§ Mark Evanier discovers the New Yorker tributing/ripping off Jack Kirby in their cartoon contest.
§ Strange Adventures in New Brunswick, Canada had a flood on FCBD but they are trying again.
§ Matt Fraction is closing down his forum.
§ Million Dollar Idea is a new online novel by Gerard Jones and Will Jacobs, authors of The Trouble with Girls, among other things.
§ Michael Climek suggests fans band together to support each others favorite books to save them from doom.
§ Joe Quesada answers questions from Washington Post readers.
§Journalist Van Jensen reveals his secret past:
My mom’s a painter, and so I grew up with art supplies thrust in my hands. When I was 4 or 5, in a famous family story, I drew a political cartoon about John Sununu (Google him). Once I started into comics, I decided I was going to be a great comic book artist. I spent most of my free time replicating Jim Lee and his contemporaries. Then, for more than a decade, I quit drawing and started writing. Until now.
§ Steve Bunche’s very odd collection of original art. Above: Kyle Baker. Warning: some is NSFW!
My caption for the New Yorker rip-off:
“Plaguarism? Please, Ted, it’s only a comicbook cover. Jack Kirby’s been dead for years! Who’s going to notice?”
@Marcus: My guess is, a lot of people. This cartoon would seem to be qualitatively different, say, from Roy Lichtenstein, whose referents generally were not well known. In the case of the New Yorker, we’re dealing with a number of folks who are quite familiar with comics history–for example, the magazine’s art director, Francoise Mouly, is the spouse of Art Spiegelman, and the cartoon’s artist, Harry Bliss, has worked with Spiegelman in the Little Lit series.
Should the New Yorker have obtained a license & acknowledged Kirby? From a legal perspective, one could make the argument, but this particular story is only half written. After all, acknowledgment may be forthcoming, say, in punchlines selected as contest finalists.
Beyond any legal issues and accusations of plagiarism, there’s something even more culturally significant going on here. Forty years ago the cognoscenti looked at the comic lifts of Lichtenstein & Warhol without any idea who created the source material. Now, it seems likely that key folks at the New Yorker who saw this panel appreciated the Kirby reference, just as we recognize parodies of the Mona Lisa or Picasso.
I know I’m a lawyer and such, but when I opened to the back page and saw this it was incredibly moving. This reference is not mere nostalgic pop; it’s one more sign that comics creators, once dismissed as the purveyors of junk, have joined the ranks of the masters.