Amazon has (finally) spoken
Like most people that tried to take advantage of Amazon’s great Marvel Comics omnibus sale/mistake this past weekend, I received an email from Amazon late this afternoon informing me that my order was canceled.
From Amazon:
Hello,
Our records indicate you recently ordered:
- Daredevil Omnibus, Vol. 1
- Daredevil by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev Omnibus, Vol. 2
- Fantastic Four Omnibus, Vol. 1 (v. 1)
- The X-Men Omnibus, Vol. 1
- Wolverine Omnibus, Vol. 1
- The Death of Captain America Omnibus
Unfortunately, due to a pricing error, we sold many more than expected. In fact, we completely sold out — we don’t have any in stock right now, and we’re not even sure if we’ll be able to get more.
As a result, we’ve had to cancel your order. I realize this is disappointing news, and I’m so sorry for any inconvenience this causes.
You may want to check our website from time to time to see if this item is available. If anyone is selling it, you’ll see a “More Buying Choices” box on the product detail page; if it’s not available from any sellers, you might see an “Order it used” or “Alert me” link. “Order it used” allows you to place a pre-order for the item in case another seller lists the item for sale later. “Alert me” allows you to sign up so we can e-mail you when Amazon has stock available for purchase.
I’m sorry I don’t have better news. We hope to see you again soon.
I’d like to report who wrote this letter, but it wasn’t signed even though it was written in the first-person. Maybe this too is a mistake on Amazon’s part.
If this massive sale on Marvel Comics omnibuses was truly a “pricing error”, why did it take Amazon over two days to inform me that they were canceling my order? I ordered these books early Sunday morning. They didn’t cancel my order until late this afternoon. If this was truly a pricing error, they should have caught it a lot sooner.
Also, why are they selling more books than they actually have? There ought to be a law against retailers selling products they don’t have.
I think it will be a long time before I waste time ordering something from Amazon.
I take back everything I said earlier. Amazon and me, we’re good. They sent me an email today informing me that they were crediting my account $25 to make up for the tragedy of not being able to purchase $100 omnibus books for $8.24 each. I’d still like to pick up the Daredevil books, even if they are a lot closer to the suggested retail price of $75.
The great Amazon Marvel Comics omnibus glitch of 2010
I was reading Bleeding Cool this morning when I read that Amazon had most (if not all) of the Marvel Comics omnibus hardback editions massively on sale for only $8.24. These books normally retail for $75 to $100. I immediately went over to Amazon and quickly purchased the following books:
- Fantastic Four Omnibus Vol. 1 Hardcover $8.24
- The X-Men Omnibus Vol. 1 Hardcover $8.24
- The Death of Captain America Omnibus Hardcover $8.24
- Daredevil Omnibus Vol. 1 Hardcover $8.24
- Daredevil Omnibus Vol. 2 Hardcover $8.24
- Wolverine Omnibus Vol. 1 Hardcover $8.24
I placed my order and received a confirmation email. I’ve since read that this sale was in fact a glitch. Amazon never intended to sell these books for $8.24. Amazon has corrected the prices.
The question is, will Amazon honor my morning purchase or will they invoke some kind of glitch Mulligan and cancel my purchase?
Marvel Comics running a promotion based on the destruction of DC Comics books
Marvel Comics is running a special promotion for comic book retailers that is based on retailers removing the covers from certain DC Comics and sending them in to Marvel Comics. For every 50 covers from Adventure Comics #4, Booster Gold #26, Doom Patrol #4, Justice League Of America #39, Outsiders #24, or R.E.B.E.L.S #10, comic retailers will receive a “special” copy of Marvel Comics’ Seige #3 featuring Deadpool pretending to be Ali G, the white hip-hop aficionado comedic character played by Sacha Baron Cohen.
It seems comic book retailers may have multiple copies of the before mentioned books lying about due to a promotion DC Comics was running in relation to the Blackest Night crossover event. Retailers were encouraged to order these books in droves so that they would receive special colored plastic promotional rings.
I don’t know what’s more stupid: Marvel basing a promotion on DC’s product or that the special variant cover is based on a comedic pop culture character that hasn’t been relevant in years. When was the last time Ali G was seen?
Retailers have until February 16 to send in the clipped covers.
Does DC Comics care that Marvel Comics is running a promotion based on the destruction of their books? If they do care, they are in a position to do something about it. If they wanted to screw Marvel Comics, they should go back to the presses and print up a whole bunch of covers to one of the qualifying comics and then send 50 of these covers to each and every comic book retailer in North America. That way, the books don’t have to be destroyed and comic book retailers will still get their special variant cover of Seige #3. Granted, DC Comics would have to pay for printing up these covers, but Marvel Comics would need to produce an entire book for every 50 covers. If I was running DC Comics, I would go ahead and eat the cost of printing the covers.
I would do whatever I had to do to make sure Marvel Comics would never again run a promotion based on the destruction of my books.
