It takes oh so little time to properly credit someone...

And ownership of one's work....


A plagairism tale hitherto untold, from the grand-middle-old days of monster mags:

I was visiting the STARLOG offices, some time in late 1980 (early 1981?), probably to drop off an article for Howard Zimmerman...

I stepped into Bob Martin's office to say Hi, and he had some of the articles for the next FANGORIA laid out. (It's possible that the mag was already in "blues," or whatever it was called, which would make this story's denoument even more remarkable.)

I had the Scatman Crothers interview in that issue, about THE SHINING (as well as some fun info about BRONCO BILLY), and Bob might have handed me the article, to see what I thought of its presentation.

I looked through the "mag," which at that point might have been just proofs, and saw that there was a George Pal tribute.

I said, "Ah! Geoge Pal!", and gave it a quick scan.

Really, kind of tongue in cheek, I commented, "Hmm... I see the author read my piece on George Pal's Puppetoons, in FANTASTIC FILMS (magazine)..."

Now, remember, this was just an offhand comment, essentialy gibing around the way the rest of the conversation went as well.

The next day, I got a phone call from Bob, asking if I'd mind sharing credit on FANGORIA's Pal feature.

I said something like, "Huh?"


Bob explained that he reread the article, then checked back against my Puppetoons history... And found the material just TOO close.

He also called the author of the "new" article, and didn't get a satisfactory explanation.


FANGORIA also paid me for half the feature!


To reset the article's by-line, while not extraordinarily difficult, was a bit of a pain back then, if I recall (even if it was just getting a new line of type, and having the art director paste it in).

But I was impressed--and still am!--that Bob Martin took the impetus of a semi-casual aside to investigate on his own.

I asked Bob how he even had a copy of the FANTASTIC FILMS Pal piece I had written a year or two earlier?

And he reminded me that it was in my original package of article clips I had sent him, when first approaching the magazine; and Bob had saved them in a file.


Bob Martin acted with class.


I've meant to ponder here for a while, but think I'll save it for a seperate thread, about books that simply just borrow, or rather steal quotes, without attribution.


(One writer recently asked me for permission to use ONE THOUSAND TO TWO THOUSAND WORDS of a feature in a book of his. I explained that went well beyond the legal bounds of "fair usage," and that such a chunk of my work would prevent me from pursuing my own plans to reprint the feature! He was insulted, and went so far as to complain to someone he didn't know was a friend of mine, "Why aren't people honored when I want to use their material? It's not like they own it..."


But, for another time.


What's interesting to ponder is how many editors, then or now, would have taken the time and care that Bob did.

Best, Jim

James H. Burns