Interactive YouTube, superheroes, and murder…
…yep, Chad, Matt & Rob are at it again.
Monthly Archive: March 2009
‘Famous Monsters’ trademark goes to Phil Kim
A long-simmering trademark dispute over who owns Famous Monsters of Filmland ended on Wednesday when a federal court in California issued a summary judgment temporary Injunction against Ray Ferry, who had lost the trademark during a bankruptcy filing. The mark was purchased for $25,000 by Phil Kim who has been trying to resurrect the brand, beginning with an FM website last May.
Famous Monsters of Filmland, in many ways, shaped the movies we are watching today. The likes of Steven Spielberg, John Landis, Peter Jackson and George Lucas were all fans of the magazines in the days before there were even books on the subject of movie monsters and filmmaking. The magazine’s influence was celebrated in the documentary film Fan Boys.
The 12-page document from Judge Gary Allen Feess of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (who you may remember from the litigation between Fox and Warner Bros. over the Watchmen movie) read in part, “Defendants are hereby ENJOINED from operating the famousmonsters.com, famousmonsters.biz, and filmlandclassics.com websites, and from marketing, selling, or offering to sell any goods or services that contain, or are confusingly similar to, the ‘Famous Monsters of Filmland’ trademark or any derivatives thereof, including ‘Famous Monsters,’ until the present litigation has been fully resolved.
“Defendants failure to comply with this Order may be grounds for contempt sanctions, including possible imprisonment. In addition, Defendants are cautioned that they are not to impose upon this Court any further baseless or frivolous arguments that are directly contradicted or undermined by the evidence in the record, including those that the Court has expressly rejected in this Order.”
James Warren published the magazine beginning in 1958 and its success allowed him to launch Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella until he folded operations in the early 1980s. He then licensed FM to Ray Ferry who continued the magazine and at first had Warren’s editor, Forrest J Ackerman, on board. The two had a falling out leading to a law suit which Ackerman won although he never saw any of the $500,000 judgment.
Ferry continued to publish the magazine sporadically despite losing the trademark. When Kim obtained it, there were two competing websites and Judge Frees ordered Ferry to cease using the related URLs.
Kim said in an email on Friday morning: “This is the first step in making Ferry a bad memory. Ferry’s reign of terror is over. His website will be no more. My only regret is that Forrest J Ackerman is not here to witness this. Forry may not have believed in the afterlife but I do, and I hope Forry is looking down on this and smiling…I know I am.”
“For what Ferry & Connie have cost me and how relentless they are, I have every intention of recovering my damages from them and those who are found guilty of aiding them in their illegal enterprise. This is just the beginning.”
Ferry’s aide Connie Bean told the Classic Horror Film Board, “Right now we have no comment until we read it. Also, I caution you all to realize that we will have our day in court. We don’t have to react to anything until we are served with it, so that is what we will do. I am assuming according to what I do know, that we move ahead with Shock and Freaky and go from there.
“Ray and I never run with our tails between our legs and will keep going no matter what, maybe not with FM but we will keep going anyway. We have to. It’s the right thing to do. All I know is that everyone will get what they paid us for at one time or another and we won’t leave fans hanging.”
While Kim now controls the trademark and can continue with his plans, the copyrights to the original 1982 issues of the magazine remain in Warren’s control. Creepy and Eerie, now licensed to Dark Horse Comics, are enjoying a resurgence of interest. Harris Publishing currently owns Vampirella.
UPDATE 5/14/09: The ruling was a temporary injunction, not a summary judgment. We regret the error.
The Point – March 27th, 2009
Meet Phil Morris, a man who’s love for the action hero genre stretches even into his bloodline and wait until you hear what he has planned next, plus Spider Girl is back again and Ingrid Michaelson‘s Twitter Tune that will be stuckin your head all weekend guaranteed.
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Debbie Schlussel takes more shots at comics
She’s baaaaaack.
Debbie Schlussel, the woman who claimed you were "probably a moron and a vapid, indecent human being" if you saw Watchmen, now has trained her sights on this Wall Street Journal piece on G. Willow Wilson and her book Air, calling it "ipecac in print". Why? Because Wilson’s a convert to Islam, and Debbie really doesn’t like Muslims. Oh, and according to Debbie, Obama’s a Muslim too. I think she also thinks Obama’s in thrall to his radical Christian preacher, and he’s probably a Marxist. Usually, you can only be one of those things at a time at most, but Debbie doesn’t let things like logic stand in her way.
This quote jumped out at me, though:
I’ve repeatedly written on this site how Marvel and DC–the two major comic book hero publishers–have repeatedly pandered to Muslims of the extremist variety (as if there’s any other kind) in storylines, characters, and even internships at movie studios.
