Ron Kasman read this post I put up about Wally Wood maybe inking Jack Kirby's comics for DC Comics starting in 1970. Then Ron sent me this…
At age 17 at the time of the New York Comic Art Convention, I went to the offices of DC with a few friends. Carmine Infantino took us into his office for a long visit. It might have been two hours. He showed us Kirby originals on what became know as the Fourth World Series. One of the group commented that Wood would have been the right inker. Infantino immediately responded, "Too expensive." I remember this because at that point in my life I had no idea of fiscal constraints in comics. I thought it was all done for the good of the artform.
As I got into comics, one of the things that stunned me about the business was how nickel-and-dime it was, especially when it came to rewarding (or just keeping around) the people who created the product. I'm not really talking about Carmine here but at times, it seemed like those who owned or ran some companies didn't want to pay the writers and artists well because that would have been some sort of admission that the writers and artists were in any way responsible for the company's success.
Quick Analogy: In 1979, the comedians working The Comedy Store here in Hollywood went on strike, demanding to be paid. They weren't even asking to be paid a lot…and when they finally settled, they weren't. The Store was making millions and the guy who cleaned the rest rooms was being paid but the comedians weren't. The comedians just wanted some acknowledgement that what they were contributing had value.
And Mitzi Shore, who owned and managed the place, kept repeating like it was some sort of holy mantra, "Not one penny, not one penny," until she finally had to give in. I believe she was clinging to a faulty premise — that all those folks were flocking there because of her and what she had built. They weren't coming to spend money because of Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, Jay Leno, Dave Letterman, etc.
A lot of what I observed with comic books reminded me of the Comedy Store and vice-versa. In many cases, the difference between getting your first choice artist on a comic book and your second or eighth choice was just a couple of bucks per page. In a comic containing a 22-page story, it might be $44…or way less than what some guy in management spent on business lunches that week.
It wasn't the money so much as it was a principle — that principle being that the company was successful because of management, not because of its creative talent. That's a fallacy. Success in a field like this comes from a combination of both and that is how it will always be in comic books…and for that matter, in comedy clubs.