kirbyfanatic wrote:
What I recall reading is that in fact there was no discussion, that Kirby was offered a contract on a take it or leave it basis. So, if Marvel wasn't willing to negotiate anything, the wiser course was to leave Marvel.

Allen Smith
There was no discussion for the reason I just posted above. Jack never went back to Marvel and attempted to negotiate after DC made their offer.

"Take ot or leave it" is usually an offer made by somebody who believes the other side has no options.

A few years back, I was working as a morning man at a radio station. My partner & I had taken the station from 13th place to 3rd place in a year's time. We went in for a raise. We were offered a very small token raise and told "take it or leave it."

We were contacted by a competing radio station. They offered us a huge raise over what we were making. Instead of "pulling a Kirby," we went back to our original employer - the company that told us "take it or leave it" and told them we would be leaving it for their competitor unless they cared to make a counter offer.

They did, beating the competitor's offer by a substantial amount. We never even told them what the competitor offered. We just asked them to come up with their best offer by the close of business or we were gone.

You don't know if someone is really willing to negotiate until you have something to negotiate WITH!