Creator-owned Comics
In the United States, creator ownership in comics is an arrangement in which the comic book creator retains full ownership of the material, regardless of whether the work is self-published or published by a corporate publisher. In some fields of publishing, such as fiction writing, creator ownership has historically been standard. In other fields—such as comics, recorded music, or motion pictures—creator ownership has traditionally been uncommon, with either work for hire or publisher purchase of the material being standard practice. This article traces the changing standards of the comic book industry. History Early twentieth century In 1906, Richard F. Outcault took his creation ''Buster Brown'' from the ''New York Herald'' to the ''New York American''. Outcault had not applied for a copyright to Buster Brown, but asserted a "common-law title"—what comics historian Don Markstein asserted is one of the earliest claims to creators' rights. The court decided the ''Herald ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City. Paleo-Americ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gilbert Shelton
Gilbert Shelton (born May 31, 1940) is an American cartoonist and a key member of the underground comix movement. He is the creator of the iconic underground characters ''The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'', '' Fat Freddy's Cat'', and ''Wonder Wart-Hog''. Biography Early life and education Shelton was born in Houston, Texas. He graduated from Lamar High School in Houston. He attended Washington and Lee University, Texas A&M University, and the University of Texas at Austin, where he received his bachelor's degree in the social sciences in 1961. His early cartoons were published in the University of Texas' humor magazine ''The Texas Ranger''. Early career Directly after graduation, Shelton moved to New York City and got a job editing automotive magazines, where he would sneak his drawings into print. Early work of his was published in Warren Publishing's ''Help!'' The idea for the character of ''Wonder Wart-Hog'', a porcine parody of Superman, came to him in 1961. The foll ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Young Lust (comics)
''Young Lust'' was an underground comix anthology published sporadically from 1970 to 1993. The title, which parodied 1950s romance comics such as '' Young Love'', was noted for its explicit depictions of sex. Unlike many other sex-fueled underground comix, ''Young Lust'' was generally not perceived as misogynistic. Founding editors Bill Griffith and Jay Kinney gradually morphed the title into a satire of societal mores. According to Kinney, ''Young Lust'' "became one of the top three best-selling underground comix, along with ''Zap Comix'' and ''The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers''". ''Young Lust'' featured an all-star lineup of underground, and later alternative, cartoonists. Besides Griffith and Kinney, other frequent contributors included Justin Green, Roger Brand, Spain Rodriguez, Diane Noomin, Kim Deitch, Paul Mavrides, Michael McMillan, Ned Sonntag, Phoebe Gloeckner, and Harry S. Robins. In later years, the title was a showcase for female cartoonists like Gloeckner, M. K ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Michele Brand
Michele Wrightson, also known as Michele Brand, was an American artist who worked in the comic book industry. The former wife of underground cartoonist Roger Brand, she started out as an underground comix cartoonist. Later, when she was married to comics artist Bernie Wrightson, she made her name as a colorist. She was a key contributor to the first all-female underground comic, ''It Ain't Me, Babe'', as well as its follow-up series, ''Wimmen's Comix''. Biography Michele Robinson grew up in New Orleans, where her parents were on the faculty at Tulane University. In 1966, she and husband Roger Brand moved from Oakland, California, to New York City, specifically to break into the comics business. Roger Brand began working for Wally Wood and Bill Pearson on ''witzend'' and other projects. Michele assisted Gil Kane on ''His Name is Savage'' #1 (Adventure House Press, 1968). By the late 1960s the couple were back in the San Francisco Bay Area. Michele's first comics credit was in th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Roger Brand
Roger Brand (January 5, 1943 – November 23, 1985) was an People of the United States, American cartoonist who created stories for both mainstream and Underground comix, underground comic books. His work showed a fascination with Horror comics, horror and Erotic comics, eroticism, often combining the two. Biography Early life and education Born in New Mexico, Brand grand grew up in El Sobrante, Contra Costa County, California, El Sobrante, California, where he was friends with cartoonist Joel Beck. Brand and Beck were classmates at De Anza High School, and they remained lifelong friends. Comics Some of Brand's earliest comics work appeared in the early 1960s in the University of California, Berkeley's ''California Pelican (magazine), California Pelican'' humor magazine, alongside drawings by Beck. In 1966, Brand and his wife Michele Brand, Michele moved from Oakland, California, to New York City, specifically to break into the comics business. Brand began as an assistant to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Spain Rodriguez
