DC sends another letter to Z-Cult
Who didn’t see this coming? DC Comics has sent a second letter to the folks over at the comic book BitTorrent site Z-Cult FM asking them to remove all DC comics from their trackers. Both Marvel and DC had – in a joint effort – already sent a similar letter, but it was rejected by Z-Cult FM administrators because the comic book publishers failed to follow the proper Z-Cult FM procedures for getting copyrighted material removed.
Something like that.
This of course does absolutely nothing to stop the BitTorrenting of comic books. This just means that it wont be done through Z-Cult FM. People will just start using the major BitTorrent tracking sites. The same sites that people use for BitTorrenting music, movies, and TV shows.
Marvel and DC Comics can try to send a letter to The Pirate Bay.
The only thing this hullabaloo with Z-Cult FM has really done is to raise the public consciousness that a person can use the unstoppable technology of BitTorrent to download comic books for free. So much has been written this past week about Z-Cult FM. If people didn’t know about it before, they certainly do now. That in itself is ironic because Z-Cult FM was always kind of on the down-low. Not a lot really got written about the Z-Cult FM community before last week. Alexa shows that their web traffic has nearly doubled in the past week.
Maybe Marvel and DC should have just continued pretending that Z-Cult FM didn’t exist. They may have wanted to stop people from downloading comics. Instead, they may have only helped open the flood gates.
Cop uses Taser on a pregnant woman
Refuse to answer a cop’s question and you and your fetus may get Tasered:
A policeman forced a pregnant woman to the ground and used a stun gun on her when she refused to answer the officer’s questions and resisted being handcuffed, authorities said Thursday.
What did cops do before they got their little electronic stun gun toys? Is there anyone they wouldn’t Taser?
I’m not sure what crime this woman committed. It’s not a crime to not answer a cop’s questions. That’s kind of the whole point of having the right to remain silent. You don’t have to answer their questions. She resisted being handcuffed, but what reason did the cop have in even trying to handcuff her?
Does downloading hurt comic book sales? (Updated)
The news that Marvel and DC Comics were finally taking an interest in BitTorrent networks such as Z-Cult FM got me wondering just what effect peer-to-peer file sharing did to their financial well being. Do peer-to-peer networks such as Z-Cult FM actually hurt the comic book industry? Are comic book publishers losing money because of Z-Cult FM?
We’ve seen what file sharing has done to the music industry. It’s been losing a lot of money because it it. Lots of money. What has it done to comic book publishers?
I found sales charts for the last ten years on Comics Buyer’s Guide. If you look at the overall sales numbers for the North American comic book direct market, you will notice that sales have actually been steadily increasing since 2004.
- 2004 – $328.25 million (5.68% increase)
- 2005 – $352.33 million (7.34% increase)
- 2006 – $395.55 million (12.27% increase)
- 2007 – $429.90 million (8.68% increase)
- 2008 – $436.60 million (1.50% increase)
Z-Cult FM began in 2004. I honestly don’t know when people started downloading comic book scans. I know I first heard of it in 2004. I first learned about it from an article on Ninth Art.
There seems to be a parallel between downloading comics and buying comics. It would seem the more people download comics, the more people buy comics. That’s something not seen in the music industry. Record sales have plummeted with the popularity of peer-to-peer music sharing networks. Record sales continue to decline.
Why isn’t this true with comic books?
DC Comics to publish Starman Omnibus
From the press release:
STARMAN, the acclaimed DC Universe series created by writer James Robinson and artist Tony Harris, will be collected for the first time in hardcover, on high-quality paper, in THE STARMAN OMNIBUS, a series of six volumes beginning in May.
This series will feature new covers by Harris, and will measure 6.75” x 10.25”. Collecting the entire STARMAN series, plus the STARMAN ANNUALS, SECRET FILES, 80-PAGE GIANT, THE SHADE miniseries and much more, these volumes include stories illustrated by Harris, Peter Snejbjerg, Chris Sprouse, J.H. Williams III, Phil Jimenez, Gene Ha, Guy Davis, Teddy Kristiansen, Lee Weeks and many others, as well as several stories co-written by David Goyer.
Scheduled to reach stores in May, THE STARMAN OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC is a 448 page title collecting STARMAN #0 and 1-16, with a cover price of $49.99 U.S.
I’ve been interested in reading this, but the third trade paperback in the series has been out of print and is extremely hard to come by. Amazon is pre-selling it for $31.49 plus another 5% if you place your order before it’s released.
