MattBrady
11-01-2002, 05:33 PM
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/dreamwave/G1_Grimlock_Guido.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/dreamwave/G1_Grimlock_Guido_t.jpg" width="175" height="159" alt="Grimlock - Transformers are © Hasbro, 2002" border="0" align="right"></a>Update: So, hear any good Transformer stories lately? If you’re outside of North America, probably not. To recap, at September’s Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany, Hasbro approached Diamond Comics Distribution representatives and told them that they had to remove all of Dreamwave’s Transformers material from their booth, and informed them that they were not authorized to sell Transformers product outside of North America. As a result, Diamond had to cancel all orders to all overseas accounts for future Dreamwave Transformer comics.
What? How?
The short version is simple – Dreamwave, the studio founded by Pat Lee, produces Transformers comics (G1, Armada, and The War Within) under license from Hasbo, the company which owns the property. Under the agreement between Dreamwave and Hasbro, the studio has the North American rights to produce comics. Bluntly, Dreamwave’s comics are not allowed to be sold – or distributed - outside of North America. As Dreamwave’s distributor, Diamond was not allowed to sell the comics overseas.
“At the Frankfurt, it was found that Diamond was showcasing Hasbro material, basically for world consumption, and we only have the North American rights to distribute our comic books,” Dreamwave’s Adam Fortier told Newsarama. “We knew that we could only distribute in North America, and we know now that our books were getting outside of North America. I’ve probably gotten close to two dozen e-mails from separate companies, including Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Israel, Saudi Arabia – all saying that they love our comics and want to get them into their country, and asking us how to proceed.”
According to sources contacted by Newsarama, it appears that the first issue of Transformers G1 was shipped overseas, issues #2 and #3 were not, but by issue #4 of G1 (corresponding to issue #1 of Armada), the books started making their way overseas again. It’s unclear whether or not these books were shipped directly from Diamond to overseas accounts, or via partner companies, which then shipped them overseas.
Diamond did not respond to Newsarama’s requests for information regarding the apparent mix-up.
The e-mails that Fortier said he has received since it became clear that Diamond could not ship the books overseas aren’t exactly falling on deaf ears, but rather, on ears that can’t help. While Dreamwave produces the comics, and has the North American rights to Transformers comic books, ultimately, Hasbro owns the content and the toymaker negotiates the deals for foreign reprints of the comics.
Sources contacted by Newsarama pointed out another possible monkey wrench in the prospects of Dreamwave’s Transformers legally, making it around the world – Hasbro controls not only which Transformers content any given publisher has the right to reproduce, but also whether or not a publisher can reprint the comics or produce new works based on the characters.
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/dreamwave/Arm6_Pat.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/dreamwave/Arm6_Pat_t.jpg" width="150" height="228" alt="TF: Armada #6 cover by Pat Lee - Transformers are © Hasbro, 2002" border="0" align="left"></a>What appears to have happened though, is that the world (if Fortier’s e-mails are any indication) has basically said that it wants Dreamwave’s version of the Transformers – something which carries with it some tricky issues, licensing experts pointed out. After all, demand for Dreamwave’s material is high, so it’s a seller’s market, thus Hasbro has the advantage in any negotiations, and can ask for higher prices for the rights to overseas publishers.
Of course, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the immediate effect of this revelation will drive demand and collectibility of Dreamwave’s Transformers product up – way up. The super-short term effect of the revelation that Dreamwave’s Transformers products can’t be legally shipped overseas by Diamond? Hoards of Transformers comics showing up on eBay, the vast majority of which are by sellers who are willing to ship overseas.
So – bigger picture? That word above: legally. Had either Diamond not stopped shipping Dreamwave’s Transformers books, or Hasbro opted to – this issue could have been a huge legal tangle for the companies. In fact, there are possible legal ramifications to the whole affair – again, as experts in licensing explained to Newsarama, not only dealers, but individuals legally are not allowed to ship Dreamwave’s Transformers comics outside of North America.
