their publishers. Although we'd hoped to set a precedent, what artist Neal Adams did for the creators of Superman in the 1980s, and what Neal and I brought back for the Cockrums in 2004, were anomalies."

I'm not so sure if that's quite so true any more. Marvel do seem to have done a deal with Bill Mantlo over his co-creation of Rocket Raccoon and his very expensive healthcare needs. And even Gary Friedrich manages to have garnered a settlement out of Marvel over the co-creation of Ghost Rider. But it's still a drop in the ocean.

Stan Lee provides an introduction and is the subject of an extended interview in the book, as well as  interviewes with Alan Moore, Frank Miller and Harlan Ellison. The book is illustrated by Neal Adams' old studio mate Michael Netzer.

I'm looking forward to discover everything I don't know…

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