§ Here’s how Amanda Conner went to see Star Wars. As you read this I’ll be seeing it, finally. (Yes early morning viewing. Matinee!)
§ Eric Kim made a wonderful drawing of Randy Macho Man Savage, and it was stolen and put on a sweatshirt:
My illustration of the Randy “The Macho Man” Savage was stolen by Freeze Central Mills Inc. and put onto sweatshirts for the holiday season. Freeze Central Mills Inc. is located in New York, I’m located in Toronto.
I sent a lawyer after them, I got to talk with them on the phone to negotiate all of this. I asked for $1500, which would have covered lawyer’s fees ($1000) and a very small sum ($500) for granting them back rights to publish the image.
They declined the offer, told me that I was in trouble with the WWE for even making the image, and then offered $350.
They sold 1440 sweatshirts at an average of $14. Their net profit, $20,160.
I’m asking for $1,500 and trying to be as discreet as possible.I am furious.
I’m very sympathetic to Kim, and while it doesn’t make the theft any more palatable, I’d like to note that I saw this going around on Tumblr and it wasn’t until I followed a tweet that I could find the this was written by Eric Kim. I know it’s not cool to actually identify yourself on Tumblr, but if you’re a professional artist it might be a good idea. I don’t think it would have stopped this theft though, which is utterly outrageous.
§ I missed this one: Art Spiegelman on Art Young (1866–1943) a masterful political cartoonist.
§ And speaking of historical cartoonists a biography of Peter Arno is coming out in 2016 and here’s the cover.
6 At the Guardian, Sam Thielman offers So you’d like to get into highbrow comics. Here’s where to start. A pretty wide based of the usual suspects from Ware to O’Malley to Beaton, but make your own list.
§ Rob Kirby’s best comics of 2015.
§ Here’s a spotlight on “Five artists to watch from 2015’s ‘Best American Comics’ which includes up and comers like Andy Burkholder and continued masters like David Sandlin.
§ Paste Magazine lists 10 very small press comics that are excellent.
§ Alex Dueben interviews Riad Sattouf, author of “The Arab of the Future” which is probably a book you should read if you want to inform yourself instead of listening to racists slogans.
Riad Sattouf: I have been making comics in France for fifteen years. I have published several books that are in some way, always inspired by reality and true events. I really enjoy trying to fictionalize reality. I had planned for years to tell my childhood in Middle East, but I was afraid to be confronted with it. Should I attack it by making a metaphor? By turning it into a fiction? In 2011, when civil war began in Syria, I had to help a part of my family to flee from Syria. I had many problems in France to obtain the entries’ authorizations for them. I wanted to tell these moments of difficulty. But before I can arrive to that moment, I had to tell the story from the beginning. This is why I decided to start “The Arab of the Future.”
Creators involved in fashion-related legal dispute may want to contact the Fashion Law Institute for a free pro-bono consultation at our Fashion Law Pop-Up Clinic, which connects folks with fashion-related legal issues to experienced attorneys (e.g., me) for a substantive analysis of their situation. If it’s the sort of situation that does end up with ongoing legal action, the creator will have a strong understanding of his or her legal standing, which will help in interactions with the long-term attorney — and sometimes the follow-up legal work is offered for free or discounted as well.
I’m not going to go into the specifics here, but let’s just say there are rather strong reasons for believing that Free Central Mils’ assertion re the WWE is incorrect in key respects. If you’re interested, Google the words right of publicity deceased and pay particular attention to discussions of commercial use. One interesting fillip is the depiction of the WWE championship belt, but even that arguably does not in itself erase the author’s rights in the entire image.
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