’80s Graphic Novel Reprinted Online Still Benefits Author, Even Though It’s Free

As a teenage comic book fan growing up in the ’80s, I was a huge fan of Marvel Comics writer Bill Mantlo‘s stories. His run on The Incredible Hulk would prove crucial, a decade and a half later, to Ang Lee‘s understanding of Bruce Banner and his family history; even the toy tie-ins he co-created, Micronauts and ROM: Spaceknight, wound up being a lot more than mere merchandising—ROM actually outlasted the cheap action figure it was meant to promote by several years and became an integral part of Marvel continuity. When Mantlo graduated from law school, he left comics to work as a public defender in New York City. Unfortunately, he was struck by a car in 1992, spent a year in a coma, and remains institutionalized to this day with little expectation of recovery from the severe head trauma he endured.

Last June, Sleeping Giants Creations released a tribute book called Mantlo: A Life in Comics, which featured interviews with some of the writers and artists he worked with during his comics career. And last week, Wowio.com, a website that features free books for legal download, announced that it was republishing the graphic novel and subsequent mini-series of Swords of the Swashbucklers, a science-fiction pirate adventure Mantlo created in 1985 with artist Jackson Guice. Because the site receives sponsorship from Verizon and Careerbuilder, the books downloaded will, in fact, earn royalties—which have been redirected to Mantlo’s brother, who will use the funds to improve Mantlo’s quality of life and supplement the basic medical coverage he receives from Medicaid.

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