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Comics

There's a lot of speculation about who will take over as the new Captain America. Some say Bucky, since they brought him back last year. There seems to be some evidence that it will be Frank Castle (The Punisher), which is not too popular.

Me, I'm hoping it will be The Captain from Nextwave. That would shake a few things up.
 
Oh expect Cap to be back to normal by the time of the film next year.
 
Well, obviously. This is Marvel we're talking about. Death is an all too fleeting thing.
 
Still it goes on - will it ever stop - Rarely able since the 70s to choose a decent business partner, with Kirby's treatment I wonder if Stan Lee thought he would still be fighting for ownership of the characters in his 80s?


Dispute over Spider-Man ownership
An internet publishing firm is taking legal action against comic book company Marvel, claiming part-ownership of superheroes such as Spider-Man.
Associated Press reported the case was filed in New York last week by Stan Lee Media, a company originally co-founded by Spider-Man creator Stan Lee.

Now under new ownership, the firm claims Lee signed away rights to his famous comic book creations in 1998.

Marvel deemed the legal action "without merit", while Lee called it "baseless".

"I do not support this action and believe the suit to be baseless," said a statement released on behalf of the 84-year-old Lee by Marvel.

Lee's comic book characters include the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk and the Fantastic Four.

Bankruptcy

Stan Lee Media, which has re-emerged from bankruptcy six years ago, claims Lee signed away his rights to the comic book characters in 1998 when the company launched, in exchange for a salary and company stock.

It claims the agreement entitles Stan Lee Media to a 50% cut of the profits made by Marvel from licensing comic book characters to the film industry.


Earlier this year, Lee took legal action challenging the legitimacy of Stan Lee's Media current management, calling them "rogue opportunists".

Lee founded Stan Lee Media with Miami businessman Peter F Paul in 1998, in a bid to bring some of his comic book creations to the web.

Despite early success on the stock market, the company crashed losing millions in investment, and prompting the firm to file for bankruptcy in 2001.

In 2005, Mr Paul pleaded guilty to improperly manipulating the company's stock price. Lee was never implicated in the scandal.

After his own legal battle with Marvel in 2005, which saw a judge uphold Lee's demand for 10% of Marvel's profits from the Spider-Man films, Lee is currently Publisher Emeritus at Marvel.

Blockbuster sequel Spider-Man 3, starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, is released in May this year.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/e ... 464095.stm

Published: 2007/03/18 13:34:11 GMT

© BBC MMVII
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just got kabuki #8, which has been maybe 6 months behind... admit to not realising this was only going to be a 9 part series, but i've come to the conclusion that after the first few issues, when it actually looks like it's going somewhere, nothing much happens, and from the look of #8, the whole plot's going to dissappear up david mack's arsehole... :(

in other news, little comic book shop man says that the next (and final) doom patrol trade paperback for morrison's run is out in september... the last 2 seemed to come close together... this one we must wait for!
 
"Teen Titans Go!" comic

Teen Titans Go! is a comic based on the popular Teen Titans animated series.

link

Both fun and educational, TTG is written by an exciting Canadian. Also, TTG is morally uplifting, reading it just might help you avoid eternal damnation, conceivably. And, it speaks truth to power, or something like that.



If you like, you can write to DC Comics (address follows), and ask them to continue publishing TTG. (Because it could very well be cancelled very soon, which would be double-plus ungood.)

Dan Didio
DC Comics
1700 Broadway NY, NY
10019


email:

[email protected]
 
Re: "Teen Titans Go!" comic

dreeness said:
reading it just might help you avoid eternal damnation, conceivably.
Click to expand...

I am interested in your newsletter. How may I subscribe?
 
Talkin' of damnation an' all that:
Cartoon to tempt teenagers into priesthood
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 1:01am BST 29/04/2007

Japanese manga cartoons have become a multi-billion pound global market, commonly associated with martial arts warriors rather than with nuns and monks. But the Catholic Church in England and Wales is launching its own comic strip this week to attract teenagers into the priesthood.

