Incidentally.

I’ve seen the sentiment expressed elsewhere that Paul Levitz has been personally involved in attempting to keep the Siegel estate from collecting their share of Superman’s copyright.

Let me say without even the slightest reservation that this is crap. Greg Morrow details how Levitz was personally involved in seeing that DC increased Siegel and Shuster’s pension back in the 70s here, and I’ll second his declaration that Levitz is a real mensch.

Yes, I have said previously that DC Comics are, collectively, being moneygrubbing assholes as regards the Siegels. But that’s a corporation, a legal fiction determined by fiat to be psychopathic in its intent to collect funds, and more importantly not even an independent one but rather a small wing of a media empire. There is a difference between saying that DC Comics are being assholes and saying that Levitz is being an asshole; for example, the former is true and the latter is not. Levitz has very little say in how corporate policies are executed; DC Comics’ policy regarding protection of its properties isn’t his to dictate.

Moreover, I’d like to go into Sharing Time for a second, and mention how, back when I was doing the original I Should Write The Legion series on my old Livejournal, a friend of mine called up Paul Levitz (whom he knew through old-school fan channels) and suggested we talk, if only to give me some insights into the business end of comics. And that’s how I came to have a hour-plus phone call, uninterrupted, with the managing director of DC Comics, on a weekday morning. The fact that Paul Levitz almost certainly had better and/or more important things to do than talk with a nigh-total nobody like me never even entered into the conversation at all.

That’s because Levitz is a good guy. And I just wanted to make that clear.