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Shitty check nets comic thief 7 years jail time!

May 8th, 2009 No Comments »
Posted in Uncategorized

From the Daily Herald:

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=291970

A not-so-friendly neighborhood thief was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison for stealing a rare 1963 Spider-Man collector’s comic book in Naperville.

Scott K. Meherg, 28, formerly of Des Plaines, received the sentence after he pleaded guilty to felony theft. He is eligible for parole after serving half the prison term.

Meherg admitted writing a fraudulent check on Dec. 10, 2007 for $980.99 at Graham Cracker Comics in Naperville.

Prosecutor Louisa Nuckolls said police traced the bad check to Meherg, who signed his own name, after a store manager identified him in a photo lineup. She said police also obtained Meherg’s fingerprints on the check.

Meherg was on the lam until last summer when police spun a web, and caught the thief in Ogle County where he was wanted on unrelated charges.

Authorities never recovered the second-edition comic, based on the fictional Peter Parker, otherwise known as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

“It’s a popular edition. Everyone’s still looking for it,” said Michael Wall, the store manager who helped nab Meherg. “It was in fairly good condition. We bought it either in a collection or from another dealer.”

George Ford, a senior DuPage County assistant public defender, said Meherg has a drug addiction and the comic book likely was sold.

DuPage Circuit Judge Peter J. Dockery, who presided over Thursday’s plea deal, also ordered Meherg to pay $980.99 restitution. Meherg’s criminal history included prior convictions for burglary, theft and deceptive practices.

Graham Cracker Comics no longer accepts personal checks.

“I’m not satisfied,” Wall said. “We lost our money and we lost our book.”

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Wanna be superheroes need to maybe get some muscles?

May 1st, 2009 No Comments »
Posted in Uncategorized

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Marvel’s $3.99 Books

April 28th, 2009 1 Comment »
Posted in Uncategorized

From  http://www.weeklycrisis.com/2009/04/marvels-399-books.html

Marvel’s $3.99 Books

The issue of cover prices has been making lots of headlines lately with many people dropping books that see increases from $2.99 to $3.99 and others dropping titles to make room for old favourites that were increased and so on.

While DC was content to reserve their $3.99 price tag for miniseries and events, they recently announced co-features (aka 8 page backups) to select comics to justify a price increase. Marvel, on the other hand, led the charge to $3.99 ongoings with Dark Avengers, New Avengers, Thor, and Hulk, which they’ve gone out of their way to state on numerous occasions are their only titles that will be $3.99 outside of the odd event or miniseries.

Yet the recent solicits seem to suggest otherwise. Hit the jump for general thoughts on $3.99 books and to find out what Marvel titles are making the jump to $3.99.

$3.99 Or Bust

First off, I just wanted to point out that Marvel is pushing out about 104 titles (I tried to leave out poster books or what have you, but it’s roughly 104) for the month of July. Of those 104 titles, would you believe roughly 37 of them are not $3.99 or above? Here’s a breakdown of Marvel’s output for the past few months in a convenient table (Note: numbers are manually counted based on solicits found at Comic Book Resources. While I tried my best to be as accurate as possible, there may be errors and solicits can change or contain mistakes as well):

Month $2.99 $3.99 $4.99 $5.99
July 37 58 4 5
June 40 57 2 5
May 47 51 2 6
April 44 50 2 6
As the above table shows, the number of $3.99 books per month has drastically increased and, more alarmingly, so have the number of $4.99 and $5.99 titles (although, they are relatively few to begin with and are mostly 70+ page count reprints of past storylines). Of note, about half of the $3.99 books are the standard 32 page comic with ads format while the remainder are mostly 40 pages with ads.

Also of note, the number of $3.99 titles back in January totaled about 39, making for roughly a 20% increase in $3.99 priced comics over the course of seven months since they originally made the switch to $3.99 ongoings back with the launch of Dark Avengers. In fact, it’s almost been a complete reversal in the numbers between $2.99 and $3.99 titles.

For comparison’s sake, DC Comics has roughly 80 titles a month and was averaging about 60 comics at the $2.99 price point. This has dropped slightly with the addition of about six co-features to select books, which are now priced at $3.99, but with 40 pages with ads.

Meet the New $3.99’s, Same as the Old $2.99’s

Up until now, Marvel has been fairly true to the ‘only four ongoings are $3.99′ spiel. Key words being ‘up until now’.

