CBLDF/GORDON LEE VICTORY PRESS RELEASE – NEWSARAMA

Good news even if it took a while to get there.

CBLDF/GORDON LEE VICTORY PRESS RELEASE

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Press Release

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund scored a victory last Friday when prosecutors dismissed all charges against Rome, GA retailer Gordon Lee. Neil Gaiman announced that Judge Larry Salmon signed off on the dismissal on Friday evening at New York Comic Con.

“This is a victory for Gordon, and a victory for comics,” says CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein. “For more than three years, the comics world has stood behind Gordon’s innocence and now we are vindicated.”
The dismissal comes after more than three years and $100,000 of CBLDF resources were spent to prove Lee’s innocence. The battle was waged against a prosecutor’s office that grossly overcharged Lee at the start of the case, and proceeded to cause multiple delays, including throwing out and refiling charges a year and a half into the case, and creating a mistrial when the case finally went before a jury last November.
Following the mistrial, Rome District Attorney Leigh Patterson vowed to bring the case back for trial on the next misdemeanor calendar. Last winter, CBLDF counsel filed a motion to dismiss on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct. That filing detailed the history of the prosecutor’s errors up to and including the mistrial. Last February, the next trial calendar came and went without Gordon’s case being called and without that motion being heard. Shortly afterwards, Patterson’s office contacted Lee’s counsel, and said they would be willing to drop the case if Gordon wrote a letter of apology. Lee had always been willing to write such a letter, and promptly delivered one to Patterson’s office, where it sat for several weeks. After multiple attempts to bring the matter to a close, CBLDF counsel finally succeeded in moving Patterson’s office to live up to their end of the agreement and drop the case last Friday.

Lead counsel Alan Begner says, “But for the Comic Book Legal Defense F und, and their willingness and ability to go to war on this case, the results might have been much different. There certainly would have been a trial without our specialized experts, and it would have likely been a felony trial. It was a worthy fight for them, and a worthy fight for us.”

Begner adds, “The defense of comic books on obscenity charges is a highly specialized area of expertise where even really good criminal lawyers who fight these things without that expertise are at a great disadvantage. The CBLDF found me — I’m a lawyer who has tried the most obscenity cases of any lawyer in Georgia since the mid 80s, and their knowledge of the field coupled with our specialized knowledge of obscenity law made the difference. We were also able to network with the First Amendment Lawyers Association, which includes CBLDF’s Burt Joseph and Media Coalition’s Mike Bamberger, two of the great experts in the field, to maximize our strategy. We believe strongly that if we had gone to trial we’d have won. But I learned long ago that a win is win, and if they offer to dismiss it, I know not to turn it down.”

Charles Brownstein adds, “This is a great victory for comics. Because of the support from all levels of the industry, the CBLDF was able to successfully fight back against a prosecutor who seemed determined to run a small retailer out of business. We were fortunate to engage the best legal team in Georgia, and the best experts in the region. We’re grateful to Alan & Cory Begner, our lead counsel, and Paul Cadle, our local counsel, for working so aggressively to make this case a win. And most of all, we’re grateful to all of our supporters for sticking with Gordon through all the ups and downs this case has had. Thanks to them, we were able to see this through to victory.”

CBLDF/GORDON LEE VICTORY PRESS RELEASE – NEWSARAMA

NYCC ‘08: THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES PANEL – NEWSARAMA

You can also listen to this as a podcast here:

http://www.dccomics.com/media/podcasts/DCComics_2008-04-19_Legion_New_York_Comic_Con_2008.mp3 