Well, that’s why it’s called the black market….
In a hypothetical situation for example, if you would ship 1,000 Dreamwave Transformers comics to friends in the UK, Hasbro could legally, alert UK Customs and have the comics seized at the border.
Will is happen? (insert a mental image of Autobots standing on the shores of the United Kingdom here, encircling the entire nation…) Probably not. The numbers of comics, both in actual numbers and dollars (or Euros/pounds) is most likely small enough not to be worth either Customs’ or Hasbro’s time.
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/dreamwave/preview2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/dreamwave/preview2_t.jpg" width="233" height="133" alt="Monster lithograph preview....for North America only - sorry - Transformers are © Hasbro, 2002" border="0" align="right"></a>On the upside – sorta – from a certain standpoint, it doesn’t actually hurt Hasbro if Dreamwave’s comics make it overseas. Figure it thins way – if 10,000 people want Transformers G1 in England or Europe, and certain people know about this, and are supplying the collectors overseas with the books, Dreamwave’s overall numbers will increase, and the studio will continue to pay Hasbro a royalty. Additionally, having Dreamwave’s Transformers product make it into fans’ hands around the world helps keep the brand name strong, which, conceivably fuels toy sales, which are Hasbro’s bread and butter when it comes to the property.
Overall, are Transformers comics making it to overseas fans that big of a deal? Well – they could be. After all, the comics should not have made it into the country in the first place, so when/if Hasbro does negotiate with a local publisher to reprint Dreamwave’s material, the publisher could argue that it won’t make as much money as it could have because fans in that country already got their hands on the original material.
If a publisher would do this, that is, claim that their potential profits have been cut because of Dreamwave comics sneaking into the country, legal action could be taken to gain relief – who would the overseas publisher sue? Let’s just not go there.
Legal Transformers
So – moving away from black market Transformers comics, how could Dreamwave’s Transformers make it to other countries’ rabid Transformer fans?
Well, slowly. And Dreamwave won’t be a part of it.
When asked, Fortier said that Dreamwave is not interested in expanding their relationship with Hasbro to include worldwide publishing rights for Transformers comics.
“Any real worldwide entity has to have separate offices in each country,” Fortier said. “So when you’re doing worldwide licensing where you have to separate and do a license for every single country. When you’re talking about a place like Europe and Asia, you could be talking about doing 60 different licensing agreements with 60 different advances and 60 different royalty agreements and 60 different print runs and translations.
“We make comic books, and we make English language comic books very well,” Fortier continued. “To branch out and try to do all of that would be to lose focus from what we do. So chances are that we’ll never do it. If there’s somebody say, in the Netherlands, that makes comics the best over there, then they should be allowed to do it, otherwise it’s not good for the fans. Unfortunately, it’s not an answer everybody wants to hear.”
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/Arcee.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/Arcee_t.jpg" width="175" height="233" border="0" alt="Arcee, from Book I - Transformers are © Hasbro, 2002" align="left"></a>So, ultimately, Hasbro will possibly negotiate with local publishers in each country to reproduce Dreamwave’s material (or they won’t – again, it is entirely up to Hasbro). For example, in Italy, Panini has announced that it will be bringing Dreamwave’s material to that country in 2003. Reportedly, England’s Titan Books, as well as publishers in Australia and the Netherlands are looking to reprint Dreamwave’s material in their respective countries.
Also, as mentioned above, knowing that the demand is there, Hasbro could arguably be justified in asking for a large amount of money for the rights to Dreamwave’s material. Add to that the fact that given Dreamwave’s coloring process, the comics would cost more to reprint than simple four-color comics, which would use less sophisticated coloring methods, and suddenly the prospect of acquiring the license could require any potential publisher to outlay a substantial amount of money before the first comic is sold, which could price the comics themselves too high for fans, the end result being, the publisher would never see their investment in the Dreamwave material returned.
