How Marvel Comics screwed Jack Kirby out of millions
posted by Artw on Feb 7, 2012 - 92 comments

Scans_daily is was a LiveJournal community specializing in posting scans of comic books, both older and current ones. On Friday night, however, the community got suspended, allegedly because comics author Peter David complained that one of his books was posted to it (David denies this in the linked blog post.) Regulars at scans_daily are outraged that the community has been shut down, claiming that the ability for people to "try before they buy" encouraged readers to buy more comics. Other comics fans are not so kind and cite that, for better or worse, the community was knowingly violating copyright. The community has resurfaced and is at least discussing what changes should be made to avoid this "unpleasantness" in the future and make the community more "copyright friendly". We've seen these issues come up with movies, games, and music; now it's comic books' turn to try to figure out what to do about the internet and digital technology.
posted by Legomancer on Feb 28, 2009 - 49 comments

"In a possibly historic ruling, a federal judge Wednesday determined that the heirs of Superman co-creator, Jerry Siegel, are now the rightful owners of one-half of the copyright of Superman, and have been since 1999."
posted by Alvy Ampersand on Mar 28, 2008 - 50 comments

"Zuda takes the Web publishing aspect out of the creators' hands, freeing them up to focus on writing and drawing the story. But to get Zuda to publish your comic, you first have to win a competition..." A major player enters into the fray of web comics publishing, previously populated mostly by independents. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? [more inside]
posted by ZachsMind on Dec 28, 2007 - 47 comments

Disney's War Against the Counterculture. Parody Mickey Mouse and see your life turn to madness, even if things are more or set straight in the end. “The main point,” O’Neill says, “was to buck corporate thinking. We just didn’t like bullshit.” [via]
posted by Sticherbeast on Dec 9, 2004 - 8 comments

Angry at something? Have Calvin pee on it. (gallery here) Perhaps the most popular form of American expression in the last decade (Aside from Jesus Fish Vs. Darwin Fish), I've personally seen Calvin pee on at least 5 NASCAR drivers, prayed to 2 religions, and given me the finger twice. What does Bill Watterson think about this? Wait... no, I'm sorry, this is what he really thinks about licensing. I think if you've proliferated the rape of my favorite comic strip you should spend an eternity with Jeff Gordon peeing on your head.
posted by Stan Chin on Jan 17, 2003 - 66 comments

Comic books, cannibalistic worms, albinos, copyright infringement, and the Blues. This story has it all.
posted by anathema on Sep 27, 2002 - 6 comments

Micropayments to the artist as a young boy So, I've been thinking about this end of copyright thing as has Scott McCloud it seems. Coupled with Lance Glassdog's rant on the subject and something has been tickling my brainstem about it. Since when does being an artist equal being paid?
posted by fullerine on Jan 8, 2001 - 14 comments