Popular comic book BitTorrent site Z-Cult FM back online
It appears that people that want to use BitTorrent to acquire digital scans of comics still have a place to go to. Z-Cult FM is back online and is once again offering trackers like they were doing before they were threatened with legal action from Marvel and DC. This from the Z-Cult FM website:
Hi all fans and users of Z-Cult FM,
After much debate and thinking we have decided to take the following actions and we hope you will support what we have decided to do.
Z-Cult FM Comic Community will re-open all of its Trackers and locked down sections back to how they were earlier in the week before any legal action. We are carrying out this action for the following reasons:
- I am (We are) based outside of the US and are not therefore subject to US legislation that was present on the legal documents sent to us.
- Here at Z-Cult FM we have always had a clearly explained and signposted policy of making it clear to all comic publishers and copyright holders that we will on request (and reasonable proof of ownership) remove their material from our trackers if they requested us to. Please see: http://zcultfm.com/dmca.php
- Marvel Comic and DC Comics, who confirmed they have seen our site but refused to follow our policy. All other publishers in the past who have followed this policy have been respected and the agreed actions taken.
- Marvel Comics and DC Comics gave us 3 day to comply with their demands and then decided to go on their Thanksgiving holiday. So 2 of these 3 days we have been unable to contact Marvel by telephone to discuss this matter with them. We would like to thank DC Comics who were available by telephone and were friendly enough to talk about the situation and confirm the documents were indeed from DC Comics.
- The pressure from our members– their readers– demands that we do so.
- Chances are this won’t be the last we hear from Marvel Comics and DC Comics but once they have read our email we sent them with out response they will hopefully carefully think about their next set of actions.
- We would like to thank all our users and the number of outside sites on the Internet for their support. Without members like yourself there would be no point owning such a site.
When I first read about this, I wondered just how any legal action by Marvel and DC would play out since Serj, the guy that runs Z-Cult FM, lives in the UK. Most likely the lawyers working for Marvel and DC thought they would only have to threaten the folks that run Z-Cult FM. I guess now they will have to do more then threaten people with an email if they want Z-Cult FM to go away.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
The Walking Dead #44
Writer: ROBERT KIRKMAN
Art: CHARLIE ADLARD
Color & Gray Tones: CLIFF RATHBURN
Lettering: RUS WOOTON
32 PAGES, BW, $2.99
Every time I tell myself that I’m going to stop buying single issues of comics and instead wait to by the collected trade paperback format, it’s THE WALKING DEAD that makes me break my resolution. When it comes to THE WALKING DEAD, I just cannot wait to read it. That’s because stuff actually happens in this book. Characters are killed or maimed. The main central character Rick had his hand chopped off by the Governor. Guess what? That hand wont be growing back. Nobody will be able to clone Rick a new hand. There aren’t any scientists around developing a robotic hand for Rick.
It’s a permanent change to the character that will be in effect for the remainder of the series.
It’s things like this that make reading this book worthwhile. It’s one of the things that sets THE WALKING DEAD apart from all the other funny books on the shelf at the local comic book shop.
This issue starts out with the Governor and his crew at the gate of the prison Rick and his people have turned into their home. They’ve come to the prison’s front gate in a an armored M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle that everyone incorrectly refers to as a “tank”. The Governor is demanding that everyone in the prison put down their weapons and surrender to him.
We find out that the “tank” is really there for show. They barely know how to drive the thing. They don’t know how to operate the M242 25mm “Bushmaster” Chain Gun. Worse, they don’t seem to know that they can fight from inside the vehicle. The M2 Bradley has side ports that allow passengers to fire their M-16 assault weapons safely from inside the vehicle. In that regard, the M2 Bradley is better then a tank. The Governor and his crew don’t seem to know this as they elect to do all of their fighting from outside the vehicle. This allows Andrea to pick off many of the Governor’s crew from her sniper position in the prison’s guard tower. That’s something she wouldn’t have been able to do if they were fighting from inside the Bradley.
Speaking of Andrea, she is featured on the cover. She is shown on the cover with her rifle and she is wearing her normal clothing. In the book, she is wearing prison riot armor. Why the inconsistent art? Artist Charlie Adlard did both the interior art and the cover art. I don’t understand why they are different.
This is once again an excellent book that’s well worth the $2.99 price tag. THE WALKING DEAD is a must read for anyone that enjoys comic books.
