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.

DC lack of women creators and a simple solution to how they can fix it.

Recently DC comics has been getting a lot of negative news due to the lack of women writing comics for DC post relaunch. The number will drop to just a hand full of women writers to just two. That’s a sad fact indeed but due to the low number of women that where writing for the main DCU before this the fact that they will only have two or less woman writing for them isn’t too surprising. A sad fact but not surprising because the comic book pro has been largely White dudes.

The comic industry has long been in need of increasing it’s diversity both in the characters they show and the creators they hire (as well as editors, marketing staff etc., etc.) and that is one of the things that DC has said they will be doing with this reboot. I don’t know the break down of the ethnicities of the people that well be writing for DC after this reboot but in terms of gender diversity they are taking a step back instead of ahead. Even though the people running DC realize they need to increase their diversity more they are still a little slow in doing so (at least behind the scenes,) But this isn’t where DC really dropped the ball on this issue.
Where DC really dropped the ball was at Comic-con, where at a panel a woman dress as Batgirl along with her kid dressed as Spoiler asked a panel made up of Dan Didio, Jim Lee and Grant Morrison about the fact that their was only one woman writing for them after their relaunch. Instead of responding to the woman professionally, the panel was dismissive of her point and mockingly rude toward her. Dan Didio told her they only picked the best scripts. Which maybe true but is one of those things that still doesn’t sound good when you think of the issue at hand, since it could be taken that their where no good women writers for them to publish. Responses like that reflected negatively on DC.

But here’s the thing after this story broke out the internerd there started to be a few reports that DC actually did talk to at least a few women comic pros to work on some relaunched titles. Some of them had other jobs at the time, other pitches just didn’t get picked. If DC just said “we actually did contact take a number of women writers, but we where able to come to any deals in time for the relaunch.” Then this thing may have played out a lot differently.

But sadly they didn’t and so what DC needs to do now is some good PR spinning. The first thing they need to do is issue an apology and then a dress the issue at. DC comics needs more diversity in their writing staff. At the very least DC should take a page out of Marvel’s book and release an anthology comic featuring all women creators (and maybe characters,) a new Sensational comics title would be fine if they want to use an old comic book title. While they are at it DC could have a few other anthology books as training ground for new and up coming writers and artist.

The Tribute to Dwayne McDuffy Comic-Con didn't want you to see

Over on the Dwayne McDuffie Forum Matt Wayne (writer and former editor at Milestone comics) posted a tribute he wrote about Dwayne McDuffie for Comic-con but comic-con turned around and didn't want to print it.

I miss Dwayne every day. It’s still inconceivable that he isn’t around to appreciate the world with me.

When my son gets another baby tooth, or I see a new episode of Doctor Who, I still have the urge to call him. Given the chance, I’ll talk about my late friend for hours at a time. I find myself making lists of McDuffie facts—not wanting to forget any more than I already have. And one of the things I’ve thought about most while mourning him was his long struggle for recognition from the comics industry.

Dwayne loved comics, both the superhero and non-superhero varieties, long before he made them for a living, and he continued to love them till the end. Our last conversation was about the Masterpiece Comics collection I’d given him for his birthday, which includes a pastiche of his beloved Little Lulu.

That said, I don’t know that the comics business loved him back.

Here’s a trivia question for you: Aside from the titles he published himself, what was Dwayne’s first monthly comics writing assignment? Believe it or not, that was Justice League of America in 2007. “But what about Deathlok,” you ask? Sorry, that was co-written with the redoubtable Greg Wright. “Fantastic Four?” Nope, it wasn’t open-ended. Dwayne knew that was a finite assignment when he took it. “X-O Manowar?” “Firestorm?” Same deal.

The majors never appreciated Dwayne’s writing enough to grant him a steady job of it. Not until there had been a Static cartoon, and the Justice League cartoon. And Beyond! And Fantastic Four. And Milestone, of course. By the time he landed that regular monthly, Dwayne was already in the history books of two media.

Now, naming no names, think of how many not-so-good writers you’ve seen blunder from one long-term monthly comic assignment to another. (And sure, who qualifies as a hack is subjective. You and I might not be thinking of the same names.) Each of those writers got more of a shot than Dwayne did.

We all know how good he was. And again, what Dwayne made of such opportunity as he did get is now a matter of history. He always counted a great number of People Who Oughtta Know among his fans, including Comic-Con International, the ones who give out Inkpot Awards.

