Some quickies from the mailbag and around:
Artist Justiniano sentenced in child pornography case
11/05/2012 by 3 Comments
Tweet One of the ugliest comics related stories of recent years reached a resolution with artist Josue “Justiniano” Rivera’s sentencing to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to a second degree charge of child pornography. Rivera was apprehended after giving a thumb drive containing pornographic images to a funeral home—Rivera meant to turn in [...]
When Carl Burgos tried to sue for the Human Torch
10/19/2012 by 14 Comments
If the juicy, fact filled excerpts aren’t getting you to run down to the bookstore to pick up a copy of Sean Howe’s MARVEL: THE UNTOLD STORY, you must be dead to comics. io9 has a lengthy excerpt that goes right to the heart of the glory days of Lee and Kirby. I cut and pasted five different revelatory paragraphs before to settled on this one, regarding Carl Burgos, the original artist on the Human Torch, and his thoughts back in the 60s of trying to get the rights back.
Superman legal victory frees the JLA movie for 2015
10/18/2012 by 7 Comments
Tweet Yesterday’s victory in the Joe Shuster case has definitely left WB looking to jump on a lot of movie-related stuff, including, a Justice League movie. The studio is expected to accelerate development of a planned “Justice League” movie that would join Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and other characters, according to a knowledgeable person not [...]
The Legal View: What the Shuster ruling means
10/18/2012 by 20 Comments
TweetBy Jeff Trexler In the book of Genesis, Esau sells his birthright to his younger brother Jacob for some lentil soup. Yesterday, a judge ruled that Joe Shuster’s sister sold the family’s claim on the Superman copyright for a meager pension. Superman may be a modern myth, but that’s not always a good thing.
Warner Bros Win Superman Court Case Against Shuster Estate
10/18/2012 by 16 Comments
Tweet It’s being reported that Warner Bros have won a court case which will determine who owns the copyright to Superman, meaning they will retain rights over the character. On Wednesday a court ruling was issued which stated that: the studio’s motion has been granted for summary judgement on the question of whether a 1992 [...]
Laura Siegel Larson: “I refuse to be bullied or deterred from enforcing my family’s rights.”
10/13/2012 by 11 Comments
This week the long, long battle for the rights to Superman took another turn, as Warners sued attorney Marc Toberoff , who has been representing the family of Jerry Siegel, Superman’s co-creator, for many years. The Siegel’s have won several legal rounds, leading Warners to adopt very aggressive tactics to delay enforcing a decision to award the Siegel family half of Superman’s copyright — a decision which a court reached 13 years ago, in 1999.
Former employee sues Frank Miller and his girlfriend
10/10/2012 by 15 Comments
Tweet A former assistant is suing Frank Miller and his girlfriend, Kimberly Cox, for discrimination and mental anguish, the NY Post reports, although most of the complaint seems to be aimed at Cox. Joanna Gallardo-Mills was hired as an executive coordinator in 2008, and claims Cox berated her for not speaking English and damaged her [...]
Stan Lee Media sues Disney for Marvel characters
10/10/2012 by 3 Comments
Tweet The shell company of brigands and con men that is left at Stan Lee Media is suing Disney for the rights to the Marvel characters Lee co-created. Deadline has the complaint here. Their basis for the claim? A 1998 contract Stan signed saying he was giving the rights to his character to SLM. In [...]
Todd McFarlane is suing Al Simmons over Spawn identity—here’s the complaint
10/02/2012 by
Tweet It’s been a a little while since Todd McFarlane was involved in a lawsuit, but that sad, empty feeling can go away now, as he is suing former employee Al Simmons for claiming to be Spawn. For anyone who was around in the 90s this will come as a surprise since Al Simmons, the [...]
Update: 2000AD artist Brett Ewins on trial for GBH charge
09/11/2012 by 5 Comments
TweetBy Steve Morris A court has heard how artist Brett Ewins, who has worked for publications such as 2000AD, Vertigo and his own magazine Deadline, was arrested in January on a charge of grievous bodily harm. The hearing is ongoing. As reported in the London Evening Standard today, the prosecution have now described the night in detail [...]
Dragon*Con founder once again facing sex charges
09/05/2012 by 7 Comments
Ed Kramer remains a shadowy figure in the fandom community. The founder of Dragon*Con, which has morphed into an adult fantasy fair of costuming and (sometimes) more, he’s also an accused sex offender, charged with molesting two teenaged boys who stayed over at his house 12 years ago. A new piece in Atlanta Magazine profiles Kramer and reveals that he’s been successfully battling those charges for all 12 years by pretending to be too ill to go to trial—so successfully that he was able to go to Connecticut and get access to another 14-year-old boy:
Troll toll: the dark side of the internet
09/04/2012 by 82 Comments
So I’ve been on vacation (on and off) for the last two weeks and hadn’t been paying too much attention to the internet—a wonderful activity that I highly recommend every six months or so. On the way home from a wedding I was surprised to learn that the man I call “John V.” seems to have become the focus of concentrated internet outrage for a day or so—and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
John V., a message board poster who uses rotating IPs to avoid filters, has been haunting the comment boards of female writers for over two years. A few months ago, for whatever reason, he seems to have started using Twitter as a base for his insults and rape-obsessed ragings. As you can see from the above, about a month ago he made a series of posts aimed at me, Tom Spurgeon, DCWKA’s Sue, Jill Pantozzi and a few others that shocked quite a few people. Although John V. is clearly a misogynist with a deep hatred of women, he also seemed to have a mad on for men of comics like Spurgeon.
Ron Marz, Mark Millar, Comics Industry Act to Shut Down Cyberbully
09/02/2012 by 43 Comments
TweetAbusive attacks via Twitter aren’t new, but have certainly increased in media visibility over the past few months. Racist and sexist comments and threats have been detailed repeatedly in the mainstream press recently, often aimed at various prominent people in society. It also exists on a personal level, sadly, with personal attacks and bullying on [...]
Wheel Clamp Man Vs Australia
08/28/2012 by Leave a Comment
TweetBy Steve Morris In these dark times, it’s hard to tell right from wrong anymore. Our heroes are being arrested and demasked in public, whilst supervillains are using their genius intellect to perform heartwarming acts of decency. What are we, the ‘norms’ of society, meant to do with this turning of the conventional system? Real [...]
Youth uses Wolverine claws to injure comrade
08/21/2012 by 6 Comments
Here’s a new one for the comics-related crime blotter: A Utah teen has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault after he used replica Wolverine claws to attack a friend.
No one knows why Kristofer Ryan Huff, 19, set into his 20-year-old roommate with the claws….and also a knife. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that the victim was dating Huff’s mother, who was also injured in the attack.
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