"Since their birth early in the century, comic books had been regarded as a kind of junior magazine and allowed to occupy space on the shelves or spinner racks of newsstands, grocery stores, drugstores, dime stores, and sometimes even bookstores. They caught on quickly and, initially, more than earned their place in those venues, but after the 1940s, the comics industry experienced more downs than ups. The Marvel-led resurgence of the 1960s had foundered by the 1970s to the point where extinction seemed like a real possibility. Comics retailer (and former distributor) Steve Schanes put it succinctly: 'Comics were on their last breath. They couldn’t have lasted another four years.'"
Part One:
Fine Young Cannibals: How Phil Seuling and a Generation of Teenage Entrepreneurs Created the Direct Market and Changed the Face of Comics [more inside]
posted by Alvy Ampersand
on Feb 21, 2010 -
51 comments
30 years ago, the sixteenth and final issue of
Pizzazz magazine was published by Marvel Comics at a retail price of 75 cents. In addition to
cover stories like "Linda Ronstadt: Rock's Superwoman" and "Is Meat Loaf the Cutest Cultural Development Since the Pickle?",
Pizzazz published what is arguably the very first addition to the Star Wars
Expanded Universe - a serialized comic titled
"The Keeper's World". Appearing in October 1977, only 5 months after the theatrical release of what was not yet known as
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, it comfortably pre-dates Alan Dean Foster's
Splinter of the Mind's Eye (March 1978) and even Marvel's own
Star Wars #7 comic (January 1978).
(previously)
posted by Joe Beese
on Feb 14, 2009 -
15 comments
Marvel Comics sues NCsoft and Cryptic Studios, the makers of the online game
City of Heroes for player created content they feel infringes on their copyright. If Marvel wins the case, all game developers can expect to be held responsible for the behavior of their players. This case covers similar ground to the proposed
Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act, which is before a Senate Judiciary Committee. Introduced to crack down on illegal file sharing on peer-to-peer networks, the bill would hold technology companies liable for manufacturing products that encourage people to infringe copyrights. The language of the bill
caused an uproar among technology and consumer advocates who claimed it would kill innovation. If successful in their lawsuit, would Marvel be able to
sue the makers of pens and pencils for producing products that allow people to create pictures of copyrighted characters?
posted by Stuart_R
on Nov 16, 2004 -
31 comments
Enter ... the Rawhide Kid! Marvel is about to unveil the first openly gay gunslinger. Name's the Rawhide Kid. Its creators say it will likely be campy. With a name like that, how could it be anything but?
posted by risenc
on Dec 9, 2002 -
22 comments
Marvel Comics Movies It's about time. Being in college and having grown up with action cartoons like he-man and thundercats in the 80s it sickens me now to watch kids having to watch crap like power rangers and japanese anime. Where are these kids heroes??? Now that Michael Jordan is coming back to the NBA and now that these movies are being made, hopefully kids these days will have someone to look up to. A hero...something America could use right now.
posted by ryryslider
on Oct 17, 2001 -
45 comments
