Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,923
|
Post by Crimebuster on Feb 11, 2024 23:39:55 GMT -5
Paging shaxper Here's a chance for you to talked about the Married Life with Archie, which I know is one of your favorites, and which I know very little of the details of except that it exists. -M Oh my. Well the guy you really want to talk to is Crimebuster , as he wrote extensively about that specific issue back at the old CBR. Suffice to say, he enjoys that story a lot more than I do. Oh yeah, I love Life with Archie #125. The cover story is one of the best three or four stories in the whole series for me. It's a straight up horror story about an evil teddy bear trying to murder Betty. No spoilers but it ends in a way suggesting there may be a follow up... which there eventually was, 30 years later!
|
|
Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,923
|
Post by Crimebuster on Feb 1, 2024 18:06:38 GMT -5
|
|
Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,923
|
Post by Crimebuster on Feb 1, 2024 18:05:38 GMT -5
Talk about a wild reception...
|
|
Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,923
|
Post by Crimebuster on Jan 21, 2024 23:18:30 GMT -5
Archie had a series dedicated specifically to their cartoons, which is weird. A comic based on a cartoon based on a comic. I guess they wanted to advertise to the cartoon fans that they could get the same package in the comic as the cartoons - Archie, Josie, and Sabrina stories in the same title. 🤷♂️
|
|
Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,923
|
Post by Crimebuster on Jan 18, 2024 13:34:30 GMT -5
This is an excerpt from Jonathan Ross' documentary about Steve Ditko, where he corners Stan about Ditko's role in the creation of the character and their contention over what constituted "creation." What I've always taken away from this interview is that it tells me Stan believes what he's saying. People have called him a liar, but in that case, he's mainly lying to himself, because you can tell that he believes what he is saying -- that the role of editor rather than artist or even writer is the driving creative force. He essentially says outright that choosing which artist to assign to a project determines whether it's good or bad, but where some would see this as evidence that the artist was the driving creative fore, he places the emphasis on the choice - casting the artists as tools in the hands of the editor. It's like instead of writing or drawing with a pen as his instrument, he's doing it with people. It's a fascinating insight into what he really thinks.
|
|
Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,923
|
Post by Crimebuster on Jan 17, 2024 17:41:19 GMT -5
Thank you for the support I really appreciate it!
|
|
Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,923
|
Post by Crimebuster on Jan 17, 2024 13:16:12 GMT -5
Issue #6 is now live!
|
|
Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,923
|
Post by Crimebuster on Jan 10, 2024 14:05:54 GMT -5
I didn't see this one on the list, so let's post our favorite covers from ACG! The rules • Post one, and only one, classic cover that fits the theme of the contest. • Your cover must be from a published comic book or collected volume published before January 2014. • Please include the title and the issue number of the comic, preferably in bold, in case some posters cannot see your image. • Covers must be posted before voting begins. • Voting takes place on Tuesday, January 16th 2024, beginning at 12:01 am PST and ending at 11:59 AM PST. • Vote by posting the name of the poster whose cover best fits the theme or that you simply like the most in bold. • The winner of the contest is the entrant with the most votes after the voting period ends. • The winner gets to choose the theme for the next week's contest. • If you don't think the cover fits the theme, don't post disparaging remarks about it. Just don't vote for it and keep quiet. • If a cover is more recent than the classic time frame, kindly point it out to the poster, who may then choose an alternate before voting begins
|
|
Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,923
|
Post by Crimebuster on Jan 10, 2024 11:54:02 GMT -5
I'll have something up soon, just need to study the list of the already-beens. Thanks!
