Monday, May 11, 2009

Miracleman Redux: the penultimate chapter

I've been following the Miracleman saga for some time now, both with posts in appreciation of the work that was done on the character, and interesting tidbits of news that have popped up over the years regarding the ongoing rights battle (and this one has a badass Totleben sketchbook piece with it), so here, in the interests of completeness, is one more bit, from the UK's Forbidden Planet website interview of Mr. Moore:
I mean, other than the fact that I was happy to do everything that I could to help Mick Anglo, who is the person who has always owned all of the rights to Marvelman, as far as I now understand it, that we never had the rights to do those stories, even though Mick really liked the stories that we did. We didn’t understand at the time that Mick Anglo was the sole owner of the rights. We were misled. So I’ve done everything that I can to clear all that up. I’ve said that, they talked about the possibility – what they want is money quickly, because Mick’s a very old man, he’s got a sick wife to look after, and they could use some dosh quite quickly.

I mean, I believe that the Todd McFarlane thing, his ridiculous claims to the character have now been dropped, so it can move on. I believe that they’re going to be reprinting some of my stuff, but I’m not sure of all the details, I’ve just said, “Yeah, go ahead,” and all the money from the first book, from the first printing of the book, should go to Mick Anglo. They’ve also said that what if there’s a possibility of some animated Marvelman cartoons, and I’ve said, again, “Don’t put me name on them, and give all the money to Mick Anglo.” So I hope that some of it turns up in time to do Mick some good, because he’s a great artist, you know, the British comics scene would be poorer without him, and I’m making great use of Captain Universe – oh, I’ve given it away!

Yes, Mr. Moore has created a Miracleman stand-in in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which, no doubt, will be created and handled with the same verve and delightful lack of respect that he has accorded to many of the other figures that have popped up in the League books. (Edit on 20 May 2009: I have been corrected by the interviewer below in the comments section about this, so my apologies for misreading and misreporting this.)

But what is great is that Mick Angelo being alive and being, hopefully without dispute, the sole owner of the rights is literally the only possible solution to the Gordonian Knot (howabout that for a Watchmen reference?) that the Miracleman rights had become.

Here it is: its all his. Every creator out there that worked on the series: you got your page rate, and you get no reprint rates out of the goodness of your heart and it all goes to Mick and his heirs in perpetuity. Give the man something. I want my hardcover edition of the Miracleman saga and I'll pay for it up front to give Angelo the money. Get it reprinted and out there. And if it sells well enough, see if Gaiman and Buckingham want to finish their run on the title.

This is likely the best ending to this that i could have imagined. Lets hope that it sticks. Any lawsuits by Dez Skinn and I'm going to go punch someone out.

7 comments:

Alex Sheikman said...

Charles,

Enjoyed your post about Direct Market. Very interesting.

Hope you will find some time to stop by at SuperCon. I am not sure how the tables will be assigned, but I am sharing a table with Norman Felchle so it should be listed either under my name or his name. Hope to see you there!

Best,
Alex-

Kit said...

"This is likely the best ending to this that i could have imagined. Lets hope that it sticks."

You're a couple of months late - Anglo sold his entire interest to a Glaswegian bloke last year for four thousand quid. Said bloke is now trying to sell movie rights.

Anonymous said...

Hi. I did that interview with Alan, and he definitely isn't using a Miracleman stand-in in LoEG. He's actually referring to Captain Universe, another Mick Anglo character, as becomes clear later in the interview.

inkdestroyedmybrush said...

slovobooks - my apologies for misreading and misrepresenting your interview here. I've made a corrective note above in the text as well. Thanks for pointing that out.

Dez Skinn said...

Why should I want any lawsuits? I only brought the character back 'cos I owed Mick one from 12 years earlier (almost wish I'd gone on Plan B, given the kerfuffle which followed). Gossip's fun, assumptions less so, and facts are nice every once in a while. Mick was happy, so we went with Plan A. Moore would have written it for free, but I figured even a newcomer who wrote the first script on spec deserved the same deal as my more established contributors (on their own strips in Warrior). Sure, I advanced him dosh, but the guy wasn't earning much back then and had a family to support. But this kind of stuff never gets reported on, does it?

Rick said...

It would be nice if you could spell Anglo's name correctly!

Anonymous said...

Hello Charles, I referenced this link in my blog in an article about Miracleman. Given your interest I thought you might want to check it out.
“Whatever Happened to the Man of Miracles?”