Author: Glenn Hauman

Matt Raub record breaking movie marathon: Day 1

  • News
  • October 3, 2008

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Other web sites think their movie reviewers are tough, but let’s see them try and watch movies for five days straight while not being distracted by Times Square. That’s what our own Matt Raub (second from right) is doing right this minute, as he tries to break the world record for watching movies. No fast forwarding through the slow parts. No skipping the credits. And no popcorn throwing at the other contestants. All this for a $10,000 cash prize, a lifetime subscription to Netflix, the first-ever Popcorn Bowl trophy, and the glory of a Guiness World Record.

Go Matt!

Previous article here.

UPDATE: Sad to say, Matt nodded off at 12 noon today after making it past the 24 hour mark. We’re all very curious as to what film put him to sleep…

Last ComicMix Baltimore trade paperbacks on sale

  • News
  • October 3, 2008

As we previously mentioned, we printed special editions of Grimjack: The Manx Cat, Jon Sable Freelance: Ashes of Eden, and the Harvey-nominated EZ Street for this year’s Baltimore Comic-Con, limited to a print run of 100 for each title. And just as quickly, there were people asking if they were going to be available if they couldn’t get to the show.

The answer is yes– we’re now selling the remaining copies here. GrimJack and Sable are priced at $25 each, EZ Street sells for $35. Just click on the buttons below to add the books to a PayPal shopping cart. We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, debit cards, and PayPal.

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We have very few copies left, so once they’re gone, they’re gone.

2008 Harvey Awards: ‘All-Star Superman’ wins big, ‘Wimpy Kid’ shut out

  • Uncategorized
  • September 28, 2008

ez-street-1-200-2733393The 2008 Harvey Awards were given out at the Baltimore Comic-Con this evening. All-Star Superman won for Best Continuing Limited Series, Best Artist, and Best Single Issue or Story, but lost Best Writer to Brian K. Vaughn for Y: The Last Man; while Diary of a Wimpy Kid lost in all seven categories in which it was nominated. Our own EZ Street, nominated for "Best Online Comic" lost to Nicholas Gurewitch’s Perry Bible Fellowship. The Hero Initiative Lifetime Acheivement Award was presented to Nick Cardy by Todd Dezago. This year’s Harvey Awards were hosted once again by Kyle Baker.

The winners:

BEST WRITER: Brian K. Vaughan, Y: The Last Man, Vertigo/DC Comics
BEST ARTIST: Frank Quitely, All Star Superman, DC Comics
BEST CARTOONIST: Darwyn Cooke, The Spirit, DC Comics
BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM – ORIGINAL: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, Oni Press
BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM – PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED: Captain America Omnibus, Volume 1, Marvel Comics
BEST DOMESTIC REPRINT PROJECT: Complete Peanuts, Fantagraphics Books
BEST AMERICAN EDITION OF FOREIGN MATERIAL: Eduardo Risso’s Tales of Terror, Dynamite Entertainment
SPECIAL AWARD FOR HUMOR: Nicholas Gurewitch, Perry Bible Fellowship, www.pbfcomics.com
BEST ONLINE COMIC: Perry Bible Fellowship, Nicholas Gurewitch, www.pbfcomics.com
SPECIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRESENTATION: EC Archives, Various, edited by John Clark, Gemstone
BEST SINGLE ISSUE OR STORY: All Star Superman # 8, DC Comics
BEST BIOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL OR JOURNALISTIC PRESENTATION: Reading Comics: How Graphic Albums Work and What They Mean, Douglas Wolk, Da Capo Press
BEST COVER ARTIST: Mike Mignola, Hellboy, Dark Horse Comics
BEST LETTERER: Chris Eliopoulos, Daredevil, Marvel Comics
BEST COLORIST: Laura Martin, Thor, Marvel Comics
BEST INKER: Kevin Nowlan, Witchblade, Top Cow/Image
BEST SYNDICATED STRIP OR PANEL: Doonesbury, Garry Trudeau, Universal Press Syndicate
BEST CONTINUING OR LIMITED SERIES: All Star Superman, DC Comics
BEST NEW SERIES: Umbrella Academy, Dark Horse Comics
BEST NEW TALENT: Vasilis Lolos, Last Call, Oni Press
BEST ANTHOLOGY: Popgun Volume 1, edited by Joe Keatinge and Mark Andrew Smith, Image Books

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners! And for those who missed it, here is the full list of 2008 Harvey Award nominees.

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Brian M. Thomsen dies

  • News
  • September 22, 2008

It is with great sadness that we have to report of the passing of Brian M. Thomsen, science fiction author and editor, perhaps best known to comics fans as the co-author of Julius Schwartz’s autobiography, Man of Two Worlds: My Life in Science Fiction and Comics.

Brian was an editor at Warner Books during the days of their SF imprint Questar, then an editor at TSR Books, and most recently at Tor Books. He wrote, edited, and contributed to dozens of books. He loved getting down into the pulp origins of the business, and also loved working with history, both straight and alternate.

He will be missed. We’ll post more details as we get them.

So what does an inker do, anyway?

  • Uncategorized
  • September 12, 2008

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 joins DC Sales from NHL

  • News
  • September 8, 2008

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!

Bill Melendez: 1916-2008

  • News
  • September 4, 2008

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.

Apple Censoring Comics? Not So Fast… by Glenn Hauman

  • News
  • August 31, 2008

apple-iphone-in-hand-finger-6486954There’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.

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Twenty years as a utility infielder

  • News
  • August 26, 2008

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. (more…)

Fox sues to block Watchmen movie from opening

  • Uncategorized
  • August 19, 2008

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 was seeking to enjoin Warner Bros from going forward with the project, and U.S. District Court Judge Gary Allen Feess on Friday refused to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Fox on February 12th, 2008.

Fox had the rights to Watchmen back in the late 80’s– I have a copy of the first draft of the script by Sam Hamm (writer of the Tim Burton Batman) dated September 9, 1988. Here’s Finke’s chronology of what’s happened since:

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.) This makes great sense to Fox, who spent more than $1 million developing Watchmen and can now force competitors Warner Bros and Paramount to eat tens of millions in sunken costs of making the movie and cripple their spring.

Blog@Newsarama points to all the legal documents: the Fox complaint, Warner Brothers’ response, the disputed legal documents and the judge’s order.

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