Since we last spoke there have been things happening in the great hobby and as always some are good, and others...not so much. We're about 11 months into the company-wide re-launch of DC Comics, and there have been some standout titles. Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman and Catwoman all immediately leap to mind as excellent reads month in, month out. Justice League got all the press primarily due to the return of Jim Lee to a regular monthly book. I'm not the biggest fan of Lee as a person, and this book has been mediocre at best. Can't say why because the writer Geoff Johns, is writing a few other things at DC and they are stellar, especially Aquaman. Maybe he and Lee just don't gel as collaborators or something, but for two high-profile talents such as these on a book which produces these forgettable results...something is wrong there. Rumor has it that Lee will be leaving the book to focus on another project and the subsequent new artist hasn't been announced yet, if this is true maybe a change will help this book become what it should be, the flagship of the line.
In a weird convergence of timing, both DC and Marvel made news by featuring Gay characters. In Marvel, Astonishing X-Men #51 featured the Wedding of Northstar to his boyfriend, and over in DC, in Earth 2 #2, it was revealed that Green Lantern Alan Scott was Gay. There has been a LOT of talk on this topic, both in and out of the comics world.
A little backstory is needed here to get everyone up to speed. Northstar was a member of Alpha Flight back in the early 80's and in issue #106 of that book in 1992 it was revealed that he was Gay. There was a little news about it and it was never followed up on and was pretty much ignored until recently. Once it was announced that he was marrying his boyfriend, it really hit the fan. There were so many people expressing strong opinions about this event, again, on both sides. But what caught my attention was that of all of the rhetoric being bandies about the question I had was "Who is actually READING this book?" I asked people on facebook on both sides of this issue if they were reading the book, the most well informed answer I got was "I guess I should pick it up." People are expressing these strong feelings for a book THEY NEVER READ?! Unbelievable.
As for Green Lantern, that is a little more involved. Before the re-launch The Alan Scott Green Lantern was the first and original Green Lantern, having made his first appearance in the '40s, and was a founding member of the Justice Society of America. In recent years he was considered a legacy hero because there have been several other Green Lanterns after him, but he was revered and respected as the first. His sexuality was never explored but he had a son, Obsidian, who was Gay. After the re-launch, James Robinson, who had written with great skill the exploits of many of the JSA heroes in recent years, announced that there would be a "long standing character who will be revealed as Gay." And in the second issue of his book Earth 2, which focuses on the JSA characters, albeit in an alternate universe, he introduced Alan Scott and his boyfriend. Again there was fallout, but to me it was a little different. Because Alan Scott was always a beloved character and this is a re-launch, and the big factor is that it's being done by James Robinson, that more people took a "let's wait and see where he goes with this" attitude, whereas Northstar was always a dick. Regardless of his sexuality, he's just not a likable or sympathetic character, and this marriage seems to have been "hot shotted", just thrown out there for shock without any proper foundation or set-up. Feels completely rushed to me, no mention about it happening in any of the other X-Men books, but all of a sudden we are supposed to suddenly care about a character that is not used a lot and not likable? Pass. And for the record I'm reading Earth 2 because I like the JSA characters and I like James Robinson's writing. I'm not reading Astonishing X-Men because I didn't care for the title when Joss Whedon launched it and don't like Northstar. Notice how the issue of either book having a Gay character was factored n to my decision process... That's because a good story is all that should discussed.
Another topic that has been in the comic news is the increasing of digital downloads of books to ipads and other electronic media. I have no problem with digital distribution at all, if it increases the visibility of the hobby then I'm all for it, but what I don't care for is the attitude of some readers who have adopted the new format exclusively. There are so many that I've read comments from r eaders on various comic sites that say " Well I'm reading this digitally..." as if reading something digitally makes them superior, regardless of the content. Its like that group of readers who refuse to buy a monthly book and insist on reading only in trades, and then proclaiming on comic sites "Well I only read this in trades...", while talking about the current issue of a given book. So if you're reading a book in trades, don't comment about a book that you don't follow monthly, no one cares that you read it in trades! No. One.
And finally it's July which means its Comic-Con time, and it begins next week and my buddies Brian and Dwayne are heading out for Sn Diego early Tuesday morning. Unfortunately my schedule won't allow me to attend this year, but I wish I could because Brian will on a panel Friday about opening a comic shop and I would like to have seen that. Had I known that he was doing a panel discussion I would have made time to get away to see this...rats!
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
It's 'Toon Time!
Greetings once again readers of the graphic printed media!
Before I into today's topic I want to thank Robert Kirkman and Shawn Kirkham for being such good sports and great guests on the Geeked Out podcast last week, if you haven't had a chance to hear it definitely take a listen, we had a lot of fun doing it!