How am I supposed to read this?
A while back I purchased Powers: The Definitive Hardcover Collection Volume 1. It collects the first three story arcs of Powers, the somewhat monthly comic written by Brain Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming. I never read the comic, but I thought the basic premise of a world where people with superpowers is common and because if this, the police department has a section devoted to superpower related homicides, sounded interesting.
I finally got around to reading it. That is, I finally got around to trying to read it. The problem is, the book is so poorly bound that some of the pages cannot be read. For example:
I cannot read page 9 because one of the panels is obstructed by the binding. Even though I shelled out money for a deluxe edition, I cannot read it. Wonderful.
It’s not even like I could have flipped through the book before purchasing it. When I found it at my local Borders, it was sealed in shrink wrapped plastic. As a consumer, I had to simply trust Icon, an imprint of Marvel Comics, that they knew how to properly bind a book so that it could be read.
Only a comic publisher would produce a book that cannot be read by the people who purchase it. No other publisher would treat readers this way.
Rob Liefeld responds to the gayness of Shatterstar
In a recent issue of X-Factor, two male characters, Shatterstar and Rictor are seen making out. I’m no expert, but I assume this means that Rictor and Shatterstar are now both officially gay.
As luck would have it, not everyone is happy about this new development, including Rob Liefeld, the artist that created the Shatterstar character back in the 1990’s while working for Marvel Comics. Liefeld recently wrote on his message board that Shatterstar is not gay:
As the guy that created, designed and wrote his first dozen appearances, Shatterstar is not gay. Sorry. Can’t wait to someday undo this… Shatterstar is akin to Maximus in Gladiator. He’s a warrior, a Spartan, and not a gay one.
Yes, because we all know that there is nothing gay about gladiator movies.
Knowing now that it bothers Liefeld to have one of his characters retconned gay, I think Marvel Comics ought to turn all his old characters into Friends of Dorthy. They could then inform him that all his old characters will remain gay until he learns how to properly draw feet.
So in other words, all his old Marvel characters would remain gay permanently.
Z-Cult FM to shut down
It looks as though the one-time popular comic book BitTorrent tracker Z-Cult FM is shutting down. Site owner “Serj” posted a statement that he was shutting it down. The reason he is shutting it down is one of money. He posted the following comment on the Z-Cult FM message board:
Main reason the site is being closed is money issues. The site was on a dedicated server as at time before Marvel etc shut down the site was popular and needed a dedicated server to run but since then I never changed the server hoping that one day we could get all users back but this has never happened. So server is gonna get killed and site put offline for bit.
Even though Marvel and DC both enjoyed a steady increase in sales during the time Z-Cult FM was in existence, both took steps at trying to get Z-Cult FM shut down. At the time it appeared they were successful. Not that this stopped people from downloading comics via BitTorrent. People just switched over to the popular music and video trackers such as The Pirate Bay and Mininova.
So I have been told.
Eventually Z-Cult FM came back, but I think most people just continued downloading comics through the other BitTorrent trackers. If anything, news of the actions by Marvel and DC only made the practice of downloading comics more popular. People who didn’t know that you could download entire issues, even entire runs of comic books, all of a sudden knew about it.
So I have been told.
I’ve always believed, unlike the music or movie industry, file sharing helped the comic book industry. It allowed people to read comics that they wouldn’t normally be able to read. People might be more inclined to starting buying a comic book if they could first go and read the preceding issues in digital form. Unlike the music and movie industry, the digital version of a comic book is a lot different than the version sold in stores.
So I have been told.
Comic book featuring a woman in a bikini angers Nebraska woman
Physha Svendsen, a mother in Millard, Nebraska is upset that her 6-year old son brought home a Spider-Man comic from his school library that she believes is too sexually explicit for an elementary school library. She wants it removed from the school library.
The comic in question is J. Michael Straczynski’s Amazing Spider-Man Vol.2: Revelations. It was published in collected form in 2002 and was rated “PG Ages 12+” by Marvel Comics.
I actually find myself almost agreeing with Physha Svendsen about this. What is a comic book rated “PG Ages 12+” doing in a grade school library where a vast majority of kids are not even 12 years old? Not that I think anything shown in this book is even slightly damaging or harmful to children. It features an image of Mary Jane in a bikini. Big deal.
I think that it would be better if the library had comics on the shelves that the children might actually enjoy reading. Though J. Michael Straczynski is truly a gifted writer, I don’t think he writes comics for 6-year-old children. Do 6-year-old children even have enough reading skills to read a comic book?
I’m actually surprised this type of thing doesn’t happen more often. Too many people, including librarians, think comics are just for kids. They’re not.
Celebrating Wolverine’s 35th anniversary with art
Marvel Comics is celebrating the 35th anniversary of Wolverine by declaring April as Wolverine Art Appreciation Month. Various covers of Marvel titles will feature variant covers based on well known pieces of art spotlighting the popular clawed Canadian mutant.