Debbie, Marvel and DC do a lot of pandering, but trust us, it ain’t to Muslims.
Reading through her archives looking at her arguments, you can almost have fun if you do what I do: replace every instance of the word "Muslim" with "Mutant" and pretend you’re reading X-Men. I promise, it makes the reading experience bearable. And comical– you keep waiting for her to announce the Sentinel program to round up all the dirty Muslims. Mutants. Whatever.
IDW and ComicMix Join Forces
Well, we’ve been hinting at this for about six months now. Some of you traditionalists have been asking when and how and where and when you can buy printed versions of the ComicMix comics. I’m proud to announce that we have partnered up with our friends at IDW (where GrimJack and Jon Sable Freelance and Mars last appeared) to produce one graphic novel and two comic books each month, starting this fall. Plus hardcovers and omnibuses and such, as the market demands.
O.K., I’m one of those traditionalists as well, and while I love reading this stuff online (particularly on my iPhone), I’m looking forward to seeing them in print. And I’m looking forward to running my typical long-winded introductions in the trades and letter columns — yet, genuine letter columns! — in the comics.
So if you’d like to email us a letter for publication, just post ’em as comments to the comics. Oh, yeah, we’re starting off with GrimJack: The Manx Cat and Jon Sable Freelance: Ashes of Eden in mini-series format. As if we should start somewhere else? IDW’s press release, for the record:
SAN DIEGO, CA (March 25, 2009) – IDW Publishing, a leading publisher of comic books and graphic novels, has begun an innovative partnership with ComicMix.com, a free website offering new and classic comics. Through this multi-year agreement, IDW will publish graphic novels, books and comics for ComicMix.com properties, enabling both companies to expand their offerings to customers and retailers, and combine their audience reach.
“ComicMix has a great line up of original and classic brands that are currently only available online, and despite the shift to the virtual world, there is still something unmistakable about reading a real-life book” said Greg Goldstein, chief operating officer of IDW. “IDW is known for producing some of the highest quality books in our industry, and we are looking forward to offering this to fans of ComicMix properties.”
Beginning in the fall of 2009, IDW will release trade paperbacks of ComicMix comics, as well as monthly comics, including many new stories that have previously been only available online at ComicMix.com. Initial titles will include GrimJack: The Manx Cat by John Ostrander and Timothy Truman, Jon Sable Freelance: Ashes of Eden by Mike Grell, and Hammer of the Gods by Mark Wheatley and Mike Avon Oeming, among others.
“This is a bit of a homecoming for many of us at ComicMix, because we have had a professional relationship with IDW Publishing over the past several years,” ComicMix Editor-In-Chief Mike Gold noted. “We’re honored to be among such first-rate comics and graphic novels. Quite frankly, I don’t think the ComicMix properties could find a better publishing home than IDW.”
The partnership with ComicMix allows IDW to distribute comics via mobile devices, increasing the company’s growing digital, downloadable publishing program, which already includes several major titles such as Star Trek: Countdown and Ghostbusters.
About IDW Publishing
IDW is an award-winning publisher of comic books, graphic novels and trade paperbacks, based in San Diego, California. As a leader in the horror, action, and sci-fi genres, IDW publishes some of the most successful and popular titles in the industry, including television’s #1 prime time series, CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation;” Paramount’s “Star Trek;” Fox’s “Angel;” Hasbro’s “The Transformers;” and the BBC’s “Doctor Who.” IDW’s original horror series, "30 Days of Night," was launched as a major motion picture in October 2007 by Sony Pictures and was the #1 film in its first week of release. In April 2008, IDW released "Michael Recycle," the first title from its new children’s book imprint, Worthwhile Books. More information about the company can be found at IDWPublishing.com.
About ComicMix.com
Organized in 2007, ComicMix.com is the free website for brand-new comics, news, opinion and historical research. Organized by comics veteran Mike Gold (DC Comics, First Comics, Image Comics), Internet pioneer Brian Alvey (WebLogs Inc., Blogsmith, AOL, Netscape) and print and online publishing vet Glenn Hauman (Random House, Simon & Schuster, BiblioBytes, DC Comics), ComicMix has been leading the comics industry in the production and online distribution of new comic book stories by major talent.
Harvey Awards nomination deadline Friday
The Harvey Awards deadline for nominations is this Friday, March 27th, so if you haven’t submitted yet, get to it! Ballots are downloadable at the above link.
And don’t forget to read EZ Street, our Harvey-nominated work from last year.
Iron Man vs. Bruce Lee
Just because.
Cartoon Network announces 2009-2010 plans
Cartoon Network is growing up… or trying to. And in the process, they’re getting away from the things that make them, well, a cartoon network.
