§ Best news of the weekend: Those far-less-than One Million Moms had to delete their Facebook page after pro-gay comments overwhelmed their call for a boycott over the Alan Scott reboot.:

The New Civil Rights Movement reports that moments after issuing a “warning” Friday about DC’s official announcement (see below), the page’s administrator began deleting positive comments before apparently giving up and removing the post entirely. Shortly afterward, the One Million Moms page disappeared from Facebook, certainly the initiative’s most valuable social media platform. The abrupt exodus was followed by a tweet announcing, unconvincingly, to Facebook users that, “OMM will be offline most of next week for Vacation Bible School!”

The timing might not be quite as suspect if One Million Moms hadn’t pulled the same disappearing act in February, after its boycott of retail chain JC Penney for hiring Ellen DeGeneres as a spokeswoman backfired spectacularly, drawing supporters of the lesbian talk-show host in droves to the group’s Facebook page.

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§ Artist Andrea Tsurumi has debuted a spiffy new website.

§ Bye bye BICS: James Hodgkins has announced that the Birmingham Comics Expo won’t be returning.

§ Chris Sims has found the greatest comics cover of all time and announced that the internet has ended.

§ And then there were 800: Geek Nation, the latest geek video/blog/interview portal, has launched.


EW debuted the ad for BEFORE WATCHMEN which will be running on selected cable channels this week. Fast Company explains the motion comics tech:

“The ad uses the imagery as a teaser to promote those books–it’s not a narrative,” says Lance Sells, Motherland’s founder and creative director. “It’s pretty much the same technique as the New 52 commercial, but with less flash and swooping cameras. This is darker, more toned down, and more noir. “


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§ Aaaaaaaaand here’s the other side, as Noah Berlatsky lays out the controversy at Slate:

Even by the wretched standards of the entertainment industry, superhero comics are known for their dreadful labor practices. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman, famously sold the rights to the character to DC Comics for $130, and spent the latter part of their lives, and virtually all their money, fighting unsuccessfully to regain control of him. Similarly, Jack Kirby, the artist who co-created almost the entire roster of Marvel characters, was systematically stiffed by the company whose fortunes he made. Though most of the heroes in the Avengers film were Kirby creations, for example, his estate won’t receive a dime of the film’s $1 billion (and counting) in box office earnings.

§Can it be only a year since talk and traffic soared with the announcement of the New 52? Nothing would ever be the same since. Newsarama presets two slideshows on One Year Later: The Best of DC’s NEW 52 and a corresponding worst. It’s a pretty fair list on both sides.

§ One of the New 52 worst is the artistic merry-go-round necessitated by scheduling. Here’s a new example of that as BIRDS OF PREY can’t hold on to a steady artist.

§ Don MacPherson digs in to the legal moves in the child porn case against the comics artist best known as Justiniano. You may recall that the case against the artist began when a thumb drive containing child pornography images was acidently delivered to a funeral home. The search of that thumb drive was the subject of a legal manuever, which Rivera lost:

A search of court documents revealed Rivera’s defence filed a motion with a court to suppress the thumb drive evidence, arguing it was obtained by police by way of an illegal, warrantless search. Hearings on the motion were held Feb. 23 and March 8, and Superior Court of Connecticut Judge Robert Devlin denied the motion in a decision issued March 19. Devlin’s written decision sets out the facts of the case, revealing how the images of child pornography were discovered.

§ As we expected, that piece on a MYSTERIOUS CITIES OF GOLD sequel created intense excitement among many people. Here’s an informative piece on the history of Japanese animation co-ventures and whether Japanese participation makes them anime. (Short answer: no.)

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§ This is 100% hype, but NEVSKY, the graphic novel by Ben McCool and Mario Guevara, was the subject of a front page piece in the Sunday LA Times Calendar section this weekend. That’s pretty remarkable coverage for a new graphic novel that isn’t part of a recognized brand.

1 COMMENT

  1. Can we PLEASEEEEEE stop comparing the “plight” of poor poor Alan Moore to Siegel and Shuster and Jack Kirby. Moore has the luxury to spend his time bemoaning the millions DC has shoved down his throat (pooooor baby!!) -the other men were trying to get enough money to feed themselves and their families. It’s really getting sickening to hear their situations compared as if they were the same.

    The characters stayed in print. BooFreakinHoo. If only he had invested his soul in “walrus man” (to use Slate’s example) then he’d have his precious rights and world he created to himself and he’d be happy. He’d also probably have to go to work every day like the rest of us. He’d probably sing a different tune if he struggled to pay his bills and spent the majority of his time away from home working in some depressing environment…again, like the majority. To paraphrase Lenny from “That Thing You Do” – “DC bought his work and published it and paid him for it and kept it in print and sent him huge royalty checks for the majority of his adult life and tried to pay him fo turning into a movie-THOSE EVIL BASTARDS!!”

  2. geek nation beta — “gamer chick” promos — illusion of nudity behind gaming consoles in promo photo and bouncing around in video. Exploitation of female sexuality in a male-dominated arena? Discuss.

  3. Travel is picked off Birds of Prey? Darn, he is a hard one to keep track of. Good thing I did not put this title on my pull list yet. Thanks for the heads up. Love his work.

    And the Before Watchmen promo: “This is darker, more toned down, and more noir. “ Sure, bub. Turn that black shader up and down. brilliant. I will still check out the comics though.