Posts Tagged ‘Spider-man’

Naked Superheroes?

Monday, June 17th, 2013

There is a battle going on. David verses Goliath (in this case two Goliaths) as independent comics publisher Ray Felix jumps into the ring against Marvel and DC in defense of their allegations that he infringes on their joint trademark of the word superhero when he uses it in the title of his work, “A World Without Superheroes.”

Yes, Marvel and DC share the trademark of every variation of the word/term  superhero and pounce on anyone that uses the word to promote any goods or services related to entertainment, toys, apparel, etc. Sort of…

They seem vulnerable to pornographers who have a field day exploiting parodies of all the major superheroes as was detailed in a previous blog post “Superheroes Defenseless Against Porn Parodies.” Parodies of the individual characters is one thing but the pornography industry has proven that the word superhero is too generic to be a trademark. They use it everywhere without  the special disclaimers they use to  cover their overexposed behinds in every other instance.

Video intro from Vivid's latest Superhero release Iron Man XXX

Axel Braun, lead director of Vivid Entertainment’s “Superhero” imprint (How is an imprint a parody?!) likes to brag about their extensive team of entertainment lawyers and how they insure that they are always within the boundaries of the parody law.They use the word superhero blatantly in the imprint’s logo that simply reads “Vivid XXX Super Heroes.”It is on the cover of all of their DVD’s. It is in the title sequence of the videos and previews. They even have a magazine titled “Vivid XXX Superheroes Magazine” that is on its 27th issue.

Various other porn producers released titles like “Chasing Pink 4 ‘Superhero,’” “Superhero Sex-o-rama,” “Superhero Sex Therapist,” and “Pornstar Superheroes” throw the word around like yesterday’s funny pages.

Superhero trademark gone wild

Superheroes is a word that obviously represents what the pornographers are producing and selling just as it represents what Marvel and DC are producing and selling: Characters possessing special powers that wear costumes with capes and masks. They are selling the same thing! Despite what they may be doing in the context of a story isn’t a superhero a superhero even if they get naked?

If pornographers can use the word so freely with no contention it must be a generic term. Confusing right? Doesn’t confusion of a trademark constitute infringement?

Porn parody aside why is the word Superhero still not generic enough for it to be abandoned by the courts as a trademark?

Google superhero and 47.6 MILLION results show up with plenty of links that employ the word superhero as part of their name. Here are a few websites, mostly commercial, from the first three pages of the search:

http://www.thesuperheroquiz.com/

http://www.superherohype.com/

http://www.superherodb.com/

http://www.superherostuff.com/

http://www.superherolife.com/blog/

http://www.schoollunchsuperheroday.com/

http://superherojs.com/

http://www.superherosupplies.com/ I love this one!!!

http://superherodashstl.com/

http://www.reallifesuperheroes.com/

http://www.superheroesthemovie.com

http://www.superherorocks.com/fr_home.cfm

http://www.superheroclubhouse.org/

http://www.superheroes5k.com/

More evidence that the word is generic?

Kids play Superhero in school yards all over and every day forcing overly concerned educators to coin the term Superheroplay. This term refers to kids using their imaginations often acting out as imaginary superheroes with imaginary powers.

There is even a National Superhero Day when everyone is encouraged to be a superhero for a day and news stations ask parents to send in letters explaining why their child is a superhero, not why their kid is Bat Man or Spider-man. Why is their kid Super Jane or Super Johnny?

There is even a growing trend of real-life superheroes patrolling the streets!

Marvel and DC were bold enough to  argue that the word superheroes uniquely defined their products and services and seized opportunity to pull the wool over some blind trademark officer who failed to recognize that the word had been in use since 1917 and specifically  described the entire genre of comics for decades.

Their weak argument is less valid, today. Superheroes have become part of our culture. Superheroes is  a word we use to describe exemplary performances grounded in values of moral behavior (unless of course they are porn stars). It is a word that is ground into the lexicon of our daily lives like other, once trademarked, words such as aspirin, escalator, kerosene, thermos, and zipper that have all been deemed generic.