Still, there’s no question in my mind that, given the finite length of Dwayne’s career, he would have been better off both financially and creatively to have never worked in comics at all, and gone straight into animation instead.

But that’s not how love works, is it?

Matt Wayne

Very heart felt and truthful. I'm surprised Comic-Con didn't print this.

I guess they wanted something that was all sweat and rosy but the truth is Dwayne McDuffy was a talented writer that when leaving wasn't always treated fairly by the comic book industry.

Of course similar things can be said by a lot of people working or trying to work in the comic book industry. A truth many people already know so why Comic-Con didn't want to touch that is something I'm puzzled about.

my view on the DC reboot

Well I know everyone knows that DC is relaunching the DCU.

some people hate the ideal and some people just wonder why DC is doing it?

I actually liked the ideal when I first saw the news, I thought it was ballsy for DC to start everything over new and fresh but the news started to leak that's not a full reboot but just a relaunch with some changes and my interest went down a bit.

I was hoping for a golden age to silver age type reboot of new character that happen to have the names and powers of older characters not a zero hour reboot.

Then DC released what some of the new titles will be and their creative them, which brought mixed feelings. There where a few books and creative teams that I think sound great but then there are a number characters getting titles but with writers I'm meh about.

while some nerd are so upset they are strking comic-con I still have a wait and see view on all this.

Superman making radio news for denouncing American citizenship

As I was listening to Thom Hartmann talked about the current issue of Action comics #900 where Superman gives up being an American due to him being tired of people thinking all his actions are due to him acting as an American agent.

Hartmann made a joke about the fact that Superman wasn't born in America and so why haven't the brithers gone after him like they do Obama.

I'm sure in other circles this will really piss them off. In fact I noticed some post about people at Fox News being upset.


So superman is now fight for more then just the American way and is going global. is this Anti-american or DC trying to reach a global market by not connection one of their lead characters to any country at all?

Out Of This World: Early Black Comic Book Heroes: Butterfly (II)

Out Of This World: Early Black Comic Book Heroes: Butterfly (II): "Tucked away in the interior of Skywald's Hell-Rider 2 (Oct 1971) is an 11-page complete story that is the second and last appearance of The ..."

we will miss you Dwayne McDuffie

It was 4 something in the morning when I was watching world news now and read the news crawl running at the bottom of the screen that said "comic and tv writer Dwayne McDuffie died at age 49"

I gasped and just stood there for a few minutes with my jaw dropped to the ground.

For those who don't know the man's work he was a comic book and tv show writer, he was a founder of the comic book company Milestone and created many of their flag ship characters including Static.

I never had the chance to meet him in person but have online. He was one of my role models in the comic book industry. He was filled with great wisdom and insight about comics and minorities in comics.

we have lost a great voice and an even greater person.

Racism and comic fandom

awhile ago I notice a lot of comic sites talking or at least asking about if there racism in comic book fandom. These talks seemed to have steamed about something Mark Waid (comic writer and editor of Boom) said about fans not reading comics with Black leads.


Well I'd like to put an end to this question about is there racism amoung comic book fans and I would say yes. All one has to do is look many of the comic book forums or blog comments when the subject is say a minority character(s) join a team or a person of color takes the role of a character that before was white.

Yes we will always be fans who say they hate the new verison of characters and want the one they grew-up reading back but in the case legacy characters passing on there title to nonwhite characters talk of dislike isn't just about wanting the old back, it about the race of the new character and often that's stated in negative light.

having a minority on the team usually doesn't bring up as much negative chatter if we are just talking about a token team memember here or there but I remember when McDuffie was righting Justice League and the team had more then a token Black member and on DC's message board there where a number of post about fans that where up set that he was making the team "Black"

Now I don't think these people make up the majority of comic book fans but there is no denying that they are there. The question is how big of a minority this group is. Do they look like a bigger group because they are very vocal or is what we see what we get.


Now back to Mark Waid saying people don't read comics with Black leads I don't think that problem is just do to racist comic fans but fans who may not pick up a book with a minority lead not due to negative veiws of minorities but passing the book by because the assume that the book isn't aimed at them or they wouldn't be able to relate to the characters because they are of a different background then them

I would say comic fans tend to stick with what they know and not try new things a lot but Mark Waid didn't seem to say BOOM had any trouble selling other books (besides license books most would be new stuff)so I don't think that needs to be stated.

