Monthly Archives: November 2002

Stan Lee files lawsuit against Marvel Comics.  Here are the details.  I still think this will get settled out-o'-court, but it does suggest that relationships between Stan and Marvel are even worse than anyone thought.

Want to know more about the court decision that Joe Simon won, allowing his copyright claim to go forward on Captain America?  Click here.

Among his many running, self-deprecating gags — his stinginess, his age, his alleged hairpiece, his vanity, his violin playing, etc. — Jack Benny had his movie career.  It really wasn't unsuccessful, what with the classic To Be Or Not To Be and others that weren't as great but were entirely watchable.  Still, he did jokes about making a swarm of bad movies until The Horn Blows at Midnight was so bad, no one ever wanted to let him in front of a camera again.  This is not true, as you can see for yourself.  Turner Classic Movies is running The Horn Blows at Midnight the morning of November 15.

We were talking here recently about John Cleese and his assistant, the Pantomime Goose named Kim "Howard" Johnson.  The other day, DC Comics announced that a forthcoming project in their "Elseworlds" series will be a Superman story called True Brit, created by Mr. Cleese and Mr. Howard.  The "Elseworld" line contains tales of the DC characters in alternate realities, and this one is about what might have happened if Superman's spaceship had landed in Great Britain instead of the U.S. of A.  Sounds like fun.

DC also announced a two-volume Archives set reprinting the issues of Challengers of the Unknown by Jack Kirby.  An excellent comic, well worth collecting in hardcovers.

This is pretty silly.  The cable/satellite channel Bravo is running The Larry Sanders Show in its laundered version.  Some language is edited or replaced via alternate takes.  But if you go to the Bravo website each week, you can watch a clip with the "f" word intact.  Isn't this just admitting to their own timidity?

I said earlier that I didn't know Hillary Bader too well.  Presumably if I had, I would have known that she spelled her first name Hilary — with one L.  Much of the Internet seems to have it wrong, too…but I should have known better than to trust the oft-errant forces of Cyberspace.  My apologies.  It's Hilary Bader, not Hillary.  But I wasn't wrong about it being a tragic loss.

Are you a comic retailer?  If not, you can skip the rest of this item.  If you are, go read Peter David's current column for Comics Buyer's Guide.  Not long ago, comic book editor-reporter Heidi MacDonald, wrote in CBG that "most retailers" did not support Marvel's current policy of not overprinting their comics — a common practice elsewhere (and previously, at Marvel) which allows stores to reorder.  The head honchos at that company took great umbrage at Heidi's statement and insist she's wrong and that retailers adore it.  Peter is now conducting a survey to determine if they're right or she's right.

I have no horse in this race.  I don't talk to many retailers and don't know enough about retailing to know if I support (or even understand) Marvel's policy.  But I know I support Heidi and Peter, so go participate in the vote.  And I'll bet you the David Survey will be twice as accurate as any Zogby Poll, and a lot more meaningful.

We told you a few weeks ago about a great website devoted to the life of Hans Conried, one of our favorite actors.  Now, sight unseen, we're going to recommend a book — Hans Conried: A Biography; with a Filmography and a Listing of Radio, Television, Stage, and Voice Work.  Its author, Suzanne Gargiulo, must be the world's foremost authority on the man who played Snidely Whiplash, Disney's Captain Hook, the master of The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, etc.  I have just ordered a copy at Amazon.Com and you can do likewise by clicking here.

Then, after you get it, visit Suzanne's site where she posts additions and corrections.  Suzanne's past research work on this delightful thespian has been so thorough and perceptive, we've got to have a copy.

A fine writer named Hillary Bader passed away yesterday after losing her battle with ovarian cancer.  I am not certain of her age — mid-forties, perhaps? — other than she went way too soon.  Her credits included the Batman Beyond and Superman animated programs, comic books based on those shows, various recent incarnations of Star Trek on TV and in bookstores, and the TV series, Xena: Warrior Princess.  I didn't know Hillary well but the few times we chatted, she seemed passionate about her work and dedicated to achieving even bigger and better things.  I'm sure she would have achieved them and am sorry to lose her and her wonderful imagination.

