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COMICAL_DEAL

                                              September 30, 2008
                                              October   12, 2008

  "Men of Tomorrow" (2004) by Gerard Jones
  "Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book"

                                               MEN_OF_TOMORROW
    In many ways, this is
    a book about how to
    deal with people, and
    how to cut deals with
    them.

        Siegel was a guy who would
        decline to push, let himself      In counter-point to him, we have
        be put off by ambiguous           the story of Harry Donnefeld --
        deals, sit on his rage, and       a "people person" with a knack
        then burning with injustice       for getting people to like him
        write long, cranky screeds        (including gang-land figures
        and mail them off to people       like Frank Costello...).
        who would be guaranteed not
        to take them seriously.               But more to the point
        Then years later, he engages          would be Bob Kane --
        in expensive legal combat             when Siegel asked him
        that leaves little choice but         to get involved with
        to dig in and fight back              an upcoming law suit,
        against him.                          Kane instead used the
                                              *threat* of the suit
                                              to negotiate a better
                                              contract, and let
                                              Siegel go hang.

   We might infer some rules                       And Kane used a rather
   for living from all this:                       interesting move to break
                                                   his existing contract: he
                                                   claimed he was a minor when
      Wherever possible, deal with                 he signed it -- the
      people on a personal basis,                  existing immigration
      maintaining legal contracts                  records were sketchy enough
      only to cover when that fails.               that it was impossible to
                                                   prove otherwise.
      Whenever possible, use the
      threat of legal action as a                     In general, Kane doesn't
      negotiating tool, but avoid                     come off well in Jones'
      actual legal action.                            telling: very little
                                                      creative work, and lots
           And maybe just as important                of herding ghosts.
           as "knowing your rights", is
           "knowing your options".

                                           One of the
                                           favorite
                                           phrases of

                                           DANGERBABY


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