DC Comics owns and publishes Superman, right? Sure, we all know that. But here’s a puzzler for ya — does DC Comics own Superboy?

It’s not as easy as you might think. In fact, there’s a lawsuit going on right now trying to determine that.

Confused? So is just about everyone else…

So here’s the story — Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman way back in 1932 and sold him to Detective Comics, Inc. in 1938. They wrote a bunch of Superman stories under a standard work-for-hire contract — they got paid for what they wrote, and the company had full ownership of the characters and stories they wrote. Some of the stories they wrote, particularly the stories about Superboy — Superman when he was a kid back in Smallville — were not written as work-for-hire.

Now Siegel and Shuster were notoriously done-wrong by DC — they were paid very little, compared to what Superman was worth to DC, and they were eventually kicked out of the company, along with a bunch of other old-timers, because DC was afraid they’d want to get paid more money. Eventually, DC came around (with a little nudging from a few lawsuits), paid Siegel and Shuster some more money ($20,000 per year, plus medical expenses) and credited them with Superman’s creation in every story in which he appeared.

Siegel and Shuster are both now dead, but their families are still a bit put out with the company. And as screwed up as copyright law is these days, they’ve seen the opportunity to try to claim the rights to Superboy. Now normally, you’d say they have no shot. Yes, the Superboy stories weren’t written as work-for-hire, but they’d normally be considered derivative of Superman — they have the same costume, the same “S” shield, they’re both named Clark Kent, etc., etc., etc.

But a judge could rule that parts of the stories belonged to the Siegels and Shusters. It all depends on whether the stories were original enough to establish themselves as separate from the other Superman stories. The judge could rule that the families own parts of the Superman mythos, like Smallville, Krypto the Superdog, Lana Lang, or even Ma and Pa Kent.

Do the families want to own parts of the Superman mythos? Probably not. They couldn’t do anything with them — even if they got ownership of Superboy himself, they couldn’t publish Superboy comics, because DC’s ownership of the trademark for the character isn’t challenged. Do they want to get hold of those characters to make DC stop publishing stuff about Smallville or the Kents? No, because they ain’t crazy. What they want is more money, more than likely. Do they deserve more money or ownership of the characters? That’s something for the judge to decide, but there are more things at stake than just legal issues.

Again, lemme point you to this analysis of the case. The author has a much greater grasp of legal matters than I do…

The Flash #231

Well, the last time we checked, we had a single issue of “All-Flash” and before that, 13 issues of “Flash: Fastest Man Alive.” What’s with the #231? Well, before they cancelled the series before that, something like two years ago, they were up to #230. So they’re starting where that series left off.

Of course, a lot has changed since then. Wally West and his family have spent an unspecified amount of time in the other-dimensional Speed Source, his kids have prematurely grown into their pre-teens, and his wife Linda has used her pre-med skills, with the help of an alien race, to set up a ton of scientific equipment and expertise.

Anyway, the twins, Iris and Jai, have powers of their own — Iris can turn insubstantial by vibrating her molecules at superspeed, and Jai can “temporarily superaccelerate the myofibrillar hypertrophism” in his muscles — in other words, he can get superstrong, but only for a few minutes at a time. And the whole family is investigating a mysterious ferry accident that seems mundane until some fairly creepy monsters make their appearance.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I was expecting to be happy with Mark Waid’s story, but Daniel Acuna’s art is a pleasant surprise. I was really worried it would be too dark, but so far, he’s able to get the proper style of light humor and drama that a mainstream comic like “The Flash” requires. Of course, this level of detail usually means the artist will have to take a few breaks, so we should expect some fill-in artists over the next few months, too.

MODOK’s 11 #2

Last issue, we were given the basic skinny: MODOK, the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing, wanted a bunch of low-rent supervillains to rob an alien super-fortress for him. This issue, we get to see the bad guys train (and mostly fail), the much-too-overconfident Mentallo goes snooping around in the other villains’ brains, and the Chameleon reveals some unexpected secrets. And what’s MODOK really up to? You can bet it’s nothing good…

Verdict: Thumbs up. So far, we’ve got a perfect heist caper. A devious plan, a bunch of expert operatives, and a few twists, betrayals, and surprises. I hope the rest of the series can keep up with the first two issues.