And let’s not forget that outside of North America, the format of Dreamwave’s Transformers comics is largely unsuccessful, so foreign publishers would most likely be looking at publishing trades, graphic albums, or multi-issue compilations, rather than single issues.
However, even if these companies do acquire the rights to reprint Dreamwave’s material, it won’t be immediate, that is, simultaneous publication, published in other countries at the same time it’s published in North America. The reprint material would always lag behind the original, much like American manga trades lag behind the original Japanese editions.
Obviously, demand will be high overseas, particularly in the UK, which has a large Transformers following, for the upcoming <a href=http://classic.newsarama.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=000009>Transformers Profiles</a> volumes, which will not only profile all the G1 characters, but also realign and tweak Transformer continuity.
Déjŕ vu All Over Again
So – long term Transformers fans – does any of this situation ring a familiar bell? A similar situation existed with Marvel UK’s Transformers comics, written by Simon Furman in the ‘80s. Legally, the individual issues of the UK Transformers couldn’t be sold in the US, due to the same rationale that prevents Dreamwave’s comics from making it to the UK today.
To many Transformer fans who collected the Marvel comics version, the UK series was the forbidden fruit – it was out there, but largely unreachable. As a result, Furman’s reputation as a writer grew among American Transformer audiences, as word of his good stories crept into America and went through the telephone game version of what was then comic book fandom.
When it’s all said and done, Fortier feels that the issue is over, and all the bumps between Hasbro and Diamond have been worked out. “The position Dreamwave is taking on it is that it was strictly an accident,” Fortier said.
So – what about the other ‘80s properties that are enjoying a revival from years of hibernation thanks to twenty and thirtysomething creators seeking to bring their favorite characters to comics?
Let’s run ‘em down:
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Image/Frontline2_01.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Image/Frontline2_01_t.jpg" width="125" height="190" alt=" GI JOE FRONTLINE #2, pg. 1" border="0" hspace="1" align="right"></a>G.I. Joe: While neither Josh Blaylock, head of Devil’s Due Studios which produces the G.I. Joe comic for Image, nor Image would comment, Newsarama has learned that a similar situation existed with the G. I Joe comic series as did with Dreamwave’s Transformers. That is, Devil’s Due had only the North American rights to produce a G. I. Joe comic, and it was being distributed overseas.
While not as big a deal as Transformers (as the overseas audience for an American military comic is slightly more limited than that for giant robots), Newsarama has been told that the situation has been corrected.
Micronauts: Blaylock told Newsarama that Devil’s Due has worldwide rights (excluding Japan) to produce Micronauts, so Diamond is free to distribute the series to overseas accounts.
Voltron: Blaylock said that Devil’s Due has worldwide rights for comics based on the property.
Masters of the Universe: “We only have North American distribution rights...for now,” said Val Staples, head of MV Creations, which is producing the Masters comic for Image. “We are in sync with Mattel every step of the way. That's all I can say for the time being. Masters of the Universe fans span the globe and we plan to reach as many of them as we can.”
Robotech: A representative from DC told Newsarama that Wildstorm has worldwide rights minus Japan for the December-debuting series.
Thundercats: DC told Newsarama that Wildstorm has worldwide rights for the comic series.
Battle of the Planets: A representative from Top Cow said that the studio has almost full global distribution rights except for Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea, the Phillippines, Hong Kong, India, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.
"There was no confusion over the rights as we had a copy of the original agreement between Sandy Frank and the Japanese creator Tatsunoko, so we knew exactly where we stood," added Top Cow President Matt Hawkins, who said he didn't know why those countries were specifically excluded. "I actually turned down He-Man solely based on the fact that the didn't have any rights other than English."
This issue should be watched closely as these properties begin crossing over with one another [such as the Battle of the Planets/Thundercats crossover Top Cow told us about several weeks ago] and with other comic book properties as the rights issues could become complicated.