It is using the comic book art form in an advertising campaign that aims to combat the dramatic decline in the number of applicants for ordination, and the resulting dearth of young priests.

The Church hopes that its manga comic, with pictures of nuns and monks playing pool and surfing the internet, will help to improve the image of the vocation, which leaders believe is seen as "monotonous and boring".

The minimum age to enter a seminary is 18, but children as young as 10 are being targeted by the recruitment drive, which is encouraging them to consider life as a parish priest or in a religious order.

About 5,000 primary and secondary schools have been sent posters promoting a website that features a manga comic strip based on five young Catholic characters.

Fr Paul Embery, the Church's Director of Vocations, admitted that persuading teenagers to commit to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience was not an easy sell, but said that the Church was desperate to reach younger candidates for ordination.

"We realise that this kind of commitment is counter-cultural. It requires great sacrifice, and a lot of people see it as monotonous and boring, but actually it is an extremely fulfilling job," he said.

"Manga cartoon characters are popular with young people from the age of 10 up to mid-20s and we thought that it would be a way to help them use their imagination when thinking about the priesthood."

Religious orders and seminaries are struggling to survive because of the fall in numbers. Fewer than half as many people joined colleges last year compared with 1991. The decline over the past 15 years is particularly marked among the younger generation, with under-30s making up more than two thirds of entrants in 1991, but only half last year.

In the typical Catholic diocese, there are four times as many priests aged over 70 as there are under 30, who make up only 7 per cent. The average age of clerics has risen from 57 in 1996 to 61.5 today.

The young may be put off by the six years of training before they can enter the priesthood, or by the frugal stipend, which ranges from £3,500 to £10,000.

Yet the Catholic bishops, who meet at their annual conference this week, will be encouraged that there has been a rise in the number of entrants to seminaries in the past few years, from 28 in 2003 to 44 last year.

"After Pope John Paul II died we saw an increase of interest not only in the priesthood, but in Catholic life in general," said Fr Embery. "The challenge for the Church is to recognise this and build on it."
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http://tinyurl.com/395hdt
 
I really enjoyed The Invisibles series by Morrison a few years ago. Can anyone suggest something to read with the same mix of ideas?
 
dr_wu said:
I really enjoyed The Invisibles series by Morrison a few years ago. Can anyone suggest something to read with the same mix of ideas?
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Some similar (but not exactly the same) series:

Promethea by Alan Moore (more about magic, nature of reality)
Heart of Empire by Bryan Talbot (more epic sci-fi, multiple realities)
 
I was going to suggest Promethea too - lots of magickal ideas and really innovative layouts (themselves jampacked full of meaning).

There is also Strangehaven which is a weird take on British village life.

You should obviously also get the Doom Patrol trades from Morrison's run:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_Patro ... paperbacks

Also give Hellblazer a go.

Obviously you might have already read these but they are the ones off the top of my head that I can think of. I'll have another ponder on it.

Problem is there isn't really anything like The Invisibles probably won't be every again (that series itself was deemed a risky business success and anyway if anyone set out to do another Invisibles it'd be a bit rubbish I suspect ;) ).
 
Thanks for the suggestions Emp and mring....
I'll ck them out at my local comic shop.
 
You might be able to sample some at your local library in case you want to se what they are like.
 
I've just been GIVEN books 1-4 of the "Dark Knight Returns" series by Frank Miller et al.

First editions from 1986, mint condition in plastic wallets, don't look as if they have been read.

They have now, obviously.

I have great friends.
 
Before reading them I would probably have checked their worth on e-bay.

I recently discovered The Ultimates, which I have been rather impressed with. I hadn´t read superhero comics for years, but I was bored and looked at this. I never thought much of the Avengers, but this incarnation has a very realistic look at superheroes. The characters themselves are flawed and there are global politics involved. For example the question of letting superheroes interfere in foreign conflicts in places like Iraq. I think this is a great way to do things, sadly having afterwards had a look at the rest of Marvels Ultimate series such as Ultimate X-Men they seem more like standard superhero fare.
 