I watched the latest DVD from DC Animation the other day, "Doom" which was an adaptation of a Justice League story from Mark Waid's run on that book. Watching it reminded me just how DC is killing Marvel in the DVD Cartoon market. Granted, Marvel is dominating DC on the Big Screen, but that's not the point today. Looking at some of the recent DC DVD cartoon offerings, there was Justice League: A New Frontier written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke originally, and the animators closely matched his style on the DVD, there was All Star Superman written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quitely, and again the animators managed to bring Quitely's art style to life in the cartoon, and the two Batman entries, Under the Red Hood and Batman: Year One were equally outstandingly done.
Marvel hasn't released any DVD cartoons lately, and the ones that they did release...just weren't good. There are two seemingly based around there analog to DC's Justice League, The Avengers. But Marvel also has a super team called The Ultimates. The Avengers are in the Marvel 616 universe, or the "normal" Marvel Universe, the Ultimates are the Avengers of the "Ultimate" Marvel Universe, the same one where the Ultimate Spider-Man is enjoying some new popularity. And neither of them should be confuse with the Marvel "MAX" Universe where that universe's Punisher just died after a brutal final battle with that Universe's Kingpin. And then there is the Marvel Zombie Universe....too many to list really The two Avengers DVD's from Marvel called "The Ultimate Avengers" one and two that visually looked like the Ultimates but were making Avengers references...it was all very confusing. And just not very well done. There was an Iron Man DVD, more of the same, and the Dr. Strange DVD was just unwatchable. I give Marvel credit for trying something with Dr. Strange who is a lower-tier character at best, but the execution was still sub-par. But Marvel did step their game up with the Hulk Vs. DVD and the Planet Hulk DVD. The "Hulk Vs." featured two shorter cartoons, each featuring the Hulk against an opponent. For this DVD the Hulk went into Canada and duked it out with Wolverine, with some instigation by Deadpool, Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike and Omega Red. In the other feature, the Hulk made his way up into Asgard home of the Norse Gods. That means Thor. And where there's Thor, there's always his brother Loki around to start some static. This DVD was a departure from prior Marvel efforts in that it was entertaining and actually very good! In the Planet Hulk DVD, the story was taken from a run in the Hulk comic of the same name. The DVD stayed about 85% true to the actual story, thy punked out on the ending a bit and they replaced the Silver Surfer in the story with Beta Ray Bill. While seeing Bill in animated form was cool, that wasn't the story. But maybe there was a licensing issue with use of the silver Surfer, I don't know, but I do know it was still better than most of their other ones.
Historically for me Marvel was always the better cartoon provider. When I was a kid in the late 60's-early 70's I remember watching the Marvel Super Heroes cartoon, with Captain America, Thor, and others. Hanna-Barbera also did a Fantastic Four cartoon, but I was about the Marvel Super Heroes show. They were taken directly from the comics, in a style that would be called "motion comics" today. The animation was primitive at best, but I LOVED them!! They were the same characters that I was reading about in the comics! And the same stories that I had seen too! It was great! Later from the same animation company came The Amazing Spider-Man, with the song that everybody knows...and in the first few seasons the stories featured villains from the comics, The Green Goblin, The Rhino, Dr. Octopus and many others. It also had supporting characters, Aunt May, Betty Brant and my buddy, J. Jonah Jameson. (Who was captured brilliantly by J.K. Simmons in the first Spider-Man film) In later years the stories went from the familiar to the avant-garde courtesy of producer Ralph Bashki, of "Fritz The Cat" fame. He even introduced a character named "Sky Boy"....ugh.
At the same time DC was keeping pace with the DC Super Heroes. That featured Aquaman, Superman, Superboy, Hawkman, The Teen Titans and a few others. Batman was present too, but in his own show, and later teamed with Superman to form the Batman/Superman Hour. All in all it was a good time for both companies in the way of cartoons.
But.
After those shows left the air....
Crap.
Marvel didn't do any cartoons for a while until the late 70's when they did another Fantastic Four cartoon that didn't include the Human Torch but had H.E.R,B.I.E. the robot in his place. It was awful. There are rumors about why the Torch was left out, fears that kids would light themselves on fire to there was a planned Torch film in the works, I don't know the actual story. I just know it sucked. In later years there was Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, which was Spider-Man, Icemen from the X-Men, and Firestar. Firestar?? Who in the blue hell is that ? Well according to rumor the Torch was supposed to be included but fears of kids setting themselves on fire was the reason he was left out. Firestar was created to fill that void and was given microwave based powers so she could generate heat without making flames. It was still a bad cartoon. Marvel was pretty bad until the launch of a slate of cartoons in the mid 90's. There was the X-Men, a new Spider-Man entry, Fantastic Four, Iron Man and the Hulk also had new incarnations. And they were all \very well done after a shaky start.
But DC, until they launched Batman:The Animated Series in 1992, was complete drivel.
The worst offender was the Super Friends. And let me be clear here, I HATED the Super Friends. I didn't read a lot of DC as a youth but I was familiar with their characters and thought it would be fun to see them on tv. But they introduced Wendy,Marvin and that damn Wonder Dog..
and Marvin and that damn dog both were capes! It was torture! They were introduced to give kids someone to relate with, I found it to patronizing and pandering and hated it instantly. In later years they tried again with the Wonder Twins, same result, instant hatred at being pandered to.
