>>115066497Kirby died in February 1994 from heart failure. With the exception of Superman - who was very, very far down the list - there wasn't one character in the top 100 sales of the previous month that Kirby had worked on, and that was far from unusual in recent years. Superman he'd only worked on tangentially because in his brief time at DC he'd asked to be given the Jimmy Olsen book which was in poor shape so that nobody would be kicked off a well-paid job to make room for a star writer/artist.
Liefeld was directly responsible for the absence of classic characters from the top 100 by 1994. Shit, anon, he was drawing half those books, if you can call what he was doing drawing. Every time a publisher came to Liefeld and said "hey, how about another title, doesn't matter what's in it, it's your name that sells" he said "yes". The two men were diametrically opposed in their approach to the business, there is no way in hell Kirby respected Liefeld's approach or his attitude.
If Kirby had survived another five years he'd have seen the inevitable burnout - remember the crash of the direct market was already happening in 1993 - of Liefeld and the disastrous relaunch of classic Kirby characters like Captain America, which fell apart because Liefeld was full of shit and didn't deliver the books on time. Again, whatever you think of Kirby's art or personality, he never, ever stiffed people on deadlines, and he sure as hell never would have boasted about it or made himself out to be the aggrieved party if he did.
>>115067419What you're talking about would end your right to own intellectual property, and end your right to own products made to a consistent standard unless government stepped in and tediously set minimum standards for every product. Think before you speak, animal.
>>115065753She didn't need his help. He didn't even ask before using the character, just assumed he could. That was why he got sued and why he settled - he's not stupid, he's a grifter.