It is time that the ownership of this trademark is successfully challenged. Maybe the fine lawyers at mysuperherolawyer will take up the cause. They defended their own use of the word successfully!

Ray Felix is fighting the good fight.  The genericization of the word will allow other comics publishers working within the superhero genre to accurately promote their projects to audiences that continue to hunger for fresh and exciting superhero stories that are not limited to the editorial policies of Marvel and DC.

Become a superhero and support Ray Felix. Help free the word superhero from trademark bondage. Renewal of the trademark registration is in 2016. If the courts do not deem it generic by then a unified front might be necessary to free the word.

Why should the Porn Industry be able to sell superheroes and other comics publishers can not. Maybe we can so long as our superheroes get naked. Hey, it works for them.

Making Comics Because We Want to,

Gerry Giovinco


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Superheroes Held Hostage as Trademark

Tuesday, June 4th, 2013

There is no doubt that superheroes represent modern mythology. Face it,  we are fascinated by folks with super powers and cool costumes. Why not? Super human characters have captured our imagination since the days of the ancient Egyptians. Who wouldn’t want to have a super power? Most of us at least have dreamt about flying or possessing super strength. Superheroes are permanently ingrained into our culture. They are a fantasy  representation of ultimate traits that we admire. They are who we all would like to be.

The concept of superheroes is so pervasive in our society that many are surprised to learn the word, superheroes  and all variations of it are actually trademarked jointly by  Marvel and DC. These two parent corporations are undoubtedly responsible for most recognizable superheroes in the world today but should that be enough to grant them ownership of the use of the one word that distinctly represents an entire genre of creative works depicted in all forms of media including comic books, novels, video games, film and television not to mention a plethora of merchandised products?

Marvel and DC entered into the rare joint ownership back in 1979, though some suggest that this may have occurred as far back as the 1950′s. It was necessary for them to share the ownership to protect their rights to the word or risk losing it. They renewed the trademark registration as recently as 2006 generating much discussion at the time. A clear explanation of the ramifications of the registration was posted on Comic Book Resources by staff writer Brian Cronin who is also a lawyer in New York City. The post titled, The Superhero Trademark FAQ did a a wonderful job of succinctly answering all of the obvious questions, especially the big one, “How can they trademark the word superhero?”

Apparently, all they had to do was prove, through surveys, that people identified the the word superhero specifically with their product.  Asked, “name a superhero” and any random selection of the general population undoubtedly would have ran off a steady stream of, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-man, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America; a list of the most iconic superheroes, all owned by Marvel and DC.

Case closed.

Of course there are tons of other superheroes. There is a rich three-quarter of a century history of superheroes that were published by a myriad of other companies but by the late seventies they were all gone and forgotten except by a few diehard fans of the medium and pop culture enthusiasts. The mass market was being funneled into the Direct Market and when a sudden wave of new superheroes emerged in the 1980′s they were corralled into a restrictive market that catered only to enthusiasts that could spot a superhero a mile away if they were labeled one or not. New publishers were frustrated by their inability to use the word on covers and in advertising but were happy to distance their product from the big two in an effort to establish their brand if only in the confines of the local comic shop. The rest of the world was exposed exclusively to Marvel and DC characters.

Nobody could have imagined the scope of the internet then or the future of computer generated special effects.  The impact they both have had on  the new explosion of interest  in superheroes has changed the game. The concept of the superhero has become bigger than the individual characters. Show a generic picture of any man, woman or child in a costume with a mask and a cape and they will easily be identified as a superhero and distinguished as NOT one of the major players in the field. Generic superheroes abound throughout advertising, media and entertainment. Everybody calls them what they are, superheroes.  The people that are in the business of creating new superheroes, other comic publishers, cannot call a spade a spade, however,  without receiving the dreaded cease and desist letter from both Marvel and DC.

This is just another example of how Marvel and DC gang up and continue to put a stranglehold on the growth of the genre and the medium of comics. As an industry we let it happen by not contesting their dictatorship at every turn. One little guy has stood up to fight the good fight. Ray Felix , the publisher of A World Without Superheroes, is taking a stand and challenging them with amazingly little support from others. He needs help from those that care about superheroes. He needs help from us.