But all that changed with the introduction of Batman:The Animated Series. That was done in a new style, reminiscent of the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons from the 40's, and was very well written and no idiot teen sidekicks pandering about the show. It was an instant hit. It spawned a Superman cartoon as well which was also well done. And several years ago Justice League premiered on the Cartoon Network. It was great! It had the core members of the Justice League, but in later years they would expand the roster to include dozens of guest stars. Then they did what they should have done in the beginning, they started to incorporate classic stories form the books. Marvel had done that in the past and it worked very well, and once DC followed suit it was equally successful. The one that leaps out is an Alan Moore story about getting a present for Superman, and I can't possibly do it justice here, but it was a magnificent adaptation of a classic story.
But going back to the DVD's, what DC is doing is recreating storylines form the comics in the DVD's and killing Marvel in the process. And I don't understand why Marvel hasn't followed suit, they have TONS of great source material to mine from. There are so many classic stories featuring their most popular characters as well as some that aren't in the big screen movies, but would make for equally entertaining DVD's.
Before I into today's topic I want to thank Robert Kirkman and Shawn Kirkham for being such good sports and great guests on the Geeked Out podcast last week, if you haven't had a chance to hear it definitely take a listen, we had a lot of fun doing it!
I watched the latest DVD from DC Animation the other day, "Doom" which was an adaptation of a Justice League story from Mark Waid's run on that book. Watching it reminded me just how DC is killing Marvel in the DVD Cartoon market. Granted, Marvel is dominating DC on the Big Screen, but that's not the point today. Looking at some of the recent DC DVD cartoon offerings, there was Justice League: A New Frontier written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke originally, and the animators closely matched his style on the DVD, there was All Star Superman written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quitely, and again the animators managed to bring Quitely's art style to life in the cartoon, and the two Batman entries, Under the Red Hood and Batman: Year One were equally outstandingly done.Marvel hasn't released any DVD cartoons lately, and the ones that they did release...just weren't good. There are two seemingly based around there analog to DC's Justice League, The Avengers. But Marvel also has a super team called The Ultimates. The Avengers are in the Marvel 616 universe, or the "normal" Marvel Universe, the Ultimates are the Avengers of the "Ultimate" Marvel Universe, the same one where the Ultimate Spider-Man is enjoying some new popularity. And neither of them should be confuse with the Marvel "MAX" Universe where that universe's Punisher just died after a brutal final battle with that Universe's Kingpin. And then there is the Marvel Zombie Universe....too many to list really The two Avengers DVD's from Marvel called "The Ultimate Avengers" one and two that visually looked like the Ultimates but were making Avengers references...it was all very confusing. And just not very well done. There was an Iron Man DVD, more of the same, and the Dr. Strange DVD was just unwatchable. I give Marvel credit for trying something with Dr. Strange who is a lower-tier character at best, but the execution was still sub-par. But Marvel did step their game up with the Hulk Vs. DVD and the Planet Hulk DVD. The "Hulk Vs." featured two shorter cartoons, each featuring the Hulk against an opponent. For this DVD the Hulk went into Canada and duked it out with Wolverine, with some instigation by Deadpool, Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike and Omega Red. In the other feature, the Hulk made his way up into Asgard home of the Norse Gods. That means Thor. And where there's Thor, there's always his brother Loki around to start some static. This DVD was a departure from prior Marvel efforts in that it was entertaining and actually very good! In the Planet Hulk DVD, the story was taken from a run in the Hulk comic of the same name. The DVD stayed about 85% true to the actual story, thy punked out on the ending a bit and they replaced the Silver Surfer in the story with Beta Ray Bill. While seeing Bill in animated form was cool, that wasn't the story. But maybe there was a licensing issue with use of the silver Surfer, I don't know, but I do know it was still better than most of their other ones.
Historically for me Marvel was always the better cartoon provider. When I was a kid in the late 60's-early 70's I remember watching the Marvel Super Heroes cartoon, with Captain America, Thor, and others. Hanna-Barbera also did a Fantastic Four cartoon, but I was about the Marvel Super Heroes show. They were taken directly from the comics, in a style that would be called "motion comics" today. The animation was primitive at best, but I LOVED them!! They were the same characters that I was reading about in the comics! And the same stories that I had seen too! It was great! Later from the same animation company came The Amazing Spider-Man, with the song that everybody knows...and in the first few seasons the stories featured villains from the comics, The Green Goblin, The Rhino, Dr. Octopus and many others. It also had supporting characters, Aunt May, Betty Brant and my buddy, J. Jonah Jameson. (Who was captured brilliantly by J.K. Simmons in the first Spider-Man film) In later years the stories went from the familiar to the avant-garde courtesy of producer Ralph Bashki, of "Fritz The Cat" fame. He even introduced a character named "Sky Boy"....ugh.
At the same time DC was keeping pace with the DC Super Heroes. That featured Aquaman, Superman, Superboy, Hawkman, The Teen Titans and a few others. Batman was present too, but in his own show, and later teamed with Superman to form the Batman/Superman Hour. All in all it was a good time for both companies in the way of cartoons.