I didn’t know that the 35th anniversary was an important one.
Link (Tor)
Erik Larsen feels ripped off
Erik Larsen, one of the co-founders of Image Comics and the writer, artist, and creator of Savage Dragon is in a tizzy over the fact that Marvel Comics chose to put president-elect Barack Obama on the cover of Amazing Spider-Man. Obama is also featured in a story in the comic.
The decision by Marvel has resulted in a massive amount of publicity for the comic book publisher, along with extremely strong sales for the Obama issue. Why does this upset Larson so much? Because he put Obama on the cover of Savage Dragon a few months ago.
Larsen wrote:
As far as Marvel goes– I can’t help but feel very betrayed. They duplicated the incentive cover–and preempted my upcoming one–and even used the “terrorist fist jab.” Clearly those in the “house of ideas” looked at what I did and found inspiration.
I hear that they’re even doing a story similar to the one I did four years back, where an image-altering villain disguises himself as the President (in my story the Impostor replaced President Bush and took his place for a speech–in theirs the Chameleon, the shape-shifting villain, is going to spoil a speech being given by President-Elect Obama). The whole mess just feels really underhanded. I feel betrayed and, frankly, ripped off and in the real world–the one outside our funnybook bubble–Marvel will spin themselves as these great innovators who came up with this terrific publicity stunt–instead of the thieves they are.
You know how you can ensure someone else doesn’t rip off one of your gimmicks? Don’t use gimmicks.
Gimmicks are stupid, especially comic book gimmicks.
At least when Larsen put Obama in Savage Dragon, Obama actually looked like Obama. The artwork is so bad in Amazing Spider-Man that you wouldn’t know it was Barack Obama if you weren’t told it was him. He looks like a poorly drawn generic black man.
Barack Obama to appear on the cover of the comic book
The cover of Amazing Spider-Man #583 will feature Barack Obama doing his best Fonzi impersenation. The book appears in comic book shops everywhere on January 14. I think you can also get this issue without Fonzi Obama on the cover being that this is labeled as a “variant edition” cover.
I think this stunt on Marve’s part has to do with the fact that Obama admitted in an interview that he used to collect Spider-Man comics when he was a kid. That was news to me in that I didn’t know one could buy Spider-Man comics in the radical Islamic jungles of Hawaii. Like most people, I figured he was too busy running around blowing up hospitals with Bill Ayres and memorizing the Qur’an to do anything so ordinary as to collect comic books.
John Nee resigns from DC Comics?
All the various comic book news sites on the Internet are all a flutter over the fact that John Nee, DC Comics Senior Vice President of Business Development turned in his resignation. A week ago.
Who the heck is John Nee?
I’m sure he is a nice guy with lots of talent and ability, but I honestly have never heard of him. I don’t even know what exactly someone in charge of Business Development actually does. I would be hard pressed to name you the person in charge of Business Development over at Marvel Comics.
I think the only reason this is being treated like news is because there were multiple rumors floating about that said there was going to be a major shake up over at DC Comics. Some were speculating that Dan Didio, Executive Editor at DC Comics, was going to get the ax.
Instead of Dido getting fired, we find out that Nee turned in his resignation. In fact, today he was supposedly over at the DC Comics offices doing whatever he does.
HALO: Uprising #3, where is it?
The first issue came out August 22 and the second issue came out three months later on November 21. If the rest of the miniseries followed the same 3-month release pattern, the third issue should have come out in February.
It didn’t.
Marvel Comics has a real problem with following through with releasing subsequent issues in some miniseries comics. How many years has it been since issue #2 came out for Ultimate Hulk Versus Wolverine?
What’s so hard about releasing the third issue of a series? When they are releasing the first issue, they have to know they have nothing after the second issue. How does this kind of stuff happen?
I liked this series. At least I think so. It’s been so long, I don’t really remember. This is just another reason why people wait for the trades.
Comic books used to really suck
I haven’t been keeping up with the events in the Marvel Universe, but I wanted to read the Secret Invasion event that kicked off this week. Luckily for people like me, Marvel released a special trade paperback that collected key comics that chronicled events leading up to the Skrull invasion. The first story was from FANTASTIC FOUR #2. It was originally published in 1962 and features the very first appearance of the evil Skrulls.
Wow, I forgot how utterly kooky comic books were back in the early 60’s. I think I actually got deuce chills while trying to read that first story featuring the Skrulls. In the above image, we see a Skrull masquerading as Reed Richards plunging the city of New York into complete darkness by literally flipping switches. I don’t know why the workman can’t just turn the power back on.
I flip switches on and off all day long. It’s easy.
The undeniable popularity of Manga is hard to ignore
A list of the top 20 selling graphic novels sold by book retailers in the United States shows something that is beyond dispute – manga is popular and superhero comics are not. It’s not even close.
If I worked over at Marvel or DC, I would be worried. In fact, I would be very worried. Out of the top 20 graphic novels sold in books stores, only two (2) come from Marvel and DC.