What Marvel and DC have done with the trademark of the word, superhero, is a travesty. If anyone has diluted the trademark it is them. When they originally registered the word, a superhero had distinct wholesome qualities that were governed by the Comics Code Authority which was still in effect, though in  weakened sense, in 2006 upon their renewal. They have continually changed their characters rebooting everything from their costume, to sexual orientation. Characters have been killed, re-killed and killed again. Any moral code that was attributed to superheroes has long gone astray. There is little that another publisher could do that would harm the term superhero more than what Marvel and DC have already done. They are not good custodians of the word!

Under their stewardship an entire industry of superhero pornography has been allowed to flourish under the guise of parody. Their trademarked term, superhero, is all over the covers of those videos.  One company has an entire line of them titled “Vivid XXX Superheroes” that features all the major superheroes doing the “nasty.” OK, a parody is a parody and it is protected. Superhero Movie was a parody. There was one of them!  The porn industry uses the trademark “superhero” over and over again with no contention.  There’s even a performance spray for men called Superhero!  What’s the deal?

Imagine Coke-a-Cola standing by idly while a porn film features everyone running around with a Coke bottle hanging out of every orifice. It wouldn’t happen!

Now there is Superhero Play. No, it is not some type of pornography. (See the dilution) It is a term coined by educators describing little kids running around pretending they are superheroes and it is raising concern because it inspires aggressive behavior because superheroes “fight” evil.  Will Marvel and DC want to distance themselves from the word superhero when it becomes a witch-hunt-buzz-word like Horror and Crime comics did in the fifties?

The word superhero is being held hostage as a trademark by Marvel and DC. They protect it when it is convenient and when it offers an opportunity to bully small publishers, toy companies and business owners. They enforce the illusion that all superheroes are their product only  and for any other reason this is why guys like Ray Felix need to be supported, because the world needs to know that all superhero comics do not come from just Marvel and DC.

Making Comics Because We Want to,

Gerry Giovinco


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Blame it on Stan Lee

Monday, June 11th, 2012

The subject of Creators’ Rights in Comics has been catapulted into the limelight in recent years with the sudden surge of blockbuster, comic related films taking in billions of dollars for the corporations that own the copyrights and trademarks while the creators or the estates of creators that conceived and created these gold mines,  struggle to get screen credit, let alone, some type of monetary compensation.

The current success of Marvel’s characters in all popular media has made Jack Kirby the posthumous poster child for numerous creators who are now victims of the comic industry’s tradition of work-for-hire agreements.

Stan Lee, Marvel’s long-time, imperial ambassador and co-creator on many of these characters, stands accused of benefitting enormous financial gain while failing to defend the rights of his various creative partners, most notably, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko who many contend deserve more than just art credit for their contribution to the actual creation of the characters that they are associated with.

Stan has and always will be, first and foremost, a company man having been brought into the business as a gopher at the ripe old age of 17 by his cousin-in-law, Martin Goodman, the publisher and former owner of Timely Comics. Timely evolved into Marvel under the stewardship of Stan who took over as editor, replacing Joe Simon who left Timely with Jack Kirby  in 1941. Nepotism goes a long way in comics and Stan Lee, since, has always been “taken care of” for his role as a stalwart, corporate soldier.

To be fair Stan Lee is  much more than the average, Marvel Monkey Boy. He is, unequivocally the Voice of Marvel Comics. The head cheerleader. The band leader of the Mighty Marvel Marching Society. Stan Lee, in many ways, has made himself into a Marvel character as epochal as any Spider-man, Avenger or X-Men. He has done so with a silver tongue, a witty pen, relentless salesmanship, unbridled enthusiasm, and a revisionist memory that defies the continuity strangled editorial policy of Marvel itself.

Stan Lee and his relationship to Marvel is his own greatest creation and he gets paid handsomely for it. Stan’s net worth is reportedly $200 million! This staggering figure infuriates co-creators and their heirs as well as comic fans focused on creators’ rights who all argue the unfairness that Stan Lee continues to acquire great wealth while his former collaborators are rewarded zilch. Most of them can’t even get a free ticket to see a movie featuring the character they created.

