Post by Kevin Hamilton on Apr 28, 2007 1:25:08 GMT -5
In 1938, That's how much money Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster sold the copyright, trademark, publishing rights, and total control over their creation for.
Those of you who aren't comics geeks may be saying " well Slim, in the thirties a hundred and thirty bucks was a decent chunk of change". Maybe so, untill you consider a) who they sold to and b) what the creation was.
The a) part is DC comics, what was then to be and for DECADES the number one publisher of comics on the planet untill a lil company called Marvel was finally able to knock 'em off the mountain for awhile, and of course now depending on what month it is, DC and Marvel vie back and forth for comics supremacy.
The same DC Comics that is under the umbrella of Time Warner, making a mint with comics, movies, theme parks, cartoons, and merchandise of all sorts.
Which brings us to b) the character without who there would likely be no comics industry. A slice of Americana, billions of dollars worth of revenue, movies, cartoons, toys, ad infinitum, the standard by which all future characters would have to judged, odds are you strapped a towel on and pretended to be this guy at some point in your life because you know b) as the Man of Tommorow, the Man of Steel, the Last Son of Krypton, that Strange Visitor from Another Planet, able to leap tall buildings at a single bound, while posing as mild mannered reporter Clark Kent, Kal-El, yes you know b) by the name he's known worldwide-
Superman.
In 1938, to make ends meet, Siegel and Shuster sold their creation to DC Comics. For a hundred and thirty bucks.
Think about it.
Those of you who aren't comics geeks may be saying " well Slim, in the thirties a hundred and thirty bucks was a decent chunk of change". Maybe so, untill you consider a) who they sold to and b) what the creation was.
The a) part is DC comics, what was then to be and for DECADES the number one publisher of comics on the planet untill a lil company called Marvel was finally able to knock 'em off the mountain for awhile, and of course now depending on what month it is, DC and Marvel vie back and forth for comics supremacy.
The same DC Comics that is under the umbrella of Time Warner, making a mint with comics, movies, theme parks, cartoons, and merchandise of all sorts.
Which brings us to b) the character without who there would likely be no comics industry. A slice of Americana, billions of dollars worth of revenue, movies, cartoons, toys, ad infinitum, the standard by which all future characters would have to judged, odds are you strapped a towel on and pretended to be this guy at some point in your life because you know b) as the Man of Tommorow, the Man of Steel, the Last Son of Krypton, that Strange Visitor from Another Planet, able to leap tall buildings at a single bound, while posing as mild mannered reporter Clark Kent, Kal-El, yes you know b) by the name he's known worldwide-
Superman.
In 1938, to make ends meet, Siegel and Shuster sold their creation to DC Comics. For a hundred and thirty bucks.
Think about it.