What’s a fan or retailer to do? A comic’s availability outside of North America is always indicated by the code in the Diamond order form, for products which ship exclusively through Diamond. That said, it’s unclear how the Dreamwave issues were labeled in the order form, and sold overseas.
Got something to say about this? <a href=http://classic.newsarama.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=agree>CLICK HERE</a> to register and join one of comics' most active online communities. Registration is fast and easy.
What? How?
The short version is simple – Dreamwave, the studio founded by Pat Lee, produces Transformers comics (G1, Armada, and The War Within) under license from Hasbo, the company which owns the property. Under the agreement between Dreamwave and Hasbro, the studio has the North American rights to produce comics. Bluntly, Dreamwave’s comics are not allowed to be sold – or distributed - outside of North America. As Dreamwave’s distributor, Diamond was not allowed to sell the comics overseas.
“At the Frankfurt, it was found that Diamond was showcasing Hasbro material, basically for world consumption, and we only have the North American rights to distribute our comic books,” Dreamwave’s Adam Fortier told Newsarama. “We knew that we could only distribute in North America, and we know now that our books were getting outside of North America. I’ve probably gotten close to two dozen e-mails from separate companies, including Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Israel, Saudi Arabia – all saying that they love our comics and want to get them into their country, and asking us how to proceed.”
According to sources contacted by Newsarama, it appears that the first issue of Transformers G1 was shipped overseas, issues #2 and #3 were not, but by issue #4 of G1 (corresponding to issue #1 of Armada), the books started making their way overseas again. It’s unclear whether or not these books were shipped directly from Diamond to overseas accounts, or via partner companies, which then shipped them overseas.
Diamond did not respond to Newsarama’s requests for information regarding the apparent mix-up.
The e-mails that Fortier said he has received since it became clear that Diamond could not ship the books overseas aren’t exactly falling on deaf ears, but rather, on ears that can’t help. While Dreamwave produces the comics, and has the North American rights to Transformers comic books, ultimately, Hasbro owns the content and the toymaker negotiates the deals for foreign reprints of the comics.
Sources contacted by Newsarama pointed out another possible monkey wrench in the prospects of Dreamwave’s Transformers legally, making it around the world – Hasbro controls not only which Transformers content any given publisher has the right to reproduce, but also whether or not a publisher can reprint the comics or produce new works based on the characters.
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/dreamwave/Arm6_Pat.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/dreamwave/Arm6_Pat_t.jpg" width="150" height="228" alt="TF: Armada #6 cover by Pat Lee - Transformers are © Hasbro, 2002" border="0" align="left"></a>What appears to have happened though, is that the world (if Fortier’s e-mails are any indication) has basically said that it wants Dreamwave’s version of the Transformers – something which carries with it some tricky issues, licensing experts pointed out. After all, demand for Dreamwave’s material is high, so it’s a seller’s market, thus Hasbro has the advantage in any negotiations, and can ask for higher prices for the rights to overseas publishers.
Of course, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the immediate effect of this revelation will drive demand and collectibility of Dreamwave’s Transformers product up – way up. The super-short term effect of the revelation that Dreamwave’s Transformers products can’t be legally shipped overseas by Diamond? Hoards of Transformers comics showing up on eBay, the vast majority of which are by sellers who are willing to ship overseas.
So – bigger picture? That word above: legally. Had either Diamond not stopped shipping Dreamwave’s Transformers books, or Hasbro opted to – this issue could have been a huge legal tangle for the companies. In fact, there are possible legal ramifications to the whole affair – again, as experts in licensing explained to Newsarama, not only dealers, but individuals legally are not allowed to ship Dreamwave’s Transformers comics outside of North America.
Well, that’s why it’s called the black market….
In a hypothetical situation for example, if you would ship 1,000 Dreamwave Transformers comics to friends in the UK, Hasbro could legally, alert UK Customs and have the comics seized at the border.
Will is happen? (insert a mental image of Autobots standing on the shores of the United Kingdom here, encircling the entire nation…) Probably not. The numbers of comics, both in actual numbers and dollars (or Euros/pounds) is most likely small enough not to be worth either Customs’ or Hasbro’s time.
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/dreamwave/preview2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/dreamwave/preview2_t.jpg" width="233" height="133" alt="Monster lithograph preview....for North America only - sorry - Transformers are © Hasbro, 2002" border="0" align="right"></a>On the upside – sorta – from a certain standpoint, it doesn’t actually hurt Hasbro if Dreamwave’s comics make it overseas. Figure it thins way – if 10,000 people want Transformers G1 in England or Europe, and certain people know about this, and are supplying the collectors overseas with the books, Dreamwave’s overall numbers will increase, and the studio will continue to pay Hasbro a royalty. Additionally, having Dreamwave’s Transformers product make it into fans’ hands around the world helps keep the brand name strong, which, conceivably fuels toy sales, which are Hasbro’s bread and butter when it comes to the property.
Overall, are Transformers comics making it to overseas fans that big of a deal? Well – they could be. After all, the comics should not have made it into the country in the first place, so when/if Hasbro does negotiate with a local publisher to reprint Dreamwave’s material, the publisher could argue that it won’t make as much money as it could have because fans in that country already got their hands on the original material.
If a publisher would do this, that is, claim that their potential profits have been cut because of Dreamwave comics sneaking into the country, legal action could be taken to gain relief – who would the overseas publisher sue? Let’s just not go there.
Legal Transformers
So – moving away from black market Transformers comics, how could Dreamwave’s Transformers make it to other countries’ rabid Transformer fans?
Well, slowly. And Dreamwave won’t be a part of it.
When asked, Fortier said that Dreamwave is not interested in expanding their relationship with Hasbro to include worldwide publishing rights for Transformers comics.
“Any real worldwide entity has to have separate offices in each country,” Fortier said. “So when you’re doing worldwide licensing where you have to separate and do a license for every single country. When you’re talking about a place like Europe and Asia, you could be talking about doing 60 different licensing agreements with 60 different advances and 60 different royalty agreements and 60 different print runs and translations.
“We make comic books, and we make English language comic books very well,” Fortier continued. “To branch out and try to do all of that would be to lose focus from what we do. So chances are that we’ll never do it. If there’s somebody say, in the Netherlands, that makes comics the best over there, then they should be allowed to do it, otherwise it’s not good for the fans. Unfortunately, it’s not an answer everybody wants to hear.”
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/Arcee.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/Arcee_t.jpg" width="175" height="233" border="0" alt="Arcee, from Book I - Transformers are © Hasbro, 2002" align="left"></a>So, ultimately, Hasbro will possibly negotiate with local publishers in each country to reproduce Dreamwave’s material (or they won’t – again, it is entirely up to Hasbro). For example, in Italy, Panini has announced that it will be bringing Dreamwave’s material to that country in 2003. Reportedly, England’s Titan Books, as well as publishers in Australia and the Netherlands are looking to reprint Dreamwave’s material in their respective countries.
Also, as mentioned above, knowing that the demand is there, Hasbro could arguably be justified in asking for a large amount of money for the rights to Dreamwave’s material. Add to that the fact that given Dreamwave’s coloring process, the comics would cost more to reprint than simple four-color comics, which would use less sophisticated coloring methods, and suddenly the prospect of acquiring the license could require any potential publisher to outlay a substantial amount of money before the first comic is sold, which could price the comics themselves too high for fans, the end result being, the publisher would never see their investment in the Dreamwave material returned.
And let’s not forget that outside of North America, the format of Dreamwave’s Transformers comics is largely unsuccessful, so foreign publishers would most likely be looking at publishing trades, graphic albums, or multi-issue compilations, rather than single issues.
However, even if these companies do acquire the rights to reprint Dreamwave’s material, it won’t be immediate, that is, simultaneous publication, published in other countries at the same time it’s published in North America. The reprint material would always lag behind the original, much like American manga trades lag behind the original Japanese editions.
