News

It is the time of the month when industry figures fret about the Future of Comics. No slight intended—we do it all the time, too, and a few remarkable clear and essential posts about The Way It Is have just been made. So let's review:

Yesterday's initial sales charts left no doubt that so far 2012 has been a strong year for comics sales, but the numbers were also flat from last March -- five Wednesdays in 2011 vs four in 2012, perhaps? The numbers prompted a vague shadow of worry to cloud the brow of Milton Griepp at ICv2:

You'll recall that a few weeks ago, the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs sued Dynamite over their ongoing lines of Tarzan and John Carter comics. Although the earliest works in each series are in the public domain, ERB, Inc. sued on the basis of trademark infringement, claiming that Dynamite's Lord of the Jungle was infringing their trademark for "TARZAN LORD OF THE JUNGLE" and so on. Well, Dynamite has responded, and it's pretty much a blanket denial, as you can see above. Dynamite's defense is pretty simple: the books are in the public domain, and ERB, Inc., doesn't have a trademark to infringe. For instance, ERB didn't file a trademark claim for Lord of the Jungle until March, 2012, although a shadowy company called ETT Corp. had filed one a few years earlier.

The Avengers are fighting the X-men, yes, but why? As someone who hadn't read any 616 Avengers or X-men for a while, would I even be able to understand Avengers vs X-men? I figured it out and so can you - for your convenience, a (mostly AvX spoiler-free) guide to understanding Marvel's newest comics event.

While looking for a comics cover for a sick alert, I realized that the heyday era of the doctor comic was definitely the early '60s. Licensed comics were such a big deal then, especially for Dell/Western. They licensed just about anything. The BEN CASEY and Dr. KILDARE comics were based on popular TV shows of the time. Dr. KILDARE lasted about 9 issues, BEN CASEY 10, although it did spin off into a comic strip which was written and drawn by Neal Adams.

This year's nominees are up led by Marvel's DAREDEVIL, with six noms, and Jim Henson/Ramon K. Perez's TALE OF SAND with five. This year's judges were reviewer Brigid Alverson (Graphic Novel Reporter, CBR, Robot 6) , retailer Calum Johnston (Strange Adventures, Halifax, Nova Scotia), librarian Jesse Karp (LREI, New York), cartoonist Larry Marder (Beanworld), comics historian Benjamin Saunders (University of Oregon), and Comic-Con board of director Mary Sturhann. They added two new categories while dropping four:

Regular posting will resume....hopefully.

Last year a federal court in New York denied the Kirby heirs' attempt to claim the copyright in Spider-Man and other Marvel properties. Why, then, is their lawyer betting the future of the Siegel lawsuit on the same losing arguments?

BOOM! Studios has reaffirmed their exclusivity with Diamond to comics shops throughout the world, according to this morning's press release. Boom! has experimented with other distributors in the past — such as a brief affair with Haven for second printings—but Haven went away so...back to Diamond. Boom! also had distribution deals with Simon and Schuster for bookstores and backlist, but that may have run out.

Emerald City was mostly Marvel and DC lite, so the announcements are very indie/creator focused. And here they are, with a corresponding Pants Peeing Index ®, as in how likely this news is to make you pee your pants in excitement on a scale of 1-5.

Holy crap, it is award season! Here's this year's Stumptown Award nominees. The nominees were selected by a screening committee; winners will be selected by online voting at this link, which is open until 11:59 pm on Wednesday, April 18. The awards will be presented to the winners during the Comics Fest After Party on Saturday, April 28 at the Jupiter Hotel.

Hero Initiative is the non-profit organization that aids comic creators in medical and financial need—and if you've been reading the Beat lately you know that they are more needed than ever. Tonight, as part of the Emerald City Comicon, they are having a bowling fundraiser which sounds like a great time for a great cause, as they say. Although spots have already been auctioned off, you can still go watch the fun: