Excellent post from Boing Boing about Marvel Underwear Perverts you should all check out…

Here’s a proposal: from now on, let’s never use the term “super-hero” to describe a Marvel character. Let’s call them “underwear perverts” — as Warren Ellis is wont to — or vigilantes, or mutants. Let’s reserve the term “super-hero” exclusively to describe the heros of comics published by companies that aren’t crooked word-thieves.

Sam Hiti has started a blog full of his gorgeous warm-up sketches… great stuff! Just check out his blog frog!

Lonny Unitus just finished his new anthology Unhinged and I can’t wait to get my copy… the preview I saw of the hand-serigraphed cover looks great. Limited to 100 copies! Order yours here quick, or you will most likely miss out. Here is the info from Lonny:

At long last, Unhinged is here! The first of many issues, this anthology comic is a whopping 36 pages, and includes work from 6 fantastic artists from around the US.

The comics come with a two-color screenprinted cover on an awesome green paper, illustrated and printed by Unitus, and measure 5 1/2 x 7 1/2″. Unhinged #1 is a limited edition comic, hand-numbered 1-100.

Speaking of Max, check out his funny new strip, “My Three Bosses” on the Big Time Attic Blog. And then draw Shad, as Shad is a man who needs to be drawn.

My friend Max Konardy called my attention to this today:

http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/00_home/newsfeed.php#060224110555

It is “Call for Action to Prevent Orphan Works Amendment to U.S. Copyright Law”

I don’t think I agree with what the Illustrator’s Partnership is saying, but I don’t know enough about the legislation to give a particularly educated view at this time.

However, I think copyright reform is essential. Much of our artistic history is being literally destroyed by the fact that no one has the right to legally reprint stuff when they can’t find who owns the rights to it. This is particularly apparent with old films, where the prints are literally falling apart rather than getting restored because nobody can be found who has the legal right to reprint them. If things don’t get kept in print, they get forgotten, or worse, they get destroyed. Same deal with old comics, as anyone who has pawed a crumbling golden age comic can attest to.

I tried at one point to find the rights holder to an old Fletcher Henderson song from 1932, “Take Me Away From the River,” that I wanted to use in a cartoon… I actually looked up the records in the Library of Congress when I was in DC… I got the record, but it gave me no information on how to contact the legitimate rights holders, if there were any. I went ahead and used it anyhow, but theoretically I could be sued for doing so. Should I not have used it since I couldn’t find the rights holders? Some of you may feel that way, but the way I see it, I’m doing a small part to rescue a great piece of music from utter obscurity.

However, that this could potentially be used as a loophole to steal work from legitimate copyright holders who are still around is troubling. As they point out, most people can not afford the legal fees (or the time) to potentially defend their works. I don’t think that is the intent of the proposed legislation, but if it is a potential side-effect, I certainly think steps should be taken to avoid this problem. As I said, I don’t know the details at this time… the Call to Action seems terribly one sided, though, and I definitely think the current system is deeply flawed.

Furthermore, the copyright extension legislation that has been persued by large corporations (such as the Sonny Bono Act, or “Mickey Mouse” law that extended copyright an additional 20 years and was basically purchased by Disney lobbyists to avoid having Mickey cartoons fall into the public domain) is theft of our culture from us to corporations. There is good reason for copyrights to expire… while an artist should have his work protected for a certain period of time, our artistic heritage should be owned by everyone…

otherwise it gets lost. Frankly, I’d rather have my art stick around than retain the rights to it forever… having copyright for a lifetime is plenty long, and it already extends for many (70?) years beyond that. Beyond death is too damn long I think… even if Disney is in cryrogenic suspension.

More info on this stuff here:

http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/pdf/cspdproposal.pdf

There is an interesting discussion on orphan works going on right now on the Comic Journal message board.

http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubb/Forum1/HTML/011219.html

Conspirator Sean Tenhoff has started a daily or so comic strip online, the violent and/or hilarious Bean Men… You can subscribe to it here.

Kevin Cannon’s original submission for the upcoming Lutefisk Sushi Volume B show, Donnie Danger, Corporate Cartoonist, went berserk on him and ended up being 40 pages long… sounds like he is submitting something else instead.

Fortunately, that doesn’t mean you’ll miss the comic… in fact, it will be easy for you to read… he just announced on the Big Time Attic blog that he is publishing it online in 5 page chunks over the next 8 days.

As with everything else Kevin draws, you won’t want to miss it.

An article on the wonderful blog Boing Boing today pointed out that corporate-owned legislators in Washington are currently trying to pass a horrendous piece of legislation called “The Trademark Dilution Revision Act” to further erode the first amendment. If passed this legislation would make it so using corporate owned trademarks (Like taglines, packaging, logos, etc.) from being used in any artwork. Read the linked article above for the gory details. Here are some quotes from it:

The Act contains certain anti-speech aspects which will directly affect illustrators, photographers and others.

For example, using the phrase “Where’s the Beef” could be actionable. Although you might use it in a non-commercial way, the (very) famous Wendy’s slogan when used to comment might not be protected by the fair use exception.

That said, there are a couple cartoonists (Kieron Dwyer and Stu Helm, aka King VelVeeeda) who have already been successfully sued in recent years for just this sort of thing (both were defended by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund)… so in a sense this sort of thing is already in effect.

How can Mad Magazine and Wacky Packages survive in such an environment? Even Superman satires will be illegal! Write your congressbastard… or senatorbastard, I guess! Write somebody, for pete’s sake. Specifically the above article suggests writing to Senator Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, 711 Hart Building, Washington, DC 20510 to voice your opposition to this bill.

I’ve also been meaning to link to this excellent cartoon recently posted on the Animation Archive website, basically unseen for 50 years… Farmer Al Falfa in “Pink Elephants.”

Here’s a great little antique cartooning tutorial by Bill Nolan, “Cartooning Self-Taught” they posted recently on the excellent ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog.

Along these lines I recently noticed that Dover, excellent inexpensive publisher of wonderful reprint books and clip art books, has reprinted some old cartooning books, including one by the wonderful George Carlson, who wrote and illustrated one of the greatest comic series of the golden age, Jingle Jangle Tales. All of these books are extremely cheap, and look quite cool… I haven’t got them yet, but I plan to.