David Miller: Marvel had no right to the physical artwork. 

****

John Byrne: Yes, they did. And everyone understood this. Then
the law changed.

++++

Mark Evanier: I have a copy of a letter from a Marvel lawyer to Kirby's lawyer,
dated 1968. It's a response to a request from Jack -- and apparently
not the first one -- for the original art to be returned to him.”

****
Me: Gee, I bet Jack couldn’t understand why he couldn’t have his pages from this wonderful company – hell-- Steranko had a special relationship with Stan and got his back. Neal Adams always wanted his art back, and has said he couldn’t understand why either…..

 ++++
David Miller: It wasn't the fans who reneged on agreements with
Steve Ditko.

****

  John Byrne: Which "agreements" were these?

 ++++

Mark Evanier: From what I've been able to ascertain, Kirby was led to believe
that he would be compensated in two ways. One was in a share of all
merchandising income (Ditko was apparently promised this, as well)
modeled on the old Simon-Kirby deal for Captain America. The other
was a bit more complicated but it was basically that, if and when
Goodman sold the company, the underlying rights to the characters that
Kirby had created or co-created would not transfer unless Kirby was
involved in the deal and received a share. None of this happened.

****

John Byrne: Not if a court of law says it isn't. Jesus, get a fucking
clue!!!

++++
Me: Just because a court of law ‘says’ it, doesn’t mean it really wasn’t theft. A court of law said OJ didn’t kill his wife. Jesus, stop being so fucking naïve!!!

 ****
David Miller: My point was that DC and Marvel should be blamed
for casting off the creators. 

++++  

John Byrne: Neither company casts of creators whose work still
sells.

 
****
Paraphrased from Mark Evanier: In the late sixties Martin Goodman became aware of just how much work Kirby was doing for the company and realized that they were paying out rather a lot because of this. Goodman therefore tried  to cut Kirby's rate. It was never implemented because Jack threatened to quit if
they did.

Me: Jack eventually did quit shortly after because  the new contract he’d have to sign would make him say he didn’t really create characters, and other thoroughly demeaning things.