B.P.R.D.: Killing Ground #1

The B.P.R.D. — the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense from the “Hellboy” comics — is back with another miniseries. We see some new changes to the team. Johann Kraus, previously just a spirit confined to a diving suit, has acquired a new body — one of the manufactured superhuman bodies that the B.P.R.D. acquired in their last adventure. Ben Daimio finds himself frustrated by his coworkers’ mistrust of his grandmother’s Nazi past. Liz Sherman is seeing more and more disturbing visions of the future. Meanwhile, an unknown enemy has gotten access to many of the Bureau’s codes and secrets, Panya the mummy takes up residence in the B.P.R.D., and a savage wendigo captured by Hellboy years ago is brought to the Bureau’s containment facility.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I always expect good things from the B.P.R.D. comics. We’re just getting re-introduced to everyone now — Johann Kraus’ reaction to having a body after so many years is pretty amusing — he now spends all his time eating and chasing women. And Ben Daimio’s reaction to everyone’s suspicions is also good. They say things are gonna start going nuts next issue, so hold on tight.

 

The Brave and the Bold #6

The first storyline of DC’s new team-up book wraps up. The evil (and very big-eyed) Luck Lords have used their mastery of the Book of Destiny to conquer time and space, even defeating the Legion of Super-Heroes in the distant future. Meanwhile, in our present, Green Lantern, Supergirl, and Adam Strange are trying to avoid the Luck Lords and get the Book away from General Mondath, but they’re continually thwarted by Mondath’s ability to use the Book to predict and counter their attacks. The trick, they decide, is to let Supergirl use her telescopic and X-ray vision to read the book from a few dozen miles away to locate Batman, then Adam uses the planet Rann’s Zeta beam teleportation technology, amplified by GL’s power ring, to extract Bats from where he was trapped in the future and bring him back to the present. Why? So he can find the only four people in the universe who have slipped off Destiny’s radar and so are completely invisible to the book. Can they help defeat the Luck Lords before everyone runs out of borrowed time?

I gotta tell you, this is hugely, hugely complicated. Holy moley, all the back-and-forth time travel, all the complex schemes, all the plot twists, all the narrow escapes. But wow, is it ever worth it. This is a white-knuckle ending, right down to the wire, almost as good as some of Grant Morrison’s old “JLA” stories a few years ago.

Lots of really great moments, too — tons of great fight scenes, Supergirl paralyzed by all she’s learned about the future from the Book of Destiny, a big splash page of most of DC’s time travelers, all the wild Rannian super-scientific weapons. This is wonderful end to a wonderful storyline.

Verdict: Big thumbs up. Mark Waid’s writing and George Perez’s art make this an unbeatable combo. I hope they keep this title running a long time.

Bahlactus demands early weekend fisticuffs? LET THERE BE EARLY WEEKEND FISTICUFFS!

Badder than Batman, madder than the Hulk, stronger than Superman, tougher than Wolverine, drunker than Lindsey Lohan — nothing can stop Milk and Cheese!

(There are better and more horrific beatings by these guys that I could’ve used, but this sequence had the least number of F-Bombs, bird-flippings, and random baby-whuppin’s.)

(From Milk and Cheese #666, by Evan Dorkin)

Ran into an interesting article from out of Brownsville about the city’s first female comic shop owner. Actually, most of the article focuses on women who read comics, and what they prefer to read.

While the Japanese-style art can be popular among female readers, Hodge has an even mix of men and women as readers. She said every reader is different, and shouldn’t be limited by gender.

“Female readers aren’t some strange creatures that you ‘figure out’ to cater to,” she said. “The comics just have to be good, interesting stories. If the comic book industry treats female readers as an oddity, we notice, and we don’t like feeling that way. So we wouldn’t buy a book that makes us feel so.”

Hodge has enjoyed comics of all kinds since she was little.

“My mom would bring me the comics from the newspaper and I would try to draw them as practice,” she said. “As a teenager though, I became very interested in anime, with Sailor Moon being the first show to really catch my interest.”

The rising popularity of Japanese anime provided an eye-opener for many young girls over the past decade.

Manga comics are probably the most popular comics with female readers, but it’s far from universal.

Just as male audiences associate themselves with the suave James Bond or gruff Wolverine, Martinez said some women like to put themselves in the stiletto-heeled shoes of super-heroines.

“These women have the power to be sexy, but powerful,” she said. “A girl can be voluptuous and still go medieval on you.”

