As pointed out by a faithful reader Comic Book Daily has provided quite a bit of coverage for the Nelvana Of The Northern Lights Kickstarter reprint, but one issue seems to have been unaddressed.
My question is, I haven’t seen any mention made of compensation to the Dingle family for reprinting the work done. I know interest in creator rights has become slightly more important the last year or so; there has been outcry over Windsor-Smith seeing no money from the Red Nails reprint, and there was some initial attention towards compensation for Frank Thorne for the Dynamite Red Sonja book.
I looked at the kickstarter and saw that the money raised would go to travel and hotel expenses, as well as computer hardware and software, but saw no mention of creator compensation.
I took this concern and my own interest in reprint production to Hope Nicholson, the creator of the Kickstarter campaign. She was kind enough to provide answers to my emailed questions.
How is the family or estate of Adrian Dingle being compensated? (Yes I jumped in with no pleasantries…)
So Scott! The exact specifics are a private matter between the estate and myself and Rachel (Richey) but I assure you they are both compensated and honoured in the final product.
Would you like to expand on your answer, or give your thoughts on creator rights?
Sure. I absolutely believe that whenever possible the original artist or their estate should be located and honoured, and projects undertaken with their consent and knowledge. I also believe that the copyright owners should be held in the same regard, and that there’s absolutely no reason why these two aspects should be incompatible. We are operating as a non-profit, but we intend to see both the copyright holders and the estate acknowledged every step of the way. We’re perhaps extremely lucky in this regard as Nelvana Animation, Library and Archives Canada, and the Dingle estate have been very supportive of our efforts to restore this piece of history that they are a part of.
Can you expand upon the involvement of these three groups in this project?
The copyrights to reprint the original content of Nelvana of the Northern Lights lie with Nelvana Animation and Library and Archives Canada, they are the ones who have licensed the rights to us for this project.
I’d like to ask about the production of the book’s contents. You state in the Kickstarter comments “We are not looking to do a full restoration. Minimal alteration, refers to the possibility of doing slight contrast enhancements to make faded linework more readable.” Who is handling the scanning and enhancements? Can you discuss the process? Matte or glossy paper? Is there a Golden Age reprint book that you admire the production work and would like to mimic with Nelvana?
Myself and Rachel will be handling the scanning, the process hasn’t begun yet so we can’t really tell you the specific process we will be using until we have time to experiment.
We will be printing on matte paper.
I don’t have any specific golden age reprint book in mind to mimic. Sorry that these answers can’t be more detailed at this point, after we’ve begun the process and are further along in production we will be able to give you more specific answers.
Do you or Rachel have any experience in reprint production or publishing?
Hi Scott, we do not though both of us have worked in Archives in the past, I in the Instructional Resource Unit in Manitoba, and Rachel at the Library and Archives in Ottawa, so we have a strong familiarity with handling delicate texts.
We have advisors with decades of experience in the publishing industry who we have been in contact with in regards to the process.
