Longtime comic writer Gerry Conway has attacked recent changes in DC’s “creator equity participation” system, calling them “obnoxious and despicable.”  Tracing the changes to the departure of former publisher Paul Levitz in 2009 (see “One of the Best Jobs on the Planet”), Conway describes policies that lead some characters to have no creators, at least for purposes of paying creator royalties at DC, in a post on Tumblr.

The creator equity participation plan instituted by Levitz provided that comic creators received compensation if their creations were used in other media.  The policy under Levitz was applied “liberally and proactively,” according to Conway, with creators receiving notifications and payments for uses of creations of which they had no knowledge.  “All that changed when Paul left,” Conway wrote. 

The first notification of a change in policy came in a letter from new DC Entertainment CEO Diane Nelson, who sent a letter to Conway informing him that he would no longer receive payments for uses of Power Girl “because she was now a ‘derivative’ character.”  A check for $1000 was enclosed as “appreciation” for his “contribution,” Conway said.  “DC’s claim that ‘derivation’ deprives creators of any equity participation rights in those characters is nothing more than an immoral, unethical, deceitful, and despicable money grab.”

A further change was that creators had to request participation for each character before it was used in other media.  Conway estimated that he created over 500 characters for DC during his tenure between 1969 and 1985, making the filing of those requests for creator equity participation a daunting prospect.

The new policies regarding “derivative” characters were particularly pernicious, according to Conway, because the way they are applied means that neither the original creators of a character nor those who modify it are eligible for payments.  He uses the example of Killer Frost and her secret identity, Crystal Frost, which were created by Conway and Al Milgrom.  In the New 52, Killer Frost gets a new secret identity, Caitlin Snow, created by Sterling Gates and Derlis Santacruz, who’s now being used on CW series The Flash.  But neither the original creators nor the new creators are eligible for participation payments under DC’s policies, Conway writes, because Conway and Milgrom aren’t entitled to payments for creations that are derivative of theirs, and Gates and Santacruz aren’t entitled to payments for creations that are derivative of other works.

“DC Entertainment has created a marvelous catch-22 that allows them to cheat creators by using both sides of an argument to serve DC’s interests,” Conway wrote.

Conway is a formidable foe, with not only decades of comics work but also a lengthy IMDB page for his work in television and movies.  And angering writers is always dangerous, because, well, they’re writers and are good at expressing themselves.

DC has a public relations problem of considerable proportions on its hands. And perhaps more importantly, this brings another negative impact on DC’s relationships with its creative talent.  DC had a string of departures over editorial control issues a couple of years back (see “DC Creator Relations Hit New Low”), which seemed to slow recently.  DC implemented a new royalty system last year in hopes of improving its creator relations (see “DC Changing Talent Pay”); Co-Publisher Dan Didio told ICv2 that it was well received (see “Interview with Lee and Didio”). 

But DC’s market share is lagging #1 Marvel’s by over 15 points with the smallest gap ever between DC and #3 Image (see “Marvel Continues to Dominate Share”), and although there are many talented creators working for DC, it does seem like there has been a move away from the company in recent years. Compounding whatever other problems there are, DC’s editorial staff has experienced significant churn as a result of the company’s move to Burbank, which has to disrupt the personal relationships that can help smooth over business differences.  It’s a bad time for DC to have a creator rights controversy.

In a subsequent post, Conway indicated that he's received an "overwhelming positive response."  He also pointed out that while the dollar amounts eliminated under the new policies may be small, the issue of creative respect is not, once again using the word "despicable" to describe DC's policies.  

UPDATE:  DC "will not be commenting on this," a company spokesperson told ICv2 in response to a request for comment.