So the news is out that Fantastic Four, the titled that launched the Marvel age of comics will be no more.  Now the reason the title is getting cancelled isn’t because the comic was selling so poorly that Marvel wasn’t making a profit, true book isn’t a top seller but because Marvel doesn’t want support FOX and their upcoming movies based on their characters.
 

For those who don’t know before Marvel Comics started producing their own films under Marvel Studios, they licensed their characters out to different film studios such as FOX and SONY.  Which isn’t unusual.  Many companies that work in one medium license out their proprieties to other companies that make products in a different medium. 

What was so unique about the deals MARVEL made with those studios.  The Studios get to keep the rights to make films with the characters they licensed from Marvel as long as they produced theatrical releases with-in a certain window of time from the last film based on those characters. This seemed like a good deal at the time, Marvel gets revenue from those films and hopefully exposure to their comics.  For a time it was a good deal that was until MARVEL started to make its own movies.

Now MARVEL is in an odd position while they profit from these movies, they would profit more if they could make those movies.  Also these the movies based on their characters from other film studios are now MARVEL’s competition.  Which many people expect is the reason Marvel not only cancelled the Fantastic Four but also told its creative teams to make no new X-Men characters and why they have killed off characters connected to X-Men and the Fantastic Four, such as Wolverine and Namor.  This is being seen as a way for Marvel to show their displeasure with FOX and the handling of their characters and a way to prevent new source material for FOX to use for further films. 

IF that theory is true then I must say that is a bad ideal on Marvels part. With over 50 years of stories FOX still has great well of stories that they can draw on.  Also they can always make new stories based the FF & X-MEN                maybe even add in characters they created that can be spun off into their own franchises.  Plus MARVEL loses out not just because they have one less money making title with cancelling of FF but are tying the hands of their creators by not allowing to create new characters connected to the x-men. 

All MARVEL can do is wait and hope that FOX stops making movies based on MARVEL characters.  Maybe they will just miss the deadline or a film bombs so badly that studio feels that not even rebooting them will work make a sequ

Platinum Studios all that glitters isn't gold

Well this is interesting Platinum Studios the comic book publisher with the main aim is print comics to turn to film or TV shows is going through some crazy times right now.  Not only is it stock worth less then a penny.  But going by bleeding cool the president and CEO of the company are going at each other trying to get the other removed from the company (and it seems like the CEO Rosenberg got the former president of the company fired)

The odd thing that Chris Beall made fair case on why they should get rid of Rosenberg (he's been using the company's money for personal reasons and has a number of lawsuits.)


Could it be the reason that Rosenberg stayed was to keep the rights to awesome comics which would go if he went according to the fillings this SEC filing?

or is it because he owns over half of the company?

Ego vs Humility Antony Johnston talks about being a creator

Alan moore on HARDtalk (british TV show)

help Gary Friedrich

In case you haven't heard the creator of the modern version of Ghost Rider has been sued by Marvel comics because he was selling ghost rider art at conventions and stated that he was the creator of Ghost Rider

So Steve Nile has started a fund raiser for Gary Friedrich

will the WGA start protecting comic book writers

Over at ladies creating comics Alexa Dickman has posted a letter she sent to the WGA (both their east and west branches)  asking for the WGA (writer guild of America) to protect the writes of comic book writers.  For those who may not know the WGA is the union for writers that are working in TV and Film.

No word yet if the WGA has responding to her request but it is an interesting ideal and as she points out the industires are becoming more and more connected.

I just saw a commercial for DC comic relaunch and this is my response

The other night or giving the time early yesterday morning I was watching the comic continuum show, a local show (I guess it’s local) that talks about things related to comics, movies, video games etc. Ok every so often they talk about comics but the main focus is movies (usually the kind based on comic but always the stuff nerds want to see)

Anyway while watching this show I saw the commercial for DC comics and my first reaction was “cool I think this is one of the commercial DC is putting out to promote their reboot, I had a feeling that I would see this ad on this show.” But after watching the ad the feeling of “hey cool” quickly turned to the feeling of being under whelmed.

First I don’t really think giving slight motion’s to pretty static images of DC’s character is really that appealing. Now I realize comics don’t leaned themselves to commercials that well. I mean they are just still pictures with words. Movies and TV shows you can just show some clips, a video game a bit of game play, ect. What are going to do with a comic book show a few pages? Well I think that would have been a better ideal then bouncing a picture of Wonder Woman and Batman around.

But the truth is that is not why I think this commercial wasn’t good. The problem I had was that I only knew what the commercial was about because I’ve read all the stuff online about this relaunching. But if I was someone that didn’t read comics I would be wonder what do they mean about “DC the new 52.” The ad gave no information. A person watching the commercial wouldn’t know that DC is somewhat rebooting it self and that this would be a good time to start reading comics because they are starting everything over from the start. Giving that DC says they want to bring in new readers those are some of the things they need to do. DC’s marketing people needed to make sure those ads told people that this is a good time to start reading comics because they can get on at the ground floor.

The sad thing is that some of the ads done by local comics shops that ran on the show where much better and DC is a part of a giant media company.

Maybe it would have been better to just have some people dressed up as DC characters telling people that they have a brand new comic series coming out and issue one is on sale now.

What I did find interesting (in an inside baseball short of way) is that ad ends with saying you can get DC comics at a certain comic shop. I wonder how much money that shop put in to co-sponsor that ad, I wonder how much DC did and I’m guessing that the reason DC joining with local shops is not only to save money but are giving that local shop the power of where to place the ads in their local areas. I also wonder if only one shop in an area can run these commercials or can anyone do it.