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Sky Masters (some dubious low quality copies)
Patrick Ford
1 April 2017
I saw this post by Ferran Delgado. I totally agree with Ferran's supposition that the book will be reproduced from the Theakston book and or Ferran's book. The only set of syndicate proofs know to exist were the ones Kirby had. Putting together a run of strips clipped from newspapers would be close to impossible. I was collecting strips heavily in the '80s and was familiar with all the large newspaper strip dealers. None of them had substantial runs of SKY MASTERS, and it was very rare to see any listed. Not even short runs.
A potential problem for Hermes Press is the earliest Theakston SKY MASTERS collections were copyright Jack Kirby and Greg Theakston. After Kirby passed away Theakston removed Kirby's name from the copyright notice.
I think there is a case to be made that while the strip is PD, the proofs and original art were copyrighted under Kirby's name in 1991 when the first Pure Imagination (Theakston) collections were published.
Patrick Ford: I'd think if the Hermes Press book is being sourced from one of Ferran Delgado's book that his publications would also be copyright protected.
Hermes Press or any other publisher has the right to publish a SKY MASTERS collection. The strip is PD. They do not have the legal right to publish a collection sourced from material copyrighted by Kirby, Ferran, and even Theakston.
Hermes Press would have to go and collect a complete run of the strip from old newspaper clippings. And good luck with that.
Ferran Delgado: Someone very close to Dan Hermess contacted me to tell me that Theakston had anything to do with the Hermess edition, and that neither he or I could do anyting to prevent the publication of this piracy edition.
Patrick Ford: Perhaps, but Paul Levine might have something to say about that.
Patrick Ford: They are basically daring someone to sue them.
Ferran Delgado: Paul Levine was an obstacle when I tried to sell the definitive edition to IDW in spite that it's PD.
Ferran Delgado: I mentioned that the Kirby Estate could do legal actions to the close person to Hermess, and he laughed at the possibility.
Ferran Delgado: in fact, Levine sold the publishing rights of the spanish edition to an italian publisher when it's PD, so technically, he ripped off the italian publisher.
Patrick Ford: I'd make a distinction between the strip and the proofs.
Ferran Delgado: Really, I got burnt with the subject with a very good reason.
Ferran Delgado: Right, they are two different things. The italian publisher pai for the files to the spanish publisher without my knowledgement, and later, they paid to the Kirby Estate for the publishing rights
Patrick Ford: When exactly were you contacted by the Hermes Press rep?
Ferran Delgado: When i learnt about it, the Kirby Estate gave me $500 as compensation.
Patrick Ford: Since the proofs were copyrighted by Kirby in 1991 I would say the estate owns the proof images.
Ferran Delgado: As the close friend of Hermess told, Hermess is a lawyer and he knows what he's doing.
Patrick Ford: We'll see. There isn't much profit in a book of that type. Are the Hermes Press people saying that they have a different source for the proofs?
Ferran Delgado: Yes, well, the images of the Pure Imagination book are © by Theakston, like the images of my book are © by me since the printer's proofs were a courtesy of the Kirby Museum, but that guy laughed at the possibility that we could do anything to prevent it. And he's right, nor Greg or I are going to sue.
Ferran Delgado: From my conversation with that guy, who's an art dealer, they don't care to admit anything since they know that we are not going to sue.
Patrick Ford: The images in the PI publications were © Jack KIrby while Kirby was alive.
Ferran Delgado: I have that HC of the Pure Imagination book handy, and it says that Sky Masters is tm Pure Imagination and the contents of the book is © Pure Imagination. No mention to Kirby or the Kirby Estate.
Patrick Ford: Honestly to me the fact this Hermes Press rep contacted you and then began puffing out his chest and swaggering around talking about how he (or the publisher) is an attorney reminds me of every comic book geek I have ever run across and none more so than THeakston. I'd wager Theakston is involved.
Patrick Ford: I have the earlier soft cover from 1991. It reads as follows: "Entire contents of this book are © 1991 by Pure Imagination and Jack Kirby."
Ferran Delgado: I'm not sure but the key thing is that they are going to use the printer's proofs as told in the promotional copy, and the source is my book.
Ferran Delgado: Probably th HC was published after his passing, and Greg changed the indicia. He even told me that he registered the "Sky Masters of the Space Force" name.
Patrick Ford: Theakston removed Kirbys name in later editions because KIrby had passed away and Theakston was no longer on good terms with the Kirby's due to his refusal to return various material he had "borrowed."
Ferran Delgado: If memory doesn't fail me, Roz tried to prevent the reprinting of the book after his passing.
Patrick Ford: She did. It was reported on Kirby-L.
Patrick Ford: Ferran, Do you recall when the Hermes Press rep. contacted you? Was it just recently or was it about a month ago when you first commented on this book?
Ferran Delgado: When I told the Estate that Greg was going to reprint again the book when he discovered that I wanted to release an improved edition in USA, they did nothing, probably because the stuff is PD. This book compiled just the first hal of the dailies. https://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/APR121197
Ferran Delgado: He contacted me this Wednesday, probably when the shops already placed the orders of the book.
Ferran Delgado: I wonder if Diamond might stop it if they learn that it's a piracy book.
Patrick Ford: Hermes already has a bad reputation for producing a shoddy product which does not match their hype.
Ferran Delgado: Yes, his standard of quality sucks, just take a look at the cover. I have a couple of books about Kane, and they're amateurish. I've been working really hard and making many sacrifices to give this masterwork a deluxe edition, but there're so many leeches around Kirby legacy that it's discouraging.
Ferran Delgado: I was shocked when I discovered that the now multimillionaire kirby Estate not only didn't anything to support and fund the project, but they tried to get a share of it, delaying it and giving the chance to Hermess to release his edition. Very heartbreaking.
Ferran Delgado: This project won't provide many funds, and I'm sure that it won't cover the money and time I invested on it along the years. Not surprised that after more than half a century, the sunday strips are not published yet in its original color with good reproduction.
Patrick Ford: I don't blame them for wanting a cut. The proofs came from Kirby. They were his personal property.
Ferran Delgado: But they still wanted a cut for the book compiling just the sundays from my own stuff, which was the initial project. It showed me that they didn't care about the project, just for the cut.
Ferran Delgado: I didn't wanted to reprint the dailies, but IDW told me that it was complete or nothing, so I started to work on it till I learnt about the Hermess edition and I stopped.
Ferran Delgado: This guy called their move "business".
Ferran Delgado: In the second book of the spanish edition produced by me I used about 240 strips shot from printer's proofs courtesy of the Kirby Museum, since Kirby's related stuff is now stored there. And Rand Hoppe knew anything about the Hermess edition. So they are going to scan them from my book without permission of the Museum or mine.
Ferran Delgado: The curious thing is that they'll need to mix the original lettering of the Pure Imagination book with the printer's proofs which were published in spanish.
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