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[Brentai]

I like how the two people who dress up like heroes as a sort of fetishistic thing are the ones who are supposed to represent the everyman caught in the middle.

(Also iirc the most of the New Minutemen actually hated Rorschach even before he snapped and only gave him the time of day because he was already partnered up with Nite Owl II, which in itself was a real odd couple relationship.)

[Büge]

particularly scathing 4thletter editorial: http://4thletter.net/2012/04/trying-to-guard-the-fortress-of-a-king-theyve-never-seen-or-met/

JMS has said this before, but since Alan Moore sometimes uses characters created by people who got to enjoy the money, fame, and recognition of the full lifespan of those characters before they died and the characters lapsed into public domain and therefore belong to the culture at large, enriching all of us, Moore is a hypocrite! Worse than that, he’s the most odious type of hypocrite! A fanfic hypocrite! I mean, what kind of writer works on things he didn’t invent himself? Slip and fall down your slippery slope, Alan, and take your moral high ground (how do I type with a whiny baby voice? is there an html tag for that?) with you.

[Thad]

“Did Alan Moore get a crummy contract? Yes. So has everyone at this table. Worse was [Siegel] and Shuster, worse was a lot of people.”

...so, uh...that makes it okay?

(BTW you guys your bosses are still in court trying to continue to screw Siegel and Shuster's heirs out of the ownership stake the law says they ARE entitled to, REGARDLESS of how bad their contract was.  JUST SAYIN'.)

[Thad]

Brothers follows up.

I don’t know how to put it any plainer. DC Comics is screwing Alan Moore right here in front of us, and the best Newsarama has to offer is that it’s a “so-called ‘controversy’”? One, it is a controversy, and two, you don’t just not talk about the controversy because the books are going to come out anyway. What kind of fatalist, ridiculous garbage is that? I mean, gosh, you don’t tell somebody with cancer, “Look, we both know you got some cancers up in there, so why don’t we talk about the weather, instead?”

And no. You don’t do that. You talk about the cancer, you treat the cancer, you tear it out and stamp on it until it’s gone. Until it’s a memory of a time when Marvel could tell Jack Kirby to give up any rights he was owed, when Marvel could promise Frank Miller that Elektra was going to stay dead and then bring her back anyway, when Ditko disappeared from mainstream comics, when Moore & Gibbons were cheated out of what they’re owed, and when editors used creators like chess pieces because they were eager to get the books out on time, instead of like people who they thought could do a great job.

It’s 2012. A lot of things have changed since Siegel & Shuster got their raw deal. But not enough has changed, clearly, if we’re still having this same old stupid conversation.

Amen, Brothers.

[Ted Belmont]

Man, Brothers has been on sort of a tear about this issue. Here's a piece he did for CA today about the ethical rot at the heart of Marvel and DC's business models.

[Niku]

Amen, Brothers.

thad stop reading people's blogs specifically so you have an excuse to make a pun with their name somewhere down the line

[Büge]

Man, Brothers has been on sort of a tear about this issue. Here's a piece he did for CA today about the ethical rot at the heart of Marvel and DC's business models.

Ha ha, I love how they included [Opinion] in the title, because they're really actually totally psyched to read the Watchmen Prequels, for real, and it's not because they don't want to lose their good relationship with the Big Two.

[Thad]

thad stop reading people's blogs specifically so you have an excuse to make a pun with their name somewhere down the line

NEVER

Ha ha, I love how they included [Opinion] in the title, because they're really actually totally psyched to read the Watchmen Prequels, for real, and it's not because they don't want to lose their good relationship with the Big Two.

Er, they slap categories on things, dude.  Opinion, Humor, Art, Preview, etc.  This is clearly an opinion peace.  As were the raft of posts Laura Hudson and the rest of the staff put up last fall about the sexism in DC's New 52 and Big Two comics as a whole -- not something she did because she was worried about retaliation.

I've got my complaints about CA/AOL/Huffington, but "they put 'Opinion' on opinion pieces" is not one of them.

(EDIT: I've looked back at the Hudson posts and they're actually not tagged "Opinion" in the title; I stand corrected on that one.  I still think it's more a case of CA being woefully inconsistent in its sorting and indexing than any kind of ass-kissing.)

[Büge]

Rats. I thought I was being clever.

[Büge]

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=38300

Almost like a shadow on the wall, Moore and his very public issues over the prequels and his treatment by DC were never far from the conversation, and it wasn't long before Lee addressed both directly. "This is not a situation where we have taken things from Alan," Lee stated, firmly. "He signed an agreement and he said, 'I didn't read the contract.' I can't force him to read his contract -- or the people [who were in charge] back then.

Yeah, because it's not like you ever cut ties with a company because they were dicking you around, right, Jim?

[Thad]

Thad Is Slow, Indicator #714:

I just realized the significance that the very first thing in this comic is Rorschach looking at a dog carcass.


EDIT: And immediately goes from talking about a dog carcass to referring to his "true face".

[Thad]

Speaking of good creators' rights articles on The Comics Beat, The creator’s position viewed through the lens of Alan Moore.

The contract that Moore and Gibbons signed is actually pretty standard in publishing — the rights revert when it goes out of print. Pretty common.

Where it differs is in this: In the book publishing world, in general, when an author such as Alan Moore writes a worldwide smash that is quickly enshrined as a future classic….you try to keep that person working for you so you can make even more money off their future works.

DC, for reasons probably buried in their DNA from Jack Liebowitz, proceeded to alienate Moore by chintzing him on merchandise monies, and then subsequently alienating him by making him change The Cobweb stories and trashing an entire print run of LoeG.

Is Moore a high maintenance creator? Absolutely.

But you’ll note that the main reason Diane Nelson, DC’s current president, was given reign over the company is because she was so good at handling another very high maintenance creator, J.K. Rowling.

Would WB treat Rowling the way DC treated Moore?

I don’t think so.

...huh.  You know, I'm liking ComicsAlliance less and less all the time; maybe I've found a ship to jump to.

[Thad]

Watchmen: The Toaster is either a real thing or an elaborate, six-week-late April Fool's joke that every comics news site is simultaneously falling for.

Per BC, other WB-branded toasters are to include "The Wizard of Oz, A Christmas Story, Where the Wild Things Are, The Goonies, Gremlins, Little Shop of Horrors, Watchmen, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Mad Magazine, Friends and the like."

No word as yet on Spaceballs: The Toaster.

[Brentai]

Wake me up when they make Watchmen: The Stove.

[Thad]

Not until after Watchmen: The Deep-Fryer.

[Royal☭]

Which one of those can I fit the dog's head in to cook it?

[TA]

I am probably going to buy one of those.

[Büge]

I'd only buy one if it created randomized symmetrical patterns of scorch marks on the bread.

[Thad]

Funnily enough, the toasting pattern this thing makes will always come out looking like a pretty butterfly.

[Büge]

I took a look at the Minutemen comic. I guess the most positive way I can describe it is "serviceable." It has a story, and all the elements serve that story. They didn't botch up putting it together.

That's all I can say in its favour, really.