Is there, however, any evidence that Stan Lee is gaining that wealth from any type of royalty paid to him for his act of co-creating those characters either? If Stan got even a fraction of a cut from all the Marvel films and associated merchandise featuring a character that he is credited as a co-creator of , that $200 million would be a drop in the bucket.

Stan gets paid for being Stan the Man. Stan gets paid for being Executive Producer. Stan gets paid for his gratuitous cameos. Stan Lee has made himself famous. He is the Kardashians of the comics world and he is making himself rich, still, at 89 years old with the same vigor he had in 1961 when the Fantastic Four first hit the stands.

So why does Stan Lee catch so much heat when the subject of creator’s rights comes up if he is probably a victim of the same corporate greed, himself?

Well, it’s his own damn fault.

While Stan was creating a marketing atmosphere that sold Marvel to it’s readers as one big happy, zany Bullpen, he took it upon himself to make stars out of his creators by giving them credits with merry monikers that were intended to stick in the minds of the legion of fans that was growing faster than even he could have imagined.

As Marvel Mania grew, Stan boasted and told all. He was very open about who he collaborated with and happily shared the details of the now famous Marvel Method of creating comics. Not only did he talk; he wrote it down in his own words so that even if his memory would one day be awry, there would be a very clear paper trail.


In 1974 Stan Lee authored Origins of Marvel Comics followed the next year by Son of Origins of Marvel Comics. The success of these two books led to The Superhero Women and Bring on the Bad Guys. These books all detailed his perspective of his creative relationships with the artists in the Bullpen especially his dependancy on his numero uno illustrator, “Jolly” Jack Kirby.


Stan seemed to do all this with an intention of elevating the appreciation of comic creators with both the public and the industry. He assesses that the writing in comics prior to the inception of the Marvel style “…left just a little bit to be desired.”

To make his point he writes:

“Who were these people who actually created and produced America’s comic books? To answer that burning question we must be aware that comics have always been a high-volume low-profit-per-unit business. Which is a polite way of saying that they never paid very much to the writers or artists. If memory serves me (and why shouldn’t it?), I think I received about fifty cents per page for the first script I wrote in those early days. Comics have always been primarily a piecework business. You got paid by the page for what you wrote. the more pages you could grind out, the more money you made. The comic book writer had to be a comic-book freak, he had to be dedicated to comics; he certainly couldn’t be in it for the money. And unlike most other forms of writing, there were no royalty payments at the end of the road… no residuals…no copyright ownership. You wrote your pages, got your check, and that was that.”

We all know that Stan Lee values credits highly and was sure to plaster his own name on every Marvel comic. Stan Lee Presents and Stan’s Soap Box were as much of the part of the Marvel experience as anything else. His famed sign-off,“Excelsior!”, still brings a giddy rush to a generation of comic book fans. In an effort to instill some added pride to the work of the comic creators in the Bullpen, Stan began putting credits of all the creators in the comics Marvel produced.

“…I’ve frequently mentioned Jolly Jack Kirby as our most ubiquitous artist-in-residence. He wasn’t christened Jolly Jack –– sometimes he wasn’t even that jolly –– but I got a kick out of giving alternative nicknames to our genial little galaxy of superstars, mostly for the purpose of enabling our readers to remember who they were. You see, prior to the emergence of Marvel Comics, the artist and writers who produced the strips, as well as the editors, art directors, and letterers, were mostly unknown to the reader, who rarely if ever saw their names in print. In order to change that image and attempt to give a bit more glamour to our hitherto unpublicized creative caliphs, I resorted to every deviceI could think of –– and the nutty nicknames seemed to work.”

Joe Rosen

And it did work! Joe Rosen, a letterer in those days said in COMICS INTERVIEW #7, “That’s why I admire Marvel. By instituting credits, they made you feel prouder of your work. And by being so successful they revamped the industry and launched so many titles that they made it possible to have a professional career.”

Stan knew that to be successful you have to make those around you successful. He did this by giving credit and creating work. Most of which went to Jack Kirby.

