CB Cebulski teases Marvel work by famed manga and fine artist Junko Mizuno.

stuck at the airport with Joe Quinones and Maris Wicks:
Many flights were delayed!

WB released a bunch of Dark Knight press materials today, and we’re too lazy to check which photos have already been put up on the web.
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Steve Bissette weighs in on the Platinum situation, where creators have signed away most of their rights and are now not being paid:

Welcome to the 21st Century, where abuse of creators is rampant and the illusion that all the battles were won and such affairs somehow aren’t Creator Rights issues is part of what allows outfits like Platinum to get away with this kind of crap.

Of course, they have the now-tradition of the 1990s (e.g., Scott Rosenberg, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, etc.) to depend upon — after all, Rob and Todd published and continue to publish work by prominent creators they didn’t treat fairly and haven’t paid a dime in reprint or royalties to, so what’s to stop others from emulating the same behavior?

Scott Rosenberg has been quite public about why he publishes comics, and what he and Platinum are about. The Comic Book Challenge, like the recent debacle over TokyoPop, is simply put a program legally designed to elevate, exploit and legally separate a creator from their creative property for Platinum’s financial gain.

We don’t have time to give this all that it deserves, but the saddest part of the whole Platipop situation is that us old timers stood there telling these kids it was a bad idea. We’ve been saying it for years. And the kids storm out of the room, saying “I can handle it! I’m a grown up!” And then, a few years later, sheepishly, they admit maybe they didn’t quite know what was going on at the time.

Bissette goes on to write: “Isn’t it time for the creative community to aggressively pool resources and quit acting like Creator Rights isn’t a war that was won, or somehow doesn’t apply to them?”

He’s right. Other companies are are putting out bad contracts right this minute. And trusting creators are signing them. That’s the sad part. Every time we think we’ve killed the snake a new bunch of rubes gets off the bus and signs the same yokel contract. And that’s why the snake will never die. They know they will always have a fresh and willing pool of talent to steal from.

But it isn’t just signing away your own creations with a work for hire contract. The sickness has spread to Hollywood, we hear. You know all those “such and such has been optioned” announcements that arrive every day? There is no set amount of money for an option. It could be between $500-$750K, as with Jeff Smith for Bone. Or it could be $1.

Now, not everything is a beloved classic like Bone, but increasingly, we hear, creators are settling for far less than their books are worth on the open market with a resulting devaluation of comics properties on the market.

Granted, its hard not to fall for the first cute guy at the dance who shows an interest in you when you’ve been sitting down sipping punch for years. You believe in your creation so much you just want to get it out there at any price! Once you get it out there, fame and fortune are sure to follow!

That’s what Siegel and Shuster thought; and Jack Kirby, and Mart Nodell and Joe Simon and all the rest. They were just grateful to be paid, grateful to put some food in their families’ mouths.

Interestingly, Bob Kane knew better — or at least his family did. His father insisted he get his rights on paper and even gamed the system himself:

Bob Kane had his father (a printer who knew the industry) represent him and negotiate a very good contract on his behalf. During the period where Siegel and Shuster were suing for Superman, Bob Kane would tell DC he was a minor when he signed his original contract. Faced with potential lawsuits of both their biggest cash cows, DC would renegotiate a much better deal with Kane. Truth was, Kane was in his early 20’s when he co-created Batman. As per then Jewish tradition, Kane’s father got rid of his son’s birth certificate. Without any paperwork indicating Kane’s actual birth date the courts would have to rely on the word of his family. Kane said his family was willing to lie on his behalf.

There is always an option. There are always alternatives. But as long as the kids keep thinking they’re all grown up and don’t listen to the warnings of the people who’ve already been there, the theft will continue.

Benjamin Ong Pang Kean continues his look at the Tokyopop fallout with a look at the Manga Pilot program that created such a ruckus:

NRAMA: Okay, guys. There’ve been much debates about the contract, or rather, “the pact”. We’re not going to go into legal terms and what-not here but what’re your initial/general thoughts on the whole arrangement?

GA: The moment I saw it I thought the language was extremely patronizing. I knew it was a legally binding contract of course, anything you sign your name to is, but it seemed as if they were trying to get me to focus on the language rather than the “fine print”. (Like how a magician executes a trick by distracting the audience.) To their credit, it worked. In my desperation to get my next story published I signed, believing I could endure whatever they threw at me for the sake of earning some money while doing what I love.