But.
After those shows left the air....
Crap.
Marvel didn't do any cartoons for a while until the late 70's when they did another Fantastic Four cartoon that didn't include the Human Torch but had H.E.R,B.I.E. the robot in his place. It was awful. There are rumors about why the Torch was left out, fears that kids would light themselves on fire to there was a planned Torch film in the works, I don't know the actual story. I just know it sucked. In later years there was Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, which was Spider-Man, Icemen from the X-Men, and Firestar. Firestar?? Who in the blue hell is that ? Well according to rumor the Torch was supposed to be included but fears of kids setting themselves on fire was the reason he was left out. Firestar was created to fill that void and was given microwave based powers so she could generate heat without making flames. It was still a bad cartoon. Marvel was pretty bad until the launch of a slate of cartoons in the mid 90's. There was the X-Men, a new Spider-Man entry, Fantastic Four, Iron Man and the Hulk also had new incarnations. And they were all \very well done after a shaky start.
But DC, until they launched Batman:The Animated Series in 1992, was complete drivel.
The worst offender was the Super Friends. And let me be clear here, I HATED the Super Friends. I didn't read a lot of DC as a youth but I was familiar with their characters and thought it would be fun to see them on tv. But they introduced Wendy,Marvin and that damn Wonder Dog..
and Marvin and that damn dog both were capes! It was torture! They were introduced to give kids someone to relate with, I found it to patronizing and pandering and hated it instantly. In later years they tried again with the Wonder Twins, same result, instant hatred at being pandered to. 
But going back to the DVD's, what DC is doing is recreating storylines form the comics in the DVD's and killing Marvel in the process. And I don't understand why Marvel hasn't followed suit, they have TONS of great source material to mine from. There are so many classic stories featuring their most popular characters as well as some that aren't in the big screen movies, but would make for equally entertaining DVD's.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Shooting the breeze with Robert Kirkman
Yesterday I got a chance to have a sit-down conversation with Skybound President and creator of The Walking Dead comic book and tv series on AMC of the same name, Robert Kirkman before the first day at Image Expo at the Oakland Convention Center. I hadn't been back to Oakland in a few years and the original plan was Patty and I were gonna drive in, hit the convention, then hit Genova Delicatessen and of course for the ride back home, pick up some Capser's Hot Dogs. Whenever I'm in Oakland I ALWAYS grab some Casper's Hot Dogs.... but Patty wasn't feeling well and not up to the trip so I decided against staying overnight and would zip down on Amtrak into Jack London Square and walk over to the Convention Center for the con.
My time to interview Robert, was set for 10:40-10:50 so I arrived at the station in Oakland at 9:58, right at 2nd Street and Alice. It's a warehouse district with a lot of produce warehouses and other buildings of that nature. I walked up 2nd Street, past Harrison, past Webster, then onto Broadway and down past the Probation dept. at 4th and Broadway, (I was a juvenile, it was the 70's, don't ask...) on down to the Convention Center at 10th and Broadway, just a few blocks ahead of De Lauer's 24 hour newstand where I would "acquire" my comics and wrestling magazines while in junior high school, again...don't ask...I loved being back in downtown so much, that I didn't know how much I missed it until I was there. I mad it to the Convention Center at 10;20, got a bottle of water and caught my breath, that walk seemed a lot shorter 33 years ago...From there I went and took a look at the con floor while the guests and the dealers were setting things up, and waited for my time slot with Robert I chatted with another person who was scheduled to go after me. Before I get into the interview itself, the audio of the interview can be heard on the "Geeked Out" podcast soon, I want to talk about how the interview came about.
My first opportunity to meet Robert was at WonderCon in Oakland four years ago, I was working on a documentary about conventions and was at WonderCon to interview a few comic people for the project. While there I saw that Robert, who wasn't advertised as a guest that year, was standing by the Image Comics area, so I approached him and introduced myself and told him about the project and asked would he like to be involved. He said he'd love to and was gonna be at several panels, but was only going to be there a couple of hours, but gave me his number and said to call him when my cameraman arrived and we could shoot. Unfortunately there was some travel issues and my cameraman didn't arrive until hours after Kirkman had to leave, so I called him up and explained the situation and he was so nice about it and told me that if we in San Diego that we could do it then. I never forgot that. In any hobby or professional field you will meet some genuinely nice people, and it was immediately clear that Robert was one of them.
Since I've been doing this blog, and participating on "Geeked Out", http://freedomtrainonline.com/?cat=4, I've begun to get more and more involved with the comic media and conventions, as I guess by definition I am a member of the comics media as such. So when it was announced that Image was holding their first con, I wanted to attend and speak to a few creators for this blog. Then inspiration hit me. Why not record the interview for airing on "Geeked Out"? I heard Michael Dean, the Freedomtrainonline.com founder and mastermind, who I do "The Prince Podcast" with, do a field recording of an interview on the show once and thought it was a great idea. So I got in touch with the people at Skybound, where Kirkman's books are published, more on that in a bit, and asked if it would be possible to get a few minutes with him for a chat. They said that he would love to do it and in addition connected me with Shawn Kirkham, the Director of Business Development. I sent Shawn an email asking if he would like come on the air as well and talk about what was coming from Skybound in the upcoming months, he said that he would to so we planned to meet up after I was done with Robert.
