Girls and Bunnies, and Boycotts... OH MAI!

Great Caesar's Ghost! Its Friday, August 5, 2011, there's lots of people pissed about comics, and this is The Side. There's a lot of ticked off fans out there. There's fans that aren't happy at all about the stupid DC reboot (Guess how I feel about it!). There's people pissed that the new Spider-man in the Ultimate Marvel line is black. There's people pissed that Lawrence Fishburne is going to play Perry White in the next SUPERMAN movie. But let's focus for a moment about the latest boycott.

I discussed the court decision concerning Marvel and the Jack Kirby Heirs last Sunday. Linda tipped me off that a boycott of Marvel is trying to gain some steam because of that decision. I'm going to be blunt here. I boycotted Marvel back in '96 when they went exclusive with Diamond because they boned the indy guys. I could not support this company because of their decision. Now, if you feel strongly about this court decision to the point that you don't feel comfortable continuing to purchase Marvel products, then you should absolutely cease buying their stuff. However, if you are planning on ceasing buying their stuff in hopes of "sticking it to them" and making them pay off the Kirby heirs, then you're being stupid.

How exactly is this supposed to work? You want Marvel to compensate the Kirby heirs, so you're going to boycott their products, thus decreasing their revenue? So where's the money supposed to come from? Or maybe you think that decreasing that revenue on those products will somehow make them share the copyrights. You better have that Jedi Mind Trick handy.

This won't work. I already went into, at length, why Marvel shouldn't have to give them a dime, much less copyrights. But just so you know, these boycotts don't change anything. DC won't do away with this reboot nonsense because I stop buying the books. In fact, even if sales are horrible they still won't redact it. And people not buying Marvel products because of this issue won't change a thing. So, if you're not going to be supporting Marvel until they pay off the heirs then you've bought your last issue of IRONMAN ever. Don't worry, I'll be happy to tell you all about THE AVENGERS movie when it comes out.

COMIX!!

USAGI YOJIMBO #139 begins the "Murder at The Inn" storyline in which Miyamoto Usagi meets up with Inspector Ishida. We join Ishida as he and his officers are attacked while transporting a prisoner. Usagi intervenes to aid Ishida. A storm forces them to seek refuge at an inn with their prisoner, and things take a turn when one of the other guests is discovered dead in the night. Normally I wouldn't give away such a spoiler, but when the story is called "Murder at the Inn" we should expect there to be a murder. This is a classic set up chapter. We are introduced to the characters involved. Everyone is a suspect. Sakai-san handles this book with such a simple elegance that I'm drawn effortlessly into this story. There's all these little touches that are so very intriguing. I found myself asking a bunch of questions, but in a good way. Why is part of the inn's roof burned? Could one of the guests be in league with the criminal Ishida's transporting? Great mysteries should always make the reader have questions they need answers to. Looks like I'll have to wait a month for mine. Wonderful storytelling, and a joy to read.

50 GIRLS 50 #3 surprised me this time around. There was a serious drop in cheesecake factor. This actually threw me off. The first issue featured a planet whose atmosphere made the ladies' clothes fall off. Second issue had a bit of bondage and a gal fresh out of the shower. This issue was straight sci-fi, no cheesecake, featuring the ladies making contact with an alien race whose planet is doomed. They pick up on an asteroid which is going to take that planet out so they make contact in an attempt to rescue an entire civilization. This issue kinda felt like a throwback, in a good way. I still get that STARBLAZERS vibe off of it. This wasn't big, crazy, conceptual sci-fi. It was more of an "enjoy the ride" sci-fi. Very popcorn reading, and I say that in a good way. This comic proved that it can stand with out the T & A or girls tied up. Not too shabby.

MUSIC!!

You know what's sad? I've completely forgotten what song I yanked from YouTube for today. Hope its a good one.



Alright, I'm out of here. Time to get to work. See y'all Sunday.

You're not getting Jack!

All right, True Believers, its Sunday, July 31, 2011, I have to tell you that under a court order, and this is the Side. I've told a lot of kids that if you want to make comics you need to do it because of your love of the medium and not because you want to make big money. It seems that somebody hadn't gotten the message that being involved in comics isn't one big check looking for someone to cash it.

COMIX!!

In a recent court ruling a Judge ruled that Jack Kirby's heirs can't have the copyrights to the characters he created for Marvel. On the surface it looks like a big old greedy corporation squashing a family and being big and greedy. This brings us to the sticky subject of Funnybook Reparations. Basically, its the heirs of writers and artists who want the copyrights of what their family member created. The last big example of this was Jerry Seigel's family trying to get the rights back for Superman.

This is where some of you are going to get ticked at me.

That judge as absolutely correct to tell Jack Kirby's heirs that they couldn't have the copyrights. Jack Kirby had a major role in creating many of the Marvel characters we know today. All those big movies Marvel is rolling out feature characters that Kirby co-created. The thing is that they were all created under a "work-for-hire" contract. This means Kirby was paid to do a job and that job was to create and make comics. He didn't own any of the stuff he created for Marvel. Last I checked, no one held a gun to his head and made him sign that deal either.

