I have mentioned before (a few times) my dealings with Fleetway and more particularly IPC Media. I was just sorting through some original art pages and found two letters -one from John Cooper and the other from Mike Western.
Nothing unusual there but then I found layout pages and read Mike's note (I have deleted some details and the address from this scan:
the first part of the letter refers to the Comic Bits interview and then the fact that not all artwork had been returned -as it should have been. Mike was laid back about this for various reasons. However, some of the veteran artists were concerned that so much work promised to be returned was said to have "gone missing".
Reference to my "Leopard" project and the finance for it I will explain since it shows how comics work. It had taken me one phone chat and letter with the IPC Media CEO to be told that I could use the character The Leopard From Lime Street and one other (that John Cooper was involved with). Mike talked to Tom Tully as the duo had created the character and after that I spoke to Tully. So, IPC were okay with the project as they could not over emphasise their lack of interest in comics (as reported on CBO before). The creators of the character were okay with it and by a stroke of luck I managed to get the money for the initial 4 issue series.
What could go wrong?
IPC Media 'Intellectual Properties' did. The person involved could not understand that his boss -the person running the company- had said "okay". I have no idea what was said but Tully was..."angry" at something the IP man had said to him and it seemed to be along the lines of "back off or we sue" (Tully was not the person to annoy lightly).
I think Mike was just left in Limbo and officially retired so he just waited.
It was a mess and I am glad to say that after offending the wrong person on another matter the IP man was "moved on" but too late for the Leopard project though Western and Tully said any project without their participation had their approval. It had IPCs approval.
Later, IPC Media's CEO told me another project could go ahead ("We are not worried as we are not involved in comics") -they even sent me copies of artwork including pages for Fleetway's own Captain Britain -as again reported on CBO.
The thing through all of this -including with Eric Bradbury who was involved in another project before he died- was that after receiving the green light from IPC Media I contacted the creators involved and got permission from them. The reason was not just that I wanted everything legal and supported creators rights but Her Majesty's Intellectual Properties Office (the last word) had made it clear that although Amalgamated Press, Fleetway, IPC, MPP, Fleetway and then Egmont had copyright on a title of a comic -IF they had copyrighted it- characters were legally the property of those who had created them and were not copyrighted and "work for hire" was no longer an excuse: IPC Media's IP man told me in writing that "There is no contract with the artist or writer because they worked for the company".
A little depressing finding this stuff after 17 years. But if I knew then what I know now I'd have just gone ahead and published.
Comics. Crooked business.
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