|
|
Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,923
|
Post by Crimebuster on Jan 3, 2024 19:16:29 GMT -5
|
|
Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,923
|
Post by Crimebuster on Jan 2, 2024 19:30:50 GMT -5
To save me visiting websites and their crappy, ubiquitous pop-up ads (which ruin any attempt to read anything), is there anyone who could please sum up the whole Mickey Mouse copyright expiration thing? I presume he isn’t totally free for every studio, publisher and person to use, there’s got to be something more detailed than that, right? Crimebuster might be the best person to weigh in, but I'll do my best. Keep in mind I'm a criminal defense attorney, not an intellectual property attorney. Two Mickey Mouse cartoons, Steamboat Willie and Plane Crazy entered the Public Domain on Jan. 1, 2024. That means that those two films, and only those two films, can be distributed by anyone, used on TV or in other movies, etc. It also means that derivative works can be made from those films. But, that doesn't mean that MICKEY is just up for grabs. Mickey and most of this known accoutrements are trademarked and many are still under copyright. So what is available is basically Mickey 1.0. No white gloves. Small ears. You can't use Fantasia Mickey or Mickey Mouse Club Mickey, etc. This really gets in to the interplay of Copyright and Trademark law, as trademarks don't expire as long as they are used. So it's very possible for litigious owners of trademarks with deep pockets to essentially do an end run around the public domain by filing spurious trademark suits. So you might get away with using Steamboat Mickey in a work (though you might not) but you need to avoid anything that will likely run afoul of Disney's trademarks. I think this pretty much sums it up! The only thing I might add -- and I am definitely not a trademark expert -- but my understanding is that you need to actively defend your trademark or you risk losing it. Disney has some of the most robust trademark protections around, plus almost unlimited funds for lawyers, so doing anything that could infringe on their trademark is playing with fire. And I've already seen some stuff that I think is really dicey and ill-advised and could easily bring lawsuits. However, I think the risk of using the original Mickey who is now in public domain is actually pretty small if you're careful to avoid trademark infringement, which means using the character in a way that might confuse consumers into thinking it's the official Disney version. Part of the reason why I think using 1928 Mickey is less dangerous than it might seem -- and actually less dangerous than some other characters in similar situations like Zorro --is because Mickey entering the public domain has gotten so much publicity. And as a result, tons and tons of people are using him, including some more important, prominent figures. Most famously so far, John Oliver has begun using Mickey Mouse as his show's mascot in an explicit attempt to challenge Disney's trademark defense. If Disney doesn't take action against Oliver for trademark infringement, it would be hard to justify legal action against much smaller companies and individuals using the same likeness (not to say they couldn't or wouldn't, but if they did it would definitely feel like nuisance lawsuits designed to harass poorer people in giving up rather than anything else). Again, I'm no expert, but if they don't defend against the use of Mickey by major national brands, they would seem to be ceding the argument, as that kind of widespread public use by a large brand obviously would have a much bigger impact on Disney than you or me publishing, say, our own comic featuring Mickey. Early days, but my gut feeling is if you're careful, it will be fine for anyone to use 1928 Mickey. Let's say you're doing a comic. Using the name Mickey Mouse (or god forbid Disney) on the cover is trademark infringement. Using the image of 1928 Mickey Mouse on the cover but not calling him by name is... probably okay, though it might be risky. Using him inside the comic but not using his name or likeness on the cover? That should be just fine.
|
|
Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,923
|
Post by Crimebuster on Dec 25, 2023 17:01:54 GMT -5
I may be 50 now, but I've never felt younger than seeing all the final day entries for Legion of Super-Heroes. 😆 If there's one thing I've learned from being on comic book forums and such for the past 25 years, it's that if someone really loves Legion of Superheroes, they were definitely buying comic books in the 1960s. Thank you all for the Christmas gift of youth!
|
|
Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,923
|
Post by Crimebuster on Dec 24, 2023 18:22:59 GMT -5
1. Jughead1st appearance: Pep Comics #22 Choice run: Jughead vol. 2 #89-214 I'm not sure there's ever been a bad Jughead comic (except maybe from Spire Comics 👀) but my pick is Jughead vol. 2 #89-214. Though the series was always fun, it reached new heights with the coming together of writer Craig Boldman and artist Rex W. Lindsey. For my money, they were doing some of their best comics -- and some of my favorite Archie Comics period -- when the series was canceled.
|
|
Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,923
|
Post by Crimebuster on Dec 23, 2023 11:04:47 GMT -5
2. Jack Knight - Starman1st Appearance: Zero Hour #1 Choice Run: Starman #0-81 One of my favorite comics of all time, and one of the reasons the late 90s is maybe my favorite era from the 40 years I've been reading and collecting comics. A great story about parents and children, while weaving together a bunch of great classic DC continuity that wouldn't seem to fit together at all.
|
|
Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,923
|
Post by Crimebuster on Dec 22, 2023 12:31:40 GMT -5
3. Lois Lane1st Appearance: Action Comics #1 Choice run: Lois Lane #92-137 Lois Lane is a great character who, like most character that have been around for 85 years, has been through a lot of ups and downs in terms of how she has been portrayed. My favorite era for her, though, is the late 60s and early 70s, where she got a hip glow up just in time for some truly wackadoodle adventures. Things really took off with #105 when E. Nelson Bridwell was promoted from assistant editor to editor upon Mort Weisinger finally getting the long overdue boot, but the crazy had started a bit before that. How could I leave out gems like Wonder Woman fighting Lois for Superman's love, Lois becoming a centaur and getting involved in a love triangle with Supergirl and a horse, Lois being put on trial for murder with Batman as her defense attorney, or that time Lois married Satan? The last issue of her solo run involved her being kidnapped by super-intelligent extra-dimensional dinosaurs trying to deliver a warning about the dangers of nuclear warfare. This is truly a testament to what comics could and should be.
|
|