Steven Grant looks at the crazy goings on of the past week, specifically the “Dan DiDio is getting the Willie Randolph treatment!” rumor and how it becomes morphed into fanthink:

Fanthink is an interesting beast. It starts with the premise, which perhaps not coincidentally is what the DC comics universe has been based on for the last 20-some odd years, that reality is whatever you want it to be. Which is perfectly fine for a fictional world controlled from on high where any unpleasant complications can be explained away, rebooted or ignored as desired, as long as you’re aware that anything done will have fans unwilling to accept your explanations, reboots or willful ignorance. In the real world? Mmmmm… doesn’t work so well at all, like when you invade a country while figuring all you’ll have to do in the aftermath is dropping a malleable new government into place and sweeping up the flowers its grateful citizens strew in your armies’ path. Nonetheless, it has become a popular game among Internet comics fans especially to decide on the outcome they’d prefer to see, act as though it’s already reality, and extrapolate their arguments backwards.

Steven nails a very important part of today’s internet culture, and one that’s very difficult to deal with for a site like this. For instance, there are a couple of assumptions Steven makes in his column that I could refine based on well-sourced information that I have heard. But is it worth it? Every time bits of actual inside information are posted on the web, the fans go ape-shit spinning-off all sorts of totally bogus claims and reverberations about that information.

So is it even worth it? Usually not.

Fanthink is bad enough with popular movies and TV shows, But in the comics industry where everyone knows everyone else, it’s downright deadly.

Have you heard that new Neil Diamond song Pactin’ Oni? This time out they have pacted with online entertainment producer 60Frames for a bunch of comics-and-web projects written by Hollywood types:

First titles include “Men With Guns: Assassin,” created by Tom Fontana (”Oz,” “Homicide”), as well as “Ark,” from “Freaks and Geeks” scribes Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, now showrunners on the CW’s upcoming redo of “Beverly Hills, 90210.”

The two properties will launch simultaneously in print and as Web series next year.

“Ark,” a sci-fi series created by Robbie Thompson and developed by Sachs and Judah, follows a young woman who wakes up in a coffin-like capsule on a large spacecraft. Series will explore how and why she got there and if she can get home.

The Web series will feature a combination of live-action and CGI.

A press release is forthcoming, but the puzzling Harvey nomination in the Meanwhile … Comics in the “Best Biographical, Historical or Journalistic Presentation” category. Blog@’s JK Parkin fond this nom particularly odd:

Please don’t get me wrong here — John, Jason and Scott, the contributors to the blog, are doing some fun stuff over there. My question had nothing to do with whether their content was worthy or not to be nominated. No, the question I had was how a site that launched in April made the list when nominations for the Harveys were due in March.

Turns out a clerical error had turned votes for RC Harvey’s MEANWHILE… into votes for the little known site.

[Link via Troy]

Nick Magazine editor Chris Duffy writes to tell us that Nick Mag has an archive of many of its comics online now. Most are based on Nick shows, but there are also original creations by many top indie cartooners. Dave Roman has some more info, but Chris helpfully points to some of the highlights:

Sam Henderson comics
Deitch Bros. comics
Jef Czekaj
Mark Martin

PLUS: comics written and/or drawn by Mark Crilley, Brian Ralph, Kazu Kibuishi, Stephen DeStefano, Bobby London, Craig Bartlett, Jhonen Vasquez, Kyle Baker and more.

Adult befuddlement note: If small children can actually navigate this flash-based maze of design, we really have no fear for America’s future — we are raising a generation of super-soldiers.

Oh boy, will the drama never end. Dylan Squires, founder of Drunk Duck — the webportal purchased by Platinum Studios, and a source of some of its thousands and thousands of potential movie franchises — has left Platinum:

I just want to let you all know that a short while ago I left Platinum Studios to pursue new opportunities. DrunkDuck has been great, and I hope under Platinum’s guidance it continues to grow and prosper.

Everyone is free to contact me of course, and I’ll drop in now and then, but I think it’s time I shift focus and really concentrate on my future.

Xaviar Xerexes moves in quickly to ask what and how:

Can you work on other webcomic projects now?

I’m not… sure. I’d probably take the cautious point of view and assume the sale contract includes a provision that prevents me from leaving drunkduck and starting something competing with it. If I, in my non-existant legal knowledge would put something like that in, i’m sure Platinum would as well.

Squires does mention he’s now working on a new start up project.

MEANWHILE, over at TokyoPop, Benjamin Ong Pang Kean shows that Newsarama can do a good job when they try with a huge round up of Tokyopop news including reactions from multiple creators:

Tokyopop, the manga giant and one of the market leaders of the past few years is, depending on who you listen to, going through some reorganization efforts, heaving and bucking as it sheds creators and projects, or circling the drain. The company has been a target of the blogoshphere for quite some time, given creators and would-be creators’ issues with its contracts, but most recently, the company announced a substantial reorganization and reduction in output for the coming year. The move left many creators’ projects homeless.

