You have my sympathy.

And:
Freak out much?

No, but I would be if I were the one trying to characterize his bitching about the situation as wanting to "punish other writers for doing their jobs".

When the hell did that happen?

That explains why I have been waiting all these years - and here I thought it was because they had put Kevin Smith on the title.

Isn't it possible that the murkiness of the Omega rights could be because Marvel promised Gerber some sort of deal whereby he would be able to keep the rights to the character, and then didn't keep their end of the deal? There's probably more going on there than we know about.

So, in failing to singlehandedly invent the modern independent comic as we know it today before he wrote anything he valued, he deserves to have everyone start in with the tough-guy-talking, the “I have no sympathy” crap, and be spat on?
Nice.

Because poor, helpless Steve Gerber really needs your protection from the all-powerful tyranny of the profiting company.

Freak out much?

On the Gerber thing, I don't find myself sympathising too much with the plight of the work-for-hire creator either (despite the quality and originality of their work), but I'm sure I'd feel quite differently if I was Steve Gerber or Jack Kirby. The experiences they must have had with Marvel and DC back then don't sound fun.

To paraphrase Rene: "Stupid Donner Party, why didn't they call in a rescue copter with their cel phones?"
The resemblance between today's independent/self-publishing situation and the way things were at the time is pretty much nonexistent, not just a matter of "It was hard back then, and it is still hard right now". The closest things at the time that could be any kind of inspiration or role model were the undergrounds, whose time had largely passed. The independents as we know them were still a couple of years in the future. So, in failing to singlehandedly invent the modern independent comic as we know it today before he wrote anything he valued, he deserves to have everyone start in with the tough-guy-talking, the "I have no sympathy" crap, and be spat on?
Nice.

I don’t think a writer should be punished for investing his work with some passion.

And how, exactly, has Steve Gerber been punished?

If anything, he wants to punish other writers for doing their jobs.

If the guy is overflowing with creative energies and simply wants to do personal stuff, he doesn't need a big company like Marvel for that. If all I want is to play my music, I can always form a garage band. It was hard back then, and it is still hard right now, but if you really want complete creative control and all the rights to your creations, more hardship is the price you pay.

Now, if you willingly enter a work-for-hire contract with a big company like Marvel or DC, you KNOW you're not getting the rights to the characters, c'mon. In return, you get access to a wider readership that you probably wouldn't have otherwise. It seems to me that guys like Gerber want to take the good with none of the bad.

They want it both ways. They associated their names with the Marvel brand, they had EARLIER popular Marvel characters created by other writers to help sell their books (Hulk appeared in Omega #2, and Spider-Man in Howard #1), but they ALSO want the characters to be theirs, reneging contracts they willing entered to.

As for Gerber...I admit I don't know all the details, but I feel bad for the guy. Yes, he was writing work-for-hire, but it was really hard to do otherwise back then, and part of the reason he was able to write such great comics is that it WAS personal to him. These were characters he cared about, and stories he wanted to tell. I don't think a writer should be punished for investing his work with some passion.

And the Big Two were really, really sleazy companies in some ways back then. They actively seemed to go out of their way to screw over the creative talent...I mean, this is a company that couldn't even see fit to giving Kirby a proper chunk of the money from his creations. This is, in fact, a very contentious issue amongst creative types--too many people entering creative fields end up signing their life away just for a shot at getting recognized. The music industry is the same way (although at least there if you become a top-selling artist you have the leverage to renegotiate your contract).

So even if Gerber wasn't completely screwed over, I can understand why he wouldn't want to go back and tackle Omega for Marvel again, and indeed, he may have been hoping that the ten issues he did would be allowed to just remain as they were. No matter what the earnest, fanboyish ethusiasm on the part of Lethem and co., the fact of the matter is that there's something quite sick at the heart of superhero comics, and their perpetual ownership of other people's stories is tied in with this. I can understand why Gerber has trouble getting behind this.

I’ve noticed your posts here usually refer to your work as columns, Greg, and that you mention other places you write for. Not living in America, I probably haven’t seen those publications, but I assume that’s paid work too?

Nobody here would have seen it, probably, Rohan. I'm a contributing editor at a teen scholastic magazine called WITH, circulated primarily to schools and church youth groups and such. I did the movie column there for ten years and I still do the occasional article or short-fiction piece for them. But yeah, it's paid.

[Yes, I know virtually all characters published by the Big Two have been written by more than one writer. The more unique the chqaracter, though, the more I associate him/her/it with the creator of the book.]

But I have to say it too, I have less and less sympathy for these writers that get all territorial about stuff they created under willingly-entered work for hire contracts and taking advantage of the tremendous visibility of Marvel or DC.

I don't think it's cute anymore, actually I think these creators sound like spoiled teenagers with big egos. If he wanted the rights to the characters, Gerber should have self-published Omega and Howard and Foolkiller, or then why didn't he seek a smaller publisher that would allow him to retain the rights.

Another thing that burned me for these creator rights issues is that these guys almost always prove they're even worse than the Big Two when they become "the Boss".