UNCANNY X-MEN #513
Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Terry Dodson

“UTOPIA: CHAPTER 2”
WHO ARE THE DARK X-MEN? He has his own Avengers team and now Norman Osborn has his own X-Men team. The other shoe has finally dropped and Emma Frost has betrayed Cyclops and the rest of the X-Men. And that’s just one of the huge surprises in “UTOPIA”. Is that Namor? Cloak and Dagger? Professor X?! The thing that you aren’t ready for is that Osborn is right.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

Uncanny X-Men seems to be joining the $3.99 titles for a standard 32 page comic. I assume the logic behind it is that they can’t justify selling us the other half of the story, which takes place in Dark Avengers, at the $3.99 price point, so, instead of dropping DA’s price to $2.99 for a couple of months, they are upping the price on Uncanny. I would imagine they are also testing the waters for Uncanny’s readers and I would be shocked to see the book revert to $2.99 come the September or October solicits when the crossover with Dark Avengers ends.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #601
Written by Ed Brubaker
Pencils and Cover by Gene Colan

A special double-sized issue featuring art by the legendary Gene Colan! Bucky and Nick Fury uncover a lost tale from Cap and Bucky’s days in WW2 – a tale of horror and war and brothers-in-arms.
48 PGS./Rated A …$3.99

Yes, Captain America is technically 48 pages and an anniversary issue, but this marks the third month in a row, with the previous 50th and 600th issue anniversary issues also seeing price jumps, that it will be at that price point or higher. While it’s not officially a $3.99 book yet, don’t be shocked to see Captain America as a $3.99 monthly when next month’s solicits roll around. Other option is Marvel keeps making up anniversaries and changing numbers on the book ad nauseum, which I’m not going to put past them at this point.

X-MEN FOREVER #3 & 4
Written by Chris Claremont
Art by Tom Grummett

The mansion is still reeling from the events of the previous issue; having just scraped through the Fabian Cortez mission by the skin of their teeth, they were completely unprepared for a psychic blast from Jean, which rendered them all unconscious, and even less prepared for the subsequent surprise visit from one of their greatest nemeses, SABRETOOTH! But as the dust from the battle between the X-Men and this invader—culminating in a brutal battle between Sabes and a particularly vicious Storm—all may not be as it appears… Plus, what secret is Kitty hiding up her sleeve? Don’t miss comics legend and New York Times Bestselling Author CHRIS CLAREMONT’s thrilling return to the X-MEN!
32 PGS.(each)/Rated A …$3.99 (each)

I’m not sure if Claremont just knows where the bodies are buried or what, but he has some way of getting these types of projects approved that simply boggles the mind. Case in point, this is a bi-weekly ongoing at the $3.99 price point. I was hoping the opening issues were the only ones that would be higher priced, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

PUNISHER: FRANK CASTLE MAX #72
Written by Victor Gischler
Penciled by Goran Parlov

‘WELCOME TO THE BAYOU,” PART 2
Frank thought he was only passing through the Louisiana Bayou…until he crossed paths with a suspicious family of rednecks and decided to make their business his business. The Geautreauxs are throwing themselves a barbeque with all the fixings – and Frank Castle is the main course.
32 PGS./Explicit Content …$3.99

Of course, there’s also the Punisher MAX title, which is, for some reason, excluded from any mention of an ongoing that has a $3.99 price tag, despite having been so for a while now. Marvel’s first rule of $3.99 books is obviously that we don’t talk about $3.99 books.

WOLVERINE: WEAPON X #3
Written by Jason Aaron
Art by Ron Garney

In the third issue of this all-new ongoing series from the same creative team as last year’s sold-out “Get Mystique” storyline, the super soldiers of Strikeforce X have Wolverine trapped in the jungles of Colombia. They are heavily armed, ruthlessly brutal and outnumber him 12 to 1. But when one of their ranks disappears and screams begin to ring out through the darkness each night, the soldiers ask themselves…who’s really the hunted?
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99

While there is no solicit for Weapon X for July, it’s also a $3.99 ongoing that has gone unnoticed by most, particularly in Marvel’s steadfast “only 4 ongoing $3.99 titles” company line.

Final Thoughts

These are just a few of the titles that will be $3.99 in the coming months and, based on the accelerated rate of books making the jump to $3.99, expect Marvel’s entire line to be pushed to the $3.99 price tag come early 2010. The question then becomes, will events and miniseries make the jump to $4.99 once everything else is set at $3.99?

