News

If you're racking your brains to fill our your Harvey Award nomination ballot, several companies put out a list of their eligible comics around this time. So to kick things off, here's AdHouse Books:

IDW has hired a new marketing and PR person, namely John Schork, who has joined the company as Associate Manager, Marketing and Public Relations. The position opened up when AnnaMaria White left to start her own PR company. Schork was formerly an assistant editor at Dark Horse. In his new position he'll work with IDW's Director of Marketing Dirk Wood and Marketing Coordinator Chloe Zuanich on industry outreach and social media.

Uh, uh, looks like maybe Dynamite should have entitled its Barsoomian comics "Master of the Male Wedgie" and not Dejah Thoris and so on, because ERB, Inc., the family-owned corporation which controls existing trademarks to the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate, is suing Dynamite, Dynamic Forces, and Savage Tales Entertainment for trademark infringement and unfair competition over Dynamite's publication of books entitled "Lord of the Jungle," "Warlord of Mars," "Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris", and "Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom" based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs originals.

Get out the punch and pie and organize your voting blocks! The 2012 Harvey Awards Nomination Ballot is now available. As you will recall, nominations for the Harvey Awards are selected via voting on open ballots by comics professionals. The final awards will be voted on by professionals and presented at the Baltimore Comic-Con on September 8th.

With The Shadow already scheduled Dynamite is now scheduling their second pulp adaptation, The Spider. The Spider was effectively The Shadow's nastier little brother. Originally created to tap into the popularity of the Shadow's pulp magazine, The Spider amped up the Shadow's format: more violent, more lurid, wider-ranging schemes from the villains, more outright "weirdness" in the "Weird Tales" sense of "weird." The other major difference was that The Spider had a more streamlined backstory: only one identity and a much smaller circle of sidekicks/assistance.

Well, speak of the devil. As we posted only a few hours ago, Marvel is in a very vulnerable PR position on the Gary Friedrich matter...so much so that they have sent both CCO Joe Quesada and publisher Dan Buckley to clarify and soothe at Comic Book Resources. As they point out, the matter is still under litigation and a settlement is being negotiated. Buckley and Quesada do a good job of trying to handle the negatives—they're pros—especially with this:

You can be sympathetic to Gary Friedrich's current situation—older, broke and in bad health—while still being alarmed over all the issues his court case has raised. My own email and IMs are full of variant views on it. So let's trace the evolution of this a bit.

ICv2 reports that Stan Lee Media has lost a legal battle over the rights to Conan. Although the big Cimmerian wouldn't seem to be much of a hot property after last year's movie flop, the folks at Stan Lee Media dive for any scrap of IP like a hobo battle for a bottle of Thunderbird.

Hall of Fame artist John Severin, one of the last of the legendary EC artists, has died at age 90. Severin—whose sister Marie was also a famed artist and colorist for Marvel—was among the greatest draftsmen of the EC crew. He was especially well known for his Western comics, which were meticulously researched and elegant in their line. In recent years he had continued to work, notably on THE RAWHIDE KID in 2003, a controversial gay western; he also worked on THE PUNISHER and B.P.R.D.

When last we left the status of Ashes, the original graphic novel crowdfunding to the tune of $32K, artist Jimmy Broxton was no longer on the project and writer Alex de Campi wasn't sure if there would be a new artist or if she'd be refunding the money to everyone who contributed via Kickstarter. Turns out, there will still be a graphic novel and there will be multiple new artists.

Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman has fired back at former collaborator Tony Moore, who is suing him for fraud. IN a statement released via his lawyer, Kirkman stated:

We've been meaning to write up the disgusting legal maneuver that has left 69-year-old Gary Friedrich owing Marvel $17,000 after a failed attempt to get some ownership of Ghost Rider, a character he co-created back in the '70s. In a story first reported here by Torsten, Marvel/Disney filed a countersuit for copyright infringement based on Friedrich's convention appearances selling Ghost Rider-related merchandise. As Daniel Best wrote: