And more to the point, can he do it anywhere else? After all, it might be easier to explain if we could point to another industry that uses inkers…
Luckily, we came across this documentary that explains pretty well what an inker does and how the work applies to other fields… meet Garson Hampfield, Crossword Inker.
Alysse Soll, formerly the Vice President of Marketing of the National Hockey League, joins the DC Comics staff as Vice President, Ad Sales & Custom Publishing, it was announced by DC Comics President and Publisher, Paul Levitz. In this position, Soll will develop and manage new advertising initiatives, oversee DC’s innovative custom publishing program, identify cross-platform opportunities with other media companies and supervise the advertising sales team.
Normally we wouldn’t make reference to this sort of a hire, except that Ms. Soll used to work for the NHL. Which is a perfect excuse for us to run this Mike Grell artwork from a hockey superhero comic book project that never materialized… hockey stars by day, superheroes by night!
AP reports that Bill Melendez, the animator behind the great Peanuts cartoons and the voice of Snoopy and Woodstock, died of natural causes Tuesday in Santa Monica at the age of 91.
Besides Peanuts, Melendez also worked on Mickey Mouse cartoons and classic animated features such as Pinocchio and Fantasia for Disney, Bugs Bunny,Porky Pig and Daffy Duck shorts for Warner Bros., and "Gerald McBoing-Boing" for UPA, which won the 1951 Academy Award for best cartoon short.
Melendez was the only person Charles Schulz authorized to animate his characters.
And if you have to ask what it’s all about… well, here:
Mark Evanier, to no one’s surprise, has more about Bill Melendez.
There’s a lot of chatter on the net, probably starting from Rich Johnston’s column and now working its way up to Fortune magazine, about how Apple (the computer company, not the comic company of the 90’s– hi, Mike Catron!) has declined to sell P.J. Holden’s Murderdrome comic, which was submitted as an application to be sold via iTunes and designed to be read on an iPhone.
Many people, including many commenters on the company’s web site, are calling this censorship. To which I reply, bullshit.
Look, I know censorship. I was an original plaintiff in ACLU v. Reno, the lawsuit that overturned the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which gives me the legal right to type the word "bullshit" on the internet. I’ve been a member of the CBLDF for years (and you should be too). I published a poem by Neil Gaiman about erotic cannibalism, written in strict iambic pentameter, just to prove the point. And I’m telling you, what Apple’s doing ain’t censorship.
Apple has declined to carry this product for sale in their store. Is that censorship? If it is, so is the comic store I frequent most for not carrying the latest works of Milo Manera. He’s decided not to carry it. He feels it doesn’t fit in with his customer base, he’s just not interested. Does he carry comics that feature bare breasts? Yep. This is like saying that it’s censorship for a store to not stock Eros Comics when the store doesn’t even carry Fantagraphics.
I just had a sobering realization that this month is my twentieth anniversary of working in comic books professionally. Gah.
I was in college, between my freshman and sophmore year and my summer job in the city had just gone bye-bye. I started looking for internships, and decided to give DC Comics a shot– even though Marvel had a better known internship program, I was more of a DC guy. I applied to every editor, to Paul Levitz, and to Bob. Most of them had no use for me, but Bob called me in for an interview: he had just lost a guy in the production darkroom, and did I know how to use a stat camera? I said I’d used one for about a week at the local village newspaper. He seemed interested. Since the interview was late in the day, he invited me along to that evening’s softball game. Bob was the manager of the company team, the DC Bullets, and they had a game that night against the crew of Late Night with David Letterman. Sure, I said.
Uh-oh. Nikki Finke broke the news last night that a federal judge has denied a Warner Bros. motion to dismiss 20th Century Fox’s legal battle over the rights to develop, produce and distribute a film based on Watchmen
Fox had the rights to Watchmen
1986-90: Fox acquires motion picture rights in The Watchmen.
1990: Fox enters into a domestic distribution agreement with Largo Entertainment, a joint venture of JVC Entertainment Inc., Golar (Larry Gordon), and BOH, Inc. The “Largo Agreement” established Fox’s domestic distribution rights, through a license from Largo, in “subject pictures” as defined in the agreement.
June 1991: Fox enters into a “Quitclaim Agreement” with Largo International, through which Fox “quitclaims to Purchaser all of Fox’s right, title and interest in and to the Motion Picture project presently entitled Watchmen, which included specifically described literary materials. Notably, the agreement provides that, “if Purchaser elects to proceed to production, the Picture shall be produced by Purchaser and shall be distributed by Fox as a Subject Picture pursuant to the terms of the Largo Agreement …” In consideration for the rights to Watchmen, Fox was to be reimbursed for its development costs ($435,600) plus interest plus a profit participation in the worldwide net proceeds of any Watchmen picture.
Nov. 1991: The Largo Agreement was amended; Watchmen was listed as a project quitclaimed to Largo.
Nov. 1993: Larry Gordon, through Golar, withdraws from the Largo Entertainment joint venture; Largo conveys any rights it has in Watchmen to Gordon/Golar. Based on the 1991 quitclaim, the Court may infer that Gordon now stood in the shoes of Largo with respect to Watchmen and held whatever rights it acquired through the 1991 Quitclaim, which left Fox with the distribution rights it retained through that agreement.