The one lone book from Marvel is an adaption from a Laurell K. Hamilton Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novel. The characters don’t belong to Marvel. Both the author and the series has an existing fan base that automatically resulted in sales with readers that may have never read a graphic novel before.
The lone DC book was the acclaimed Alan Moore’s Watchmen. It was first published in 1986 and is considered by almost everyone to be the greatest graphic novel ever written.
Eighteen of the top 20 graphic novels sold in book stores did not come from either Marvel or DC. How can both companies just continue to ignore that? If I was in charge of either Marvel or DC, I would mimic the manga model. I find it remarkable that they don’t.
marvel_b0y is no more
I read on the Internets that marvel_b0y — the low level Marvel Comics staffer and anonymous whistle blower type blogger — is no more. His account on LiveJournal is history.
They killed marvel_b0y. The bastards.
First they killed Black Goliath. Then they killed Captain America. Now they’ve killed marvel_b0y.
Who’s next?
I enjoyed reading his posts about what goes on in the bowels of Marvel Comics. Not only were they interesting, it was obvious the muckety mucks at Marvel were not too happy with his posts. Marvel lawyers sent marvel_b0y a cease and desist letter on letterhead decorated with goofy looking Marvel superheroes. If the goal of a cease and desist letter is to intimidate, I’m not sure including the likeness of Iron Man or Captain America is a good idea. Iron Man has become a dick and Captain America is dead.
My hope is that marvel_b0y will return. Normally when Marvel Comics kills someone off, it doesn’t last very long.
Someone needs to send X-Force a case of Visine
Why do the members of the newly formed X-Force team have red eyes? Do they all have nasty eye infections that even mutant healing factor can’t scratch a dent in? I’ve read the first two books in the new X-Force series and I’ve enjoyed them. I just don’t understand the red eyes. None of the team members have red eyes in any of the other books they appear in.
I didn’t see any ads for Visine, so it’s not another example of crass Marvel Comics product placement.
Bucky’s Got A Gun
The NY Daily News reported today that Bucky Barnes, the one time teenage Nazi killing sidekick of Captain America is taking on the persona of Captain America in this week’s issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA. From today’s NY Daily News:
Fans were devastated when Steve Rogers – a 1941 creation of artists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby – was gunned down on the steps of a courthouse last March. It was the industry’s biggest shocker since Superman temporarily went up, up and away to the great Fortress of Solitude in the sky in 1992.
Fans were devastated? That’s news to me. I remember people being pissed off that they had to read about it in the newspaper before they could get a chance to read it in the actual comic. For as long as Joe Quesada is the Editor-In-Chief of Marvel Comics, that’s just the way it will be. He is addicted to seeing his name in the newspaper. Joe Quesada just can’t keep a secret.
If Joe Quesada had his way, you would have found out that Darth Vader was Luke’s father a week before the The Empire Strikes Back came out in theaters.
The newspaper article not only tells us that Bucky will be the new Captain America, it says that Buck will be carrying a firearm. I almost wonder if this is paid product placement from the NRA. At least he won’t be all juiced up like the first Captain America. Steve Rogers was a scrawny kid before a took a shortcut to physical strength by turning to the needle.
Wonder Woman on the cover of ‘Playboy’
What’s sure to enrage female comic book fans, Tiffany Fallon is on the cover of Playboy magazine sans clothing with her body painted to look like Wonder Woman. The costume is a little off, but it’s certainly a Wonder Woman costume. What does that say about me when I look at a photo of a nude woman and I notice that her red boots are a little off because they don’t have the gold trim normally seen on Wonder Woman’s boots?
Part of me is somewhat surprised that Playboy magazine is still in circulation. Not only because it’s a magazine and magazines are a lot less prevalent in the age of the Internet, but because it is a magazine dedicated to showing pretty females in the buff. I would have thought the Internet would have replaced the need of a magazine such as Playboy. Maybe Playboy is for men that like to look at naked woman, but don’t know how to find porn on the Internet.
In other words, really dumb men. Not being able to find pictures of nude women on the Internet is a lot like not being able to find water at the ocean.
I have to admit that this doesn’t bother me all that much. I’m not a fan of the sexualization of comic book characters, but I guess that’s when it’s done by the actual comic book publishers. For instance, when Marvel Comics authorized that ridiculous Mary Jane Watson statue. The one where she is doing the laundry. For some reason, this doesn’t bug me too much.
It wouldn’t bother me either if Superman or Batman received the same treatment. In fact, I would think it was pretty funny.
I’m not even sure if DC Comics or their parent company, Warner Brothers, authorized Playboy to do this or if it fell into the territory of fair use. It’s not an exact copy of the Wonder Woman costume, but she is referred to as Wonder Woman on the bottom left of the cover.