That was a different time. Now there's a lot more cases of creator owned comics, which is a good thing. However, you can't make the creator owned movement retroactive. Consider this as well, Kirby didn't have nearly as much to risk when those books came out. He didn't pay to have them published, advertised, or distributed. Marvel did all that. Marvel paid for all that.

It might be a different story if Kirby were alive today and making the request. There was an incident back when SPIDER-MAN hit the theaters and made buckets of cash. Stan Lee was asked how much he got of all that money considering he was one of the creators of the character. He got nothing of the movie money. Marvel pays Lee a generous sum just to use his name. Stan did indeed ask about getting some of the movie money, and Marvel said "no". Lee doing a high profile project for DC soon after is purely a coincidence, I'm sure. But maybe if Kirby were still around we'd be seeing him and Lee in those awesome little cameo appearances in all the Marvel movies.

But its not Kirby making this claim. Its his heirs. I guess they figure because somebody in their family did something awesome then they're entitled to check. No way. They didn't do the work. They weren't involved in the deal with Marvel. So, they absolutely shouldn't have any say over the copyrights.

Let's say hypothetically that they did get the copyrights, what would they do with them? They doubt they'd go into the comic business themselves. Most likely they'd try to get a regular check out of Marvel and parent company Disney for use of the characters. This leaves marvel with three choices. First is to purchase the rights back, which they certainly wouldn't be cheap. Second is to offer a regular payment to the heirs to use the characters, which would have to included in the cost of making the comics so the price would go up. Last is to just stop using the characters.

If the Kirby heirs really wanted to have something of Jack Kirby's legacy they need to stop and realize that they already have it. He was part of their family. If they were smart they'd have opened up a Jack Kirby museum with a bunch of memorabilia. Marvel and DC would have likely donated some things to it. I'd certainly go to visit it if I had the chance.

So no big payday for the Kirby heirs and rightfully so. If they want to get a check from a comic book company, then they better start doing work of their own and hope it sells.

MUSIC!!

If I actually did this, would I actually be financed by Brazil?



That's all for today. I'll see y'all Wednesday, unless you've tarred and feathered me by then. Its hard to type when you're tarred and feathered.

Gimme gimme gimme!

Jack Kirby's heirs are attempting to sue Marvel comics for the copyrights to the characters he created. For those who don't know, that' a lot of characters. Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created a ton of characters during the Silver Age for Marvel. These include the X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Daredevil and he did work on the creation of Spider-man although Steve Dikto did the art on his first appearance in AMAZING FANTASY #15 and when Spidey's series launched. If this sounds familiar it's probably because this dance went on over at DC where Jerry Seigel's heirs tried to sue for the rights to Superman.

The stupid part comes from this statement:

"Sadly, Jack died without proper compensation, credit or recognition for his lasting creative contributions,"

OK, that's bull. Here's why. Anyone with only a little bit of knowledge about comics knows who Jack Kirby it. Saying he doesn't get credit or recognition is absolutely ridiculous. The man is a legend. They're making it sound like he was some nobody who toiled away for the evil corporation and got paid pennies and no one knows who he was. Walk into any comic book shop anywhere and ask if anyone knows who Jack Kirby is. Unless the place is packed with kids playing Yu-Gi-Oh and no one in there has actually read a comic, you'll see how well known the man is.

The proper compensation is a sticky wicket. Back then creators rights were pretty much nonexistent. It was all work for hire back then. Today many companies like Image and Dark Horse allow the creators to keep the rights to their creations and that's a good thing. But Jack Kirby was paid a wage that he agreed to do what he did. When he had problems with the company he hopped over to DC to work over there. We are not talking about indentured servitude here. Of course if Kirby was doing what he did today things would be a lot different. But he's not.

This is looking like people trying to get a payday. Its ugly. Everyone looks like a tool in this. Marvel looks like a bunch of cheating jerks. The heirs look like a bunch of greedy pricks trying to cash in on a dead relative. This is bad.

Seriously, what are the heirs going to do if they win this? They'll have the copywrite and then what? Are they going to start publishing X-MEN comings? Will they try to negotiate movie deals for more SPIDER-MAN movies? During the lawsuit with the Seigel's DC stopped using the name SUPERBOY. Even the current Superboy character was bumped off, but its said that was done for different reasons and now, low and behold, now that the lawsuit is settled the character has been resurrected. Will Marvel just let these characters go away? Will they be bumped off? Doubtful, but this whole thing is pointless. Marvel is under no obligation to give anything to the Kirby heirs. They're not under much of an obligation to Stan lee either, but ol Stan is shrewd and savvy with these things so he's well taken care of.

I don't want to demonize the Kirby heirs with this, I really don't. But this isn't much different from a person wanting the government to pay them reparations because their great-great-great grandmother was slave. You can't change history. There is no reset button. The parties involved are not going to let this drop. Expect this to get ugly. Marvel was not wrong for its work for hire policies. They are not the bad guys. No one had a crystal ball back then and could predict that the characters that Kirby created that appeared in comics this you could get for less that a quarter would be million dollar properties today.

This whole thing is a damn shame.