RIP Lois Lane

Joanne Siegel died today at the age of 93.  She was married to the late Jerome Siegel, the co-creator of Superman with Joe Shuster.  Joanne was the model for Lois Lane.

I met Joanne at a memorial service for Jerry Siegel in 1996.  Jerry died only a few weeks before my article in the Los Angeles Lawyer magazine about the rights of comic book creators appeared.  I had so wanted to talk to both Jerry and Joe when I wrote the first incarnation of the article while I was a law student and had come to the realization that the two men were fast approaching an opportunity to relitigate their rights to the Superman character.  Unfortunately, that was in 1992 and Joe died about then and I had no convenient way to contact the Siegels.  I was also concerned about the question of rights when the property was co-created and there was no spouse or children to claim the reversion for one of those co-creators (Joe.)

After my article appeared, I heard from Joanne's son-in-law and met him at at Beverly Hills Bar Association lunch one day.  I also got a call from Joe's nephew, but a nephew does not have the same rights that a spouse or a child has under the reversion of rights which can accrue to a copyrighted property created under the Copyright Act of 1909.

I admired Joanne for going forward with action to reclaim her rights to Superman after Jerry died and the reversion period kicked in.  I admire her even more for putting up with more than a decade of litigation which has yet to be resolved.  I am sure her daughter will continue the fight.

Comic book companies cheated young creators like Jerry and Joe (while wiser men with better advisers managed to negotiate better contracts) and continued to lie and cheat creators until the 1980s when they really couldn't get away with it any more.  By then,  people talked to each other and young creators had access to organizations which made them a little more savvy about their rights and business practices.  Paul Levitz at DC made a concerted effort to improve contracts, creators' rights and royalties, and even reached back to improve the participation of creators of older properties.

Nevertheless, there are a few very valuable properties created under the 1909 Act that will be subject to reversions and the Siegel cases combined with Joe Simon's efforts to reclaim Captain America will help those creators--or their widows or children--get a fairer shake for the remainder of the copyright term.  I hope Marvel/Disney is ready for that, because Marvel never made any effort to atone for its greedy ways.

Geeks Rule!

I have mentioned that I once had breakfast with Chuck Lorre at a Writers Guild Craft Conference at the lovely Bruin Woods up at Lake Arrowhead. The WGA stopped doing the weekends years ago, but Len (who is the member of the WGA) and I really enjoyed the weekends, which consisted of four writers each talking about their work in 90 minute sessions and one two hour or so workshop. The rest of the three days, between meals, was open for hiking, swiming, boating, tennis, or going into Lake Arrowhead to shop.

Chuck had a cold the morning he spoke, and he had taken some heavy-duty medication which was still in effect when we were at breakfast. He was hysterical, and his lecture later that morning had the audience in stitches. Which is what happens to me every time I watch Big Bang Theory, his latest show on CBS. Last night had Len and I laughing until we cried, in no small part because we both were right inside the characters heads.

For those of you who don't watch the show, Sheldon and Leonard (yes, named for the famous actor/director) are research scientists at CalTech (you can see the building which houses the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals outside of one of the windows in their apartment.) Its a Warner Bros. show, which may explain the wide spread use of DC collectibles throughout the place, but the show is peppered with pop culture reference, particularly those which would make regular attendees of Comicon International feel right at home. (In some ways, it is like watching a weekly version of the wonderful Free Enterprise, with as many references to Star Trek.)

Sheldon and Leonard have two colleagues who are regulars on the show: one from India and the other who lives at home with mom, and there's a cute blond across the hall for whom Leonard feels unrequited love. Sara Gilbert occasionally makes an appearance as another Cal Tech scientist and I wish we'd see more of her. With no Aaron Sorkin on TV these days, it's the smartest writing on television.

Last night, Leonard placed an $800.00 bid on a model of the 1960 film version of the Time Machine (first picture, thanks to Google), and, much to his financial horror, he won. The boys all decided they could pay $200 a piece and share it. Then it arrived. It was the full-sized model, not the miniature Leonard had envisioned. Hilarity ensued, starting with the problem of getting it upstairs to the apartment (the elevator hasn't worked in two years.) We were roaring with laughter, in no small part because we both knew Len would have given his right arm to own the thing.

You see, we live in the same kind of home, where once someone said "you can't tell where the kid's stuff leaves off and the grown-up toys kick in." People just like to wander about looking at the collectibles and books. I was even willing to let Len try and bring home the brass and glass version of the Time Machine from the more recent DreamWorks film (below, thanks to Google), which was on display at Comicon the year it was released. Absolutely beautiful. It was bigger than our living room.

















We're nowhere near as organized as Harlan Ellison's house (which is like a museum) and our stuff tends to have dust on it (forbidden in Harlan's place), but there are some very cool things, like the statues of as many of Len's characters as we've been able to find and afford: Swamp Thing, Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler and others. Like Sheldon, Len's clothing also features comic book characters, with a strong preference for those of his own creation. T-shirts, aloha shirts, hats, ties and jewelery, you name it, he's got it.

The boys of Big Bang Theory would be right at home if we invited them over for dinner. Of course, the fan boys of Big Bang Theory would probably all be stammering and unable to eat in the presence of The Famous Len Wein, LFL. I've seen that enough times over the past 19 years.