With Martinez’ husband ready to publish his first comic book, the Brownsville-based hero Opossum, and Martinez herself a big collector, the couple’s daughter has grown up surrounded by comic books.

“I like Batman, Superman, Transformers,” said Angelina Hernandez, 7.

(…)

Blanco said female super-heroes are a good way for girls to get into reading comics. Younger girls can expand their reading skills and women can escape the stresses of the real world with fantasy.

Wonder Woman, the most famous female super-hero, comes highly recommended by Blanco.

“She’s just such a strong character and she’s dealing with more realistic things,” she explained.

Whatever their interests, Blanco suggests more women give comic books a chance.

“Just try something new and you’ll always have something to look forward to every month when the next story comes out,” she said. “Even if they are talking about stories in space or something else, it’s something different.”

There are a bunch of female comics readers who are big fans of superheroes — Ragnell and Kalinara are both big fans of traditional spandex-clad superheroes, plus there’s Ami Angelwings, Karen Healy, and Valerie D’Orazio, not to mention When Fangirls Attack, Sequential Tart, and the Feminist SF Carnival.

But as D’Orazio found while talking to people at Comic-Con in San Diego, most female comics readers are definitely not reading superheroes. And an ongoing problem for the major comic book companies is that they seem to be almost completely unable to market comics to anyone but white males.

Why? Because building an audience is very hard work. Traditional comics have several decades of built-in audience — again, mainly white males. Building an audience beyond white males has a lot of roadblocks in the way — it’s hard to convince new audiences that they should be interested in comics, because women and non-whites are used to thinking of comics as a “white-guys-only” medium. And comics companies are usually parts of large corporations — and if one particular comic doesn’t sell a lot of copies, the corporate bean counters may order the plug pulled.

Is there a solution? Other than slow change over many years, probably not. Eventually, more women may start reading comics. Eventually, more comics companies may start to try to appeal to more female readers. But a rapid sea change for the industry probably isn’t possible.

So how ’bout it? Girls — what comics do you like to read, or what would convince you to start reading comics? And boys — would you be willing to read a “girl-centric” comic, or do you read them already?

We got a little for the kids and a little for the non-kids in today’s reviews.

Gumby #1

Believe it or not, this is the second time that Bob Burden, creator of bizarre underground comix like “The Flaming Carrot,” has written a comic book about Gumby. And it’s pretty cool. He loads the story down with crazy, funny ideas — a house where everyone is named Jeffrey, gigantic fire hydrants, a man who is also a hot-air balloon — and he also gives us little opportunities to remember that Gumby is really made out of clay. Gumby turns himself into a sombrero and does his own Mexican hat dance to pay for some snacks, and a dog that bites his leg spits it right back out, because clay tastes bad! That’s both freaky and wonderful at the same time. The art is provided by Rick Geary, who has a great visual imagination to match Burden’s.

Our story involves Gumby and Pokey meeting a new friend. It’s a girl! Oh no! What if she wants to kiss him! Gumby also has to deal with his mean cousin, and faces danger from a fire and from a bunch of bad clowns.

Verdict: Thumbs up. The plot isn’t earthshaking, but it’s fun, and it’s the type of story that lots of kids would be very well entertained by. It’s probably not for all kids — older kids will think some of it is really cheesy — but for the right kid, it’s great.

Powers #25

And now a comic just for grown-ups. If you’re not familiar with the series, it follows two police detectives, Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim, who specialize in cases involving murders of superhumans. Walker used to be a superhero until he lost his powers, and he’s recently acquired new powers. Deena has also picked up some superpowers, but they’re dangerous to her as well as anyone she uses them on. Last issue, Deena went on the run when she and Walker discovered each other’s powers.

This issue, Walker gets a new partner and investigates an ongoing outbreak of a “powers virus” that gives random people superpowers. He also fights off an alien menace and has sex with his girlfriend for two pages’ worth of small but very detailed panels. See, told you, just for grown-ups. Kids, go read “Gumby.” Anyway, by the end, Walker runs into Deena again, and it looks like she’s spoiling for a fight.