Xanatico said:
Before reading them I would probably have checked their worth on e-bay.
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But surely the books were written to be read? I'm not interested in selling them, just very pleased to own a piece of comic book history.
 
The last part of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol is out, Planet Love.

For some reason not showing up on amazon.co.uk, but i grabbed a copy in my local forbidden planet last week.

Good ending to the run proper, but kind of spoiled by the final (i think) 2 issues of Morrison doing an alternate 'spoof' version unrelated to the rest of it called Doom Force, which is complete tripe... maybe he just tidied it up too quickly and figured he'd churn out any old crap to complete his contract :?

still very worth having for the Morrison/DP fan... just think it should have ended proper where the main story ended...
 
ive got ghost in the shell 1.5. its a collecetion of lost stories of ghost in the shell. its a collecetion of 8 stories. ive not finished reading yet.
 
Eagle Awards time - it usually opens nominations at the end of the year so I didn't think we'd have them this years but they just started:

www.eagleawards.co.uk/nomination.aspx

This is for the shortlist which can be voted on later but if there is anything from 2008 you feel especially moved by then now is the time to make your opinions felt.

I've listed my nominations here, if anyone is feeling nosey. I suspect there will be a big push to get Captain Britain and MI13 a few awards (as its sales don't reflect all the good things people are saying about it. I also nominated FutureQuake -rac from round these parts (and computer game reviewer in FT) is one of the editors and I had a single page story on the back of one of the eligible titles, so if it wins this time round (it has made the shortlist a couple of times but never) I'm going to claim it as a win for me. ;)
 
Hooray! Something to replace those Olympic logo stamps!

Beano's Dennis the Menace on Royal Mail comic stamps

Some of Britain's best-loved comic book characters will grace a new set of stamps to be issued by Royal Mail.
Dennis the Menace of The Beano, The Dandy's Desperate Dan and Roy of the Rovers are among the characters to be featured.

The 10 first class stamps are intended to mark the 75th anniversary of the The Dandy, UK's longest-running comic.

A Royal Mail spokesman claimed the comics were virtually "British institutions".
Philip Parker said: "For more than a century Britain's uniquely eccentric comics have brought cheer to generations of readers.
"More importantly, it has presented us with a cast of characters that, like the memories of those comics themselves, remain with us throughout our lives.
"The Dandy, celebrating its 75th birthday this year, and The Beano, which will do likewise next year, are almost British institutions and it feels appropriate to celebrate these comics and their characters."

The Dandy was launched in 1937 by Dundee publishing company DC Thompson. By the 1950s it was selling more than 2m copies a week.
But the Beano then overtook it and remains the country's best-selling comic.

The other comics to feature in the collection are Eagle, The Topper And Tiger, Bunty, Buster, Valiant, Twinkle and the science fiction title 2000AD.
The stamps go on sale on Tuesday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17421394

Good to see the Eagle's Dan Dare in there! 8)
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-t ... l-19248459

'No decision' on Dandy's future

The publisher of Britain's longest running comic has said no decision has been taken on whether it will cease publication.

There has been speculation that The Dandy, home to characters such as Desperate Dan, was under threat of closure because of circulation decline.

DC Thomson said it was carrying out a review of its magazine business.

The publisher also said the digital revolution offered it a chance to "innovate and develop".

The Dandy, which was launched in 1937, sold about two million copies a week at the height of its popularity.

But the comic's weekly circulation dipped under 8,000 last year compared with sister title the Beano's 38,000.

A spokesman for DC Thomson said: "We are carrying out a review of our magazines business to meet the challenges of the rapidly changing publishing industry.

"There are many challenges within the industry at present, but we're excited that the digital revolution has also given us an opportunity to innovate and develop.

"We're confident that future generations will continue to enjoy our much-loved products and characters."

The comic has been relaunched several times over the years in an attempt to reverse its falling sales, but its circulation has continued to drop.
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Rumours are The Dandy is doomed, which is a shame. It was the first comic I ever read (that and the now-defunct Buster) but I suppose if hardly anyone is buying it then what can DC Thompson do?
 
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