Corporate People Say The Silliest Things...

Thanks to Graeme for blogging about this, which is the only reason I caught it.

Tom Brevoort had the following to say about foreign royalties:

Like our editorial staff, our accounting department is lean, and the revenue derived from overseas editions isn’t so great that it woul justify the manhours it would take to determine that somebody was owed a three-dollar check for a story that had appeared in Zimbabwe and to cut it.

Gee, Mr. Brevoort...mighty kind of you to decide for your contractors what amounts of money are worth it for you to track. Corporate streamlining of your operation completely negates the legal and ethical obligation for you to pay them all monies rightfully owed to them.

People are right: creators DEFINITELY have no need or use for a union. Clearly, management has their best interests in mind at all times...

Edit: I'd like to acknowledge that Tom Brevoort says Marvel finds "other ways" to compensate creators for foreign reprints that we don't know about and shouldn't know about. I wonder if it is some manner of compensation that even their shareholders don't know about. Because, if it isn't, then there is no reason not to just share it with the audience. If the shareholders DON'T know about it...hmmmmm....