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| Copyright MARVEL & TASCHEN |
In 2014, Roy Thomas was writing the main essay for Taschen's 75 Years of Marvel. Taschen contacted me, Mike Vassallo, and Nick Caputo to work on the book and contribute the images from our original comics for the sections on the 1930s up to around 1977. Others had to do the years after that. We did the biographies and timeline, and helped select which pages or panels of art to use.
There are no 'traditional' scans here. They came to each of our houses with enormous equipment and used a powerful camera, focusing not through the lens manually, but on a computer. After the artwork was selected, it was placed as it would appear in the book, then sent to us as a PDF. We wrote the captions for it in Word on a separate 'page', and they were later added to the PDF, underneath or beside the pictures.
Note the picture where they have Spider-Man #1 set up. Their cover picture, from Avengers #4, is also from my collection, as is Hulk #1 on the rear.
There are no 'traditional' scans here. They came to each of our houses with enormous equipment and used a powerful camera, focusing not through the lens manually, but on a computer. After the artwork was selected, it was placed as it would appear in the book, then sent to us as a PDF. We wrote the captions for it in Word on a separate 'page', and they were later added to the PDF, underneath or beside the pictures.
Note the picture where they have Spider-Man #1 set up. Their cover picture, from Avengers #4, is also from my collection, as is Hulk #1 on the rear.
I've said it before, BP, but I'll say it again. Considering the money that Taschen presumably made on that book, getting a couple of complimentary copies for all your hard work and supplying the images doesn't seem fair recompense to me. Given the intrusion you had to put up with, the least they could have done is give you a bit of dosh as well. Pure exploitation in my book. When I supplied restored pages to the Masterworks series, I was paid, even if it was only $13 an hour. (Yeah, hourly rate, not paid a flat amount per page. Surprising, eh?)
ReplyDeleteKid, I did not mention anything about money in my post. Taschen Treated us very well. I never said that we worked for nothing. We had a contract with them and they were very generous. In addition to everything else, they gave us a ton of free expensive books, books we wanted and asked for. They are very nice people, even now I hope to get their EC book.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't indeed, BP, but I know that in similar situations, you usually supply images to publishers for nothing, aside from a credit and a free book, so I assumed it would've been the same in this instance as I don't think you ever said anything to the contrary when you first told me about working on the book. Glad to hear you came out ahead on this occasion.
ReplyDeleteJust looked at Amazon, and the book is selling for £431. A miss for me, I'm afraid, even though I have the utmost respect for Barry and all involved.
ReplyDeleteSpirit of '64
I don't think I'd pay that for a book of its kind, S64. I think I'd rather read comics, or books reprinting comics, than a book ABOUT comics. Having said that, someone gave me Taschen's 'The Marvel Age Of Comics 1961-1978' (which is extracted from the 75 Years volume) and it's a cracking looking book. I don't mind having them when they're free.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know how much Taschen paid but a few copies of a book which cost in the hundreds is a nice cherry on top. It’s also way too expensive for me so I buy the el cheapo versions at Barnes and Noble!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't my intention to suggest that BP told us what, if anything, he was paid, PS (none of our business), I was merely expressing the hope that he was treated fairly, as he has a habit of being a bit too generous with his time (and comics) for some publishers who, in my view (which is not necessarily his), take advantage of his generosity and willingness to help.
ReplyDeleteI have never been taken advantage of by a publisher. I have also turned down a lot of offers and requests. But no matter what my compensation was I wanted more!
ReplyDeleteWell, if you wanted more than you got, BP, isn't that being 'taken advantage' of to some degree? However, as long as you were happy and helped them willingly, that's the main thing. In my view, your generosity was certainly to their advantage though.
ReplyDeleteKid, that was a joke. I wanted a million dollars and they did not met my price.
ReplyDeleteYou mean you have a sense of humour as well as all those '60s Marvel comics, BP? I feel thoroughly disadvantaged. (I suspected you were joking actually, but I have a bit of a 'brain fog' at the moment.)
ReplyDelete