NYCC ‘08: THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES PANEL

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by Chris Mautner
Lest anyone doubt the popularity of DC’s flagship team book The Legion of Super-Heroes, let him or her discuss the matter with the devoted throng that attended the 50th anniversary panel at the New York Comic-Con this Saturday afternoon.
Though far from packed, a sizable crowd nevertheless showed up to hear artist Keith Giffen, writer (and DC comics publisher) Paul Levitz and current Legion editor Mike Marts talk about their experiences working on the book.
Asked by moderator and historian Peter Sanderson what was the defining element that made the Legion such a revolutionary book, Levitz cited the title’s willingness to let the characters age, change their relationships and even, in the seminal case of Lightning Lad, die. Giffen pointed out that of all superhero teams, the Legion was the first to recognize the price of heroism.
“Up until then comics had come out of classic comic strip tradition of freeze frame. Everyone is going to be same age forever,” Levitz said. “The Legion, four issues into own series said ‘Screw this stuff, we’re going to kill people and change relationships.’”
Marts cited the book’s clubhouse atmosphere, which gave younger readers a strong opportunity for identification. “A lot of kids knew you couldn’t be Superman or Batman but hanging out in clubhouse with friends is something you did all the time,” he said. “You could relate to them almost immediately.
Giffen, meanwhile, stressed the book offering a counterpoint to the dystopian, post-apocalyptic future type of stories that have become so popular these days. The Legion, he said, gave you a “future you wanted to live in. … That’s when it made its mark.”
Asked about past contributors to the lengthy series, Levitz discussed how writers like Jerry Siegel and Ed Hamilton brought, respectively a levity and an epic sense of scale to the work early on, while Jim Shooter (who was supposed to attend but had to cancel his appearance at the convention) brought a humanity to characters who had previously been somewhat cardboard – something that, to this day still amazes Levitz, given that Shooter was showing that sense of humanity while he was 13 years old. All three cited the work of the late artist Dave Cockrum as seminal. The contributions of Curt Swan and Jim Sherman were also highly praised.
Asked about the specific challenges of working on the Legion, the immense number of characters (“30 damned characters” as Giffen put it) and their histories, costumes, and other miscellany were cited as a strong hurdle.
“I thought I was somewhat familiar with the Legion when I came on board, but I was in for a little bit of a surprise,” Marts said. “Knowing what color Batman’s costume is pretty simple,” versus the multitude of legion kids. “It’s tricky to keep the look consistent.”
Levitz stressed the need to be willing, especially for artists, to delve into the challenge that is the group’s immense history while being willing to build new worlds. “For Legion you either get the crazy artist who’s willing to put everything in it or it really shows,” he said.
The Legion’s past reboots were discussed, with Giffen saying that his “5 Years Later” shift in the Legion (which has a love/hate relationship with fans) came about due to his not knowing what else to do when he landed the writing chores on the title after Levitz.
Asked about Legion’s future, Marts said Shooter has an intricate plot laid out and that readers would see more romance and perhaps even a wedding in the book’s future. He also said a legion-related project would be coming out at the end of the year, adding that Shooter is “on for the long haul.”
“There’s nobody lining up to draw or write the Legion,” Giffen added, talking about all the worlds and space aliens an artist would have to invent for such a comic. “There’s no point of reference you have to make it up as you go along.”
The high point of the panel had to be when, in response to a fan question, Giffen voiced his ire for the character Karate Kid.
“I hate that character,” he said good-naturedly. “I agreed to come on Countdown only if I could kill him. If I come on Legion again, he’s dead.”
Why does he hate him so much? “Two words put together. Super-Karate.”
“Everyone in this field has characters they hate,” Giffen said. “I just have the bad taste to say it out loud.”

NYCC ‘08: THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES PANEL – NEWSARAMA

Press Release: MOENCH & GULACY LIBRARY HITS THE WEB

April 23, 2008

For Immediate Release

Smashout Comics, an online comics publisher specializing in quality reprints and original
projects, announces the publication of the complete creator-owned works of the long-running team,
Doug Moench & Paul Gulacy.

Best known for their work on Marvel’s Shang-Chi, Master of Kung-Fu, Moench & Gulacy have a large
body of creator-owned projects throughout their professional relationship, and Smashout Comics is
offering all of them for free download on Wowio.com.

First up is Six from Sirius and Six from Sirius II, a tale of futuristic bounty hunters originally
published by Epic Comics.

“Within my body of work, Six from Sirius will always stand as a special project for many reasons,”
says Moench. Creative freedom and control were key, copyright ownership a blessing, and working
with editor Archie Goodwin a relief and a joy. But I always come back to the art, the extra time
and care lavished by Paul Gulacy. After seeing far too many exquisitely penciled Gulacy pages
diminish under inadequate or inappropriate inks, it was a genuine thrill to receive pages inked by
Paul himself, the true Gulacy shining through from start to finish. And then he topped it off by
coloring the pages as well. Hand-colored, with special markers. No matter how many times I look at
this work, it remains gorgeous.”

“One thing that draws me to sci-fi is the immense playground you have to work with,” says Gulacy.
“This story was a labor of love, and Doug was the perfect partner to do the scripting chores
considering his thorough knowledge of the genre. My choice of mediums included marker pens,
acrylics and colored pencils. Six from sirius was one of the most powerful, compelling, thought
provoking stories i’ve ever worked on that still holds up over 25 years later. A real must-see for
sci-fi fans and followers of our work.”

Smashout Comics will soon publish SCI Spy, a James Bond meets outer space tale originally
published by DC/Vertigo. Look for this project on the site in May.

Also in May, Moench & Gulacy will headline a new line of digital anthologies. The first issue of
Smashout 100 will lead off with Blood on Black Satin, a little-seen Moench & Gulacy horror short
story originally published by Eerie in the 1970s.