More on the war against BitTorrenting of comic books
The popular BitTorrent blog TorrentFreak has posted about Marvel and DC cracking down on the act of using BitTorrent to distribute scans of comic books peer to peer. They also mention that a person that uploaded scans to binary newsgroups on Usenet received a similar warning letter.
Those comic fans who get their fix from Usenet don’t escape supply problems either. A prolific scanner/uploader known as ‘Oroboros’ has revealed he’s done releasing comics on Usenet. He said: “I’m done with the newsgroup. I got a DMCA notice from my newsgroup service. I have no posting abilities. I can’t even post a message saying I have to stop posting. If anyone can get to the group, please let them know that I’m done. They have my IP address in the notice and this is my one stated warning.”
He can’t even post a message explaining why he wont be posting comic scans. That’s just nutty.
I have a hard time getting behind the whole “downloading comics is a crime” notion. I have a hard time believing that it is stealing. Unlike the act of downloading music or video files, downloading comics involves something that is not available to the consumer by legal means. If you want a digital scan of a comic book that you can read on your computer screen, the only place to get it is from other people on the Internet. I would have a much easier time believing that downloading last month’s issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN was a crime if I could legally purchase a digital scan of last month’s AMAZING SPIDER-MAN.
Marvel Comics is now experimenting with digital comics with their new paid service, Marvel Comics Unlimited. The name is a misnomer. The service is extremely limited. You cannot download comics and read them using CDisplay. You have to read them online and in your web browser using a clunky interface developed by Marvel.
The overall quality of the scans is limited too. Pages I’ve looked at were blurry and the text was hard to read.
I wish Marvel Comics would try to mimic the iTunes model. I’d like to be able to purchase digital comics like I do with digital music. Why wont Marvel Comics try to sell digital comics for 99 cents an issue?
Until they do, I guess I’m stuck buying comics the old fashioned way.
Marvel and DC are cracking down on BitTorrent
I’m not sure why it took them so long, but it seems Marvel and DC Comics are joining forces to try to crack down on using BitTorrent to share comics. I assumed a long time ago that they simply didn’t care that people were downloading their comics. That doesn’t seem to be the case any longer.
Z-Cult FM, a popular comic book BitTorrent tracking site, posted a message to their website on 21 November explaining that they had been contacted by Marvel and DC Comics and as a result, all torrents had been removed from the Z-Cult FM website.
We got legal letters from both Marvel and DC Comics who have been working together to send us these legal threats. We are currently dealing with the legal issues and they have given us 3 days before they are forced to take anymore action..Z-Cult FM website was put offline last night by me (no one else) after I got the email while in work and issued a code red alert (we have drills also 5 times a year). We decide putting the site offline was best course of action to analyse the situation and decide our best course of action. We have confirmed one of the legal letters is 100% from DC Comics when a phone call was made to DC Comics who confirmed the email and its contents. As of today we was unable to contact Marvel and we are trying again tomorrow just to 100% confirm it.
I can’t help but to think that this is somehow connected to Marvel Comics unveiling their new online comic service. I have to think Marvel finally realized just how great the demand is for digital comics. The site went down numerous times because too many people were trying to access the site at the same time.
The loss of Z-Cult FM won’t stop comics from being distributed through BitTorrent. The same popular torrent tracking sites that are used to distribute music, movies, and TV files are also used for comics. They just don’t specialize in comics the way Z-Cult FM did. The Z-Cult FM site was utilized more for torrents of older comics. The comics that can be downloaded from the other BitTorrent sites are usually comics that came out in comic book shops that same week.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Today is Thanksgiving. It’s the one day a year that Americans throw caution to the wind and eat like total hogs and not feel totally guilty about it. We show how thankful we all are by gorging on roasted turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and dinner rolls.
I’ve gotten Thanksgiving down to a science. I avoid eating mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, green bean cassarole, and even sweet potatoes. I can eat most of that stuff any day of the year. What I can’t get much of is my mother-in-law’s cornbread dressing. To say that it’s good is an understatement. It’s beyond good. It’s fantastic. It’s a work of culinary art. She also makes cream corn to go with it. You put the creamed corn on top of the cornbread dressing.
That’s what I concentrate on. When there is my mother-in-law’s cornbread dressing on the table, eating food that can be had on any other day of the week is a rookie mistake.
Maryland man Tasered to death
Jarrel Gray, a 20-year old Frederick Maryland man was killed this past Sunday morning after being Tasered twice in a 23 second period by a Frederick County Sheriff Deputy. This from the Frederick News-Post:
The deputy found three men fighting, Jenkins said. A female was also on the scene.