Verdict: Thumbs up, but I was a bit disappointed. Brian Michael Bendis is still one of the best plotters around, and his dialogue is still great, but man alive, this storyline has been going on forever. And the sex scene is entirely Bendis trying to shock people. Either that, or he’s just trying to torture artist Michael Avon Oeming by making him draw all those itty-bitty nekkid people. Oeming’s art is still to die for, of course. Does anyone still read Bendis’ letter column anymore? It’s like reading transcripts of some immature shock-jock radio guy who thinks he’s really, really hip. And yeah, for all my complaints, I don’t see any reason why I’ll ever drop this comic — it’s one of the most consistently great comics out there.

Whatever a Rarebit Fiend is, I guess that’s me.

Didn’t have much time to think of anything to write today. Had to run some emergency chores for family, and I got home late, and tired, and mentally drained. Didn’t feel like scanning anything, or writing notes on comics, or much of anything else. I even went to sleep early.

And what dreams I had.

I had scored a ticket to that hot new Broadway musical — you know, the one that won all those Tony Awards — and it was about superheroes and comic books! How wonderful! I couldn’t for the life of me remember what the title was, but everyone knew it was the hottest ticket in decades, and I got to go!

In fact, this was some sort of odd promotion, because everyone I went to high school with got to go, too. Umm, wheee? High school was pretty awful for me — well, isn’t that the case for everyone? But hey, free tickets to Broadway’s most popular play ever — I can live with hanging around the people from high school for a few hours.

Actually, it was a very odd promotion, because everyone there was dressed up as superheroes. Everyone. People who I knew just hated comics were gleefully dressed up in spandex and long underwear and capes and masks. Well, almost everyone. I was the only person there wearing normal clothes. No one minded. Either everyone else was just so excited about seeing this superhero musical extravaganza, or they thought I was dressed up as Clark Kent.

Well, the play was about to start soon, everyone was starting to file into the theater, and my shoes came untied. Wow, were these shoes ever difficult to tie. I’d get the knot almost completed, and it would just completely slip away. Over and over and over, I just couldn’t get these shoes tied. Everyone was in the theater, the play was about to start, I was going to miss the show, I’d never find out the title of the play, or what it was about, or anything like that, and the shoes… just… wouldn’t… tie…

And then I woke up.

Stupid dreams.

Comic artist Mike Wieringo is dead of a heart attack at 44. That’s way, way too young for us to lose such a wonderful talent.

Mark Waid is a guy who’s worked with a lot of different artists. This is what he had to say:

I could spend the rest of the day writing and writing and writing to explain how empty this makes the world and I wouldn’t come close to getting it across. Mike’s artistic style quietly influenced an entire generation of artists that followed. I could never get it into his thick, humble head in what regard he was held by his fellow professionals. Mike was a member of a very small club of illustrators–among them, Alex Toth, Michael Golden, Kevin Nowlan–who were so revered by their peers that the brilliance of their work was never a matter of debate.

Any time I saw Mike’s characteristic “‘Ringo!” signature on the cover, I knew I was going to get a beautifully and excitingly drawn comic.

He’ll be sorely missed.

Commenter Swampy and I have been going ’round and ’round about comic illustrator Greg Land. Land has provided illustrations for a large number of comics, including Ultimate Fantastic Four, Birds of Prey, Sojourn, and more. Swampy says Land is great because he illustrates very pretty pictures of very pretty women.

It is very pretty, isn’t it?

I used to believe Land was pretty good, but I don’t anymore. I think Greg Land is a rotten artist, and I’m amazed that he gets any work at all.

Wanna know why? First, let’s talk about the concept of “drawing from life.” This is something that almost every artist does. You have a model who you photograph, either posed or unposed, and you use that photo as a reference while you’re drawing. Or you have a model who comes in, and you draw them live. This isn’t just a comic book thing — just about every artist draws from life at one time or another. Rembrandt did it. Da Vinci did it. Caravaggio did it. Alex Ross does it. No one minds.

Now, let’s talk about lightboxing. You can take a drawing or a photograph of anything and attach it to a lightbox, which works by beaming light through the picture and onto a drawing surface. (That’s simplifying quite a bit, because there are lots of different kinds of lightboxes, but most of them work approximately the same way.) When you’ve got the picture beamed onto your drawing surface, you can put a piece of paper down on it and trace the picture almost perfectly.

Greg Land doesn’t draw from life. He lightboxes. He isn’t an artist. He’s a tracer.

Let’s look at some more pictures.

Game, set, and match — makes it pretty darn obvious, doesn’t it? It’s like someone dared him to make it as howlingly obvious as possible.