Throughout the Origins series and, actually, most of his career, Stan always spoke very highly of Jack Kirby and his creative contributions. Some of those very telling remarks have been posted on the Kirby Museum website in Robert Steibel’s Kirby Dynamics but I have to refer to a quote in Son of Origins where Stan Lee completely asserts Jack Kirby’s role:

“Jack was (and still is)* to superheroes what Kellog’s is to corn flakes. When such fabulous features as The Fantastic four, the Mighty Thor, and The Incredible Hulk were just a-borning, it was good ol’ Jackson with whom I huddled, harangued, and hassled until the characters were designed, the plots were delineated, and the layouts were delivered so that I could add the little dialogue balloons and captions with which I’ve spent a lifetime cluttering up the illustrations of countless long-suffering artists.”

(*This was written during a period when Jack Kirby had left Marvel and gone to DC, unhappy because he was not being paid for what he considered “writing” at Marvel according to Carmine Infantino in his autobiography The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino. Kirby no longer wanted to be “second fiddle” and even declined an opportunity to collaborate with Joe Simon for the same reason though the pair did do a single issue of Sandman together.)

Stan recognized that his greatest resource was his talent pool and, short of finding ways to give them ownership in their creations, he looked for other ways to keep them happy. Stan was even the first president of The Academy of Comic Book Arts that he started with Neal Adams. The ACBA was to be the start of a comic creator’s union of sorts but did not last long.

Stan Lee has been in the comic book business for seventy-three years, probably longer than anyone else alive. He has done more for crediting comic creators than any editor who had gone before him, revealing his greatest sin. With his eye focused on glamour and recognition he failed to affect righteous residual compensation for the efforts of Marvel’s comic creators. His compliance with the business tradition that he himself recognized as insufficient destined generations of creators to teeter on poverty while their creations reaped gold for Marvel.

The victims of this industry-wide practice blanket the entire comics landscape, some tragically. Most recently Robert L. Washington III co-author of Static which is currently owned by DC Comics died of a heart attack in abject poverty at the age of 47. His contribution to the Heroes Initiative is a heart wrenching window into the reality of too many comic creators.

Stan, we love you man, but we need you now, more than ever, to stand up for comic creators or you will be always be cursed with the blame for Marvel cheating the same creators that you personally paraded as stars. You can still make a difference. It’s time to put an end to an archaic, unjust work-for-hire practice that keeps talented people impoverished while a soulless corporation bloats over the spoils of their creative efforts.

You have stood at the helm of a company that has created heroes your entire life. Be a hero to those that depended on you the most, the ones that helped you build that fabled “House of Ideas.”

Celebrating Thirty Years of Comics History!

Gerry Giovinco

As an added Bonus here’s a link to Neal Kirby’s FATHER’S DAY tribute to his dad that ran on this site last year.


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Betrayed

Monday, May 7th, 2012

Has the comic book been betrayed by the Earth’s mightiest heroes? It’s a sad question to pose after probably the most geek filled comic book extravaganza the world has ever seen with the opening of The Avengers movie and Free Comic Book Day all happening in the same weekend. Comic book fans worldwide have been celebrating universally like never before, gathering at the multiplex and local comic shops in droves, dressed in their favorite comic book swag and costumes.

Free Comic Book Day itself has become a huge annual event, now in its tenth year it attracts over a million people to comic shops more than double the number from just five years ago. Comic fans and potential comic readers can’t resist the offer of free comics and continue to make this promotion a growing tradition. This is a good opportunity to point out that comics here at CO2 Comics are free to read EVERY day so if you are sill wallowing in all the free comics you acquired this weekend, just remember the buzz does not have to wear off!

Marvel Entertainment could not have picked a better weekend to launch The Avengers movie, especially with all the comic book love in the air generated by Free Comic Book Day. The Avengers could have been released in the dead of winter and still been a mega hit. A bona fide blockbuster, The Avengers will be the Titanic of all superhero movies and may even give that sunken barge a run for its money. Though I might be giving them too much credit for something that could have been a wonderful coincidence, it was sure nice of Marvel to remember its roots and tie into the comic fans’ big day and make it tremendously more special before they throw them to the curb.