Jenkins would not provide the names or ages of the other people at the scene, but he said the deputy was a corporal and a 13-year veteran of the department.
When the deputy told the three men to show their hands, one of them did so immediately, another walked away before showing his hands, and the third man, identified as Gray, did not comply, Jenkins said.
The sheriff said no other officers were present when the deputy deployed the Taser. Gray, of the 7000 block of Ladd Circle, fell to the ground unconscious; he was given first aid on the scene.
Emergency responders arrived in minutes, Jenkins said. Gray was then taken to Frederick Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead about 7:30 a.m.
Gray’s family says that he was deaf in one ear and may not have understood the deputy’s instructions to show his hands.
I don’t like these Taser devices. For supposedly being non-lethal, there sure are a lot of people now dead because of them.
Congressman Roscoe Bartlett calls for higher gas prices
My representative in congress Republican Congressman Roscoe Bartlett spoke at a town hall meeting on energy in Mount Airy and said he thought “gasoline needs to cost more that it already does” in order to promote conservation. He also said that “too many people are driving pickup trucks as personal transportation.”
I don’t know about people driving pickup trucks, but I know that gas already costs too much as it is. It doesn’t need to cost more then what it costs now. The fact that my elected representative in Washington D.C. actually hopes that gas goes up in price just confirms what I already know – I have a representative that does not represent my interests. Not only my interests, but the interests of my fellow neighbors in the Maryland 6th district.
Roscoe Bartlett uses the power of his office to satisfy his own whims. He doesn’t use his office for the benefit of the people he is elected to represent.
I also know that Roscoe Bartlett will continue representing the 6th district of Maryland until he either retires or dies. He will never lose an election. My fellow voters here in the 6th district of Maryland will continue to vote for Roscoe Bartlett no matter what he says or what he does. He can even say that he hopes our gas prices go up and people will still reelect him into office.
More fallout from the WGA strike
The New York Post is reporting that NBC has fired nearly the entire production staff from “Saturday Night Live”. The people that do all of the behind the scenes work on the show each and every week are now faced with a holiday season without the benefit of a job.
It must suck not being able to provide Christmas presents for your kids. That doesn’t matter though. What’s important is that the writers get their fair share (whatever that is) of all that Internet streaming video money the networks are raking in. It doesn’t matter that the paid advertising doesn’t even cover the bandwidth costs associated with streaming video on the Internet. It doesn’t matter that the networks only stream episodes on the Internet as a way of promoting the show and that they are not streaming them as a revenue source. That’s something for the accountants to figure out. The writers aren’t really good with numbers. They are much better with words.
Speaking of words, The New York Post included the following words in their article about the layoffs:
Despite being scrooged out of their Christmas-season paychecks, the “SNL” crew still has a big heart. Playbill reports that the cast plans to perform a nontelevised show tonight at the New York Upright Citizens Brigade Theater on West 26th Street. Ticket proceeds from the sold-out performance, which was produced by Lorne Michaels, will benefit the Writers Guild’s strike fund.
The proceeds went to benefit the Writers Guild’s strike fund? They could have given the money to the people that now don’t have jobs because of the strike. That actually would have been the decent thing to do. I’m not saying that the Writers Guild doesn’t need money in their strike fund. You don’t expect Julia Louis-Dreyfus to buy her own red WGA strike t-shirt, do you? Now that would just be silly.
It’s a known fact that streaming video on the Internet is worth billions upon billions of dollars. Look at all the people that are now millionaires because of videos they posted on YouTube. I heard that Chocolate Rain guy bought his own island in Dubai and he’s even thinking of adopting a baby from Cambodia. The vast fortunes that can be made from streaming video on the Internet are without limits.
A percentage of this limitless streaming video Internet wealth is clearly worth fighting for no matter who gets harmed in the process.
DC electrical service in New York City finally comes to an end
I didn’t even know that direct current (DC) electricity service still available anywhere, let alone New York City. It seems that alternating current (Con Ed) still had one lone DC power station still up and running and feeding DC to customers. It was finally converted over to Nikola Tesla’s alternating current (AC) electricity on November 14.
Back in the day Thomas Edison and had a long standing fued over which current was better. Edison pushed the idea of using inefficient DC while Tesla campaigned for the much more efficient AC current. Edison would denounced AC as being too dangerous. He would even electrocute live cows with using AC to try to show just how scary dangerous AC current supposedly was. In reality, DC is much more dangerous then AC.
