Don't know how or why (okay, I'm sure toy companies have undreamed-of powers), but the Moebius Chair morphed into this cosmic snowmobile on steroids. Still dig the original best, taking me back to The Time Machine, but even the Delorean got design updates as it traveled through the ages
As to the "why"...
ReplyDeleteIn the early 1980s, though Jack Kirby received royalties for reprints of his DC work, he received NOTHING for NEW uses of his characters that he didn't write or draw (like "The Return of the New Gods" or guest appearances) even though he was the creator of the characters.
Paul Levitz asked Kirby to re-design the Fourth World characters for the Super Powers line so that he could list them as "new" characters to the accounting department, enabling Kirby to receive royalties for their use under the new rates DC was paying creators!
This carried over to ANY new use of the characters after that (including animation and other toy lines) so Kirby's estate continues to get royalties for use of the characters to this day.
(And you'll note the "created by Jack Kirby" credit whenever one of his characters is used in TV or, soon, movies.)
Technically, it was "fudging" facts a bit, and Levitz did get in trouble over it with Time/Warner administratiors, but then-publisher Jeanette Kahn backed him to the hilt and the matter blew over.
Wow, thank you SO MUCH for this amazing history! Nice to hear of a little vindication for Jack (and a New Gods movie?) Again---wow
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