Obviously, demand will be high overseas, particularly in the UK, which has a large Transformers following, for the upcoming <a href=http://classic.newsarama.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=000009>Transformers Profiles</a> volumes, which will not only profile all the G1 characters, but also realign and tweak Transformer continuity.
Déjŕ vu All Over Again
So – long term Transformers fans – does any of this situation ring a familiar bell? A similar situation existed with Marvel UK’s Transformers comics, written by Simon Furman in the ‘80s. Legally, the individual issues of the UK Transformers couldn’t be sold in the US, due to the same rationale that prevents Dreamwave’s comics from making it to the UK today.
To many Transformer fans who collected the Marvel comics version, the UK series was the forbidden fruit – it was out there, but largely unreachable. As a result, Furman’s reputation as a writer grew among American Transformer audiences, as word of his good stories crept into America and went through the telephone game version of what was then comic book fandom.
When it’s all said and done, Fortier feels that the issue is over, and all the bumps between Hasbro and Diamond have been worked out. “The position Dreamwave is taking on it is that it was strictly an accident,” Fortier said.
So – what about the other ‘80s properties that are enjoying a revival from years of hibernation thanks to twenty and thirtysomething creators seeking to bring their favorite characters to comics?
Let’s run ‘em down:
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Image/Frontline2_01.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Image/Frontline2_01_t.jpg" width="125" height="190" alt=" GI JOE FRONTLINE #2, pg. 1" border="0" hspace="1" align="right"></a>G.I. Joe: While neither Josh Blaylock, head of Devil’s Due Studios which produces the G.I. Joe comic for Image, nor Image would comment, Newsarama has learned that a similar situation existed with the G. I Joe comic series as did with Dreamwave’s Transformers. That is, Devil’s Due had only the North American rights to produce a G. I. Joe comic, and it was being distributed overseas.
While not as big a deal as Transformers (as the overseas audience for an American military comic is slightly more limited than that for giant robots), Newsarama has been told that the situation has been corrected.
Micronauts: Blaylock told Newsarama that Devil’s Due has worldwide rights (excluding Japan) to produce Micronauts, so Diamond is free to distribute the series to overseas accounts.
Voltron: Blaylock said that Devil’s Due has worldwide rights for comics based on the property.
Masters of the Universe: “We only have North American distribution rights...for now,” said Val Staples, head of MV Creations, which is producing the Masters comic for Image. “We are in sync with Mattel every step of the way. That's all I can say for the time being. Masters of the Universe fans span the globe and we plan to reach as many of them as we can.”
Robotech: A representative from DC told Newsarama that Wildstorm has worldwide rights minus Japan for the December-debuting series.
Thundercats: DC told Newsarama that Wildstorm has worldwide rights for the comic series.
Battle of the Planets: A representative from Top Cow said that the studio has almost full global distribution rights except for Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea, the Phillippines, Hong Kong, India, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.
"There was no confusion over the rights as we had a copy of the original agreement between Sandy Frank and the Japanese creator Tatsunoko, so we knew exactly where we stood," added Top Cow President Matt Hawkins, who said he didn't know why those countries were specifically excluded. "I actually turned down He-Man solely based on the fact that the didn't have any rights other than English."
This issue should be watched closely as these properties begin crossing over with one another [such as the Battle of the Planets/Thundercats crossover Top Cow told us about several weeks ago] and with other comic book properties as the rights issues could become complicated.
What’s a fan or retailer to do? A comic’s availability outside of North America is always indicated by the code in the Diamond order form, for products which ship exclusively through Diamond. That said, it’s unclear how the Dreamwave issues were labeled in the order form, and sold overseas.
Got something to say about this? <a href=http://classic.newsarama.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=agree>CLICK HERE</a> to register and join one of comics' most active online communities. Registration is fast and easy.