The era of social media has given fans more access to their favourite comic creators than ever. Whereas before they were limited to letters pages and fleeting meetings at conventions, now fanboys can interact with writers, artists and editors in real-time over their Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr accounts. There's some notable benefits - Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie's Young Avengers had a symbiotic relationship with its online fanbase, and Kelly Sue Deconnick's Captain Marvel is ably boosted by the support of the mostly-online Carol Corps - but many creators have had to start pointing out that fans suggesting storylines or ideas to them is a bad idea. It puts them in a tricky place, legally: they can't use the idea and not give credit, but also if they already had a similar idea on the go they have to toss it out in case the fan thinks they've been ripped off. That's not necessarily a new thing, mind, as the story of Larry Ivie will attest. According to legend, this passionate comic book fan and zine author who dabbled in writing and drawing titles himself sometimes. In the fifties he regularly pitched ideas to DC editor Julius Schwartz, and in 1956 one of those ideas was an update of the company's unused Justice Society of America property. Ivie renamed them the Justice Society of the World, positing that the team would be made up of the JSA's superpowered kids. The pitch was rejected. Undeterred, Ivie made a similar second effort a couple of years later, this time with the original JSA members, but under the new name "The Justice League". It was rejected too, but the Justice League turned up in a 1960 issue of the Brave & the Bold nonetheless. What gives? Well, the Justice League were actually a bunch of Silver Age heroes teaming up, which is a no-brainer as far as ideas go, and not what Ivie pitched. It also transpired that the name came from Schwartz himself, not Ivie. The fan had a notable effect on comics culture, if not comics themselves.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