For getting electrical power from one place to another, AC is clearly the superior form of current. It’s not even debatable.
Nikola Tesla was truly a genius and he was one of the most important men to ever live. Of course he died penniless and severely in debt because that is just the way Life works.
Link
Gordon Lee and the reason his trial was declared a mistrial
Charles Brownstein, Executive Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) was interviewed by his friend and Newsarama administrator Matt Brady. The purpose of the interview was to discuss the Gordon Lee trial. There was something said in the interview that I found interesting. Specifically, it’s something Brownstein said about why the trial ended in a mistrial:
Before the jury was brought in, lead counsel Alan Begner brought some motions before the judge, including an oral motion in limine asking the judge to instruct prosecutors that their witnesses could not admit statements referring to Gordon’s previous criminal conviction for selling adult comics to an adult.
The phrase “selling adult comics to an adult” refers to Gordon Lee being convicted in the early 90’s of distributing obscene materials. It’s a phrase that gets mentioned a lot. It’s normally followed with the explanation that this prior conviction has nothing to do with his current legal troubles because that involved an adult and this involves a very young child.
What if the two cases are more connected then it seems?
Sandra Allen of Rome, Georgia was the adult that Lee was convicted of selling obscene material to. She wasn’t a comic book reader. She wasn’t a reader of obscene material. She was a mother of a child that came home from Lee’s comic book shop with a comic that she judged to be pornographic. It bothered her that her minor aged child could somehow get his hands on something she felt was pornographic. She didn’t understand how the neighborhood comic book shop could sell her son something she thought to be obscene. She decided she would make a visit to the comic book shop and check things out for herself.
On November 1, 1991 Sandra Allen went to Gordon Lee’s comic book shop and found more of what she believed to be pornographic on display to anyone entering the shop. Allen purchased two adult comics from Lee’s shop, Debbie Does Dallas and Final Taboo and took them directly to the Rome Police and made a complaint.
Upon receiving the two books, Rome Police Officer Marshall Smith took the two books to Floyd County Superior Court Judge Robert Salmon. After reviewing the two books purchased at Lee’s store, Judge Salmon issued an affidavit stating that there was probable cause to believe that pornographic materials were being sold at Lee’s comic book store. Based on the affidavit and the two books, Judge Salmon issued a search warrant for Lee’s comic book shop.
Over 300 allegedly obscene books and magazines were found and seized at Gordon Lee’s comic book shop by Rome Police. Lee was eventually convicted. His conviction stemmed not from the seized books and magazines, but from the two books purchased by Sandra Allen.
The seized books and magazines were not part of Lee’s trial.
Technically it’s true that Lee’s prior conviction was for selling “adult comics to an adult“. The comics being Debbie Does Dallas and Final Taboo and the adult being Sandra Allen. What is often overlooked is the reason Sandra Allen even went to Lee’s comic book shop and purchased the obscene comics in the first place. It wasn’t because she was looking for titillating reading material for herself. She went there because she was angry that her juvenile aged child was sold a pornographic comic book by Gordon Lee’s comic book shop.
A mother was upset by something her child received from Gordon Lee’s store. Why does that sound so familiar?
More on the WGA strike
I’ve been trying to learn more about the Writers Guild of America (WGA) writers strike. Much of what I’ve read or heard about the reasons for the strike seem to be contradict other things I’ve read or heard about the strike. I found a list of points at the WGA.org website. Here’s a quick summery of the main sticking points:
- Home Video (Videocassettes and DVDs) Residuals – They currently get 0.3% of the distributors’ gross for the first $1 million and 0.36% thereafter. They want 0.6% of the distributors’ gross for the first $1 million and 0.72% thereafter.
- Non-Traditional Media Residuals – They currently get .3% of the gross for downloads where the customer pays for the download. They currently get paid nothing when the customer pays nothing. They want a residual payment of 2.5% of the distributor’s gross for re-use on non-traditional media, including the Internet. I’m not sure what they want to be paid when the content is free. It’s hard to assign a percentage to free.
If you go back and watch the YouTube video I posted the other day from the people from The Office, what they say in the video seems to contradict the information found on the WGA website. B.J. Novak, actor and writer for The Office, says that every time he meets a new viewer to The Office, they are watching it on the Internet or on DVD. I’m assuming that when they say they were watching it on the Internet, they were downloading the episodes from iTunes. Only recently did NBC start streaming episodes from free. The inference is that Novak and the other writers aren’t getting paid for the episodes on the Internet or on DVD.
