Digital Comic Museum
General Category => Comic Related Discussion => Topic started by: CharlieRock on April 13, 2014, 06:51:00 PM
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Sheena is the latest GA hero/ine to recieve a reboot:
http://www.previewsworld.com/Home/1/1/71/952?stockItemID=JAN141244 (http://www.previewsworld.com/Home/1/1/71/952?stockItemID=JAN141244)
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Was Sheena created by Jerry Iger or Will Eisner??
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Iger and Eisner both. She was meant to be a British newspaper strip and the first few issues were reprints of that strip. I've never seen it, but her first appearance was in some British pulp I believe.
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I got curious about her origins just now so I googled her and learned a couple other things. Sheena was inspired by a novel called "She" written by H. Rider Haggard in the late 1800s. This is the same guy who wrote King Solomon's Mines and the Allen Quartermain books. For those old enough to remember those books got a bit of a revival back in the 80s when Richard Chamberlain played Allen Quartermain in a couple of big budget films. A few months ago I was toying with the idea of reading "She". From what I've previously read it was a HUGE blockbuster of a book selling tons of copies for years. Back around the holidays I watched a low budget movie from the 60s (name escapes me) on TCM by Roger Corman (B movie director extraordinaire!) that was loosely based on She.
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Just to set the record straight, Allan's surname is Quatermain, without an extra "r".
The Comics Detective has a lot on Wags here, incl. the 1st. Sheena page from the magazine:-
http://thecomicsdetective.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/return-to-wonderful-wags-of-oz.html
Most H.Rider Haggard books are available on Project Gutenberg
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Quartermain sounds better ;)
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Ah, but well, as we might say here, Quatermass isn't just a mass of quarters. And Quatermain isn't a quarter of the man he would be with an extra r. ;D
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Funny, this came with a small Jerry Iger collection. Didn't know anything about it now I know: Jack Kirby for WAGS Magazine. It's a print about 16x11
(http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/ab281/r3b3l_photos/Mobile%20Uploads/944BD91C-D067-4454-A30E-A70EE4E837D1_zpsv8nwwmh1.jpg) (http://s872.photobucket.com/user/r3b3l_photos/media/Mobile%20Uploads/944BD91C-D067-4454-A30E-A70EE4E837D1_zpsv8nwwmh1.jpg.html)
(http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/ab281/r3b3l_photos/Mobile%20Uploads/B54144EE-A547-4BF1-AA26-408EB33C06AD_zps04sqigmk.jpg) (http://s872.photobucket.com/user/r3b3l_photos/media/Mobile%20Uploads/B54144EE-A547-4BF1-AA26-408EB33C06AD_zps04sqigmk.jpg.html)
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Thanks for sharing this Kat.
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Very nice! Is the photo yours? If so, could you take another shot? It's a little blurry on the right. Along with golden age comics I also collect newspaper strips and I've not seen this strip before. The Stripper's Guide says it was an Eisner-Iger Associates collaboration that ran from 1939-1950.
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That print was also reprinted in Jumbo Comics 5.
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Yes photos are mine, looks this the print they used for the jumbo book.
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I'm actually curious just what Sheena's legal status is. Obviously, her comic appearances from the Golden Age are in the public domain and Fiction House itself doesn't seem to have sold the trademarks or rights to any of their characters.
BUT...
There was a first-run syndication series staring Irish McCalla in 1955. That ran for 26 episodes.
There was the... interesting 1984 Columbia Pictures film staring Tanya Roberts.
And there was the Columbia/TriStar/Heart Entertainment syndicated TV series in 2000 staring Gena Lee Nolin. It ran for 35 episodes.
Apparently, a writer/producer named Paul Aratow owned either Sheena or Sheena's media rights in the 70s/80s and he was a producer on the '84 movie. He sued Columbia over the 2000 tv series saying he had first right to develop a series based on the property but lost because he signed the tv/film adaption rights over to Columbia.
I've read that T.T. Scott, the former president of Fiction House, sold the rights (to Aratow, maybe?) in the 70s but it is unclear if he actually HAD the rights to sell in the first place since the comics were, by then, in the public domain. Columbia had intended to develop a film in the 70s (staring Raquel Welch, I believe) but Jerry Iger chimed in claiming HE owned the rights. That delayed the film to '84.
A company called London Night Studios did a Sheena revival comic in 1998. She was featured in, I think, 8 issues.
Devil's Due, of course, did a Sheena revival that was all digital and you can buy those issues on ComiXology, I think. It looks like it ran ten issues.
So... based on all this, I'd say Columbia certainly holds Sheena's movie and tv rights but no one owns the character for comic or book publishing.
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There was the... interesting 1984 Columbia Pictures film staring Tanya Roberts.
IIRC back in the day Starlog, or similar magazine, had an interview with the movie producers and they mentioned buying the rights to make a film from Iger and then they talked to Eisner and he said they had signed away all their rights to Sheena long ago.
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Oh what a tangled web in deed!
Bill Black has claimed he's gotten permission to use all Fiction House material for his comics. From whom I can't recall anymore.
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(http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/ab281/r3b3l_photos/IMG_0072_zps3f93283d.jpg) (http://s872.photobucket.com/user/r3b3l_photos/media/IMG_0072_zps3f93283d.jpg.html)
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That interview shows an interesting perspective of history. Especially since, at best, Iger co-created Sheena with Eisner and he and Eisner were partners. Eisner never actually worked "for" him. Pretty sure Sheena was work-for-hire, too. Usually, the publisher owned the rights to any stuff packaged for them by a studio.
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I think he's taking a lot of credit for others' work.
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That interview shows an interesting perspective of history. Especially since, at best, Iger co-created Sheena with Eisner and he and Eisner were partners. Eisner never actually worked "for" him. Pretty sure Sheena was work-for-hire, too. Usually, the publisher owned the rights to any stuff packaged for them by a studio.
(http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/ab281/r3b3l_photos/Mobile%20Uploads/273EBEF2-327A-48ED-A3A6-D136A67E4D27_zpsju2ls67t.jpg) (http://s872.photobucket.com/user/r3b3l_photos/media/Mobile%20Uploads/273EBEF2-327A-48ED-A3A6-D136A67E4D27_zpsju2ls67t.jpg.html)
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Yep, Iger didn't suffer from a small ego or creative story telling to my eye.
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Issue #2 out this Wednesday. 8)