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From CBR:The comics Internet in two minutes

April 15th, 2009 1 Comment »
Posted in Uncategorized

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/04/comics-am-the-comics-internet-in-two-minutes-57/

Alan Moore

Alan Moore (by Sean McCabe)

Legal | Joint committees in the Philippines House of Representatives have approved a bill banning pornographic comics. The newspaper article defines hentai as “the Japanese cartoon that depicts children in explicit sexual activity,” so it’s unclear what the language of the legislation is. However, the bill apparently would make the possession of “hentai” punishable by six to 12 years in prison and a fine. [Manila Standard Today]

Publishing | Disney Publishing Worldwide has made a licensing deal with Indian publisher Junior Diamond to release Disney comics in that country in English and Hindi. [Business Standard]

Creators | In an article titled “The Sorcery of Alan Moore,” James Parker considers the influence of the comic-book writer on popular culture, dwelling too much on the film adaptations of his work: “If part of the enterprise of comics writers over the past 30 years has been to reclaim and reinterpret an earlier, apparently exhausted symbolic world, then Moore has been the high priest of this postmodern ritual.” [The Atlantic]

From 100 Bullets #100

From 100 Bullets #100

Creators | Brian Azzarello talks about the end of his “postmodern noir” series 100 Bullets. To mark the occasion — the final, 100th issue hits stores today — Tucker Stone examines the writer’s other stories, from 1996’s Primer #1 to 1998’s Jonny Double to 2002’s Cage. [The Underwire, The Factual Opinion]

Publishing | Laura Hudson spotlights Sweden’s “young, flourishing comics scene” and moves by Top Shelf Productions to publish some of the creators in North America. [PW Comics Week]

Publishing | Johanna Draper Carlson talks with Archie Comics Managing Editor Mike Pellerito about the “Young Salem” storyline in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and what will happen to the title afterward. [Comics Worth Reading]

Omni-Man, by Cory Walker

Omni-Man, by Cory Walker

Comics | On last night’s episode of G4’s Attack of the Show, Blair Butler announced Invincible co-creator Cory Walker will return to the Image Comics series for a two-part story in issues 66 and 67. [Fresh Ink]

Comics | Recent comments on Mike Kunkel’s blog had left some wondering whether the cartoonist had been removed from DC Comics’ increasingly late Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! However, it looks like Tiny Titans team of Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani, plus an unnamed artist, will only be providing fill-in issues to help keep the series on a monthly schedule. [Comics Worth Reading, Newsarama]

Batman and Robin #2

Batman and Robin #2

Comics | Frank Quitely’s cover for Batman and Robin #2 has been revealed. Updated with color art. [The Source]

Creators | Dwight Garner reviews Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s autobiography A Drifting Life, but the piece serves as a decent profile of the legendary manga creator. [The New York Times]

Creators | Rachelle Goguen chats briefly with Jeff Parker about Mysterius the Unfathomable and collaborating with Tom Fowler. [Living Between Wednesdays]

Creators | Portland State University’s student newspaper is thrilled that Achewood creator Chris Onstad has moved to Portland — even if his characters haven’t. “I’ve thought about this,” Onstad says. “Basically, the strip is set in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I don’t want to uproot it, I don’t want to move it up here. I don’t think I need to. Hopefully we’ll see a renewed energy, but not trips to the PSU farmer’s market or riding bicycles.” [Daily Vanguard]

Manga | “What qualities make a manga irresistibly addictive?” John Jakala has some ideas. [Sporadic Sequential]

Comics | Matt Springer considers “American Mash-up Comics” as a genre, of sorts — and one not confined to comics. [Alert Nerd]

Art | I know that I linked to Paolo Rivera’s “Wacky Reference Wednesdays” feature just last week, but this shot of the artist dressed as Doctor Doom is too good to pass up. [The Self-Absorbing Man]

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FOX COLUMNIST FIRED OVER WOLVERINE REVIEW

April 7th, 2009 1 Comment »
Posted in Uncategorized

From the Pulse news:

“After Roger Friedman reviewed the bootleg version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the veteran Fox columnist found himself with a giant X on his back. After days of rumors that he was fired from Fox, the network has issued a statement about the situation.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Fox issued this statement:

Quote:
Fox News representatives and Roger Friedman met today and mutually agreed to part ways immediately. Fox News appreciates Mr. Friedman’s ten years of contributions to building foxnews.com and wishes him success in his future endeavors. Mr. Friedman is grateful to his colleagues for their friendship and support over the past decade.”