There is much, much praise for Tokyopop’s editorial staff, but also many many unanswered questions…developing.

UPDATE: Part Two looks at what’s going on with Tpop’s various OEL titles.

Frequent PWCW contributor and Beat pal Laurel Maury has been named the new official comics reviewer for NPR. Congratulations to Laurel! Her first piece covers THE RABBI’S CAT:

If you’re used to comics smacking you over the head with superheroes and fantasy, prepare to be seduced and charmed. Joann Sfar’s series about the rabbi and his talking cat draws on the Franco-Belgian artist’s roots to recreate the sights, smells and vibrancy of early 20th century Algeria.

Dollar Bin has the audio of the infamous Covering Comics panel from Heroes Con up, so you can judge for yourselves how pathetic we sound.

God, this is depressing. How can intelligent people say this stuff and not acknowledge what’s coming out of their mouths? This isn’t journalism, or criticism, this is public relations. Promotion. It’s disgusting.

Participant Johanna has her own comments:

At this point, I said, “I’m glad I have a day job” because it gives me a certain amount of independence from corporate pressure; I don’t care if I piss someone off, because I don’t answer to anyone but myself. (Later, several people asked me if I was a librarian — apparently, I have that air. No, I’m not. I work in a corporate communications department for a real estate-related financial services company, where I write, proofread, copy edit, manage projects, and maintain websites.) Heidi and Matt both acknowledged altering their coverage to keep publishers happy to maintain the possibility of future stories.

I wouldn’t say that I’d “alter” a story to keep a publisher “happy”, but I may have used that word, so I’ll take my lumps. I have certainly run corrections from publishers. As I’ve said many times, here and on the panel, I have too many personal connections in this industry to begin to be objective or have the kind of independence a real journalist needs.

The panel also provides my best friend Dirk Deppey with a new opportunity to give us all a schoolin’:

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I know I just shut down another thread, but here’s the link to the whispering women of the Spirit. It’s esp. fun when you run your cursor over it real fast.

Ivan Brandon has an army of 58 Zombies, 42,000 Zombie points and is a Zombie God!

– via Facebook

Comics legend Alex Niño has a book coming out from Image this September called DEAD AHEAD, and it’s described as “Dawn of the Dead on a cruise ship.” The rest of the team includes writers Mel Smith and Clark Castillo, colorist Moose Baumann and letterers Tom Orzechowski and Lois Buhalis. The cover is above and athe first page below. Click for a larger image.

A few more posters from the upcoming Frank Miller-directed SPIRIT movie have been released, showing Scarlet Johansson, Sarah Paulson and Jaime King’s characters. Enjoy.

WOWIO, the ebook distribution site, has gone offline and word is going around that the company has been sold. Wowio offered FREE digital distribution of various comics publishers including Lone Star Press, Steve Rude, Digital Webbing and many others. We’d been hearing rumbles that the company was behind slow on its payments to creators, and as of yesterday the site was offline for 2-4 weeks while the acquisition was complete.

Developing.

Joey Manley comments on the DJ Coffman/Platinum Studios situation:

Signing a Work for Hire contract for your own original creation is like getting a new credit card. It feels like easy money until it doesn’t.

Commercially developing your own creation without giving up ownership of it it is like opening up a savings account. It’s a slow, sometimes agonizing, process, and will probably never amount to much money at all. But it’s always there.

I’m not a comics creator, but I make websites, which are creations of a sort, and I’ve had the opportunity to do both of the above in the past few years. I’ve actually done something completely different — giving up some of my ownership to Josh, first, then collectively giving up a smaller amount of ownership to some investors, in hopes that, with all of those resources combined, we can accomplish more than any of us could alone. I am confident it will work out, but nothing is guaranteed.

BTW, we’re hearing that Coffman’s woes are just the tip of the iceberg, and a bunch of other creators are about to speak out on the situation.

More DC analysis by Tom McLean:

That said, media interest in comics is massively disproportionate to the number of people that read them, and the one thing that may prompt WB execs to scrutinize DC’s efforts is bad press. Fan discontent, while vocal, can quickly turn around with a couple of hits. And DC arguably has a few of those, such as the popularity of Geoff John’s run on Green Lantern and Morrison’s Batman R.I.P. crossover, though it could use a few more. The pendulum of fan favor has long swung back and forth between DC and Marvel, and while it’s right now mostly on Marvel’s side, it will swing back at some point. Of course, coming up with a new hit series is increasingly difficult — witness the constant recycling and reviving of old characters, and the struggles new series starring even such well-known characters as Flash and Wonder Woman have had in recent years.

