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Showing posts from May, 2011

The Ultimate Marvel Age Reference Guide - 1961 – 1977

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Every so often a book comes along that just staggers the imagination.   This book is just such a beast.   Titled the Ultimate Marvel Age Reference Guide - 1961 – 1977, the book has been written by Barry Pearl and the level of research and care that’s gone into this is mind-blowing.   I’ll say more about it shortly, but here’s Barry’s own write up: This book is uniquely about the Marvel Age of Comics 1961-77. Stan Lee included this in his papers when he donated them and said, "The Marvel Reference disk is a masterpiece! It looks great and reads great! There'll never be a better history of the early days of Marvel!" This era is of great interest to collectors and comic book fans. This book puts a great many pieces together.   Every single story, every single comic is covered here. That is about 3,500 comics and 3,700 stories. Plus about 250 reprint comics and another 280 black and white magazines. Along with each comic's history, every comic, every story, features

Marvel Worldwide, Inc. et al v. Kirby et al - Stan Lee's Million Dollar Contract

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More on the Marvel vs Jack Kirby 's estate court case.   If there is one underlying issues that has certainly emerged from this case it would have to be the question, why do the Kirby family despise Stan Lee so much?  I can give you several million reasons why the Kirby’s are (justifiably) angry with Marvel Comics and, in particular, Stan Lee.  Stan, by virtue of being a company man for more decades than most people have lived, now earns $1,000,000 a year just for being, well, Stan Lee.  As highly paid as Kirby was, and at the height of Marvel he was earning more than any other artist (a fact that's been overlooked in this case thus far) I'd be certain that he wasn't earning a million dollars per year for ten hours worth of work per week.  Far from it.  Kirby broke his back to earn what he did and he made good money for the time, but it was arduous work and the stories of Kirby working through the night to meet deadlines is now the stuff of legend. Gil Kane, Jack Kir

THE INKWELL AWARDS @HEROES CON!

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With the 2011 Heroes Comic Con  ( http://www.heroesonline. com/heroescon/ )  only about two weeks away, The Inkwell Awards ( http://inkwellawards.com ) have more details to share about their final 2011 Inkwell tour stop and the scheduled ceremony to take place that weekend of June 3-5.  "While this is our fourth annual awards culmination, it's our first live ceremony, so we want to make it special", shared Bob Almond, the non-profit organization's founder and director.  "Much of our inking advocacy will be at the show and for the ceremony, which will take place Saturday afternoon at the Charlotte Convention Center at a room and time slot to be announced.  We have some notable creators who are graciously involved with the proceedings like artist Dan Panosian who will act as Keynote Speaker.  Artist and former Inkwell committee member Tim Townsend will act as our Presenter. Tim will announce the results from the on-line April public ballot.  There was a

Joanne Siegel And Laura Siegel Larson, Plaintiffs, v. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.; Time Warner Inc.; And DC Comics

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This is the one document that is often pointed at by people who believe that the Kirby estate will win in their fight against Marvel. This is the order that was granted by Judge Stephen G. Larson in 2008, who found that the heirs of Jerry Seigel actually had a case and, as such were entitled in a share of what must be one of the most valuable copyrights on the planet – Superman. Since this victory many of the Kirby fans felt it was a simple matter for the estate to hire Marc Toberoff, who was the lawyer for the Siegels, and victory would be just a matter of time. Not so. There is a massive difference between Kirby’s situation and that of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and that is that Toberoff was able to prove, beyond any doubt, that the duo had the character of Superman already created when DC first published it, and had created and shopped the character around for nearly four years before publication. The Kirby’s haven’t been able to prove that Jack Kirby came to Marvel with t

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