I know I sound like an insufferable old bore but as much as I love super heroes, I realize that I loved the medium of comics even more. For me, comics are a  visual medium of incredible creative freedom and opportunity. It is one of the few mediums where the reader can relate directly to the literal and visual expression of a lone creator without the influence of  a long list of production personnel, editors, actors, etc. Comic books, graphic novels, comic strips, all mean a lot to me just for this reason and I would love for more people to be aware of these wonders of the medium. I would love to see comics everywhere, read by everyone.

So why wouldn’t I expect this Avengers movie to be a huge vehicle to promote comics? Isn’t Marvel in the business of selling comics? Surely they would seize the moment. Right?

Nope.

I was just in my local Walmart, you know, America’s Store. It’s being reconfigured, fittingly for this blog post, into a Super Walmart and right in the middle of the store is a huge cardboard Marvel kiosk featuring Thor, Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America leaping across a city skyline. Marvel Mania! On the display was every Marvel video you could imagine, Spider-Man, X-Men, Woverine, Electra, you name it! There were cartoon videos, even the old Bill Bixby Hulk videos, a video candy store of everything Marvel.

Then it hit me. There was Marvel merchandise in every department.  The toy aisle was loaded with Marvel action figures. There were Marvel hats, shirts, pants, shoes, even underwear. Marvel PEZ dispensers, floor mats for cars, posters, greeting cards, fabric and more only began to round out the list of everything that could bear a Marvel logo in Walmart.  Everything except… comic books.

What?! Comic books aren’t good enough for Walmart?! Marvel doesn’t have enough clout to get comic books or graphic novels into Walmart?! Do comic book shops have some exclusive deal that I’m unaware of to prevent comics from being sold at Walmart?!

Outside of comic shops apparently, Marvel doesn’t even think comics are worth giving away. Here’s a website that has a long list of all the premiums that Marvel is using to promote the movie from action figures, to cups and cars but you never find a comic book used as a promotional item. Why? How can comics be such a great medium to have spawned all of these great characters only to be shunned by a company that built its empire by exploiting this magnificent sequential art of words and pictures?

I have a theory. Marvel fears the comic book. Marvel views comics as a threat because they are too easy to make and distribute. They know from experience. Comics abound on the internet, nearly anyone can publish and sell online. Anyone can create the next big comic book sensation. Just as Marvel dethroned DC in the sixties with their ragtag reinvention of the superhero, toppling juggernauts like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, even the mighty Avengers are vulnerable to a new character birthed in the pages of a mild mannered comic book. I’m sure the powers at Marvel and Disney see different shades of green every time they hear the name Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, four megastars that climbed out of a sewer in the slum of a black and white independent comic book.

When I was researching the use of superhero parodies in the porn industry for my blog post Seduction of the Ignorant I discovered that that industry is struggling to stay afloat, beaten by easy access to porn on the internet, cheap homemade porn their most threatening competition. Porn producers have turned to expensive, special effect laden parody productions that are harder for the average Dick and Jane to make in their bedroom studio.

Marvel Entertainment is doing the same thing. They are focussing now on marketing their IP through blockbuster films budgeted in the mega millions. They have corralled the hardcore comic book fan into a niche market that can barely support sales figures that would have been an embarrassment thirty years ago. They have willfully created an atmosphere that has forced competition to meet suppressed quotas to even be considered for distribution into this niche market.

DC has taken full advantage of this abandonment of the comic market by Marvel with their onslaught of the New 52. They too are actively boxing out the little guys by flooding their IP into the comic market but they realize that comic books have the same power they always had and they are redesigning their universe and working out the bugs without risking millions on a film that could flop at the box office.

If you are a fan of comics, support your local comic shop, explore the internet for great new comics like the one’s here at CO2 Comics and download those comic apps for your mobile devices. Keep an eye out for the next big sensation to be created in comics and don’t be surprised if it does not come from marvel or DC. Be vigilant comic fans because despite the rise of the superhero in cinema, comic books are still the bastard child of the entertainment industry and even the Avengers betray them.

