If Shelton is getting screwed over here, I can empathize.
Any attorneys who want to play David to Goliath (pro bono, of course, we cartooning librarians are not living in poverty, but we can see it from here) are welcome to contact me about Disney's use of my Floating Baby Head character. I think I have a good case. My character appeared in a nationally distributed comic book long before it later turned up in Phineas and Ferb.
Corporate America had no problem going after the underground cartoonists for copyright violations, but seems perfectly at ease lifting the creative efforts of underground/Newave artists for their own profit.
You are sure to get a cease and desist order (retroactively, of course) from the Disney Corp. if you pursue your claim that they ripped you off. Hey, Disney's legal muscle can get the US Congress to change copyright laws overnight to protect their interests. Maybe it goes back to Walt getting screwed by Universal when they stole his Oswald Rabbit. Makes one bitter and mean. Hope it doesn't happen to you Steve.
ReplyDeleteBack in the mid-1970s I was stuck hitch-hiking next to Disneyland. From my vantage point I saw the loading dock and the top of the Matterhorn ride. It was one of the worst places I was ever stranded. The signpost I was next to was covered with graffiti and the passage I'll never forget read: "Smoke Dope, Get High, The Pig, Must Die," which was quite a contrast to the family fun I was hearing over the high security fence.
ReplyDeleteYes, the character I created has been appropriated by corporate America, and I also know Disney probably doesn't even regard me as enough of a threat to expend the energy for legal action. I am nobody. But I still want justice. Others are reaping the rewards of something I first created in a nationally distributed comic book. Disney can lean on me if they want, but that won't change the fact I am right. And I don't think they want that kind of negative publicity.
All of this fuss over a floating baby head, an idea that came to me by singing to my little daughter.