When it was time for my interview, I walked into the meeting room where he would be meeting members of the press before the con opened at 3:00, and introduced myself and the first thing he said was "I remember doing something with you at WonderCon a while back." It was so cool that he remembered that chance meeting back then, and we sat down and as I was setting up my recorder and checking my notes, he and I just chatted like a couple of buddies. There was no air about him at all. This man has several popular comic books and his show on AMC is setting viewership records, and has been renewed for a third season with 16 episodes up from 13 the first two seasons, so if had an attitude it would understandable given his current level of success now. But there was none of that. If a person didn't know what he did, his demeanor would never be an indication of his present success. Just a good guy to hang out with. Among the things we got into was how he can write things like The Walking Dead, and superhero comic Invincible, and the all-ages Super Dinosaur, or the just released crime fiction title Thief of Thieves. All four have such dissimilar tones yet all come from the same mind, and he told me that he writes a given title depending on the mood he's in at that time. If he's a little down, he'll do The Walking Dead, if he's in the mood for some big action, he'll work on Invincible, if he's feeling like a kid, he'll do some Super Dinosaur, and if he's having a dramatic vibe he'll do Thief of Thieves. It's amazing how he can keep such diverse universes separate in the creative process. We got into the upcoming "new" Invincible, to steal from an old Brady Bunch episode, "someone else fit the suit", diversity in comics and some things going on with The Walking Dead. (And he busted me when I called a major character "The General" and not "The Governor") I asked him about the debate he had with Brian Michael Bendis about doing Creator owned vs Major Publisher work (DC and Marvel), and he went into some great detail about wanting the independence to do one's own thing, and I asked point blank if he would ever go back to a Major publisher, and the answer was "Absolutely not." It was made clear by his passion and body language that he is really enjoying doing his own thing now, and in my opinion, the current success aside, he would still be doing his own thing given the choice. There's no hostility to the other publishers, he's simply more interested in telling the stories he wanted to tell about characters that he created and cares about. Definitely take a listen to "Geeked Out" for the full audio, I can't do it justice here. It's fitting that we had this conversation in the hours before the Image Expo. Image was formed 20 years ago by a group of comic creators who wanted to do their own thing, and over the past 20 years the majority of them have done exactly that. Erik Larsen who has done every single issue of his book The Savage Dragon, and wants to do it forever, and he joined the chat when I was speaking with Shawn Kirtkham. This company and the creators involved are about passion for what they are doing and Kirkman said that you can tell when a person "phones it in", and that is what the expo is all about. Celebrating independence in creativity, and passion with art and it. Image is the best place for people like Kirkman, Larsen and the other Image partners, and this weekend it was all showcased.
After speaking with Kirkman, I gave Skybound Director of Business Development Shawn Kirkham a call and we met on the convention floor, at Jim Valentino's table across from the Skybound booth and hung out. Now before I get into the discussion with Shawn I want to point out that in my civilian life I am an Attorney and Shawn is the Director of Business Development. Two seemingly lofty titles....on paper. But in actuality I was in Adidas sweats and Shawn was in camouflage shorts, with tattoos on his legs, we both stand over 6 feet, looking like a pair of Offensive Linemen. And were just a couple of guys who love comics just shooting the breeze on the con floor, then Erik Larsen showed up for a bit. It was all really cool. Shawn talked about things upcoming at Skybound and how he got involved, Erik talked about moving and his work on the upcoming "Supreme" book. It was a lot of fun and a lot of good information was shared while we were having a good time, which I was guess captures the spirit of Skybound, Image Comics and Image Expo.
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As I sat down and listened to the recordings from the expo, the one common thread was fun. All of the people I spoke with were having a great time at the expo, talking about something they love being involved with. And it definitely showed at the first day of Image Expo and I know that it will come through on the recording, once the episode is set I'll be making that announcement here. It was a lot of fun and look forward to doing it again in Seattle at the Emerald City Comic Expo!
My time to interview Robert, was set for 10:40-10:50 so I arrived at the station in Oakland at 9:58, right at 2nd Street and Alice. It's a warehouse district with a lot of produce warehouses and other buildings of that nature. I walked up 2nd Street, past Harrison, past Webster, then onto Broadway and down past the Probation dept. at 4th and Broadway, (I was a juvenile, it was the 70's, don't ask...) on down to the Convention Center at 10th and Broadway, just a few blocks ahead of De Lauer's 24 hour newstand where I would "acquire" my comics and wrestling magazines while in junior high school, again...don't ask...I loved being back in downtown so much, that I didn't know how much I missed it until I was there. I mad it to the Convention Center at 10;20, got a bottle of water and caught my breath, that walk seemed a lot shorter 33 years ago...From there I went and took a look at the con floor while the guests and the dealers were setting things up, and waited for my time slot with Robert I chatted with another person who was scheduled to go after me. Before I get into the interview itself, the audio of the interview can be heard on the "Geeked Out" podcast soon, I want to talk about how the interview came about.