THE TWELVE #1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Art: CHRIS WESTON
Colored By: CHRIS CHUCKRY
Lettered By: COMICRAFT
32 PAGES, $2.99
Golden Age heroes fighting for America during World War Two are captured in Germany by Nazis and put into Nazi deep freeze. The Nazis then get their ass kicked by the Russians. Nobody knows about these American heroes that have been placed into Nazi deep freeze. They remain in their state of Nazi deep freeze until 2008 when they are found by construction workers.
Evidently if there was one thing Nazis knew in 1945 was how to put superheroes into deep freeze. When they are frozen, they stay frozen.
This is when it gets a little kooky. For some reason, the U.S. Army is somehow able to take possession of the superheroes. Why exactly is beyond me. A general who had just recently watched the movie “The Untouchables” gets an idea. He quotes the “Sean Connery character” who says, “If you want to avoid getting a bad apple, don’t take it from the barrel. You take it from the tree.” He believes that these still Nazi deep frozen superheroes are the tree. They come from a time when the United States is beyond question the good guy and because of this will do anything the government tells them to do.
Maybe Kooky is too strong a word.
The heroes are then taken back to the United States where they are led to believe it’s still 1945. The belief is that the shock of finding out that it’s 2008 would just be too much for these superheroes to bare. Then again, if the idea is to get superheroes who are patriotic and believe everything their government tells them, maybe it’s not a good idea to start out lying to them.
Why blogs are important
From the Marvel.com forums:
This is a private forum, which you sign up and are allowed to post on if you can follow the guidelines, which by signing up you agree to do so and by posting on these forums you agree to do so.
Also, for those that want to claim “free speech”… there is absolutely no free speech in the world. The lives of people are given to defend countries across the world and give each country its way of life. So please, no standing on a soapbox claiming “free speech”.
No free speech in the world? What a repugnant thing to say. I understand there may not be any free speech over at Marvel.com, but that doesn’t mean the same is true everywhere else. If you have an opinion and you want to express it, you need to get a blog. Seriously, this is why forums are the worst place to try to get your point of view across.
Hulk vs Fin Fang Foom #1
Writer: PETER DAVID
Pencils: JORGE LUCAS
Inks: ROBERT CAMPANELLA
Colors: BRAD ANDERSON
Lettering: SIMON BOWLAND
48 PAGES, $3.99
It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a comic this much. It had everything I like to find in a comic. The writing was good, the art was good, and it told a complete and self contained story. I didn’t have to hunt down other books in a completely different series and read them first to find out what was going on. What’s to find out? The Hulk is tired of of dealing with puny humans and just wants to be left alone. He decides the only way he can be left alone is if he goes to Antarctica.
Peter David comes up with some really funny Hulk-esque dialog. Other then the part where the lead scientist incorrectly says that global warming is causing the hole in the ozone layer, the writing was good. It’s been a good while since I’ve gotten my science facts from a comic book, so the gaff on the causes of ozone depletion isn’t really all that important. At least to me it isn’t. It’s the Hulk. A super-human character wearing purple pants that derived his power from being exposed to massive amounts of Gamma radiation.
Argentinean Jorge Lucas does a fantastic job with the pencils. His art has a very Jack Kirby style to it. I like the look of it, especially in a Hulk book.
This comic also includes the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entries for Hulk and Fin Fang Foom. It was fun to read. I didn’t know that Dr. Robert Bruce Banner was born in Dayton, Ohio. That certainly explains a lot.
It also includes a reprint of STRANGE TALES #89. It’s funny, goofy, and more then just a little racist.
If you haven’t already, check this book out. It’s well worth four bucks.
Now that Spider-Man is single he can work for the UN
The UN has announced that it is joining forces with comic book publisher Marvel Comics. Together, they will publish a special comic featuring Spider-Man fighting alongside UN aid workers and UN peacekeepers. Marvel creators are supposedly working on the book for free. They aim to publish one million copies to distribute to American school children. Something tells me that it might very well be the first comic book many of these children will read. Kids don’t read comics unless it’s Japanese manga.
Let’s hope it doesn’t suck.
Of course former US envoy to the UN and all around douche bag John Bolton called it an “act of desperation”. He said that the UN should concentrate on improving its overall performance and that putting Spider-Man in a special UN funny book wasn’t going to change anything. Did he know that Spider-Man had struck a deal with Mephisto (Satan) making him single? Maybe Bolton only thought the UN publishing a special Spider-Man comic was a waste of time when Spider-Man was in a loving and committed marriage.
Speaking of of which, has anyone ever seen John Bolton and Mephisto at the same time? I never noticed this before, but these two cats look and act an awful lot alike. If I didn’t know better, I would think perhaps that they are the same person. The only difference of course is that I’ve never seen Bolton wear a red cape and I’ve never seen Mephisto wear one of those retarded looking walrus mustaches. Every time I see John Bolton, I expect someone is about to toss him a raw fish as some time of reward. Then again, he’s never really done much of anything worth rewarding.
Other then that, they are dead ringers for one another.
