Posted on 05/02/2008 15:42:00
Hi, well here I am. Dave Sim. Sorry I'm late but I couldn't find my way around. This really does take some getting used to.
Anyway, some delayed information that I'm starting to figure out I need to say at the outset because the tide tends to get decided by the questions that come up (which so far I've been able to keep up with). I spoke with Stephen Holland at PAGE 45 this morning -- afternoon his time -- and told him it doesn't look as if I'll be able to make it to the big UK Bristol show this year, but I am definitely up for it next year. He sent me a bunch of questions to answer for his column in COMICS INTERNATIONAL so that's what I'm doing right now. Scheduled for issue 207 but I'm wondering if we can't get into 205 or maybe 206 since they've been delayed. Told Stephen I would fax him the answers and he can input them and send them over to new editor Mike Conroy (along with answers to Mr. Conroy's own questions) ASAP and electronically. No idea if that will make a difference in the schedule but a prestige spot like CI is worth turning cartwheels and backflips for. Congratulations to Mike on his appointment. I hope a new broom doesn't sweep ENTIRELY clean since we all owe a great debt to UK Uber Fan Dez Skinn going back at least a generation. Big shoes to fill.
I have a major correction to make to the inside front cover of glamourpuss No.1 where I've credited King Features Syndicate as the sole owners and worldwide exclusive rights holders to RIP KIRBY (and suggesting that someone contact them and make the $100 million RIP KIRBY film -- Spielberg or Scorcese hopefully). This was partly a preemptive strike because I'm copying RIP KIRBY panels while discussing the history of photorealism that Raymond initiated with the strip. Nothing actionable I hope but I thought acknowledgement might smooth any ruffled feathers.
Well, according to Tom Robert's new book, ALEX RAYMOND HIS LIFE AND TIMES, Raymond owned the RIP KIRBY strip.
Knock ME over with a feather. It turns out that because Raymond volunteered for military duty instead of being drafted (he was a shoo-in for a deferment as a morale booster at home) King Features wasn't obligated to hold his "position" open when he returned from the war -- his "position" of course, being the artist/writer/creator of FLASH GORDON and JUNGLE JIM. Raymond offered to buy the strip back from King Features and was, of course, rebuffed (an ancillary aspect of my own dictum "No company will ever pay you enough to sue them successfully").
To make a long story only slightly shorter, the agreement they came to was that Raymond would agree to create a new strip as long as he owned it.
Significantly, almost all RIP KIRBY collections have been "off-shore". Even the PACIFIC COMICS CLUB EDITION is evidently registered in Tahiti and marked as copyright 1950 King Features and copyright 1986 Pacific Comics Club. My Spanish translations are registered as copyright King Features and TM Hearst Holdings. Even more significantly, the ALEX RAYMOND HIS LIFE AND TIMES book has no copyright for RIP KIRBY on the indicia page although FG, Jungle Jim, Juliet Jones and others are registered as copyright KingFeatures.
Curioser and curioser.