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I just ran across this lengthy overview of Shooter's 1978-1987 tenure as Marvel's editor in chief, that cites numerous sources and legal facts about Shooter and his interactions with others at Marvel during that era.
http://rsmwriter.blogspot.com/2016/06/jim-shooter-second-opinion.html Interesting that in the struggle for Kirby to reclaim his original art, Shooter is blamed by others, but Shooter is cited by the legal facts to have no interaction or jurisdiction over the return of Kirby's art, that it was legally done work-for-hire in the 1960's, and that was the realm of publisher Michael Hobson and Marvel's attorneys. That Shooter had little if any say or involvement in the matter.
I don't know if there is any legal difference regardingKirby's 1959-1970 Marvel work, as compared to Kirby's later 1975-1978 work on his return to Marvel, on CAPTAIN AMERICA 193-216, ETERNALS 1-19, 2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY movie adaptation treasury edition, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY 1-10 series, MACHINE MAN 1-9, DEVIL DINOSAUR 1-9, and BLACK PANTHER series 1-12. As cited in the article and comments below, Kirby left in 1978, and probably already announced his planned departure and was on his way out the door in the opening months Shooter took over as editor in chief. So not only was Kirby barely a blip on the radar while Shooter was in charge, but the law governing Kirby's past original artwork was outside Shooter's jurisdiction.
It's remarkable in the comments section how people lash back at his article with absolute certainty, allegedly sourced, and then the writer of the piece comes back at them and corrects with actual cited sources to detail what the true known facts are.
Interesting that Kirby never sued Marvel while he was alive, to try and claim his unreturned original art. Kirby only threatened to, but threatened for many years, to the point that even Shooter believed there was a longstanding lawsuit. But without a lawsuit, only the threat of one against Marvel, they handled all correspondence with Kirby through Marvel's attorneys, as a precaution, for a suit that never came. It was only after Kirby died that his family actually sued. And only after sued that Marvel counter-sued.
Also interesting how early into his reign that Shooter began measures to bring greater pay and creative rights to Marvel staffers. The negotiations for expanded creator ownership and "european-style" formats that became the Marvel Graphic Novel line (launched in 1981) began pushing for in 1978, months after Shooter became editor in chief.
Also that Hobson had warned Shooter in 1978 that Marvel's sales up till then were low enough that the entire comics line was in danger of being cancelled. And that Shooter's measures as editor in chief generated such a dramatic rise in sales that the threat of ceasing publication was eliminated.
That in addition Marvel expanded into other forms of publishing.
I know that some of the biggest critics of Shooter (not named in the article or comments) were Roy Thomas and Marv Wolfman, both of whom were writer/editors with their own little kingdoms within the Marvel line till Shooter took over (Roy Thomas was writer/editor of the CONAN line, Marv Wolfman was writer/editor of TOMB OF DRACULA and a DRACULA magazine, beyond their other series writing assignments) . They both left Marvel in a huff and defected to DC, rather than remain at Marvel with reduced stature. But Shooter did what he did because of low sales, and to bring more uniformity to the Marvel line. There were also a lot of missed deadlines and fill-in issues before Shooter took over as managing editor. These are two "critics of Shooter" not named.
Doug Moench, who was named in this article as a vocal Shooter critic, had a similar established status at Marvel over many titles, such as MASTER OF KUNG FU, DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU magazine, THE HULK magazine, and the MOON KNIGHT comic that spun off from originally being a backup in HULK magazine. Moench quit Marvel in 1982 (described as "in a tantrum" in the article) and went to DC. Shooter wanted to re-vamp all these Moench-scripted titles, and despite that I loved all these titles, it can't be denied that they were declining in sales. HULK magazine was cancelled in 1981, MOON KNIGHT was in danger of cancellation in 1981 but thrown a lifeline by becoming an experimental direct-only title (along with MICRONAUTS and KA-ZAR) and MASTER OF KUNG FU was also low in sales, and was finally cancelled just 5 issues after Moench quit the series.
This linked article makes a strong case for Shooter actually acting in the interest of those who were employed by him at Marvel, and whose editorial decisions actually saved their jobs, and Marvel itself.
It's stated that "if Marvel went out of business, DC likely would have followed." And there is certainly a strong case for that, regarding the "DC Implosion" that simultaneously happened in Oct 1978, within months of Shooter's promotion to head Marvel, and Hobson warning Shooter that the entire Marvel line was in jeopardy of being discontinued. Where a third of DC's titles were cancelled overnight by Warner Communications. Post-implosion in 1978-1979, freelancers with no available work at DC fled to an expanding Marvel under Shooter (including future editor Al Milgrom, Bob Layton, Jerry Bingham, Michael Golden, Bob Mcleod, Bob Wiacek, Dave Michelinie, and many others who became visible talents at Marvel ) where they took over Marvel titles and became the defining creators on series for years, whereas they had previously struggled to find random assignments at DC. They benefitted from the changes Shooter brought to Marvel.
