Behold The Check DC Comics Wrote In 1938 For The Exclusive Rights To Superman

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An astonishing artifact from the beginnings of American comics history was unearthed this week, the check written by DC Comics to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster for the exclusive rights to their then-new character, Superman.

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Comments

[Supersteel]

06:20 PM on 10/25/2011

$130, which is several thousand today. But people forget that they tried almost 5 yrs to sell him at all with no success. So to get that money, and the salary, at the height of the depression was not a bad thing at all. They also forget that, in today's money, they were paid handsomely to continue working on him. I believe approximately $2 million or so (adjusted for inflation) over 10 yrs. They then were upset that they were not being given allegedly promises royalties and sued to reclaim the character. They spent the remaining money they had in 2 or 3 unsuccessful lawsuits (and were fired). That's how they ended up with no money and few prospects Siegel later was writing for them again-until he sued them again and got fired again for doing so. Unfortuantely, the artist, Shuster, was nearly blind by the end of the 40s and not capable of working.

[Wookiee1972]

12:19 AM on 10/26/2011

Well, the IP must be worth more than that. I realize that a lot of that has to do with DC's marketing capabilities, which S&S couldn't do on their own, but really, it wouldn't hurt for them to get a bit more.

Even with all the ups and down of the character, I would argue that Superman is probably the second most valuable IP in the world, right behind a certain rodent.

[talos72]

05:16 PM on 10/25/2011

Don't think for a minute that things have improved greatly for artist's legal rights especially in the entertainment industry. Contracts issued by said companies to artists for hire are severely stacked in the favor of companies at the expense of the artist. As long as huge corporations with deep pockets and massive legal departments manage to bully desperate artists into signing ridiculous contracts with various indemnity clause and dubious ownership rights for the corporations nothing will change.

[Supersteel]

06:20 PM on 10/25/2011

This wasn't work for hire. They sold the rights to the character.

[streetmagik]

05:00 PM on 10/25/2011

As the heirs won their court case and successfully terminated a number of rigths granted to DC, the real questino is - how much is DC going to pay now to reaquire them.

[Supersteel]

06:21 PM on 10/25/2011

The single biggest rights holder for Superman is-----Mark Toberoff, Siegel and Shuster's heirs' attorney.

[stevestrange]

04:46 PM on 10/25/2011

Great Scott!...$130.00....Pay-up DC!...Stop acting like Lex Luthor!

[Supersteel]

06:22 PM on 10/25/2011

They are paying now. The law was amended and the Siegel heirs acquired half the rights back and the Shuster heirs will get theirs back in 2013.

[stevestrange]

10:04 PM on 10/25/2011

Nice...Thanks for the info.