I don't think I have to mention this but some of the best comics being produced today — at least of the super-hero or adventure variety — aren't produced today.  They're the Archive Editions that DC is bringing out to reprint its old comics in fancy hardcover keeper volumes.  Yes, they're a little pricey.  Yes, some of the reproduction sometimes shows a bit too much retouching.  Yes, I sometimes write the forewords.

But they're still great to have — every one of them — and they're developing a following of fans who don't just collect them.  They lobby DC as to what the next ones should contain.  Spearheading this is a fellow named David Stepp whose website sports a list of all the Archives to date, plus news of what's upcoming.  He also runs periodic online surveys (one recently concluded) as to what DC should next bring forth, and they seem to have had some influence in those decisions.  Whoever said fans can't make an impact?

Just to clarify: My language seems to have confused a few folks.  Sergio and I are attending Mid-Ohio Con.  And Joe Simon has not won ownership of Captain America.  He has won the right to take his case to the next step.

Speaking of courtrooms: The Hallmark Channel has started filling many hours each day with old episodes of Perry Mason starring Raymond Burr as the world's greatest attorney.  The shows stand up well, thanks to strong performances and a nice parade of guest actors…though, like many older programs, it's jarring to see how cheap they now appear.  Most corners were cut, even to the extent of having Mr. Mason argue most of his cases (and win) in preliminary hearings, where there's only a judge.  That way, the producers didn't have to spring for twelve extras to fill a jury box.  In many episodes, the most interesting (and therefore, costly to film) story elements occur off-screen and get described by someone.  Still, like I said, they hold up, largely due to Mr. Burr.

You might want to set your VCR or TiVo, grab a few and see if you like them.  And you can find out absolutely everything you want to know about the series at this website, which is an online version of the definitive volume on the topic, The Perry Mason TV Show Book by Brian Kelleher and Diana Merrill.  (The Hallmark Channel, by the way, seems to be airing the shows in sequence.  They're currently about halfway through the first season.)

Not a good day for Marvel: Some time ago, Joe Simon lost the first round of his lawsuit to reclaim ownership of Captain America.  Today, even as Stan Lee was musing to the press that he might sue Marvel, the decision against Simon was reversed.  If you want to read the actual decision, you can download a PDF file of it here.  Basically, Simon was acting under the recent revisions to the copyright laws (fomented in large part by the late Sonny Bono) that give the creator of the work the right to reclaim a copyright at the point where it would originally have expired.

Marvel had argued three points against Simon's claim.  The first judge threw out two of them but found against Simon on the third.  An appellate court has now unanimously reversed the third point, so Joe's case can proceed and Marvel will have to come up with new arguments and/or refight the three on which they lost.  Or maybe they'll just offer Joe a huge sum of cash.  Or both.

Actually, no one knows precisely what this means in terms of the final disposition of the character and I'd be the last to claim I do.  But I can tell you that there have already been several other suits of this nature filed — some quietly settled, others ongoing.  And I can say with some certainty that if Joe prevails, and probably even if he doesn't, there will be a lot more.  In the sixties, The Avengers found Captain America frozen inside a massive iceberg.  Joe Simon's suit is just the tip of another, even larger one.

In a probably-futile attempt to save myself some e-mail answering time, let me answer some questions here about the supposedly-threatened Stan Lee lawsuit against Marvel which may never be filed and, if it is, will probably never go to trial.  This is, from what I can tell, not an argument over who "deserves" what in the sense of whose contributions warrant the greatest compensation.  It's a contract dispute: Stan is saying his contract says he's entitled to X dollars and that Marvel hasn't given him those X dollars.  Marvel says they've given him whatever he's supposed to receive.