Ultimates 3 #1
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Pencils: Joe Madureira
Colorist: Chris Lichtner
I really got my money’s worth with this book. Usually I only read a comic once. With this book, I read it twice. Not because I enjoyed it so much that I had to experience the joy one more time. No, I read it again because I didn’t understand what happened.
The art was nice looking, but I couldn’t really figure out what what transpiring from one panel to the next. The colors were extremely dark. I thought the story was going to include Venom and Magneto. They were on the cover. I don’t remember seeing them in the book. Then again, it was kind of dark in there.
I did enjoy the part were Captain America told Wanda the Scarlet Witch that she needed to show less skin when she went out in public. I didn’t like the part that showed Wanda and Pietro in a romantic relationship. With each other. They are brother and sister. That’s creepy and disgusting even for mutants.
More on the legalities of downloading comic books
Todd Allen of Comic Book Resources interviews lawyer Darren S. Cahr (AKA Super Lawyer) concerning the intricacies involved with trademark and copyright laws and how they pertain to the use of BitTorrent technology to share comic books. Marvel and DC have recently begun taking steps to stop BitTorrent sites from sharing comic book scans.
From the Comic Book Resources article:
The question is, if you own a physical copy of the comic, is it still illegal to download a digital copy?
“Yes,” says our Super Lawyer, “just as if you own a copy of a comic book you can’t simply take another copy of the same issue from a
store . At least that is the position of the publishing and music industries.”
So the touted Super Lawyer is equating downloading a digital copy of a comic you already legally own to going into a store and stealing a physical issue. The big difference is that when you steal a physical comic, that result for the store is one less copy to sell. That is something that doesn’t happen when you download a digital copy of a comic. Another difference is that a digital scan of a comic is not the same thing as a physical paper comic. One is made of ones and zeros and must be viewed on a computer. The other is printed on paper and involves ink and some staples.
A physical comic and a digital copy of a comic are different from one another. They are not the same thing. Even someone who is not a Super Lawyer can easily tell the difference between the two.
I’m not sure why someone would even want two physical copies of a comic, but I can see why someone would want the physical version and a digital version of the same comic.
Also from the article:
Is it really a good idea to go after some of your more regular customers? This is slippery slope on both sides. On the other hand, there’s something the torrent crowd needs to accept, that they’ve been screaming to the hills about, and that’s the cease and desist letter. Did it occur to anyone that someone like Marvel has to send those letters to maintain their trademarks?
Describing the BitTorrent “crowd” reacting to the cease and desist letter as “screaming to the hills” isn’t really necessary or productive. It’s comes across as unnecessarily snarky. Both sides should be able to discuss this issue without resorting to making insulting remarks about the other side.
When will Marvel and DC send similar cease and desist letters to artists that sketch comic book characters for money? There are artists making money sketching characters they don’t own the rights to. If Marvel and DC are going to go after those that infringe on their intellectual properties, they ought to be consistent. People are making a nice profit infringing on Marvel and DC intellectual properties. It’s not the BitTorrent crowd.
One annoying aspect of the article is the author evidently felt the need to dumb everything down so we comic book nerds could understand the concepts involved. He referred to the BitTorrent controversy as “Secret Torrent
Who is Allen writing this article for, 12 year olds?
The Sensational Spider-Man #41
Writer J. Michael Straczynski
Pencils: Joe Quesada
Inker: Danny Miki
Colorist: Richard Isanove
This book turned out not to be nearly has bad as I thought it was going to be. My expectations were extremely low. The Internet told me what was supposed to happen in this story. Plus, the cover looks remarkably like a cover of Wizard magazine. I can’t help but think that’s a bad sign.
It really wasn’t that mad. I still don’t agree with the path this story is taking the Spider-Man franchise. I’ve already explained why that is. Straczynski’s writing is up to it’s usual greatness and Quesada certainly knows what to do with the pointy end of a pencil.
This comic cost a whole $3.99 and the story was over before I even hit the staples. The rest of the book contained a long and detailed bio on Mephisto (Satan). Stuff you wont find in the Bible. It also contains a reprint of THE SILVER SURFER #3. It’s the first appearance of the Mephisto.
It wasn’t that bad.
What does Joe Quesada have against marriage?
I don’t normally read Spider-Man comics. That doesn’t mean I don’t recognize the character as one of the most popular characters that Marvel Comics has. He’s a very popular character. Just not with me.
I was surprised to read on the Interents that Marvel Comics is going to do a major change to the character. Spider-Man, aka Peter Parker is married to his high school sweet heart Mary Jane. Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada has never liked the fact that Peter Parker was married. He supposedly thinks it makes the character non-relatable to the younger readers.
Marvel Comics has younger readers? And to think I thought the kids were reading creepy Japanese manga where everyone has the really big eyes.
So Joe Quesada thinks Spider-Man being married makes youthful readers less inclined to relate to him? Never mind the fact that he can shoot web goo from his wrists and that he has superhuman strength and dexterity. It’s the whole “married thing” that confuses the youngsters and makes it so they can’t relate to him.