That’s what you get for supporting the illegal download of one of your networks films!
Dumbass!
-H
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The Stan Lee Lawsuit continues

April 6th, 2009 No Comments »
Posted in Uncategorized

From PRWeb http://www.prweb.com/releases/stan_lee/copy_write/prweb2295004.htm :

New suit filed Friday against Stan Lee in LA Federal Court for enforcement of Rights Assignment Stan Lee made of his name and all his creations. Stan Lee Media Inc shareholder Jose Abadin filed a new shareholder suit against Lee on behalf of Stan Lee Media after Federal Judge Wilson rules Lee illegally transferred characters from Bankruptcy Estate of Stan Lee Media to POW Entertainment.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) April 6, 2009 — Spider Man creator Stan Lee was named as a defendant in a new Stan Lee Media shareholder suit filed by Jose Abadin in Los Angeles Federal Court on Friday, April 3, 2009, Case #CV09-2340 SUW.

Stan Lee Sued To Enforce  Assignment of all of His Creative Rights to Stan Lee Media
Stan Lee Sued To Enforce Assignment of all of His Creative Rights to Stan Lee Media

Abadin’s suit, on behalf of all Stan Lee Media Inc shareholders, followed Federal Judge Stephen Wilson’s notification to the United States Copyright Office of his ruling that Stan Lee, and his public company POW Entertainment (POWN:BB) illegally assigned copyrights on the Stan Lee Media characters The Drifter and Accuser to POW Entertainment in 2006. (see attachments, court case #s CV 07-225-SVW and 07-4438-SVW).

These contested creations have been the basis of various highly publicized licensing and joint venture deals between Stan Lee’s POW Entertainment and Sprint Mobil, Starz Entertainment and a division of Liberty Media.

Jose Abadin, a Los Angeles based investment banker and stock broker, has been a substantial investor in Stan Lee Media since 1999, when the investment banking firm he was associated with provided multi-million dollar venture funding to Stan Lee Media.

The suit requests judicial enforcement of, and damages for the violation of Stan Lee Media’s rights under Stan Lee’s October 1998 Employment and Rights Assignment Agreement in which Lee assigned everything he owned “in the creative universe,” including his name, to capitalize the dot com Stan Lee founded in 1998, Stan Lee Media Inc of Colorado.

In a related federal suit filed in New York (Case # 07 Civ. 2238) on behalf of Stan Lee Media shareholders, Lee and Marvel Entertainment are being sued to obtain Stan Lee’s co-creator’s profits to Lee’s “world famous creations” for Marvel including Spider Man, Ironman and X-Men. These rights are alleged to have been included in Lee’s universal rights assignment to Stan Lee Media. (see attached).

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Leaked Wolverine: Over 1 million served (and counting)

April 6th, 2009 No Comments »
Posted in Uncategorized

From Robot 6:

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/04/leaked-wolverine-over-1-million-served-and-counting/

More than 1 million people have downloaded X-Men Origins: Wolverine since an early copy of the 20th Century Fox film was leaked online last Tuesday.

That’s according to TorrentFreak, which follows all things BitTorrent-related.

More than three weeks from its theatrical release, the movie is the most popular torrent on The Pirate Bay, which bills itself as the world’s largest BitTorrent tracker.

In related news, News Corp. may be backing away from its firing of FoxNews.com columnist Roger Friedman, who drew criticism over the weekend for downloading and reviewing Wolverine. News Corp. is the parent company of 20th Century Fox and Fox News.

Although News Corp. stated clearly that it had “promptly terminated” Friedman, the gossip reporter denied to ABC News that he’d been fired. According to The Huffington Post, Friedman was to meet today with Fox News executives to decide his fate.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens on May 1.

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The Official blog of the DCU!

April 6th, 2009 No Comments »
Posted in DC, Uncategorized

DC now has an official blog on their site aptly named “the Source”

Its a great site to keep up with all things DC,  check it:

http://dcublog.dccomics.com/

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‘Angel’ actor Andy Hallett dies at age 33 of heart disease

April 6th, 2009 No Comments »
Posted in Angel

By Solvej Schou, The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – An agent for 33-year-old singer and actor Andy Hallett says the former cast member from the vampire TV series “Angel” has died of congestive heart disease.

Hallett’s agent Pat Brady says Hallett died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after having problems breathing. Brady says he has battled the heart condition for the past five years.

Hallett was a fan favourite on the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” spinoff as Lorne, a green-skinned good guy demon who runs a karaoke club and can read a person’s aura when they sing.

The show ran five seasons on the WB network and ended in 2004.

Hallett, an only child, is survived by his father Dave Hallett and mother Lori Hallett.

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Artist Frank Springer passes away

April 6th, 2009 No Comments »
Posted in Uncategorized

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/04/artist-frank-springer-passes-away/

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