Cabbage Rabbit
vruz: observing the situation…
A number of comics websites are calling for a boycott of Marvel Comics, specifically any Marvel product (and that includes a lot more than actual comics) that have anything to do with characters or stories created by the late, great Jack Kirby after a federal judge in New York declared that Kirby’s heirs had no claim for a judgement against Marvel and its parent The Walt Disney Company. The judge ruled that Kirby’s creations, the Incredible Hulk, X-Men and the Fantastic Four among them (all in collaboration with Stan Lee), were “work for hire” and that the family had no argument for copyright. It’s the biggest row over a comic creation since Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster went after Time Warner over the creation of Superman.
Well-known illustrator/cartoonist Seth took to his website to support the boycott and defend Kirby’s legacy while attacking Marvel, Disney and Marvel mavern Lee:
The corporate lie about Kirby’s role in the creation of all those characters is abhorrent. It’s a bold faced lie. Everyone knows it’s a lie. No one is fooled. Everyone lying for the company should be ashamed. Stan Lee should be ashamed. What the Marvel corporation is doing might be legal but it certainly isn’t right.
Count me in, not that I spend any money on Marvel products, especially movies. The issue –who owns an artist’s creative work — is one that applies to much more than comics. I haven’t liked Marvel since it was purchased by the Mouse. And I haven’t like the Mouse since it tried to throw me out of Disneyland for having a smeared entry stamp (and long hair, no doubt) all those years ago.–Cabbage Rabbit
WIRED
This week it came out that Marvel Comics is offering retailers a variant cover of “Fear Itself #6″ by artist Ed McGuinness. But, there is a catch: To get the coveted cover, retailers have to rip the covers from 50 copies of any No. 1 issue of DC Comics Flashpoint tie-ins. This is not a figure of speech, they literally have to tear the covers off and send them to Marvel to get the special edition, rendering the issues unsalable.
Make no mistake, this is perfectly legal. The comic-shop proprietors would be destroying their own property, and it is their right so to do. However, this seems little different than someone buying books to burn them.
vruz: I SUMMON YOU, SUPERHEROS TO THE BATCAVE, NOW!
“We all have secrets: the ones we keep, and the ones that are kept from us”.
The Amazing Spider-Man (trailer HD)
