Creator ownership

Creator ownership in comics is an arrangement in which the comic book creator retains full ownership of the material, regardless of whether the work is self-published or published by a corporate publisher.

In some fields of publishing, such as fiction writing, creator ownership has historically been standard. In other fields — such as comics, recorded music, or motion pictures — creator ownership has traditionally been uncommon, with either work for hire or publisher purchase of the material being standard practice. This article traces the changing standards of the comic book industry.

Most successful American comics have been traditionally either sold to their publishers before publication, or produced as work for hire. Consequently, creator's rights have long been a source of conflict, going back to one of the pioneers of American comics, Richard F. Outcault:

In 1906, Outcault took his creation Buster Brown from the New York Herald to the New York American. Outcault had not applied for a copyright to Buster Brown, but asserted a "common-law title" — what comics historian Don Markstein asserted is one of the earliest claims to creators' rights. The court decided the Herald owned the Buster Brown name and title and the copyright on the strips it published, but the characters themselves were too intangible to qualify for copyright or trademark. This freed Outcault to continue the strip in the American as long as he did not use the Buster Brown name.

Creator-owned titles began to appear during the late-1960s underground comix movement; these themes were exemplified in the formation of Rip Off Press, the United Cartoon Workers of America (UCWA), and Cartoonists Co-Op Press.

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