The most retarded thing about this whole story is how they are going to make him non-married. Instead of just having him divorce Mary Jane, they are going to place him in a situation where his Aunt May is going to die. The Devil (seriously, the Devil) makes a deal with Spider-Man: The Devil will save Aunt May if he agrees that his relationship and his marriage with Mary Jane will have never happened. Aunt May will live, but Peter and Mary Jane will not only not be married, they will have no memories of even knowing each other.
That has got to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of.
Who in their right mind would give up the love of their life just so their enfeebled old aunt can defy nature and go on living? Aunt May has lived a full life. It’s time for her to go join Uncle Ben.
Joe Quesada must really hate being married. If this even sounds slightly plausible to him, his wife is in trouble.
I’m willing to bet the TV in Joe Quesada’s bathroom that this has less to do with appealing to youthful readers and more to do with getting publicity in the mainstream press. I think Quesada is addicted to seeing his name in the USA TODAY.
Comic book artist Jamal Igle is against copyright infringment?
There has been a spirited debate among funny book nerds over on the Newsarama forums concerning the Z-Cult FM comic book BitTorrent controversy. Comic book artist Jamal Igle has been weighing in on the matter from his prospective. Even though the comic book industry has enjoyed a steady rise in sales during the time Z-Cult FM has been in existence, Jamal believes people that BitTorrent comic books cost professionals such as him money.
In fact, he believes that people that do it should be prosecuted:
Bit torrents of copyright material for mass downloading and file sharing are illegal and should be prosecuted.
Prosecuted? Jamal seemingly thinks it’s wrong to reproduce copyrighted material except when he’s the one that is doing it. Like many comic book artists, Jamal frequently attends comic book conventions and does commissioned artwork of licensed comic book characters that he does not own or have the rights to.
Using BitTorrent to share digital scans of comic books and producing unauthorized comic book art for sale are both illegal. One of the two is done to make some extra money and the other isn’t.
It’s true that comic book publishers know that many of their artists do commission work on the side using their licensed properties and they choose to turn a blind eye to it. They used to do the same thing to the people the used BitTorrent for comics. Marvel and DC Comics never seemed to care about Z-Cult FM. Now they do.
Obviously things change.
If comic book publishers don’t think commissioned sketches adversely effect their bottom line, they are wrong. Comic book fans only have so much money to spend at a comic book convention. Every single dollar they spend on high priced, unauthorized comic book art is one less dollar they have to spend on licensed, authorized products. If I was a vendor at a comic book convention and I paid money to set up a booth on the sales floor so I could sell licensed, authorized comic books and collectibles, I wouldn’t like the fact that a substantial amount of money was being spent on unlicensed artwork in Artist Alley.
If comic publishers want to crack down on copyright infringement, then they need to be consistent about it. They shouldn’t just single out people who upload scans of comic books while turning a blind eye to comic book artists that crank out $500 Wolverine sketches at comic book conventions.
They can’t have it both ways.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
I have no business questioning the spelling of others
If you are regular reader of this blog, you know that spelling is not one of my strong suits. Chances are if you are in the habit of reading my blog and you have never noticed any misspelled words, it’s probably because my lovely wife has already read what I wrote and corrected my mistakes before you got a chance to see it. She’s really good about that.
That’s why I can’t believe what I did today. I actually criticized the spelling of someone else. Not just anybody, but an actual editor for Marvel Comics. A guy that feeds his family by correcting the mistakes of others. It’s how he makes his living.
I was reading a Blog@Newsarama post that linked to a blog post written by Marvel Comics Tom Brevoort. He was trying to defend the fact that CIVIL WAR #1 actually won a Harvey Award. This is from Tom Brevoort’s blog post:
I know it’s not popular to believe, especially online, but plenty of people really did like CIVIL WAR–both readers and retailers. And while it certainly had no pretentions towards being “art”, it was very much dedicated to being a crackling good super hero story. And people responded to it, in a way they haven’t to anything else the majors have produced in the past few years. That’s the reality–get over it.
Though I found most of the above to be ridiculous, what really got my attention was Brevoort’s use of “super hero”. I thought it was superhero. As in one word. Not two. Tom Brevoort was the editor of Marvel’s CIVIL WAR. In CIVIL WAR, it’s one word – superhero. If it was constantly expressed as one word in CIVIL WAR, why then did Brevoort write it as two words in his blog post? It seemed, I don’t know, inconsistent.
I then remembered what I hated most about CIVIL WAR. It was the inconsistency.
For example, in CIVIL WAR #4 we see Sue Richards leaving her husband Reed Richards in the middle of the night. She didn’t tell him that she was leaving him. She wrote him a note. In FANTASTIC FOUR #540, we see Sue Richards leaving her husband in a much different way. They have a huge knockdown argument that culminates in Sue leaving Reed. There is no note and we don’t see her slinking off into the night.
