Seibertron wrote:I guess I'm confused why Don wasn't upset about IDW using this design back in Ongoing 2 or 3 years ago if he felt that he should've been given compensation for something. I've had the understanding for the past 25 or 30 years that whatever shows up in Transformers comics is property of Hasbro, which is why Marvel was so quick to have Death's Head and Circuit Breaker appear in other Marvel books prior to their debut in Transformers. I assumed that when an artist works for Hasbro or a licensed company such as IDW that any of the work done for the brand with those licensed characters during that time would be owned or could be used by Hasbro.
I'm of the same understanding.
It's common for the employer to stipulate in the employment contract that anything created for the company is basically company property. I've seen this in every IT job I've had where if I were to code something for work, that code belongs to my employer, not me.
In the case of comics, it's the same deal. Unless the artist makes a contractual agreement to have own specific characters/designs they create, the company owns whatever the artist creates.
Unless Don had a contractual stipulation with IDW that he owns whatever he designs in his TF comic work, he isn't owed anything by IDW or Hasbro.
Dead Metal wrote:He did state, that he did it for a story pitch idw declined to use. Then they contacted him about using it, and he agreed as long as they let him pitch a story, they took the new design and didn't let him do his pitch. So no compensation at all. It looks like idw totally dropped the ball on this.
According to the quoted text from Don Figueroa's DA page, he was approached and told that IDW wanted to use the Megatron design. He updated the design and gave IDW permission to use it. He then asked again if he could pitch a story. The meeting never happened. However, he never said he stipulated the use of his design based upon being given an opportunity to pitch a story.
a couple of months later he comes to me and says they wanted to use the design. I said cool, lemme update it and the final image above was the result. I again asked if I can pitch a story, even if it's not TF related, he said yes and he'll come down to Long Beach Comic-con for a sit down. I went, but he never showed up. and that was that.