That’s the theme that seems to be running through their upfront presentation for the 2009-2010 season. Highlights include entering into the reality TV genre, creating a new sports-centric programming block, and introducing 19 new programs, pilots, and movies, including six that are live-action (umm…) as well as 164 episodes of returning series. In doing so, Cartoon Network stepped out on its evolutionary path to become what it described as a "dominant youth culture brand," that not only understands boys, including boys 6-11, but girls and older kids too, while creating "un-sanitized" "TV for kids, not kids TV".
Luckily, no one seems to talking about renaming it "CyFy". Yet.
Highlights:
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars will return with new episodes in fall 2009; also returning are Batman: The Brave and the Bold; Chowder; The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack; and The Secret Saturdays.
- Ben 10 adventures will be continuing in Ben 10: Alien Swarm, a previously announced live-action movie, directed by Alex Winter, which premieres fall 2009; and Ben 10: Evolutions (working title) – where the adventures of Ben (16-years-old) continue. From Cartoon Network Studios.
- The network’s first original all-CG animation movie will be Firebreather, which is based on the Image comic book of the same name created by Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn, who serve as co-executive producers. Peter Chung (Aeon Flux) will direct.
- Cartoon Network is creating a new Saturday afternoon sports focused programming block titled CN AMPT, underscoring its new deal with the NBA and relationship with Turner Sports. NBA commissioner David Stern, who discussed Cartoon Network’s new partnership with the NBA announced earlier in the week, revealed that Boston Celtic Eddie House and his 7-year-old son Jaelen will be the stars of the first project together, the short-form series My Dad’s a Pro. So pleased with the NBA’s new relationship with the network, Stern quipped to those assembled, "If I were a buyer, I would buy."
Other new series from favorite creators include:
- Total Drama Action, a follow-up to Total Drama Island;
- Sym-Bionic Titan, from creator Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack);
- Generator Rex, from Man of Action (comic vets Duncan Rouleau, Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, and Steven T. Seagle; they created Ben 10), and…
- Prepped (working title) which is executive-produced and written by Paul Dini (Lost, Batman Beyond, Detective Comics, and Madame Mirage).
MoCCA presents ‘Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter and Under the Hood’ this Thursday
"The Art of Watchmen" co-curator, comics historian Peter Sanderson, will lead a screening and discussion of the two new short films Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter and Under the Hood at MoCCA. Sanderson will discuss the role of the two books within the Watchmen graphic novel from DC Comics.
Executive produced by Zack Snyder, the Director of Watchmen and 300, comes two tales from the celebrated graphic novel that do not appear in the extraordinary Watchmen Theatrical Feature. Tales of the Black Freighter (featuring the voice of 300’s Gerard Butler) brings to strikingly animated life the graphic novels richly layered story-within-a-story, a daring pirate saga whose turbulent events may mirror those in the Watchmen’s world. Stars from the Watchmen movie team in the amazing live-action/CGI Under the Hood, based on Nite Owl’s powerful first-hand account of how the hooded adventurers came into existence.
Peter Sanderson is a comics historian and critic who has taught "Comics as Literature" at New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies. He regularly writes about graphic novels for "Publishers Weekly’s" online "Comics Week and has authored and co-authored numerous books, most recently Marvel Chronicle for DK Publishing. He also co-curated "Stan Lee: A Retrospective" at MoCCA in 2007 and was Marvel Comics first (and only) archivist. He will be teaching a course in comics and film at New York University’s SCPS this summer. Sanderson did his undergraduate and graduate work in English literature at Columbia University, and lives in New York City.
The event will be at MoCCA, Thursday, March 26th, 7pm. Admission is $5, free for MoCCA members.
‘Spider-Man’ fireman does whatever a spider can
From the BBC, the story of the day week:
An unusual disguise has helped a Bangkok fireman rescue an eight-year-old boy who had climbed on to a third-floor window ledge, Thai police say.
The firefighter dressed up as the comic book superhero Spider-Man in order to coax the boy, who is autistic, from his dangerous perch.
Police said teachers had alerted the fire station after the boy began crying and climbed out of a classroom window.
It was reportedly his first day at the special needs school.
Efforts by the teachers to persuade the pupil to come back inside had failed.
But a remark by his mother about his passion for comic superheroes prompted fireman Somchai Yoosabai to rush back to the station, where he kept a Spider-Man costume in his locker.
The sight of Mr Somchai dressed as Spider-Man and holding a glass of juice for him, brought a big smile to the boy’s face, and he promptly threw himself into the arms of his "superhero", police said.
Mr Somchai normally uses the costume to liven up fire drills in schools.