Finally, Smashout Comics is offering the first issue of the time-hopping Moench series Aztec Ace,
originally published by Eclipse. Moench is joined on Aztec Ace by a variety of artists, including
Michael Hernandez and Dan Day. The remaining issues of the series will follow throughout 2008.

Download Moench & Gulacy’s projects free here:

http://www.wowio.com/users/searchresults.asp?txtSearch=moench+gulacy

ABOUT SMASHOUT COMICS
Smashout Comics (www.smashout.net) is an independent comics studio that focuses on online reprints
and original series on Wowio.com, and is responsible for webcomics GAMBLING SOULS, GROUNDED ANGEL,
and THE DRIFTER, the Image print comic STRONGARM, and the how-to books WEBCOMICS 2.0 from Course
PTR and PROFESSIONAL MANGA from Focal Press.

About WOWIO LLC
WOWIO LLC, a privately owned company based in York, PA, opened on the World Wide Web in August
2006 and endeavors to dramatically expand access to important written works by eliminating the
economic, geographic, and logistical barriers of readers. WOWIO is today the only source where
readers can legally download high-quality copyrighted e-books from leading publishers for free.
Readers have access to a wide range of offerings, including works of classic literature, college
textbooks, comic books, and popular fiction and non-fiction titles.

NYCC ‘08: DC’s [Final] FINAL CRISIS PANEL – NEWSARAMA

 

NYCC ‘08: DC’s [Final] FINAL CRISIS PANEL

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Report by Albert Ching
With the third installment of the New York Comic Con drawing to a close Sunday, DC’s final panel of the convention focused on, appropriately enough, Final Crisis. DC Universe Executive Editor Dan DiDio was joined by Final Crisis artist JG Jones, editor Eddie Berganza, assistant editor Adam Schlagman and, arriving about 15 minutes into the panel, Grant Morrison, writer of the mini-series
DiDio began the panel by explaining the basic concept behind Final Crisis – that it’s the third part of both “official” and “unofficial” trilogies in the DC Universe. Officially, it’s the third “Crisis” after Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis, with the former representing the “death of the multiverse,” the latter representing the ‘rebuilding of the multiverse,” and Final Crisis being the “final saga of the multiverse.”
Unofficially, it’s part of a trilogy of recent events that DiDio calls “an exploration of our heroes.” Identity Crisis, the first part, was in DiDio’s words, a “personal threat” to the protagonists of the DC Universe. Follow-up Infinite Crisis was “putting the greatest odds against the heroes,” and Final Crisis is ‘the day that evil won.”
“This is the one time evil wins,” said DiDio. “What does that mean for our heroes?”

 

Read more

NEWSARAMA.COM: NYCC ‘08 – MONDO MARVEL PANEL

 

NYCC ‘08: MONDO MARVEL PANEL

Report by Albert Ching

Mondo Marvel, a convention circuit staple focusing on Marvel Comics product as a whole, kicked off that company’s programming at the third annual New York Comic Con. In attendance Friday afternoon was senior editors Axel Alonso and Tom Brevoort, writers Greg Pak, Dan Slott, Brian Reed, Marc Guggenheim, Fred Van Lente, Cable writer and incoming Immortal Iron Fist writer Duane Swierczynski, C.B. Cebulski, Marvel marketing’s Jim McCann and, hosting the panel, Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada. Spider-editor Steve Wacker and writer Jason Aaron were said to be arriving shortly.

Read more

NEWSARAMA.COM: NYCC ‘08 – DC’s DC NATION PANEL

 

NYCC ‘08: DC’s DC NATION PANEL

Report by Albert Ching

With many Marvel staffers still filing out of the panel room, Dan DiDio quickly began the first DC Universe panel of New York Comic Con Friday evening, “DC Nation”. He introduced the panel – Bob Wayne, Jann Jones, Keith Giffen, Gail Simone, Jimmy Palmiotti, Sean McKeever, Geoff Johns, Peter Tomasi and Ian Sattler – and then said this DC Nation panel will “do thing a little differently” (“Thank God,” someone behind this reporter said).

Read more

NEWSARAMA.COM: COUNTDOWN TO NY COMIC CON: DAN DIDIO ON FINAL BATMAN R.I.P. & TRINITY

 

COUNTDOWN TO NY COMIC CON: DAN DIDIO ON BATMAN R.I.P. & TRINITY

Welcome to the premiere of a new era here at Newsarama – the video era. As we and the New York Comic Con jointly announced a couple of months ago, Newsarama will be on hand at this weekend’s third annual con in our digital newsroom/studio interviewing many of the show’s biggest guests. That coverage will begin Friday and all throughout the weekend.

