Who Owns Superman? The Sad Story of Superman Creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created "Superman" for DC Comics in 1939.
Unfortunately for them, the common practice in the comic book industry at that time was for comic creators to sign away all rights to their characters. In their case, DC bought the rights to their creation for $130, and they became staff members paid $10 per comic book page even after "Action Comics", the first Superman comic book sold out immediately as did following issues year after year. By 1948, they were only making $35 a page.
Of course, Superman went on to become a character known all over the world, and a mega-franchise spawning hit movies, television series, cartoons, and even a Broadway musical. And then there's their "Superboy" character and the currently successful television series "Smallville."
In 1948, Siegel and Shuster sued DC for the rights to the Superman character. They lost in court, but then settled for less than $100,000. This settlement was for the Superboy character not the Superman character.
Before Jerry Siegel was drafted into the Army for World War II, he had given DC pages of the first Superboy comics. While he was in service, DC published Superboy in 1943 and they never compensated the two men.
Although writer Jerry Siegel continued to work in the comic book industry, his partner artist Joe Shuster couldn't find work because he had become legally blind.
The two men continued litigation against the comic book giant until the late 1970s when Warner Communications, the owner of DC at that time, decided to settle. They granted Siegel and Shuster a lifetime salary of $20,000 annually. Of course, this act wasn't out of the goodness of their heart. Warner was about to make the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie.
As of 2004, the Superman franchise was worth at least $1 billion.
In 1999, the family of Jerry Siegel sued DC Comics to terminate their exclusive copyright ownership of the Superboy character, another Siegel and Shuster creation. And in 2004, they sued DC to terminate their exclusive ownership of the Superboy character. In 2006, the court decided in the Siegel family's favor regarding ownership of the Superboy character. As of 2007, there had yet to be a family settlement with DC on Superman.
After the success of the first Superman movie, Warner Communications put "Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster" on the credits of every following Superman movie.
SOURCES:
"The Ongoing Struggle for Ownership of Superman and Superboy", Michael Dean, The Comics Journal, URL: (http://www.tcj.com/263/n_marketable.html)
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0795975/bio
http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=S26
"Up, Up and Awaaay!", Otto Friedrich, Time, URL: (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,966978-1,00.html)
"Inside the Superboy copyright decision", Heidi McDonald, Publishers Weekly, URL: (http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6323787.html)
Published by Elliot Feldman
I'm a veteran television writer (Match Game, Hollywood Squares) and cartoonist (Los Angeles Reader) I've also written for online versions of Jeopardy and Trivial Pursuit. View profile
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4 Comments
Post a CommentYeh mon. Sometimes ya gotta carry kryptonite in your back pocket.
I AM THE HOLY SPIRIT, I AM SUPERMAN AND I AM COMING FOR YOU ALL:
This is one of the saddest stories that I've read in a long time. Just think about this 2 Jewish kids came up with a concept that almost revials the story of Jesus The Christ.
The Superman symbol is the reconized symbol on the planet with the exception of the Cross. But the ideal that a man can have that much power and compassion to do the right time in a world that has done so much wrong to each other and mankind is very sad.
I remember D.C. comics print their respects to both creators of Superman when they passed away. Unfortantely D.C. omitted the part where they beat those guys out of millions of dollars. Now they've both passed on and D.C. has no more worries about anybody coming after them for the money they so wrongfully robbed the creators of one of the greatest supreheroes of all time.
Way to go D.C. comics you've disappointed me with the evil that your company performed with the cunning of Lex Luther and the ruthlessness of Darkseid. or the trickery of the Brainiac.
Great article. Sad story. Being writers and artists, many go into it for love of creation and doing what they want to. This is best since there are so many stories of loss for the writer or artist, like this one. It hard to be wise when you want to get paid now...so true. You usually end up fighting for more money owed to you, since it is so hard to predict what will be a blockbuster. I enjoyed reading this. Very intereresting. :-)