And Valerie D’Orazio:

I doubted here last week that Didio would be forced to leave. Say what you will about that department — they take care of their own. Really, you would have to do something like walk into the executive boardroom and take a dump on the table in front of witnesses in order to be in danger of losing your job. And even then, you could just have everyone agree to never mention it again and just wipe down the damn table. And serve donuts on it the next day.

UPDATE: Oh yeah, Graeme weighs n, too

This ties in with something that I was told this weekend - That, despite DC’s disappointing performance under DiDio, they may be forced to stick with him due to the lack of anyone else within the company with the experience and/or ambition to step into the position instead.

Brian K. Vaughan, who is now a “beloved comics figure”, makes an incredibly rare signing appearance this Thursday at Midtown Comics:

Midtown Comics in New York City will host a comic book signing event with beloved author Brian K. Vaughan. BKV, as he is affectionately referred to by his fans, is the award-winning creator of Y: The Last Man, Ex-Machina, Pride of Baghdad and Marvel Comics’ Runaways. These titles are among the best loved and respected comic books published today, and the collected editions are among the most popular graphic novels in print.

Comic Books have rocketed to the front ranks of pop culture, and Hollywood is mining comic books for source material like never before. The work of Brian K. Vaughan is no exception. Y: The Last Man will be produced for the big screen by New Line Cinema, with Shia LaBeouf being considered for the role of Yorick Brown, the title character, and Marvel Studios (batting a thousand so far with Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk) will produce Runaways.

Six years ago, an unknown author signed Y: The Last Man #1 at Midtown Comics’ Times Square location, and now he’s come full circle, considerably more famous, signing at Midtown’s Grand Central location.

Midtown Comics opened its first store in 1997, and is now the industry’s leading retailer of comic books, graphic novels and Manga, with its online store as well as two landmark NYC locations in Times Square and Grand Central .

Speaking of Vaughan, in all the excitement we missed the news the other week that BKV is now a big time screenwriter:

Resolving a heated bidding war, Brian K. Vaughan has sold his supernatural comedy spec “Roundtable” to DreamWorks for $650,000 against $1 million. Several competing suitors attempted to yank Vaughan’s sword out of the rock, including MGM.

Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald are producing.

In “Roundtable,” Vaughan tries out yet another tweak on the oft-revised King Arthur legend. His spin, more “Ghostbusters” than “Excalibur,” revolves around Merlin assembling a bunch of modern-day knights to battle a resurrected ancient evil, only to discover that today’s knights are all washed-up athletes, cowardly scientists or Academy Award-winning actors.

CAA-repped Vaughan also will serve as executive producer.

An interesting story up at SPORTS ILLUSTRATED’S web site. Comics were made as recruitment tools by the University of Oregon to try and land highly valued prospects and they have reprinted one in its entirety on the site.

This is the second conjunction of sports and comics thanks to SI. There was, of course, the cover of the magazine from a few weeks ago drawn by Mark Bagley and featuring Bizarro.

Posted by Mark Coale

Tim Hodler explains what was going on at the journo panel:

If I’m going to be editing and writing comics criticism, it’s important to be able to separate personal friendships and acquaintances from my writing, and it’s already a lot more difficult to do than it was just two years ago. (Being married to a cartoonist, and not wanting to have her work unfairly linked to my opinions — we disagree on plenty, believe me — doesn’t really make it any easier.) It’s not really that difficult, but it’s an ethical distinction that I have to be vigilant about, and it’s also probably the largest single difference between how I currently approach comics and how I read and talked about them pre-CC, when I’d praise or trash comics with impunity. Now I try to make a point of not reviewing comics by people I know well, at least in print or on the blog, and I think that’s probably for the best, at least for now.

Meanwhile, Craig Fischer notes that The Beat and Matt Brady are blabbermouths, which, unfortunately is true.

For some reason–maybe through the sheer force of their personalities rather than anything else–Brady and MacDonald dominated the discussion. They complained about the mountain of information they have to sift through every day as part of their jobs, and about how they need to strike a balance between rigorous journalism and what Brady called “the long-term picture”: the need to stay on good terms with DC and Marvel so as to continue to receive timely news and information from these companies. Brady referred to Newsarama’s relationship with big comics publishers as “carrots and sticks, threats and spankings,” and indicated that the companies’ threats and spankings influenced the information posted on Newsarama.

