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