Celebrating Thirty Years of Comics History!

Gerry Giovinco


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Life Imitates Comic Art

Monday, October 31st, 2011

Susie Cagle

The Occupy Wall Street Movement is growing to monumental proportions and as it does we are paying witness to more and more conflicts between protestors and police. In Oakland the conflict hit home to those of us in the comic industry when comic artist/journalist Susie Cagle was teargassed  by Oakland Police while covering the protest as a member of the media.

Reading her account in an interview on The Daily Cross Hatch and watching Youtube videos of the conflicts arising there and elsewhere struck a sickening yet familiar chord with me that paralleled a theme used successfully in comics where the hero becomes the villain in the eyes of the public.

Since the terrible 9/11 tragedy of the the World Trade Towers in 2001, police officers along with firemen, first responders and military personnel have all been hailed as heroes. These men and women are real heroes that touch our daily lives and sacrifice their own to protect ours. Memorials, monuments and statues have been erected all across our country in towns big and small, over the last decade, paying tribute to their valor.

These same men and women are now portrayed as the villains in this unfolding drama, shown in armor, wielding weapons and battling the very innocent, unarmed people they have sworn to protect. Suddenly, they are the target of taunting, name calling and general public hatred. Sound familiar?

Spider-man was publicly painted a villain by J. Jonah Jameson, Bat Man upholds the mantle of villain in Dark Knight, The X-Men are hated for their superior mutant powers though they strive to protect the weak. Even the supers in the Incredibles are forced underground because the were presented to the public as a potential threat to society. The list of superheroes painted as villains is long.

The story is always the same. In the end it is the public that becomes the victim as it is left without its champions, its defenders, its heroes. In the comics the hero always overcomes and saves the day.  Unfortunately in real life, that is not always the case.

The Occupy Wall Street Movement has wakened America and the world to the imbalances of the haves and the have nots  but its campaign is in danger of dividing the people along our own social lines of defense.  Those officers are as much a part of the 99% as anybody. None of them are millionaires.  They are our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters. Let’s not turn on them. Embrace them.  They have proven that they will put their life on the line for the public. They are our heroes.

Villainy wants the public at odds with the police and military. It is a distraction from the real issues of corporate greed and corrupt government. It is a battle that needs to be won and will need our proven heroes in order to succeed.

The heroes in comics are fictional and we all cheer when they come to the rescue. We can’t believe that they were ever forsaken. Let’s learn a lesson from our comic books and keep our focus on the real villains: The one’s with the most to gain at the expense of everyone else.

Making Comics Because I Want To

Gerry Giovinco


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Breakfast with the Wimpy Kid

Monday, March 21st, 2011

As I sat at my breakfast table on Sunday looking at my newspaper (yeah, I still read those obsolete rags) I came across an article that was the cover feature in the syndicated supplement PARADE featuring Jeff Kinney and his hugely successful WIMPY KID.

The article inside is full of great inspirational stuff for comic creators because Jeff’s story (not the Wimpy Kid’s) is proof that amazing success stories can still happen.

I’m not intending that this blog feature be a review of the article or even a critique of The Wimpy Kid series. I just want to take a look at a few points of relevance that I believe reflect on the comics industry today.

First and foremost are the numbers. “Over 47 million copies of books in print in the U.S. alone…” These are figures in a market that many consider dead or at least on life support! Who wouldn’t want to sell 47 million of anything, especially comics?

Jeff’s works have been translated into 30 different languages so imagine how many millions more have been sold globally.

Of course there is a whole industry of merchandise that has sprung out of its success not to mention two films, one of which will be released this week.

I think this guy is making a living with his cartoons which by his own admission are drawn like a sixth grader because “That’s when I maxed out talentwise.”

Secondly I think it is important to look at the target market. Boys 9-12. Boy humor that has also hooked a lot of girls making it the most popular series for that age group, even dusting Harry Potter!

The books are encouraged by educators and librarians not because they endorse the bad behavior in the books but because they think the books get boys to read!