1994: Fox negotiated a “Settlement and Release” agreement with Gordon which contemplated that the Watchmen project would be put in “perpetual turnaround” to Lawrence Gordon Productions, Inc. The “turnaround notice” gave Lawrence Gordon Productions “the perpetual right . . . to acquire all of the right, title and interest of Fox [Watchmen] pursuant to the terms and conditions herein provided.” The turnaround notice then described the formula for determining the buy-out price in the event that Gordon elected to acquire Fox’s interest. Thus, the document suggests that Gordon acquired an option to acquire Fox’s interest in Watchmen for a price. In fact, the notice obligated Gordon to pay the buy-out price on the commencement of any production of a Watchmen film. The notice also provided that the agreement was personal to Gordon and that, “prior to payment of the Buy-Out Price,” he could not assign rights or authorize any person to take any action with respect to the project.
May 2006: Warner Brothers, allegedly with knowledge of the 1991 Quitclaim, entered into a quitclaim agreement with Gordon under which it claims to have acquired the rights to the Watchmen project. Fox alleges that these facts demonstrate that, at the very least, it retained distribution rights in Watchmen, that it performed all of its obligations under the relevant agreements, and that while it granted Gordon what amounted to an option to acquire its rights, neither Gordon nor his successors ever fulfilled their contractual obligations to Fox. Indeed, Fox contends that Warner Bros either knew or turned a blind eye to the fact that Fox had retained distribution rights in the project, and that Gordon had not perfected his interest in the Watchmen project before quitclaiming it to Warner Brothers. In any event, Fox now contends that it presently holds rights in Watchmen and that Warner Brothers’ production of the Watchmen film infringes on those rights.
The really bad news, according to Variety, is that Fox has no interest in settling and would rather kill the movie outright. Quote: "When you have copyright infringement, there are some damages you never recover," said a source close to the litigation. (No one’s asked Alan Moore about copyright violation here, strangely, either here or with Fox’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Blog@Newsarama points to all the legal documents: the Fox complaint, Warner Brothers’ response, the disputed legal documents and the judge’s order.
We are incredibly sad to have to report that Robbie Greenberger, son of DC and Marvel alumni and ComicMix contributor Robert Greenberger, passed away on Thursday evening after a months-long struggle with leukemia. He was 20.
He is survived by his father, mother Deb, sister Kate, and everyone who knew him, all of whom are staggered by the news. Bob has been blogging about the entire course of treatment, and has written up the final week.
Friends may greet the family Sunday from 3-5 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. in the Spear-Miller Funeral Home, 39 South Benson Road., Fairfield. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Monday, August 18, 2008 at 1 p.m. meeting directly at Saint Pius X Church 834 Brookside Drive, Fairfield. Interment will be private at Oak Lawn Cemetery, Fairfield. In lieu of flowers contributions in Robbie’s memory may be made to The Tommy Fund for Childhood Cancer, Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital, 20 York Street, New Haven, CT 06511-3202 (www.tommyfund.org). For information or to offer an online condolence, please visit www.spearmillerfuneralhome.com.
A lot of folks asked about the trailer we were showing at the booth at San Diego for EZ Street, so we’re posting it for everyone who couldn’t make it this year– or who couldn’t hear it over the crowds.
This is also a good place to remind people that EZ Street is nominated for the Harvey Awards this year, and that the deadline is this Friday. So if you’re a comics pro who’s eligible to vote and hasn’t yet, we’d like to remind you to vote and to keep EZ Street in mind when filling out your ballot.
The 2008 Hugo Awards were given out last night at Denvention, this year’s World Science Fiction Convention, a.k.a. WorldCon. The Master of Ceremony was Wil McCarthy. The winners are (cue the drum roll) …
" by Ted Chiang (Subterranean Press; F&SF Sept. 2007) by Jeff Prucher (Oxford University Press) Written by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn, Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman Illustrated by Charles Vess Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Paramount Pictures) "Blink" Written by Steven Moffat Directed by Hettie Macdonald (BBC)
Mark Evanier reports that Jack Kamen, best known for his work at EC Comics, died yesterday at the age of 88. The cause of death is being reported as cancer.
Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1920, Jack Kamen studied at the Art Students League and the Grand Central Art School and actually got his start in sculpture—his first professional job was on the Texas Centenniel.
His illustration career was just beginning when he was called up to the Army in 1942. After World War II, Kamen began drawing comics for Fiction House and Iger Associates, then started working for EC Comics in 1950. He quickly became one of their most prolific artists, particularly on their horror lines though he also worked on crime/suspense and weird science/fantasy books. After EC’s line of comics fell victim to industry censorship in 1954-55, it was Kamen who suggested to the publisher that the company could avoid the newly-imposed Comics Code Authority strictures with a pricier magazine format, which Kamen dubbed "Picto-Fiction" and included titles like his favorite, Psychoanalysis.
Kamen left comics in 1954 and did advertising art and supplemental illustrations for a wide variety of other clients— when Stephen King and George Romero created the horror anthology film Creepshow, an homage to EC’s horror comics, they tapped Kamen to do the artwork. He also illustrated the cover of the graphic novel adaptation.
In recent years, Kamen basked in the spotlight of his sons’ accomplishments. Dean Kamen invented the Segway and the iBOT Mobility System; he recently contributed a foreword about his father published in Gemstone’s Shock SuspenStories Archives volume 2. Another son, Barton, is a doctor who is now the Chief Medical Officer of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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