The News Blog of Comics Culture
TweetThis has been a rough week for the internet. The news that Comics Alliance was to be shut down, thus removing us all from our right to read daily articles from Andy Khouri, Joe Hughes, David Brothers, Andrew Wheeler and many others, was a blow to the head. This followed on only a day after [...]
Tweet The Superman and Superboy lawsuits are officially over, pending appeal.
TweetOkay, I put my hand up: I feel inordinately and stupidly pleased when comics I’ve loved and enjoyed are nominated for awards, particularly those that have been overlooked in coverage or recognition. Sometimes I even feel a little important; ‘Zainab, I tell myself, you are reading the RIGHT THINGS’ (I’ll take my validation wherever I [...]
TweetA few days ago Brett White wrote a passioned defence of teen hearthrob X-Men character Maggott on CBR. Many would mock him for such a claim, and poke him with brightly painted sticks – but no! Put down those ribbon sticks. Maggott is a character worth defending, and I’m going to give some of my own [...]
TweetBatgirl has come back into discussion around the interwebs this week, but for purely in-story reasons this time round. This week’s issue #19 sees one of the supporting characters, Alysia Yeoh, reveal that she is transgender. Which is notable, as it means Alysia is the first openly transgendered character in the New 52, (bearing in mind that Sir [...]
TweetEven allowing for the fact that we’re not supposed to like any of the characters in Uncanny Avengers (only this week, Wolverine calls Japanese mutant Sunfire “a walking atomic bomb” and nobody bats an eyelid – not even Sunfire, whose mother died in Hiroshima!), the book is going to startling lengths with some of the [...]
TweetAs expected, the district court has ruled that the 2001 settlement agreement between DC and the Siegels is binding and did indeed transfer the Superman copyright to DC. But what about Superboy?
TweetTonight in SoHo, a panel of comics all-stars will discuss the Carol Tilley’s Seducing the Innocent, which purports to expose industry bete noire Fredric Wertham as a fraud. What’s more important for us today, however, is understanding why he was right.
Tweet Kickstarter has been a talking point in the comics industry ever since its conception, most recently and prominently for the fallout between Mark Andrew Smith and the problems he’s been having with his Sullivan Sluggers book. My experience with the platform has been limited: I use it purely as a pre-order service and since May last [...]
TweetIn keeping with the court’s schedule, yesterday Marc Toberoff filed his response to DC’s summary judgment motion in the Superman/Superboy lawsuits. Toberoff has filed these same arguments before, but the accompanying exhibits do include something new: correspondence in which Laura Siegel Larson and the Siegel estates reject a 21 million dollar payment from DC.
TweetI’ve been busy lately, sorting and boxing up well over a decade’s worth of comics. Having spent extended periods of time in 4 different towns in that stretch, it’s quite a pile to sort (10 long boxes and counting), but it’s interesting to see physical evidence of your buying patterns over the years. It’s clear [...]
In 2008, the Siegel family won a historic courtroom victory. So why did they risk it all on an appeal? An encounter between Jerry Siegel’s widow, Joanne, and Super Boys author Brad Ricca provides a telling clue.
TweetAmong the many thoughtful questions raised in my discussion with the Superman Homepage earlier this week was whether the Siegel lawsuit prompted changes to Superman’s uniform. This might seem like a small issue, but it reflects serious concerns about freedom and integrity in a corporate context.
Tweet After a surprising victory in 2008, Siegel attorney Marc Toberoff decided to press for the rights to more Superman material. Instead, he lost everything that the Siegel heirs and he himself had won.
TweetGiven the lively discussion of what folks don’t want to see on The Beat, I couldn’t resist noting that an attorney representing Smallville co-creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough in their dispute with Time Warner also represented the Kardashian sisters in the epic, never to be forgotten Kardashian Kard case. However, the Smallville dispute is also [...]
Is Dark Horse Entering a Golden Age?
TweetDark Horse appears to be increasing their list of titles at a gradual but steady pace, with some laudable caution but what seems to be a specific agenda to build on their successes rather than simply allowing those successes to maintain their reputation over time. Many readers have been following the publisher’s works since their [...]