My first opportunity to meet Robert was at WonderCon in Oakland four years ago, I was working on a documentary about conventions and was at WonderCon to interview a few comic people for the project. While there I saw that Robert, who wasn't advertised as a guest that year, was standing by the Image Comics area, so I approached him and introduced myself and told him about the project and asked would he like to be involved. He said he'd love to and was gonna be at several panels, but was only going to be there a couple of hours, but gave me his number and said to call him when my cameraman arrived and we could shoot. Unfortunately there was some travel issues and my cameraman didn't arrive until hours after Kirkman had to leave, so I called him up and explained the situation and he was so nice about it and told me that if we in San Diego that we could do it then. I never forgot that. In any hobby or professional field you will meet some genuinely nice people, and it was immediately clear that Robert was one of them.
Since I've been doing this blog, and participating on "Geeked Out", http://freedomtrainonline.com/?cat=4, I've begun to get more and more involved with the comic media and conventions, as I guess by definition I am a member of the comics media as such. So when it was announced that Image was holding their first con, I wanted to attend and speak to a few creators for this blog. Then inspiration hit me. Why not record the interview for airing on "Geeked Out"? I heard Michael Dean, the Freedomtrainonline.com founder and mastermind, who I do "The Prince Podcast" with, do a field recording of an interview on the show once and thought it was a great idea. So I got in touch with the people at Skybound, where Kirkman's books are published, more on that in a bit, and asked if it would be possible to get a few minutes with him for a chat. They said that he would love to do it and in addition connected me with Shawn Kirkham, the Director of Business Development. I sent Shawn an email asking if he would like come on the air as well and talk about what was coming from Skybound in the upcoming months, he said that he would to so we planned to meet up after I was done with Robert.
When it was time for my interview, I walked into the meeting room where he would be meeting members of the press before the con opened at 3:00, and introduced myself and the first thing he said was "I remember doing something with you at WonderCon a while back." It was so cool that he remembered that chance meeting back then, and we sat down and as I was setting up my recorder and checking my notes, he and I just chatted like a couple of buddies. There was no air about him at all. This man has several popular comic books and his show on AMC is setting viewership records, and has been renewed for a third season with 16 episodes up from 13 the first two seasons, so if had an attitude it would understandable given his current level of success now. But there was none of that. If a person didn't know what he did, his demeanor would never be an indication of his present success. Just a good guy to hang out with. Among the things we got into was how he can write things like The Walking Dead, and superhero comic Invincible, and the all-ages Super Dinosaur, or the just released crime fiction title Thief of Thieves. All four have such dissimilar tones yet all come from the same mind, and he told me that he writes a given title depending on the mood he's in at that time. If he's a little down, he'll do The Walking Dead, if he's in the mood for some big action, he'll work on Invincible, if he's feeling like a kid, he'll do some Super Dinosaur, and if he's having a dramatic vibe he'll do Thief of Thieves. It's amazing how he can keep such diverse universes separate in the creative process. We got into the upcoming "new" Invincible, to steal from an old Brady Bunch episode, "someone else fit the suit", diversity in comics and some things going on with The Walking Dead. (And he busted me when I called a major character "The General" and not "The Governor") I asked him about the debate he had with Brian Michael Bendis about doing Creator owned vs Major Publisher work (DC and Marvel), and he went into some great detail about wanting the independence to do one's own thing, and I asked point blank if he would ever go back to a Major publisher, and the answer was "Absolutely not." It was made clear by his passion and body language that he is really enjoying doing his own thing now, and in my opinion, the current success aside, he would still be doing his own thing given the choice. There's no hostility to the other publishers, he's simply more interested in telling the stories he wanted to tell about characters that he created and cares about. Definitely take a listen to "Geeked Out" for the full audio, I can't do it justice here. It's fitting that we had this conversation in the hours before the Image Expo. Image was formed 20 years ago by a group of comic creators who wanted to do their own thing, and over the past 20 years the majority of them have done exactly that. Erik Larsen who has done every single issue of his book The Savage Dragon, and wants to do it forever, and he joined the chat when I was speaking with Shawn Kirtkham. This company and the creators involved are about passion for what they are doing and Kirkman said that you can tell when a person "phones it in", and that is what the expo is all about. Celebrating independence in creativity, and passion with art and it. Image is the best place for people like Kirkman, Larsen and the other Image partners, and this weekend it was all showcased.
