A Comics Anniversary I Almost Forgot

It occurred to me while doing some research on another project that September 2010 is the 20th anniversary of the publication of the Creator's Bill Of Rights. I believe they were written in late 1988, but didn't make it to publication until September 1990 as part of a special issue of The Comics Journal. Comics was only about four or five years away from a no-turning-back number of professionals and devoted fans migrating on-line and having their spats and discussions in real time, but in 1990 I think it was safe to say that a huge number of comics-interested folk only encountered comics industry issues as they heard about them in Comics Buyer's Guide or read about them in the Journal. Even if you got to read them earlier than that -- I bet Dave Sim published them in his rollicking Cerebus letters pages -- this was a time when a lot of folks still counted on TCJ or CBG as a place to work through such issues. It was that way for me.

For an important current generation of comics makers and industry folk, those in the 35-45 age range, many would have learned about these issues right between the ages of the middle of high school to the end of graduate school (or its workplace equivalent), although it's tough to discern that the document itself is influential to a significant degree. I think a common, blunt criticism of the Bill's influence has some merit: the more economic factors were resolved to include royalties and a variety of different ownership/copyright options were put out there in order to compete for the best talent, the less anyone cared about any of the even slightly more abstract principles involved, real-world implications or not. That these ideas weren't fundamental rights but raised concerns that could then be negotiated project to project, even to be given back for the right price or under the right circumstance, ended up being the Bill's biggest weakness.

Still, It's nice to think of a time when these things were a great concern to pros, though, that this was so important some of them actually traveled to sit down together and hash things out. I have respect for all those that sacrificed immediate personal gain for principle that might only have benefited those operating on down the line, me included. We may never see that generation's like again.

Scott McCloud discusses it here; Al Nickerson has a series of rolling interviews here.
 
posted 9:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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