Opinion ID: 779794
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Publication of Captain America Comics

Text: 4 In December 1940, Martin and Jean Goodman, doing business as Timely Publications and Timely Comics, Inc. (collectively Timely) published the first issue of the now iconic Captain America Comics. Captain America, a.k.a. Steve Rogers, was an army-reject turned superhero who was charged with protecting America from all enemies, especially Nazi spies. Authorship of the comic book was attributed to Simon and Jack Kirby. 5 According to Simon, he created Captain America as an independent, freelance project before shopping it around to various publishers. Although there was no written agreement between the parties, Simon contends that he sold the Captain America story to Timely for a fixed page rate plus a twenty-five percent share of the profits of the comic books. Simon also maintains that he created the second through tenth issues of Captain America Comics on a freelance basis, and orally assigned his interest in Captain America Comics and the Captain America character (collectively the Works) to Timely. 6 During 1941, Timely published the second through tenth issues of Captain America Comics. Shortly after their publication, Timely applied for and received certificates of registration of the copyrights for each issue of the Works. The Works were a tremendous success, and to this day continue to generate substantial revenue for Marvel, Timely's successor in interest.