After speaking with Kirkman, I gave Skybound Director of Business Development Shawn Kirkham a call and we met on the convention floor, at Jim Valentino's table across from the Skybound booth and hung out. Now before I get into the discussion with Shawn I want to point out that in my civilian life I am an Attorney and Shawn is the Director of Business Development. Two seemingly lofty titles....on paper. But in actuality I was in Adidas sweats and Shawn was in camouflage shorts, with tattoos on his legs, we both stand over 6 feet, looking like a pair of Offensive Linemen. And were just a couple of guys who love comics just shooting the breeze on the con floor, then Erik Larsen showed up for a bit. It was all really cool. Shawn talked about things upcoming at Skybound and how he got involved, Erik talked about moving and his work on the upcoming "Supreme" book. It was a lot of fun and a lot of good information was shared while we were having a good time, which I was guess captures the spirit of Skybound, Image Comics and Image Expo.
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As I sat down and listened to the recordings from the expo, the one common thread was fun. All of the people I spoke with were having a great time at the expo, talking about something they love being involved with. And it definitely showed at the first day of Image Expo and I know that it will come through on the recording, once the episode is set I'll be making that announcement here. It was a lot of fun and look forward to doing it again in Seattle at the Emerald City Comic Expo!
Friday, February 17, 2012
Taking on "The Walking Dead"...
Friday, February 10, 2012
Read before you sign....
Usually in this space I like to speak about Comics and some things that I'm reading presently or have read in the past that have really left a mark with me. Watchmen, The Avengers run from #168-#177 known as The Korvac Saga, and the Sentinels story during the X-Men run that Denny O'neil and Neal Adams did at the end of the series first run, #57-#61. But in the comic world there has been a lot of uproar and discussion over two incidents that are taking place in the court system. The most recent involving Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. Kirkman is being sued by former artist on the series Tony Moore, Moore did the art for the first six issues and the covers for several other issues. While I am not privy to the details of the suit, it has been reported on Hollywood Insider's site that Moore is suing for unpaid royalties and breach of contract. This is troubling because Moore and Kirkman were friends before breaking into the comic business and had worked together on many other projects prior to Walking Dead and to see a friendship degenerate into litigation, especially publicly, is unfortunate.
The other legal news involves Marvel Comics and Ghost Rider creator Gary Friedrich. This suit has its genesis back in the 2000's when it was announced there would be a Ghost Rider film. Friedrich sued Marvel claiming ownership of the character that originally debuted in Marvel Spotlight #5, and in that book on the splash page it credits the creation of the character to Friedrich.
But Friedrich claimed in his suit that he still owns the character likeness in relation to toys and films. Marvel countered that by showing an agreement that was executed by both parties in 1978 where it was agreed tat Friedrich would give up all rights to the character. The specific crucial language stated:
"SUPPLIER (i.e. Friedrich) expressly grants to MARVEL forever all rights of any kind and nature in and to the work, the rights to use SUPPLIER'S name in connection therewith and agrees that MARVEL in the sole and exclusive copyright proprietor thereof having all rights of ownership therein."
That says pretty clearly that Friedrich has given any right he may have had to Marvel once he signed that agreement and cashed the check he forever relinquished nay and all rights to the character. That term was standard in all of the Marvel Work-for-Hire contracts, it was used throughout the industry. Friedrich also claimed that the contract was an adhesion contract, which means that it is so grossly one-one sided and that it prevented him from seeking other work, which also wasn't the case as he was free to seek work at other publishers, and he also could have declined to sign the contract and retained his creation for himself.
But the ownership resolution was not the end of the matter. In a subsequent action Marvel has obtained an injunction against Friedrich prohibiting him from "displaying, producing, advertising for sale, selling, redistributing, adapting..." and it goes on from there. Marvel has effectively prevented Friedrich from doing anything with the character he created, so for him to sign and sell any Ghost Rider books at a convention would be a violation of the court ordered injunction. In addition to that Marvel won an award for damages in the amount of $17,000 for past infringements of their copyright. Friedrich, who is pretty much destitute has said that he will appeal, and on that issue he may prevail. Marvel must show certain damages that support the award and unless they can show that with any specificity then Friedrich should prevail. And even if he doesn't his unfortunate financial situation makes him pretty much judgment proof. And even if they got a judgment against him, it would probably be discharged in a bankruptcy proceeding anyway, so Marvel will probably not collect that award.
There has been a LOT of anger aimed at Marvel behind this situation, but I feel that many people are having a knee-jerk reaction here. Looking at the facts of the situation in a neutral light, Friedrich could have said "no" and kept it himself. Once he signed that agreement he no longer owned Ghost Rider, and that was that. Friedrich had no chance in that suit and it could be argued it was frivolous given the timing of it, right around the announcement of a Ghost Rider film. It could be argued the he was trying to "cash in" by getting a quick settlement off of nuisance value. I'm not saying that is what he did, I'm saying that it could argued that is what he did. So Friedrich is not entirely blameless here. But Marvel's actions beyond the resolution of the ownership issue are purely punitive. Clearly creators have sold autographed things they created for the big publishers at conventions for years and it's never been a problem, but for some reason Friedrich is being singled out. I don't know who he pissed off, but clearly this is personal due to the response by Marvel.