But since we were getting ready for the show anyway, we thought we’d get a running head-start on our new video wrinkle by recently paying a visit to the DC Comics offices in New York, NY, to catch up with DC Universe Executive Editor Dan DiDio on some of the publisher’s most high-profile projects heading into the convention, a hint or two (if you look closely) about upcoming goings-on, as well as a few words about some new DC announcements you’ll be hearing from the convention floor.

We’ve asked our friends and media partners from Pulp Secret’s The Stack to be your guide for our DC visit, and we usher in this new era with a talk with DiDio about Batman R.I.P and Trinity and what you need to know heading into the convention and DC’s summer publishing plans…

And check out our new video archive page for more videos with DiDio talking about Final Crisis and its tie-in titles, the exclusive announcement of the artist who will join James Robinson on the writer’s upcoming new Justice League title, and more…

NEWSARAMA.COM: COUNTDOWN TO NY COMIC CON: DAN DIDIO ON FINAL BATMAN R.I.P. & TRINITY

NEWSARAMA.COM: COUNTDOWN TO NY COMIC CON: DAN DIDIO ON FINAL CRISIS & TIE-INS

 

COUNTDOWN TO NY COMIC CON: DAN DIDIO ON FINAL CRISIS & TIE-INS

In this video, DCU Executive Editor Dan DiDio talks to Newsarama about the upcoming Grant Morrison/JG Jones Final Crisis event, along with DC Universe #0, Geoff Johns and George Perez’s Legion of Three Worlds, and more…

As always, looks for an archive of all these videos on Newsarama’s special New York Comic Con Mini-Site and/or new video archive page…

NEWSARAMA.COM: COUNTDOWN TO NY COMIC CON: DAN DIDIO ON FINAL CRISIS & TIE-INS

NEWSARAMA.COM: COUNTDOWN TO NY COMIC CON: DAN DIDIO REVEALS NEW JUSTICE LEAGUE ARTIST

 

COUNTDOWN TO NY COMIC CON: DAN DIDIO REVEALS NEW JUSTICE LEAGUE ARTIST

In this video, Dan DiDio has an announcement for you – the identity of the artist who will join writer James Robinson on his upcoming new Justice League series. Plus, Dan talks to Newsarama more about Robinson’s plans, and the line-up for the new league team…

As always, looks for an archive of all these videos on Newsarama’s special New York Comic Con Mini-Site and/or new video archive page…

NEWSARAMA.COM: COUNTDOWN TO NY COMIC CON: DAN DIDIO REVEALS NEW JUSTICE LEAGUE ARTIST

WINNER NAMED IN SHADOWLINE’S WHO WANTS TO CREATE A SUPER-HEROINE CONTEST – NEWSARAMA

 

WINNER NAMED IN SHADOWLINE’S WHO WANTS TO CREATE A SUPER-HEROINE CONTEST

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Press Release

With over 5,000 entries to go through, five finalists were announced in what may have been comics’ first contest for writers! For the first time ever the fans were allowed to choose their favorite, which will go on to be published through Shadowline as 3-issue mini-series, drawn by fan-favorite artist Franchesco!

The clear winner was Tom Arguello’s Incredible Journey:
Journey Dominguez was a normal teenage girl with big dreams living in a world full of superheroes. All she ever wanted was to be one of them. Everything changes one day when she finds a strange necklace on the street. She puts it on only to find out that she cannot take it off, and that it gives her the ability to summon a temporary superpower for whatever situation she’s in. There’s only one catch; every time she uses a power, she is really stealing it from one of the Superheroes, leaving them permanently powerless and the world increasingly defenseless. All Journey Dominguez ever wanted to be was a super hero. Now, she must convince the world she is not a super villain!

Shadowline Editor-in-Chief Kris Simon and President Jim Valentino would like to congratulate Tom and the four runners-up for their participation over these last 3 months:
1. Kat Cahill: I Hate Galaxy Girl
2. Dirk Manning: Hope
3. C. Edward Sellner: I’ll Fly Away
4. Kristopher Waddell: Challenger

But it doesn’t end here! Over the next several months we will be showing the entire process of creating a comic from plot to script, from layouts to finished art giving an insiders view into making a comic step-by-step, warts and all (another first?) with a lot of help from the artist, Franchesco! It should prove to be an educational experience for anyone interested in making comics.
Please join us at www.kris-korner.com in the ‘Who Wants to Create a Super Heroine’ forum and watch as the book progresses through its many stages.
Shadowline would like to thank all of those who submitted, voted, our final five and yes, even all those who nitpicked, griped and were otherwise rude…at least we got you talking and hopefully, thinking. And now, you’ll excuse us as we’re about to embark on an Incredible Journey!

WINNER NAMED IN SHADOWLINE’S WHO WANTS TO CREATE A SUPER-HEROINE CONTEST – NEWSARAMA

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