I’ve probably made more money in the first decade of this century from the reprinting of comic books I wrote in the mid-’70s than I earned during the mid-’70s from the original publication of those comics.

When I started working in comics back then, however, the concept of getting paid for reprinted material was just a pipe dream. The artists and writers could complain all they wanted, but the companies wouldn’t budge. At least not until 1976, when both Marvel and DC decided that they needed to institute reprint payment policies to hang on to talent.

First out of the gate was DC Comics, which issued the following undated memo somewhere between July 20, 1976 and August 10, 1976. (The reason I’m sure of those dates is that I’ve kept all of my memos from the old days, and those were the dates of the memos just before and just after this one.)

Here’s what Jeannette Kahn and Sol Harrison had to say:

A few months later, on December 13, 1976, Marvel came forward with its own reprint policy. Take a look at what Jim Galton and Stan Lee countered with:

Reprint payment rates have increased since then, to the extent that I now get more per each reprinted page than I did for having written it originally. I may not have written anything new for either company since the early ’80s, but thanks to that long-ago change in policy, I continue to get paid. Which is how it should be.