Which, of course, sucks. I’m much more sympathetic to the work that Hodler, Draper-Carlson and Hargro do: careful, reasoned analysis of individual comics and graphic novels is more important to me than chasing after the six-hour “news cycles” of the comics industry. These critics responded to Brady’s description of the “threats and spankings” situation with admirable independence– Draper-Carlson said that because she has a day job, she doesn’t care “if someone is pissed” at her, while Hodler and Hargro pointed out that newspapers traditionally build strong firewalls between their editorial and advertising divisions to avoid the dangers inherent in allowing threats to chill journalistic speech.

Some of those good strips from Zuda are getting a second chance, in the Zuda Invitational:

On July 7th, Zudacomics.com will answer readers’ demands and celebrate the one year anniversary or their announcement with the ZUDA COMICS 2008 INVITATIONAL. Each comic, nominated by Zuda’s fans, will feature eight all-new screens for a total of sixteen viewable pages – so if you think you’ve read them all before, you’d better look again!

“One of the most frequent things we hear from readers through e-mail, at conventions, in the blog and in the message boards is a sincere desire for a comic that didn’t win a competition to continue in some way,” says Ron Perazza, DC Comics Director of Creative Services, “Now we have the answer - the Zuda Comics 2008 Invitational!”

This year’s Invitational was announced on the Zuda panel at this year’s New York Comic Con. Fans were encouraged to log in to Zudacomics.com and submit a list of their ten favorite comics that did not previously win a competition.

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§ Johanna Draper Carlson looks at Josei Manga in the US:

In the US, josei titles have struggled. That’s unsurprising, given the typical audience for comics and graphic novels; older women are the last untapped market. Today, several of the most successful josei titles are sold as shojo, with age ratings or “mature content” warnings the only suggestion that they’re aiming for an older audience.

There’s also the question of labeling. In Japan, titles are categorized based on the target audience of the magazine that they originally appeared in. In the US, that method of classification is obscure at best. Arguments may also arise over whether something is josei or just mature shojo. The age of the protagonist, the challenges she faces, and the type of content all factor into this decision. That said, here are some of the high points of the genre in the US.

§ Martha Thomases reports on The Metropolitan’s day of superhero fashion panels:

Ross described his process as photorealistic, working from live models. “I draw better when I’m looking at something,” he said. To provide a sense of realism to how clothing would look on a body, he had a Superman costume built for his model. He now has a collection of several costumes.

Cassaday described how his aunt had given him a book on Batman from the 1930s to the 1970s when he was four years old. As a result, he became a fan of several different eras of Bat costumes. He used this affection in a Planetary story, one that paid special homage to Adam West.

§ Brian Hibbs reports from Rory Root’s Memorial:

I traveled to the Memorial with Jeff and Graeme, as well as Anina Bennett and Paul Guinan. We arrived right around 7 PM, while the event itself was scheduled to start at 5. I was told that the actual Stand-Up-And-Say-Something portion of it started about 6 (and it lasted until 10:30 or 11 or so, wow!)

When we showed up, the street in front of CR was packed, with probably 40-50 people milling about talking, reminiscing on the sidewalk. Immediately I recognized tons of people who came in from out of town — oh, there’s Diana Schutz, there’s Larry Marder, there’s Bob Wayne, it went on like that pretty much all night, every time I turned I saw someone in comics who’d flown in from out of town for this. To a certain extent, it might have been almost good that it happened the same weekend as Heroes Con, because otherwise maybe it would have shut down traffic, y’know?

§ Laura Hudson reports on IDW’s new line of children’s books:

Worthwhile Books, the children’s book imprint of comics publisher IDW that launched earlier this year, has announced its upcoming slate of books for fall and spring, including a number of children’s books by Emmy and Peabody award-winning Hollywood screenwriters. Worthwhile has already adapted several titles for the U.S. market through a first-look licensing deal with U.K. publisher Meadowside Books, including Michael Recycle, a story about a young environmental superhero, that had combined pre-orders of 125,000 copies for hardcover and paperback. A sequel, Litterbug Doug, is on the way for spring 2009.

§ MTV gets in on the act of solving DC’s movie problems:

Movies are where the real superhero action is these days, and Marvel, having scored major hits with the current “Iron Man” and “Hulk” films (and with “Thor,” “Captain America” and the all-star team-up “Avengers” already in the pipeline), is cleaning up at the box office. Meanwhile, DC and its corporate parent, Warner Bros., haven’t quite exploited their own stable of stars — not just Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, but also the Justice League of which all three of those characters are a part, along with Flash and Green Lantern. Turning these revered comics properties into money-minting movie franchises should have been a no-brainer. If the process has been mishandled, DC’s numbers are down, and fanboys are in revolt, what can be done about it? Plenty.