Sex, Lies, & Comicbooks
There has been quite the fallout since last week's column broke the "League" story. DC responded releasing what must be their shortest press release ever, citing international copyright issues and "related issues" as to the book's limited distribution to the USA only.
There can be no more legal issues outside the USA than there were in the first two League volumes, which featured extensive characters from the library of HG Welles and others, out of copyright in the US but still in copyright in much of the rest of the world.
And there are plenty of other works that have taken classical in copyright characters and used them to their own ends without legal issues. "League's" reinterpretation and recontextualisation is both an artistic and legal defence.
In the recent Tripwire Annual, Alan Moore mentions that he is unsure if the solicited Tijuana Bible section will be published. May there be some customs considerations regarding this section?
Jess Nevins, author of "League" commentary works, wrote on the DC message boards "There's a lot more going on here than you know about…"
I understand that a number of UK shops have already been arranging their own personal deliveries for customers, and that international orders for the standard hardcover and next year's Absolute edition at Amazon.com have been rapidly rising.
Mark Millar said that no one guessed his and Hitch's big Marvel project would be "Fantastic Four."
That's a lie. Pretty much everyone guessed it. It was obvious, from the moment Joss Whedon asked Hitch "Now you're going from the ultra-modern to the possibly least-edgy characters in the Marvel 'verse."
It was only Bryan Hitch saying, "From the Civil War stuff and current issues, I'd say FF is pretty edgy these days. Besides, I've always thought I'd be a poor fit for the Fantastic Four; too many greats in it's history. Lest edgy in the MU? Millie the Model" and then "Okay, how about I just TELL you I'm not doing FF Would that be more specific?" that made people doubt it.
Some people are up in arms about being lied to, which is ridiculous. These are creators of fiction, they lie all the time. That's what they're paid to do. Admittedly, Mark has an industry reputation of bending the truth, but it all stems from the same desire and ability to create fiction and to tell the best story.
Talking of which, Tony Harris and Mark Millar are doing an Image project called "War Heroes." Mark was meant to announce it at Chicago. It's possible he may have not…
I love it when a comic creator goes nuclear. Mike was asked about the pros and cons of going exclusive and his reply took in the whole comics industry and its recent history…
It destroyed Capitol Distribution, Diamond's main competitor, and signalled the end of competitive distribution in the comic book biz.
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It's not Diamond's job to level the playing field. It's Diamond's job to look out for Diamond and do what's best for Diamond.
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But the possibility of DC publishing Madman was raised and I got stirred up. After the "DI" experience, I was ready to say goodbye to X-Statix and when I asked for details on bringing Madman into the deal at DC it appeared that the deal no longer existed at all.
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I've since heard from a few people that DC was throwing exclusive deals out like candy at a parade just to see who would run for it. And then would pick and choose among the eager.
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Dan Didio had done me wrong on at least two occasions, including flat out "PROMISING" to me about "re-soliciting and releasing the TEEN TITANS special in a few months", and canceling the METAL MEN book Evan Dorkin and I were doing after "not liking" the first issue we completed. I still don't know the full truth about both of those situations
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"Why won't DD keep his word and release it! I go nuts just thinking about it! I don't dare accept any invites to New York for fear I'll lose it and go all "Bourne" in the DC offices until I get my hands around a certain executive's throat"
Yeah, um, sorry about that whole "X-Statix" thing, Mike.
see, I would've bought Metal Men if Dorkin & Allred were doing it.
