On April 1, 2008 · Comments Off on Podcastle Premieres!
PodCastle is the world’s first fantasy audio magazine. Each week we bring you short stories across the spectrum of fantasy from leading authors and new discoveries. Like our sister podcasts, Escape Pod and Pseudopod, PodCastle is entirely free to listen and share.
(This is a paying market, so any fantasy writers reading this, take note.)
Podcastle is edited by fantasy writer Rachel Swirsky, who is one of my best friends, and whose help and input on “Hereville” has been utterly invaluable.
The premiere podcast features one of the biggest names in fantasy fiction, and a short story I was once obsessed with: “Come, Lady Death” by Peter. S. Beagle.
Quoting Journalista:
Last Wednesday, U.S. district judge Stephen G. Larson issued a summary judgment in the lawsuit between DC Comics/Warner Brothers Entertainment and the estate of Superman co-creator Jerome “Jerry” Siegel, giving half of the copyright to the original Superman story published in the 1938 Action Comics #1 back to the Siegel estate and backdating said ownership to 1999, when the Siegels filed notice of termination. Jeff Trexler broke the news on Friday afternoon and posted a copy of Larson’s full 72-page ruling to his website; on Saturday, the New York Times and the Bloomberg wire service had both issued news stories covering the landmark ruling. Both Jeff Trexler and Brian Cronin have crafted FAQs answering basic questions, and Andy Khoury discusses the judgment with intellectual-property lawyer Brendan McFeely. The best reading on the subject is really Judge Larson’s summary judgment itself, however: It’s an entertaining and informative document that contains a full history of the creation of Superman, a summary of how the case has progressed to date and of course includes Larson’s erudite resolution of several important issues involved in the case. Oh yeah, and in the appendix, a color reproduction of the original Superman story itself. Hey kids! Comics!
The heirs of Joe Schuster, the other co-creator of Superman, could get ownership of the other half of the copyright by 2013.
More from Journalista:
I wish I could remember where I read it — I’m tempted to credit either Neal Adams or R. Fiore — but one of the most damning things I ever read about the Siegel and Shuster legacy was that it was a refutation of the American Dream. One of the defining principles of the United States, after all, has always been the notion that regardless of the circumstances from which you began in life, if you came up with the right idea or hit the right motherlode you would profit from it accordingly, and pass the wealth along to your family when you died. I don’t know if the “rags to riches” story was invented by an American, but it was almost certainly perfected by one.
The story of how Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster brought Superman to DC Comics, and how DC subsequently treated them, turns this notion on its head. $130 and a job — that’s what Siegel and Shuster got, and they only had the latter so long as they were willing to play ball.[…]
Abhay Khosla refers to all of this as “the original sin of comics,” and he’s quite correct to do so. Arguments that Siegel and Shuster “should have known better,” circulating on comments threads all weekend, should be met with derision by right-thinking people. (”But — but Bob Kane knew better,” said the strawman standing conveniently nearby. So? Bob Kane’s father was a successful East Coast lawyer. Siegel and Shuster were average kids from Ohio. They didn’t know copyright law from diamond mining.)
There’s lots more good stuff at Journalista, so go read.
Unfortunately, the precedent set by this case — even if it’s not overturned — is, due to a technicality, not likely to be applicable to comic books other than Superman. And exactly what this will mean in the long run is still up in the air.
But, symbolically, this is a wonderful victory for creators’ rights.
On March 31, 2008 · Comments Off on Sketchblogging: Sad Faced Man and Spatula
The Sad-Faced Man is a character who has shown up in a lot of my doodles over the years, and appeared a few times in Pre-Structuralist Funnies.
I’ve also frequently doodled anthropomorphic spatulas and coffee cups. I have no idea why.
On March 28, 2008 · Comments Off on Hereville had over 235 visits yesterday!
235 isn’t a lot of people, I know, but it’s the most Hereville has had so far, and the first time I’ve gone over 200 in a day. And most of those folks stayed a while and looked at multiple pages. So I’m pleased.
Also, there have now been a few actual sales of the first Hereville story, both in electronic and paper editions.
Let’s hope current trends continue… and if you’re a friend of mine with a website, please don’t hesitate to link to hereville.com. 🙂
I was looking through the Chabad of Oregon website, and came across a series of Jewish-themed kids comics by Joe Kubert, entitled “Yaakov & Issac.” The comics themselves are too moralistic and religious-school-lessons in approach for my taste, but the art, as you’d expect from Kubert, is lovely. Here’s a sample:
Worth a look if you’re a big Kubert fan.
On March 24, 2008 · Comments Off on Sketchblogging: Big Scowl
I’ve decided to experiment with posting scans from my sketchbook here. Hope folks enjoy it. You can click on it to see the bigger sizes on Flickr.
People who flip through my sketchbook always ask me if these drawings are supposed to be of any particular individual. It makes me wonder what the people they know look like.
Hereville is available on paper!
But I don’t recommend buying this edition!
In November 2010, you will be able to buy the “Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword” graphic novel in your local bookstore or online! It contains over twice as many pages as the original comic book version, and it costs less to buy.
So although I’ll sell the old comic to you, I don’t recommend that you buy it. (And I’m not going to print any more copies, either.) If I were you, I’d wait until November and buy the graphic novel. More comics for less money is a better deal.
But I want to buy the original version anyway! Then I can have both versions!
Okay, okay. Send me $20 and I’ll send you a copy of “Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword!” on paper. This comic is 57 pages long (not including covers, title page, and stuff like that) and in color. It’s printed on a pretty heavy stock and is about six inches wide and nine inches high.
If I read this, does that mean there’s no point in reading the graphic novel version?
Definitely not! The 2008 comic is 57 pages long. The graphic novel is 129 pages long; most of those pages are brand-new, and about half of the pages that aren’t brand-new are redrawn and recolored. The graphic novel tells the same basic story, but with more characters, more plot, and in my opinion with better artwork.
Can I get you to do a sketch in my copy of the 2008 comic?
If you pay $50 for your copy, I’ll also create an original, one-of-a-kind sketch on the title page for you. You can click here to see examples of what these drawings look like. Choosing this option will add several days to how long it takes me to mail your copy, obviously.
Whether or not you pay for a sketch, I’ll be happy to sign it to whomever you’d like.
How to donate.
You can donate through PayPal by clicking on this link. After you’ve made a donation, this page will tell you what to do to get your thank-you gift.
Thanks!
I’m oddly fond of the checkboard pattern worn by the boy in the middle panel. (He’s Mirka’s cousin, by the way, not a brother. Mirka has a bunch of siblings, but only one brother.)
On March 12, 2008 · Comments Off on “How Mirka Got Her Sword,” page 17