Bob Harras new Editor in Chief at DC comics

Bob Harras has just been named the new EIC for DC comics. Which will put him in charge of not only the DCU, but Mag magazine and Vertigo.

Bob Harras formerly was EIC at Marvel from 1995 to 2000 and was editor at DC's soon to be closed Wildstrom line and DC's collections editor.



hmmm looks like we can get ready for superman's clone saga.

So long Wildstorm and thinks for all the wildcats and more DC news

DCE has closed up shop on the Wildstorm line and ZUDA. The main Wildstorm line will more likely return under the DC banner, The licensed titles definitely will. It is unknown yet what the future of the creative own books Wildstorm publishes will be.


There has been a rumor that DC will be moving to the west coast and shut down their New York offices because they want DC closer to WB as they start to make more proprieties in other media related to DC comics. Will that rumor is only partly true, DC is not shutting down it New York office but DC is opening a new office in California to work on DCE stuff in other media.

The Burbank office will also house DC digit comics department and that is where many of Wildstorm's editors will land.

Heroes or Monsters

So my brother's wife bought a few old posters with Marvel super heroes on them for their kid. You know a mix of Marvel characters together in your standard action pose looking as they are running into battle.


Tbe problem my 3 year old nephew thinks they are monsters. Which leaves his mother feeling a bit bad that she got posters that he seems a little bit scared of and wondering why is she able to find underwear for him where the same characters are happy but posters where they are looking all angry.


I guess that's the problem marketing the same characters to different age groups. The poster she got was aimed at older comic fans (and by older we talking pre-teens and up) while she's looking for something aimed at young kids.

I guess I should look for some marvel super-hero squad and tiny titans (do they make any?) posters for JR.


I also learn that spider-man is perfect for licensing products because you don't have to worry about small things like having him smile or gritting his teeth may turn off a fan base (or scare them in this case)

Nerds get thuggish: Stabbing at Comic-Con

Well here's a story I didn't really expect to write about. At San Diego's Comic-Con a man stabbed another man in the eye with a pen.

It happened in Hall C, the room normally held for big events because it's the larger room in the con, just before Universal pictures panel for films like Cowboys & Alien and Paul.

It seems the indecent may have been over squatting, a practice where fans wait in the room during one event to make sure they get a good (or just a) seat for another panel.

Static in 2011

Over the weekend DC comics released the news that there will be a new Static series coming out next year.

Great news if you are a fan of the 90's series like I was.

Hopefully we will see the Milestone characters used more. I know many Milestone fans that wonder why after DC got the right to use the milestone characters aren't they being used more. In the 2 years since the Milestone character became part of the DCU we've only had Static in teen titans, the use of a few Milestone characters in Justice League when Dwayne Mcduffie (co-founder of Milestone) was writing the title and the Milestone for ever mini series. Not a lot when you compare it to the fact that around that same time DC was also using Archie comics' Red Circle characters and gave number of those characters their own one-shot specials and comic series.

Things are spinning for Sonic the Hedgehog

First the voice of Sonic (also known as Steve Urkel) has been report on hitting his girl friend in her breast and now the Sonic world is turned upside down again with the news that Ken Penders won a copyright lawsuit that gives him the rights for the characters he made during his run of Sonic The hedgehog comics.

Ken Penders say's that

As a result, I am now officially recognized by the U.S. Government as the owner of every single SONIC and KNUCKLES story I ever created

What does this mean?

That means anyone seeking to use my characters, concepts and stories that were published in the pages of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, various SONIC 48-page specials, various issues of SONIC SUPER SPECIALS, the PRINCESS SALLY mini-series, the SONIC'S FRIENDLY NEMESIS KNUCKLES mini-series, KNUCKLES THE DARK LEGION and the KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA series, must first contact me for permission and to make arrangements for the use of this material.

This ruling also means that Archie wont be able to use Ken Penders characters anymore or reprint stories with his character unless they contact him first.

Which I think will be a hit for Archie since Sonic is a good selling title for the company and they sell a reprints of their stories in different formats (tbp, digest etc) The reprint point is probably the bigger issue since Archie still has rights to Sonic and a lot of the character created by sega and I guess some others and maybe can just reboot the series if they can't come to an agreement with Penders on the use of the characters.

The thing about this story is that I'm happy for Penders for getting the rights to his character but I'm surprised Archie didn't negotiate something with him before it got to a point where Penders felt that he needed to go to court.