The real arguable part seems to come if, as stated, he's entitled to a percentage of profits.  That would mean this is probably all about what some call "Hollywood Accounting."  This is when the studio makes a movie, grosses twenty times its cost but arranges the bookkeeping such that every conceivable expense of operating the studio is considered an expense of the production in question…ergo, no profits for the profit-participants.  This happens often.  Until a few years ago, I believe Paramount was claiming that the entire Star Trek franchise had never shown a profit.  Eddie Murphy famously dubbed profit share as "monkey points" because, said he, no matter how much the film took in, the studio would always find a way to argue on paper that it was still in the red.  This is why stars like Murphy get their cuts from gross (all cash received) instead of net (all cash received minus expenses).  I once did a project where the definition of the profits in which I was to share was so unfavorable, it could have been replaced by the phrase, "There aren't any."  If the show had become a monster hit and taken in $100 million over its cost, the studio could have just paid itself a $100 million consulting or facilities fee and said, "Sorry, Mark.  Still not in the profit column."

Huge lawsuits are threatened every day in Hollywood over "Definitions of Profits" — contract riders that lay down the rules for what the studio can and cannot deduct as an expense of the production.  Sometimes, the suits are settled out of court because the studio finds an excuse to pay the claimant some cash in exchange for dropping all actions.  Frequently, the studio stonewalls and the participant in the theoretical profits gives up and goes away.  Only rarely do these cases get before a judge and, even then, they're usually settled before a verdict.  One of these scenarios will presumably occur with Stan's threat…though, knowing Stan, it will also involve an outer space invasion, a couple of gods and at least one tragically-misunderstood hero.  I do hope he gets every nickel to which he's entitled, if only so he can pick up the check next time we have lunch.

Sergio and I will not be traveling to Mid-Ohio Con (see previous item) via National Airlines, partly because they've never flown to Columbus, Ohio and partly because they went out of business yesterday.  This is sad news, and not just on account of I'm stuck with a mess of frequent flyer miles from a defunct air carrier.  No, the reason I have all those useless points is that I really liked National…as much as you can like an airline company…which, admittedly, is not all that much.  But any time I went to Vegas or New York on my own dime, I tried to fly National if the schedule even remotely worked.

The flights I flew were always on-time, the employees all did everything you'd expect airline personnel to do, and their section of the terminal in Vegas (their hub) was the most comfortable airport in which I've ever done time.  Whenever I was coming home from L.V., I actually used to go to the airport early because I could set up my laptop on a table in the food court, sit there and work in pleasant surroundings.  (Much of Fanboy, a comic I did recently with Sergio, was written in the National Airlines area of McCarren Airport…a fact I hope did not contribute to this bankruptcy.)

I suppose it's silly to "miss" an airline and I'm sure that, had I flown National more often, I would have had at least one of those nightmarish, "I'm never flying with them again" experiences.  I'm talking about the kind of trips that kept me off Southwest for years — until the day that was the only airline that could get me where I had to go.  Of course, they were fine then, which is good because it looks like that's how I'm getting to Las Vegas in the future.  Anyway, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry National is no more.  It's always depressing when someone can do at least part of the job well and not turn a profit.

If you consult your voluminous notes,you'll recall that my colleague Sergio Aragonés and I are among the guests at the fun and fabulous Mid-Ohio Con, November 30 and December 1.  You can get details by clicking here and (this part's the news flash) you can see a schedule of panels, including the three I'm on, by clicking here.  There's one with Sergio and me, one where I interview animation writer-producer Alan Burnett, and one where I ruthlessly interrogate EC editor-writer and Mad's head honcho, Al Feldstein.

Speaking of news flashes, the Dow Jones news ticker is reporting today that Stan Lee is threatening to sue Marvel Comics in a breach-of-contract type suit.  One suspects this is a threat that will never see the inside of a courtroom but it makes for colorful news.  Here's the story.

Some of you have been asking if there's a site where you can see a well-known M.C. Escher drawing re-created using Lego blocks.  Well, yes, there is.  (Thank you, Buzz Dixon!)