• Marvel Comics and the issue of authorship

• Stan Lee vs.• Jack Kirby• Steve Ditko• Watch

• people are still fighting over this:• Kirby fans

• Chronology• Lee and Kirby created all these characters

• Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Iron Man, X-Men, Doctor Doom, Black Panther, Silver Surfer, etc.• greatest achievement probably: Galactus Trilogy featured in Fantastic Four (1966)

• In 1968-69, Joe Simon (creator of Captain America) involved in litigation against Marvel• Kirby agreed to side with Marvel against Simon• signed over rights to Captain America to Marvel

• Kirby very resentful by then of Stan Lee• Lee’s media presence, lack of creative control, lack of perceived credit• left Marvel under bad circumstances in 1970, moved to DC

• At DC, Kirby was unhappy• returned briefly to Marvel in late 1970s

• in 1980s, worked for Pacific Comics• occasionally freelanced for DC• basically, out-of-sync with new comics styles

• fought Marvel tooth-and-nail through 1980s for ownership rights to his original page boards• Marvel claimed his original art was created “for hire”

• died in 1994• Kirby family continued to fight for rights for control of characters created in 1960s

• in 2013, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of NY ruled in favor of Marvel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8OYYt5wn74http://zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/index.html