The discussion on the GCD chatlist about copyrights continued, and, as such discussions do, evolved. A note I wrote on the subject got a couple of responses, and one in particular led me to do something I had often dreamed of, but had never dared to do.
In my note, I pointed out that I can't find a large chunk of old Aquaman stories, and that I don't believe that DC will ever reprint them. To which Jerry Bails asked "have you considered working a deal with DC yourself for you to print and distribute a limited print run of Aquaman stories?" Well, that left me a wee bit speechless when I first read the note, as I actually have considered it in the past but never got past the consideration stage since I always figured that it would cost too much to snag a license for it. However, when someone like Jerry suggests it in all seriousness, then I have to take a step back and think about it again.
And while I was stepped back, I read a response to Jerry from Mike, a former DC editor, who told me that there was good news and bad news. The good news was that a license to reprint old Aquaman should be cheap unless the Cartoon Network Aquaman series goes forward (then all bets are off). The bad news was that the reason it would be cheap is because DC wouldn't have to pay the writers and artists reprint fees.
Now, I'd want to do right by the artists and writers so that was indeed bad news, but I'd never even considered the reality of getting a license from DC to reprint Aquaman stories before this. Putting Mike's and Jerry's notes together, something nebulous in my head became a little clearer. I did want to do this. I wanted to know if it was possible. And I had no idea how to go about it.
After gibbering for a few days, while the GCD list quietly made more and more suggestions on how such a reprint could be done, I decided to take the first step. I would ask somebody "in the know" at DC if it was even possible. While Mike Carlin and I have had e-mail discussions before, the one person I knew would give a straight answer is Paul Levitz, the new President and Publisher. He started as a fan, and he'd even written Aquaman in the 1970s. He'd know where I was coming from.
So I wrote my letter and sent it off on the 6th of January. I expected a long turnaround time, as Levitz must be busy as he takes over his new job. So I was a little surprised to get his response exactly a week after I sent my letter.
While I didn't really know what the response would be, and I thought there was a small possibility that it would be yes, I mostly expected to hear that it couldn't happen. Thus I wasn't disappointed when I got Levitz's response, and read, "I'm afraid your idea isn't practical." No surprise there! The rest of the letter was extremely polite, with reasons given which make a lot of sense to me. He closed his letter with an apology for disappointing me and the hope that some day Golden Age Aquaman material will make it into DC's Archive format.
I have to admit that, after reading the letter, my opinion of DC Comics went up another notch. One week turnaround time on a snailmail letter. A polite and complete answer to my question. Really cool DC paper (with heroes holding up the DC Logo). The only thing I don't have now is those Aquaman stories I still have to find...
... and I've been making progress on that without DC's help. So onward I'll go. Maybe some day, after I've finished finding all the stories and doing all the research, I'll write a book about Aquaman and his creators. I wonder if Mike Carlin knows where I can find out more about Cazeneuve and Daly?
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