Again Marvel is being vilified by all this, but people should take one thing from this: ALWAYS KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SIGNING!! I have always been that guy to read anything I sign, and this was before I started law school. As an attorney I always tell my fiends and clients not to sign ANYTHING unless I read it first. And yet I get calls periodically from people in a beef because they didn't read, or bring it to me to examine, something before they signed it. In this case Friedrich knew that if signed he was relinquishing all rights, if he didn't read it he should have consulted with someone who knows what they're doing, so he has to take some responsibility here. But conversely whoever he pissed off at Marvel needs to let this go, for them to try and shake this guy down for $17,000, knowing full well that he doesn't have it, is just piling on and mean spirited. The company Marvel doesn't deserve all the bad press behind this, the one guy making this an issue damn sure does though! But since its "Marvel" on the court documents and not "Small-dicked, insecure, petty, jackass", Marvel has to eat the public hatred on this, and that's bullshit.
Sorry for the deviation from the norm, but next time I MAY have an interview with a well known creator for you. Can't name names yet, but if I get the green light next week I'll let you all know...trust me it's way bigger than I thought I could ever get.....
Until next time....
The other legal news involves Marvel Comics and Ghost Rider creator Gary Friedrich. This suit has its genesis back in the 2000's when it was announced there would be a Ghost Rider film. Friedrich sued Marvel claiming ownership of the character that originally debuted in Marvel Spotlight #5, and in that book on the splash page it credits the creation of the character to Friedrich.
"SUPPLIER (i.e. Friedrich) expressly grants to MARVEL forever all rights of any kind and nature in and to the work, the rights to use SUPPLIER'S name in connection therewith and agrees that MARVEL in the sole and exclusive copyright proprietor thereof having all rights of ownership therein."
That says pretty clearly that Friedrich has given any right he may have had to Marvel once he signed that agreement and cashed the check he forever relinquished nay and all rights to the character. That term was standard in all of the Marvel Work-for-Hire contracts, it was used throughout the industry. Friedrich also claimed that the contract was an adhesion contract, which means that it is so grossly one-one sided and that it prevented him from seeking other work, which also wasn't the case as he was free to seek work at other publishers, and he also could have declined to sign the contract and retained his creation for himself.
But the ownership resolution was not the end of the matter. In a subsequent action Marvel has obtained an injunction against Friedrich prohibiting him from "displaying, producing, advertising for sale, selling, redistributing, adapting..." and it goes on from there. Marvel has effectively prevented Friedrich from doing anything with the character he created, so for him to sign and sell any Ghost Rider books at a convention would be a violation of the court ordered injunction. In addition to that Marvel won an award for damages in the amount of $17,000 for past infringements of their copyright. Friedrich, who is pretty much destitute has said that he will appeal, and on that issue he may prevail. Marvel must show certain damages that support the award and unless they can show that with any specificity then Friedrich should prevail. And even if he doesn't his unfortunate financial situation makes him pretty much judgment proof. And even if they got a judgment against him, it would probably be discharged in a bankruptcy proceeding anyway, so Marvel will probably not collect that award.
There has been a LOT of anger aimed at Marvel behind this situation, but I feel that many people are having a knee-jerk reaction here. Looking at the facts of the situation in a neutral light, Friedrich could have said "no" and kept it himself. Once he signed that agreement he no longer owned Ghost Rider, and that was that. Friedrich had no chance in that suit and it could be argued it was frivolous given the timing of it, right around the announcement of a Ghost Rider film. It could be argued the he was trying to "cash in" by getting a quick settlement off of nuisance value. I'm not saying that is what he did, I'm saying that it could argued that is what he did. So Friedrich is not entirely blameless here. But Marvel's actions beyond the resolution of the ownership issue are purely punitive. Clearly creators have sold autographed things they created for the big publishers at conventions for years and it's never been a problem, but for some reason Friedrich is being singled out. I don't know who he pissed off, but clearly this is personal due to the response by Marvel.
Again Marvel is being vilified by all this, but people should take one thing from this: ALWAYS KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SIGNING!! I have always been that guy to read anything I sign, and this was before I started law school. As an attorney I always tell my fiends and clients not to sign ANYTHING unless I read it first. And yet I get calls periodically from people in a beef because they didn't read, or bring it to me to examine, something before they signed it. In this case Friedrich knew that if signed he was relinquishing all rights, if he didn't read it he should have consulted with someone who knows what they're doing, so he has to take some responsibility here. But conversely whoever he pissed off at Marvel needs to let this go, for them to try and shake this guy down for $17,000, knowing full well that he doesn't have it, is just piling on and mean spirited. The company Marvel doesn't deserve all the bad press behind this, the one guy making this an issue damn sure does though! But since its "Marvel" on the court documents and not "Small-dicked, insecure, petty, jackass", Marvel has to eat the public hatred on this, and that's bullshit.
Sorry for the deviation from the norm, but next time I MAY have an interview with a well known creator for you. Can't name names yet, but if I get the green light next week I'll let you all know...trust me it's way bigger than I thought I could ever get.....
Until next time....
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