Okay, so it was announced at ComicCon this year that Marvel had finally, officially, legally purchased the rights to Miracleman/Marvelman from the creator.
Which opens up a whole lot of possibilities - I think that the ones that everyone’s most excited about are reprints of the Moore & Gaiman issues, and the publication of Gaiman’s issues 25+.
I, also, am planning to lobby anyone I need to lobby over in Marvel’s merchandising arm to make a limited edition, sterling silver Bates necklace. Because I want one, and I am not skilled enough at jewelerycraft to make my own, and I am willing to pay insane amounts of money for it.
Also, I want to be a Bates for halloween. And I can’t do that without a necklace, can I? No.
That’s what I’d been thinking, but it seems perhaps not. There’s an interview with Alan Moore here (Part 2 here) from last month, where he reveals that he’s been speaking to Gaiman’s lawyer about an upcoming Marvelman collection from Marvel, and that he’s happy for it to go ahead (so long as his name’s not on it, of course ;)), because it means Neil gets to finish his story, and Mick Anglo finally gets some money.
He also goes into some detail about the rights issue vis-à-vis Dez Skinn, and his opinion on the current state of American comics in general (you’ve been warned).
It’s Moore who doesn’t want his name on it. Basically, his standard position on commercial exploitations of his work that he disapproves of for whatever reason, but can’t contractually prevent (like the movies, for instance), is to insist his name is removed and that any money that would have been due to him goes to another of the creators – Mick Anglo in this instance, apparently.
I should note that this includes pretty much every movie adaptation, every reprint from a major company, etcetera, etcetera. Mister Moore is both eccentric and British. And also very picky. I approve, as a general rule.
So do I, for the most part. Some of his disagreements (with Marvel, for instance) seem a little petty, but that’s from an outsider’s perspective – I don’t know all the ins and outs from his point of view. On the whole, though, he just seems to have a perfectly reasonable (IMHO) reluctance to work with people who lie to him, or about him, or otherwise rip him off. He was quite content with the film adaptations, for instance, until the LXG lawsuit fiasco.
I think he perhaps appears a bit more eccentric than he actually is, with his appearance, and that ménage à trois situation he had at one time, and his being a magician worshipping a second-century hand puppet.
OK, that is a little eccentric, I’ll give you that.
