Comics Links: UPDATED
First and foremost, I can’t believe I am seeing Godiva chocolate ads springing up on my blog. This is some kind of torture, isn’t it?
It was bad enough when the Sciabica Olive Oil ads were popping on. I spent $50. BTW, the lavender olive oil is to die for. I use it on my skin.
Moving right along…
Our blog buddy Danny Barer sends along this interesting article in the LA Daily Journal, a legal newspaper, in which my hot legal eagle Mike Lovitz is liberally quoted about the Kirby case. Wish I could link. Alas, it is subscriber only.
Kirby’s heirs are trying to get rights to a number of creations credited to Kirby during his Marvel days.
Michael Lovitz, an IP attorney with Buchalter Nemer who hosts a clinic on legal issues in the
comic book industry at the annual ComicCon, said the terminations might even boost Disney’s
investment in Marvel.“This might actually make the properties more valuable because the terminations could cancel
deals Marvel currently has with other studios,” said Lovitz, who was not involved in the deal.
“There are all kinds of interesting questions this raises.”
The money quote:
“The Kirbys are looking to terminate the transfers of copyright,” said Lovitz. “The question is: was
there a transfer?”
Another article, this time in Cal Law features Mike, and this time I am liberally quoted. Once again, it’s an industry legal mag, and I can’t link, but here’s a taste from the article Comic Book Guy, in which I praise my lawyer on his industry savvy.
Doran, a Lovitz client for more than 15 years, was relieved to find a lawyer who truly
understood the industry. “Getting together with someone like Mike, who understands not
only the professional end of the market, but how fans interact with us — he’s gold, he is
absolutely gold,” she says.The Internet, Doran says, has had a big impact on creators’ rights, as well as on the ways
in which fans interact with the creations. Some of those ways aren’t welcome: “We have
problems all the time with fans who don’t understand that they don’t have the right to
make a novel about our work, and then turn around and sell it. They honestly believe that
if they publish something and don’t make a profit, it’s okay. But if someone is self publishing
a book based on my work and charging $20 a whack, they’re going to hear
from my lawyer.”
At USA Today, my good buddy Jim Valentino is interviewed about the upcoming Image Reunion and his place in comics history:
My background in comics grew originally from the 1960s Silver Age and then later the indie comics of the ’70s. Back in those early days, comics were seen as being mostly childish or subversive in some ways. Comics eventually became more accepted but continued to push the envelope as to what they could do in terms of content. We reached a point where comic books wanted to prove they were adult. These days, I think they can go too far at times, though.
And last but definitely not least, web pirates are without soul. Seriously.
It takes a lot of time, and costs some serious bank to get this site up and running. I do maintenance every single day. That takes time away from drawing.
I provide free content in the form of my comic work, and I have provided hundreds of hours of documents and research FOR FREE to all you folks out there. All I ask is that if you want to read and experience my work, please come to my official site, and don’t poach my stuff. At the very least, provide links. I can’t make a return on my investment of time, money and effort if people don’t come to my site. There are thousands of you reading this, and I appreciate that, but I can’t live on love alone.
So, when I read what happened to Stuart Immonen, who, in my opinion, is producing one of the finest webcomics out there, I want to go Galt.
When people can’t be content to come to a creator’s blog and enjoy a cost-free viewing online, when they would rather poach the work and screw that creator who put their time, love, energy and financial resources into a project, and steal that drive and enthusiasm with their lack of consideration, then I want to hunt down that lazy, inconsiderate second-hander, and give him a piece of the mind he will never have because he can’t create, he can only take.
Historically (at least for us), there has been very little actual reward for not only writing and drawing the thing on spec, but scanning, re-sizing, posting, hosting, promoting and soliciting all for free. Dang, I think about all the frigging hours I’ve spent in front of this box (or another like it), and wonder how many pages I could have done instead, or — shock — gone outside into the real world. Which is what I’m about to do momentarily.
Please understand: I have poured thousands of bucks into my websites, forked over a thousand bucks for a satellite, spent almost a hundred bucks a month on the uplink, and have spent HUNDREDS of hours scanning and resizing art and writing posts over the last two years, not to mention the cost of advertising. There are, literally, MONTHS of labor here and months of financing.
NOTHING is free.
All we ask is that you not poach our work, and respect our right to say when and where we want to display our work.
I could have simply never put anything on the web, never blogged, never posted my art, and spent more time at my drawing board. The SOLE reason for this site is to try to finance the final chapter of the book. If people poach my work, I have no choice but to call it quits.
Please respect.
Thanks.
PS: Anyone who pinches stuff from Will Wheaton is without love in his heart. Seriously, that’s just low.
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