That’s not true. If money changes hands, the writers are getting a percentage.
Marvel Comics to offer online comics
Marvel Comics is unveiling a fee-based online archive of more than 2,500 back issues. Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited will offer comics in a high-resolution format for $59.88 a year, or at a monthly rate of $9.99. If you subscribe for a full year, you will be billed $4.98 each month. Comics are read online. No download is required.
The service appears to be up and running along with free samples of various titles.
The biggest drawback is that new issues won’t be on the Marvel site until six months after they are published in the conventional dead tree format. Hopefully this policy clinging to an outdated way of thinking will change over time. When music is released on CD, I can go to the iTunes store and purchase it that same day. I don’t have to wait six months. I should be able to do the same with a comic book.
Keith Parkinson 1958 – 2005
I was looking online for fantasy based art today when I stumbled upon some very sad news. Artist Keith Parkinson passed away two years ago to Leukemia. I wasn’t aware of this sad news. I even had a Keith Parkinson calender for 2006 and I didn’t know he was gone. This truly sucks. I have always been a fan of his work. He created fantasy art that always had a very realistic look to it.
He used to work for TSR where he was responsible for some of the best Dungeons & Dragons artwork. That’s how I became familiar with this work. His artwork was also featured on Magic The Gathering cards. He also did the box art for the EverQuest massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
He will be missed.
NBC launches online service
NBC has launched something they call NBC Direct. It allows viewers to watch complete episodes of most NBC shows. I guess NBC chose to do this as a result of their recent blow up with Apple iTunes. NBC chose not to sell their programing through iTunes, or iTunes chose not to sell NBC programing. I honestly lost track of which came first.
I’m watching the newest episode of The Office. Though it’s just as funny as the first time I watched it, it’s a real pain in the ass to view. The episodes have enough DRM to choke a goat. You have to use Internet Explorer 6 or 7 to launch the player. NBC Direct does not support Firefox. You also have to be a Windows XP or Vista user. If you are an Apple user or a fake UNIX (Linux) user, you are out of luck.
It also features paid advertising. Annoying paid advertising. Every commercial break shows the very same stupid commercials. The good people from Lipton evidently want me to know that the way I look at tea will forever change. That’s good because the way I currently look at tea is that it sucks. My view on tea can only get better. With that said, Lipton seems to think that I will now like tea because they have placed their tea in tea bags shaped like pyramids. That’s not the way to make me change my opinion on tea.
If they want me to like tea, they need to figure out a way to make it taste just like coffee.
Other then showing why the WGA writers are on strike, I don’t see why NBC decided to launch this crappy service. It’s clear NBC plans on making money by featuring content on the web. It’s also clear that they need to realize they will need to actually pay the very people that create this content. Also, putting cumbersome restrictions on customers forcing them to watch content a certain way will only turn away customers. I should be able to put content on my iPod and watch it where and how I want. Because of NBC’s restrictive DRM, I cannot do that.
The gang from The Office explain the WGA strike
I think I understand the Hollywood writers strike much better after watching this YouTube video. Some of the cast members of The Office who also write the episodes give clear and concise reasonings behind the strike.
Comic book retailers warned about ALTERNATIVE COMICS #2
Diamond Comic Book Distributors warned retailers not to give copies of ALTERNATIVE COMICS #2 to children. This is the free comic Georgia comic book retailer Gordon Lee stands accused of giving to a 6-year old and his 9-year old brother.
According to Alternative Comics Publisher Jeff Mason, Diamond made sure that all of their retailers knew that the book was intended only for mature readers. Diamond even sent out the following written warning to retailers:
Please don’t give Alternative Comics #2 to children without adult supervision!!
From Diamond Daily:FCBD: Watch for Mature Readers Titles
Free Comic Book Day, Diamond Daily, Thursday, June 17, 2004As in Free Comic Book Days past, all of the Gold Sponsor titles (those required to be in participating stores) are all-ages appropriate, in order to make certain that the event has a family-friendly character and to make it easy for stores to participate regardless of their regional standards.
The Silver Sponsor titles — being optional — are not required to be all-ages appropriate. As in the past, some are intended for mature readers only and were solicited as such.
As you receive your FCBD editions, be sure to bear in mind that the following titles were solicited as being for mature readers, and be certain to hand them out only to the appropriate customers.
Diamond No. Title
APR040027J ALTERNATIVE COMICS #2 FCBD EDITION (MR)
APR040041J ADVENTURES OF BARRY WEEN SECRET CRISIS ORIGIN FILE FCBD EDITION (MR)
APR040042J LOVE FIGHTS #1 FACING THE GODDESS FLIP BOOK FCBD EDITION (MR)
Gordon Lee is charged with two misdemeanor counts of Distribution of Harmful to Minors Material, each carrying a penalty of up to one year in prison and up to $1,000 in fines. The comic contains nudity and adult language. It’s unclear why Gordon Lee chose to give this particular book to young children, especially if he had been warned a head of time by the distributor that it wasn’t intended for children.
Gordon Lee trial quickly ends in a mistrial
From the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund:
Lee and his legal team, paid for by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, appeared in court this morning for jury selection and returned in the afternoon to begin the actual trial. Before the jury was brought in to begin the trial, lead counsel Alan Begner argued an oral motion in limine asking the judge to instruct prosecutors that they could not admit statements from their witnesses alluding to Lee’s character and previous legal actions Lee has been party to. Prosecutors assured the court that they had instructed their witnesses not to address Lee’s previous conviction for selling adult comics to an adult. Then during opening statements in front of the jury, prosecutor Tully said witnesses will testify that Gordon was defensive and that Gordon had told police, “I’ve been through this before,” a clear reversal of his earlier statement to the judge that prosecutors would not be entering such statements into the record.
Who would have guessed that instructions prohibiting witnesses from bringing up Lee’s previous conviction also included any statements made by Lee himself? I guess I can understand barring witnesses from mentioning that they knew that Lee was convicted in 1993 of “distributing obscene materials“. I wouldn’t have guessed this also included any statements made by Lee to the police. So much for, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”
Lee’s prior conviction was for selling two porn comics, Final Taboo and Debbie Does Dallas.
The great Hollywood writers strike of 2007
Talks between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers ended with the two sides not being able to agree to a new contract, resulting in television and movie writers going on strike. The conflict seems to be over on how to divvy up money generated from DVD sales and the Internet.
Much of the disagreement seems to be over how earnings will be generated in the future using technology or mediums that may not even exist today.
Jay Leno and David Letterman will be in reruns until the strike comes to an end. Evidently they both need their zany wisecracks written out for them before hand. The same applies to The Daily Show and the Colbert Report. No new episodes until the strike is over.
I’ll be perfectly honest and admit that I don’t understand the concept of residuals and perpetual earnings. I’m a simple electronics technician. I repair frequency drives used to power three-phase AC electrical motors. I work for the company that makes these drives. When I repair a drive and ship it back to it’s owner, I don’t continue making money from the profits generated from the drive I repaired.
I don’t understand why somebody that wrote something for Jay Leno to say on TV should be paid more then once. I don’t understand why they should continue getting paid for said writing on a continuous basis. Its hard for me to grasp.
Who still reads Wizard magazine?
There’s been an uproar on some comic book blogs over the fact that Wizard has decided to crown itself the #1 men’s pop culture magazine. The idea is that by Wizard declaring themselves to be a men’s magazine, they are purposely and unnecessarily going out of their way to exclude female comic book fans.
I don’t see why that is such a bad thing. To be excluded from the intended demographic of this particular magazine can only be looked at as something positive. To be excluded from Wizard is a good thing.
I can’t imagine why anyone – man or woman – would want to read Wizard. Anything that can be learned from the pages of Wizard could have been learned months ago online on Newsarama or Comic Book Resources. When was the last time something broke in Wizard? It was the New York Post and not Wizard that broke the story that Spider-Man was going to take his mask off in CIVIL WAR #2. It was the New York Daily News that broke the story that Captain America was going to be killed in CAPTAIN AMERICA #25.
It wasn’t Wizard magazine that broke these stories.
Wizard has become irrelevant and outdated. I get my comic book news and information from sources that update content on a minute by minute basis, not on a month to month basis like Wizard. That’s not to say there wasn’t a time for a monthly comic book magazine that could be purchased at any grocery store. That time has simply passed.
Sometimes I wonder if the only people still reading Wizard are female comic book fans looking for something that offends their feminist sensibilities. One has to look no further then to the website When Fan Girls Attack to see this strange phenomenon in action. Why else would they go out of their way to read something they know they’re going to find offensive?
If Wizard is in fact the #1 men’s pop culture magazine, whatever magazine came in at #2 must be really bad.
Pakistan under emergancy rule
Pakistan’s president dictator Pervez Musharraf has declared emergency rule and suspended the country’s constitution. Pakistan’s Supreme Court was about to rule on the legality of General/president dictator Musharraf’s recent election victory. The court was to decide whether General/president dictator Musharraf was even eligible to run for re-election while remaining the army chief.
Evidently things weren’t looking too good for president dictator Musharraf.
Chief Justice Chaudhry and eight other judges refused to endorse the emergency order, declaring it unconstitutional. President dictator Musharraf responded by dismissing Chief Justice Chaudhry and replacing him with Supreme Court judge Abdul Hameed Dogar, one of president dictator Musharraf’s supporters.
Trailer for WANTED is now online
The trailer for WANTED, a movie based on the Mark Millar and JG Jones comic is now up on the movie’s official website. I guess means that it really is going to be made into a movie.
It says on the website that the movie has not yet been rated. If the movie is anything like the comic, that means it will either be NC-17 or R.
Gordon Lee trial supposedly starts November 5
The trial for Georgia comic book retailer Gordon Lee is scheduled to start Monday. Lee will stand trial for two (2) misdemeanor counts of of distributing harmful to minors material. The charges stem from a Halloween 2004 incident in which Lee handed out copies of ALTERNATIVE COMICS #2, an artsy comic featuring both female and male full frontal nudity and language of a sexual nature to children.
The case has drug on for three years. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is managing Lee’s defense and has already gone through $80,000 defending Lee. They plan on spending at least another $20,000. That’s a lot of money for two misdemeanor counts. Especially when it is money that has been donated by comic book readers.
If Lee is convicted on both misdemeanor counts, he faces a maximum sentence of up to two years and $2,000 in fines. In a perfect world, this case would have ended along time ago with a simple plea bargain. The problem with that is Lee doesn’t seem to feel as though he did anything wrong. He has equated this comic book to the Sistine Chapel and even the Bible. Also, the The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is managing Lee’s defense. They have a not-so-public policy of only taking on cases where the defendant agrees not to accept a plea deal in exchange of a lessor penalty.
I think this policy is dumb. It makes cases drag on a lot longer then they should and cost a lot more money then they should. This dumb policy is the reason I refuse to give any more money to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
Jamie McKlevie has a PayPal button
SUBURBAN GLAMOUR creator Jamie McKlevie has decided to take an interesting approach with comic book downloaders. He has posted a PayPal button on his blog and asked people that download his comics to pay for them.
Obviously I would much, much rather people bought the actual comics I produce than torrent them. Not only does it mean I earn money for the long hours I put into the work (and as it’s my fulltime job, it’s the only money I earn), it also shows my publisher AND retailers that there is an audience for my comics, improving my chances of continuing in this career. Not only that but my publisher benefits from a better-selling book, and as they’ve been very good to me that’s something I am keen to encourage.
I’ve never downloaded any of Jamie’s comics. I still sent him $3 through PayPal. Though he may prefer people to purchase the actual comic, I would prefer to purchase my comics like I do with my music. Through a paid download with iTunes.
I don’t need to read a paper pamphlet like people did 70 years ago.
The Black Dossier
The newest installment in the The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen franchise goes on sale November 14.
This book has been delayed for some time now. I remember reading why exactly, but I now cannot remember. Something or other to do with the legal rights of the characters or something like that.
Unlike the other The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books, this one takes place in the 1950’s. Hopefully this means that Fonzie will finally be making an appearance.
Who’s more extraordinary then The Fonz?
Written by Allan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O’Neil, this hardbound 208 page comic retails at $29.99, but Amazon is selling it at $19.79. I’m buying it and you should too.
-
Recent Comments
-
Rick: Hayami: Ryan, so far I’ve seen no evidence that Handley was sexually attracted to real children. Then you haven't been doing e...
-
Hayami: Ryan, so far I've seen no evidence that Handley was sexually attracted to real children. There're quite a few otaku who are more attracted to anime characters than to real people. There're quite a few erotic anime/manga/games fans who are attr...
-
siriunsun: Well, Rick.........you know how it is: John McSame just LOOKS the same as lots of people who were born in the United States. And his name is a lot more in line with certain stereotypes that make lots of sheep in this country feel happy and com...
-
Ryan: Matt Damon? Matt Damon!...
-
-
-
Books I Am Reading
-
Music I Am Listening To
-
- Kucinich caves on health care reform. Will now vote for the non-public option health care reform bill. http://bit.ly/9t4gNI
- Peter Graves has died - http://bit.ly/blfTde #cnn
- Courage? Really? http://is.gd/axTwj
Follow me @rickrottman