The two events did not match. They were inconsistent.
I left a comment on the Blog@Newsarama pointing out Brevoort’s use of “super hero” instead of “superhero”. I was taken to task for pointing this out because it seems either “super hero” or “superhero” is correct. In fact, it can even be hyphenated. I guess that is correct. It can be properly conveyed either way.
It was the consistency I was questioning.
Update: I totally forgot about something until DJ Sloofus made mention of it in the comment section. Marvel and DC Comics jointly own the trademark to the word “SUPERHERO”. Not “Super Hero”. Not “Super-Hero”. They actually legally own the word “SUPERHERO”.
Heroes For Hire #13 is intended for nine year olds
When I first read about the cover illustration for HEROES FOR HIRE #13, I thought it was creepy, excessive, and overly sexualized. Especially considering that it’s rated T+. What’ that mean? This is from the Marvel Comics website:
9+ years old Appropriate for most readers, parents are advised they may want to read before or with younger children.
I wouldn’t expect to find a comic book meant for nine year old children to feature an illustration of scantly clad women chained to a stone pillar while a tentacle creature gropes them.
At first, I didn’t spend too much time studying it. It’s way too pervy for my taste. I then read this post over at Written World. Sure enough, the cover is even worse then I originally thought.
What is that white goo dripping on the bare breasts of the woman on the cover of a Marvel Comics funny book intended for nine year olds?
That question is of course only rhetorical. I don’t really want to know what that white goo is supposed to be. Believe me, I really don’t want to know. What I would like to know is how something like this gets the OK at the House Of Ideas. That is what they used to call Marvel Comics, right? The House of Ideas?
I remember when comic books couldn’t even show red blood. They colored it to look brownish. It looked sort of like something else. Something that was not blood. Now they are showing white goo on the breasts of women. Women who are chained to a stone pillar. Women being molested by a tentacle creature.
Chasing the all mighty comic book smut dollar
I don’t understand why Marvel Comics would give the go ahead for something like this. Is this really how they want one of their main properties to be displayed? All sexed up? I was under the impression that they kind of liked Spider-Man and valued the entire Spider-Man property. If that’s true, why resort to making Spider-Man’s wife a bare foot, thong wearing laundry tub slut?
I’m no prude. I’m also not one to get offended. I just think this is stupid and even a little hypocritical. My favorite monthly Marvel comic Alias was supposedly canceled because writer Brian Michael Bendis was not allowed to use top-line Marvel characters such as Spider-Man. Alias dealt with stories more of an adult nature in content.
Just because there are statue companies out there that make sexed up weirdo friendly Japanese anime figurines, doesn’t mean Marvel Comics needs to do it too. They should let other companies, companies not called Marvel Comics corner the creepy pervert adult figurine market.
Marvel Comics should be above this.
Ok, I’m back. After typing the above sentence I broke out in uncontrollable laughter which resulted in me falling down, hitting my head, and blacking out.
I feel much better now. What was I blogging about? Oh yes, the pervert Mary Jane statue. I’ve been reading that people have been letting both Marvel Comics and Sideshow Collectibles (the company that is making the perv statue) know what they think about this statue. People have been leaving comments on both Marvel Comics and Sideshow Collectibles websites detailing their displeasure with this statue. Both Marvel Comics and Sideshow Collectibles have been responding by deleting these comments. They have allowed all the other comments to remains. The comments left by pervy men wanting to buy this statue.
What’s Marvel Comics trying to do, attract even more weirdos to the medium of comic books?
Ragnell over at Written World blogged about someone leaving a comment on Marvel Comics Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada’s blog asking him if he’d please write about the approval process for this figurine. Regnell writes that two hours later, the person’s comment had been deleted.
Talk about dealing with a problem head on.
I think this statue is disrespectful. Not only to women in general, but to one of their own intellectual properties. So what will Marvel Comics do next, approve the making of a collectible statue showing Spider-Man putting on a condom?
Iron Man #16 has a wardrobe malfunction
I read something on Rich Johnson’s Lying in the Gutters column about a printing problem with Iron Man #16. The issue had been withdrawn from shipment to comic book shops and all of the copies had been pulped. The only retailer to receive copies of Iron Man #16 was the Borders bookstore chain.
I wanted to see what the printing problem was. I went to my local Borders and bought a copy.
At first I didn’t see any printing problems. I then noticed something kind of funny in one of the panels. I’m no expert, but I do believe that is a nipple popping out of this young woman’s bathing suite. Click on the image to see a larger version.
If its not a nipple or more accurately an areola, I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what else it could be.
Could this be the printing problem?
Evidently, no. This same image appears in the corrected copies of Iron Man #16. The ones arriving in comic book shops today.
What’s the world of Marvel Comics coming to? First they show Peter Parker’s “short comings” in Spider-Man: Reign #1. Now they turn an Iron Man funny book into a GIRLS GONE WILD video.
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