Can you imagine what the comics industry would be like today if educators in the golden and silver ages of comics would have had the same sensibility? I would have loved to have seen MAD magazine and comic books in those old book club circulars.

Mad Magazine 1

Now is the time for the traditional comics industry to win back this market that was the stronghold of the mighty superhero in a bygone era and is now dominated by this pencil-necked, victimized character.

The progression is interesting when we look at the success that Stan Lee had with Spider-man in the sixties. Reach a wider audience with a character that it can relate to. I think this is called demographics.

I guess it is time to realize that the forty-something geek male market may not be the best primary target for the success of the industry.

Finally we have to look at how the whole Wimpy Kid comic rose to stardom. The usual way. Not overnight. It got its start as a web comic in 2004 and built an audience of 90,000 visitors a day.

After amassing 1,300 pages of his feature Jeff took some of it to the 2006 Comic-Con in New York and showed it around and a month later he’s negotiating with the book publisher Abrams.

The rest is history but the point is that Jeff Kinney had a dream to create comics and after he had been turned down by every outlet he ventured out on his own and made it happen. He had faith in his ideas and faith in his product.

Jeff capitalized on what I believe is one of the main ingredients of a successful comic, irreverence, which can sometimes be translated as defiance.

Comics are the voice of the common folk, they always have been. Tumultuous times breed a defiant sensibility that even the young readers can relate to.

Wimpy Kid is successful because the victimized can see rejoice in the retaliation of the main character. Readers identify with it and want more, whether it is a web comic, a book or a movie.

So, my Sunday paper was quite enjoyable. I think I got a lot of inspiration for my $1.50 and I still can’t believe it was printed on paper.

Making Comics Because I Want To

Gerry Giovinco


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Death Fatigue

Thursday, November 18th, 2010


Death Fatigue (dth f-tg) n. Physical or mental weariness resulting from the repeated need of comic publishers and editors to kill popular superheroes in an effort to boost sales.

Death Fatigue is a syndrome that is gripping the readers of fine comic books all across the nation. Is there no end to the carnage that is being brought upon our favorite heroes by the editorial staffs of the biggest publishers in the comic industry.

Apparently no hero is safe from the onslaught of pure creative genius that is so unique and riveting that it has happened to nearly every major superhero at least once in his or her career. The stronger and more powerful a hero is the greater the odds are that that character will die at the hands of the most despicable, powerful and omnipotent adversary, the editor.

It is not  the super-villains that pose the greatest threat but the publishers that bring us the stories. How many times must Superman die to rise from the ashes? Jesus did it once and changed the course of human history! Superman is making a career of it has been followed by many a costume clad hero with a Christ complex.

Just in recent memory, Batman, Captain America and now Spider-man have made their journey to the Pearly Gates only to be turned away to fight another day. Enough already!

This stuff is laughable in soap operas. What makes it any less inane in comic books? These death events are nothing more than protracted cliff-hangers like the ones in old serial films.

“Is this the end of our hero?”
“Will our hero never ride again?”
“Stay tuned for the stunning conclusion!”

We all know what happens next. Our hero survives; bigger, stronger, wiser and a lot more profitable to his publisher.

If the publishers would put half as much energy into developing new and exciting properties as they put into figuring out how to kill and resurrect the old standards the readers might actually have something worth looking forward to.

If you are sick and tired of all this mindless slaughter then you are probably suffering from the same chronic Death Fatigue that I have.

The cure?

If you enjoy comics, broaden your horizon. Investigate other genres of the form. Experiment with titles from independent publishers. Check out exciting new comics on the web.

Do not mourn.

The death of your favorite character is symptomatic of a character that has enjoyed such a tremendously popular career and has been placed in almost every other possible scenario that exploring death is the only other option.

Your hero is in a better place…Market Repositioning.

You have the opportunity to impact that market repositioning by your response to the death of your hero. Let the publishers know what you think.
Now is your chance to be vocal, visible and influential.

You can start by showing your Death Fatigue and let the publishers know that you know this is all about the money.

Death Fatigue. It’s not fatal but it is fashionable!

Show your Death Fatigue today!

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