Land has also picked up some photos from Sports Illustrated and pinup calendars.

He also steals artwork from other artists. Like Travis Charest…

…and Bryan Hitch…

I gotta say, stealing artwork from movies or magazines is bad enough, but lifting your stuff directly from other artists and trying to pass it off as your own? That’s beyond low. That’s “beat you in the head with a posthole digger” low. That’s “avoid going to conventions so you don’t meet the people you stole from” low.

Land also picks up a lot of his “artwork” directly from pornography. He does this so darn much that a lot of folks refer to some of his artwork as “pornface.” For example, there’s this one, which is pretty much the best known example of “pornface.”

And then there’s this one, which is supposedly someone being thrown through the air by a shockwave.

Umm, wow. Wow. Yeah, I just bet that came from “legitimate photography,” don’tcha think? And I’m sure she’s 18, trust me on that one…

Especially frustrating is that fact that Land will trace these pictures, and then not try to fix the hair or faces so they look the same. For instance, in one issue of “Ultimate Fantastic Four”:

Sue Storm starts out with straight hair, but a few panels later…

Boom! Curly hair! Maybe it just got real humid? Or maybe Land was too lazy to change the hair from the curly-haired model to match the straight hair that the previous model had…

Why do comic companies continue to hire him? I really don’t know. If I were them, I’d be scared to death that one of these artists or photographers would discover Land’s theft and sue the snot out of the company. Comics companies have gotten in big trouble for this in the past — why would they risk having to pay someone a big wad of cash for this? Land’s hack artwork surely can’t be worth that kind of legal danger…

So does it really matter? Land’s fans say that as long as he keeps putting pretty girls in his comics, his books are still worth buying. I disagree pretty strenuously. A real artist has to spend a lot of time practicing, learning anatomy and facial structure, drawing stuff over and over to get it to look right. Land doesn’t do any of that. He cuts a picture out of a magazine, tapes it into his lightbox, traces it line-for-line, draws a Black Canary costume on it, then sends it in to his editor. He collects a check for being too lazy and talentless to do his own work. He collects a check for stealing other people’s work and pretending it’s his own.

Greg Land is, as far as I can tell, a talentless thief. To even pretend his stuff is worth looking at is a slap in the face to real artists like Jack Kirby, Curt Swan, the Romitas, the Kuberts, George Perez, Jack Cole, Frank Miller, and every other artist who cared enough to work at his craft, rather than steal and cheat his way into a paycheck.

You want to look at pictures of hot chicks? You don’t need Greg Land. Go buy a Playboy, and cut out the middleman.

I can’t stand to own but one or two of Land’s comics, so I had to do a ton of research online, checking out the websites of people who’d already done their own scanning, Photoshop comparisons, and analysis of Land’s work, so to get some more information about Land and other scans that demonstrate his hackery, please check out these websites:

I Against Comics

Remix’s Corner

Scans Daily

More from Scans Daily

Silver Bullet Comics

Wikipedia

I had a nasty realization this past week — I wasn’t currently reading any comics by Grant Morrison, who’s my favorite writer out there right now. Clearly, this dire situation must be remedied! So I ran out and grabbed the first Morrison comic I could find.

Batman #667

This issue has its roots back in the 1950s, when Batman’s writers came up with some stories about the “Batmen of All Nations,” a bunch of guys who were inspired by Batman to become crimefighters. Now, Batman and Robin have decided to attend one of the group’s periodic get-togethers. The years haven’t been entirely kind to the group — the Legionary has gotten fat and lazy, the Wingman is a self-centered prat, the Ranger has jumped onto the “dark hero” bandwagon, the Musketeer went a bit crazy, and Man-of-Bats is a bit of drinker. Others seem to be okay — the Knight and Squire are doing great, the Ranger is still fighting the fight, though he’s gotten a heavily armored costume, and the Gaucho has developed into a very well-respected hero in his native Argentina. But there’s an assassin stalking the group, and he plans on wiping them all out…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Seeing the old Batmen of All Nations again is a nice retro thrill, even as drastically as most of them have changed. Looks like a pretty good mystery/thriller shaping up, too. Hopefully, Batman will catch the assassin before too many of the other heroes die — DC’s stories always seem to be way too America-centric, and it’d be nice to see a few international characters being used in stories as something other than murder victims…