Manuel Rodriguez (March 2, 1940 – November 28, 2012), better known as Spain or Spain Rodriguez, was an American underground cartoonist who created the character Trashman. His experiences on the road with the motorcycle club, the Road Vultures M.C., provided inspiration for his work, as did his left-wing politics. Strongly influenced by 1950s EC Comics illustrator Wally Wood, Spain pushed Wood's sharp, crisp black shadows and hard-edged black outlines into a more simplified, stylized direction. His work also extended the eroticism of Wood's female characters. Biography Early life Manuel Rodriguez was born March 2, 1940, in Buffalo, New York. He picked up the nickname Spain as a child, when he heard some kids in the neighborhood bragging about their Irish ancestry, and he defiantly claimed Spain was just as good as Ireland. Rodriguez studied at the Silvermine Guild Art School in New Canaan, Connecticut alongside cartoonist M.K. Brown. Career In New York City, during the lat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman (; born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman on February 15, 1948) is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel ''Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines ''Arcade (comics magazine), Arcade'' and ''Raw (magazine), Raw'' has been influential, and from 1992 he spent a decade as contributing artist for ''The New Yorker''. He is married to designer and editor Françoise Mouly, and is the father of writer Nadja Spiegelman. In September 2022, the National Book Foundation announced that he would receive the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Spiegelman began his career with Topps (a bubblegum and trading card company) in the mid-1960s, which was his main financial support for two decades; there he co-created parodic series such as ''Wacky Packages'' in the 1960s and ''Garbage Pail Kids'' in the 1980s. He gained prominence in the underground comix scene in the 1970s with short, experimental, and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bill Griffith
William Henry Jackson Griffith (born January 20, 1944) is an American cartoonist who signs his work Bill Griffith and Griffy. He is best known for his surreal daily comic strip '' Zippy''. The catchphrase "Are we having fun yet?" is credited to Griffith. Over his career, which started in the underground comix era, Griffith has worked with the industry's leading underground/alternative publishers, including Print Mint, Last Gasp, Rip Off Press, Kitchen Sink, and Fantagraphics Books. He co-edited the notable comics anthologies ''Arcade'' and '' Young Lust'', and has contributed comics and illustrations to a variety of publications, including '' National Lampoon'', ''High Times'', ''The New Yorker'', ''The Village Voice'' and ''The New York Times''. Early life, family and education Born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, Griffith grew up in Levittown on Long Island. He is the great-grandson and namesake of the photographer and artist William Henry Jackson (Jackson died at age 9 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Justin Green (cartoonist)
Justin Considine Green (July 25, 1945 – April 23, 2022)Justin Green bio , Iconoclast Editions website. Accessed Dec. 14, 2013. was an American cartoonist who is known as the "father of autobiography, autobiographical comics." A key figure and pioneer in the 1970s generation of underground comics artists, he is best known for his 1972 comic book ''Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary''. Biography Green was born in Boston, Massachusetts, but grew up in Chicago, Illinois, the son of a Jewish father and Catholic mother; he was raised Catholic. As a child he at first attended a Catholic parochial school, and later transferred to a school where most students were Jews. He rejected the Catholic faith in 1958 as he believed it caused him "Scrupulosity, compulsive neurosis" t ...[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American cartoonist and musician who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contemporary American culture. Crumb is a prolific artist and contributed to many of the seminal works of the underground comix movement in the 1960s, including being a founder of the first successful underground comix publication, ''Zap Comix'', contributing to all 16 issues. He was additionally contributing to the ''East Village Other'' and many other publications, including a variety of one-off and anthology comics. During this time, inspired by psychedelics and cartoons from the 1920s and 1930s, he introduced a wide variety of characters that became extremely popular, including countercultural icons Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural, and the images from his '' Keep On Truckin''' strip. Sexual themes abounded in all these projects, often shading ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Company & Sons
Company & Sons was an early underground comix publisher based in San Francisco, ran by John Bagley. The company operated from 1970 to 1973, publishing a total of 15 titles, all but one of them consisting of a single issue. Company & Sons was the first publisher of the long-running anthology '' Young Lust'', edited by Jay Kinney & Bill Griffith. Other creators associated with Company & Sons included Rory Hayes, Dan O'Neill, Charles Dallas, Vaughn Bodē, Bobby London, and Larry Todd. History Company & Sons burst onto the underground comix scene in 1970 with five titles. First was Rory Hayes' ''Bogeyman Comics'' #3 (taking over the title from the San Francisco Comic Book Company), then Wink Boyer's ''Buzzard'', Boyer & Dave Geiser's ''Honky Tonk'', and the anthology ''Hee Hee Comics'' (which was produced "in conjunction with The San Francisco Comic Book Co., Gary E. Arlington, prop."). But the company hit pay dirt in October of 1970 with Kinney & Griffith's '' Young Lust'', ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Apex Novelties
The apex is the highest point of something. The word may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional entities * Apex (comics), a teenaged super villainess in the Marvel Universe * Ape-X, a super-intelligent ape in the Squadron Supreme universe *Apex, a genetically-engineered human population in the TV series ''The Crossing'' Music * ''Apex'' (album), by Canadian heavy metal band Unleash the Archers * Apex (band), a Polish heavy metal band * Apex (musician) (1981–2017), British drum and bass music producer and DJ * The Apex Theory, the former name of the alternative rock band Mt. Helium *Lord Apex, a rapper from West London, UK Video games * Apex (tournament), a fighting game tournament focusing on ''Super Smash Bros.'' * ''APEX'' (video game), a 2003 video game for the Xbox * Overwatch Apex, a South Korean ''Overwatch'' tournament series * ''Apex Legends'', a 2019 video game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts Other media * ''A.P.E.X.'', a 1994 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |