Welcome to Wednesday’s Mega Comics Group Updates!

We finally did it! Yep, we talked ol’ Freazie into letting us give you a sampling of the art for his new title. It only required a few bandages, so we’re good. No sacrifice is too much for our fans!

Check it out! Fernando Sosa is the gentleman’s name and he has turned in about 5 pages of the art for Freazie White, Jr.’s KnightPriest. Mr. Sosa is a new and upcoming talent and we’re sure to see a lot of his work in the comics in the months to come. Fernando opted to do full pencils, scan, clean up and then add color bypassing the inking stage completely. A lot of artists are doing that these days and using Adobe Photoshop, or some similar photo/paint program, to clean up the pencils or in some cases completely digitally ink the  art in the computer. Some prefer Adobe Illustrator to do the inking. Of course some still prefer the old school method of taking a pen or brush in hand, dipping it in ink and going for it without the benefit of “undo.” But when it’s all said and done, it’s not what we use to get the result, but the result itself that counts. Judging from theses samples, it appears Mr. Sosa hit a home run! Uh… we’re talking about Fernando not Sammy!

Click the images for larger views in a new window.

We hope to have some news about the FBCC events for this year soon. That’s the Facebook Comic Con for those who have been in suspended animation for a couple years and just woke up. Watch this space for updates.

Any questions or comments? All are welcome.

Welcome to Monday’s Mega Comics Group Updates!

Yes, we’re late but we made it on the day we’re suppose to post, at least! Wow! Busy is not the word for what we have been involved in. So much going on in everyone’s lives in the the Mega Comics Bullpen we could not tell you all of it in the space we have here. Even if we could, it would play like a soap opera and we wouldn’t want to bore you. So let’s get on to today’s subject!

There’s a new kid in town! No, we’re not talking about that old Eagles song, but a lot of us do like that golden oldie. (Sidenote: If you like those old tunes check out our Facebook Digital Jam Club in the right side bar below. Yep, shameless plug!) We’re talking about the gentleman to your right. We titled the graphic “The New Guy”, but that’s not his name. We’re keeping his real moniker under wraps for the time being as we are most all the info about him. We will tell you he is definitely connected to the new title, Mega Spectacular which will not only feature some great Golden Age Public Domain characters and stories, but some new characters in the frame up story we’re including in the book as well. “The New Guy” plays a key role with these new characters and old ones alike. He is a link to the past and to the future! More than that we can’t tell you right now! Sorry, but stay tuned as we show you some more new art and the days go on leading up to the new title. Click the image to get a larger view in a new window if you like.

Don’t think we’ve forgotten the other titles either! Epoch 2012 A.D., Mega Tales #2, with the conclusion to Tess, the Living Tesseract as well as the new KnightPriest which Freazie White Jr. is spearheading are all due out this year as well. Mega Comics Group is getting ready to explode! We just all hope we live to tell about it!

We’ve bent your ear long enough today. As we said starting out a lot of things are in the works! The Facebook Comic Con is getting set for another event and we’ll fill you in on that soon. Wednesday we’ll give you another art preview of Freazie’s KnightPriest which you don’t want to miss! Really! This new artist is something special! See ya then!

Any questions or comments? All are welcome.

Welcome to Friday’s Mega Comics Group Updates!

It’s time for the TGIFriday Film Fes!

Stan and John want to teach you to draw! That’s right! Learn the tools of the comic book drawing trade with hosts Stan “The Man” Lee and “Big” John Buscema. This video has ten parts and is just crammed full of priceless instructions from two men who know the business better than most. This video was originally released in the ’80’s but the info they share is still used by industry professionals today. Many cartoonists have credited this video series and the book as being turning points in their learning which was needed for them to break into the business.

The book How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way was first released in the early ’70’s. It has been said that had Jack Kirby not left for DC Comics a few years earlier it might have been him sitting at the drawing board in this. We’re not sure if that would have happened. Even though Jack did establish the Marvel Way to draw comics and John Buscema was one of his understudies, Stan and Jack had such different personalities it’s doubtful that it would have been anyone other than John working with Stan on this project. Had Kirby stayed, certainly it is reasonable to assume he would have had a hand in the book. A lot of his art is there, even though he had left Marvel before the book was done. If he had been available Stan most likely would have found a way to get him involved but John was the natural choice for most of the art instruction. Even though Jack loved to talk to his fans, he liked to tell stories. John, on the other hand, had already proven he could teach by doing several workshops on art prior to Stan and he working on the book.

NOTE: This video is not embedded in our Blog Page as usual. But click on the video window anyway and the link will take you to YouTube so you can watch all 10 parts. Better get started, faithful one, Stan may be giving an exam Monday! You’ve been warned!

Interested in the book or DVD? Then just click the handy, dandy ad images of the book cover to the right in the sidebar column and purchase it from Amazon.com! OR if you had rather have the DVD click the ad with Spider-Man right below the book ad! And hey! If you want both, we don’t mind a bit! Go for both!

Any questions or comments? All are welcome.

CUMonday!

Welcome to Wednesday’s Mega Comics Group Updates!

“Things are not always as they appear!” At least that’s what Mark Poe, our esteemed Publisher-In-Training and resident Coiner of Classic Catch Phrases always says. We’re not sure if it’s just a popular perception on the part of all of us in the general public or misnomer generated by unsubstantiated press reports. But in most cases it seems from our research ,in the field of comic books at least, the issue is rarely really copyright infringement. In most cases we have researched, any legal action one publisher might take against another would  be over some violation of trademarks.

Recently we visited a site which hosts content relating to one of our favorite subjects of late: Golden Age comics and characters which are in the Public Domain. The site is www.herogoggles.com and has an enlightening article on the subject of Copyrights and Comics of 1940s.  In this article by Cash Gorman, the author found in his research of copyright renewals, several interesting things. Read the entire article and see what else appears to be in the Public Domain. Here’s a couple excerpts:

MOTION PICTURE FUNNIES (1939) This is an early comic by the studio that would supply Timely with features for Marvel Comics #1. It included the origin story for Namor (they’d add a couple of more pages for Marvel Comics). No record of registration nor notice of renewal found. This makes an interesting loophole regarding Namor as by definition, his appearance in Marvel Comics #1 would be a derivative work and could be argued that all subsequent uses of him as well. Everything Marvel has done with the character would be copyrighted and trademarked, but his basic origin story not.

This lines up with our own findings concerning the Golden Age Captain Marvel originally published by Fawcett Comics and in recent years published by DC Comics. DC does not own the copyright for most of the 1940’s Captain Marvel and Marvel Family stories. That’s why several websites have the freedom to publish these books on the web, on CD’s or in books and/or make them available for down load. The copyright for these books do belong to the Public Domain which means anyone can potentially publish them. Notice we said “potentially” and there is a reason for that. Let’s look at another excerpt from the above mentioned article by Mr. Gorman:

In 1970 Popular Library was sold to Fawcett Books which in 1977 was sold to CBS, Inc which is how CBS ended up renewing various 1950s pulps put out by Standard/Better/Thrilling/Nedor/*gasp* Popular though not the few comics from that line still limping along at that point. They did renew various Captain Marvel titles though.

In 1982 CBS divested itself of Fawcett and Popular with Popular apparently going to Warner Communications (who owns DC) and Fawcett to Ballentine.

Does this mean that DC owns the right to various characters from the Standard Line? It all depends on what was in the sales themselves. According to the clerks at the Library of Congress, it is fairly common when a publisher buys another publisher, it is for the trademarks and they don’t bother purchasing the copyrights (detailed in the Quality section below). However, this case is about purchasing a book publisher who just happens to publish pulps and comics. It would make sense for the purchaser to want to purchase all rights to their library. It would make sense, but doesn’t mean it was the case. So, more research is required and if there is any interest in the stories and characters from this company, research is recommended for specific individual cases.

Now re-read that second sentence in the previous paragraph and get a clue of where we are headed with this. Here’s the “why” for the seeming lack of concern for renewing copyrights years ago when such were required to maintain the copyright. There still may have been a mistake made in not renewing the copyrights, but it may have been due to the fact the publishers did not deem the copyright all that important because of the trademark rights.

The importance of the trademark can readily be seen by the fact of who owns the trademark to the name Captain Marvel. Either Stan Lee, or Martin Goodman of Marvel Comics, shrewdly saw a window of opportunity in the 1960’s, when after the court battle and out of court settlement between DC Comics and Fawcett in the ’50’s, Fawcett was forced to cease publication of the Marvel Family titles. The trademark, after a few years of disuse, was up for grabs. Marvel Comics snapped it up before DC Comics thought to do so.

Why is trademark more valuable than copyright? The trademark is the chief controlling factor in marketing a publication. Let’s define what trademark means from Wikipedia:

A trademark or trade mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or services from those of other entities.

A trademark is designated by the following symbols:

• ™ (for an Unregistered trade mark, that is, a mark used to promote or brand goods)
• ? (for an unregistered service mark, that is, a mark used to promote or brand services)
• ® (for a registered trademark)

A trademark is a type of intellectual property, and typically a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image, or a combination of these elements. There is also a range of non-conventional trademarks comprising marks which do not fall into these standard categories.

The owner of a registered trademark may commence legal proceedings for trademark infringement to prevent unauthorized use of that trademark. However, registration is not required. The owner of a common law trademark may also file suit, but an unregistered mark may be protectable only within the geographical area within which it has been used or in geographical areas into which it may be reasonably expected to expand.

The term trademark is also used informally to refer to any distinguishing attribute by which an individual is readily identified, such as the well known characteristics of celebrities. When a trademark is used in relation to services rather than products, it may sometimes be called a service mark, particularly in the United States.

We left the linked text in so anyone who wants to do more research can follow those out to the sources. We’ll only draw attention to a couple. One big difference in copyright and trademark is the way it is enforced. It is very difficult and costly to take copyright infringement case to court with an unregistered copyright. However, an unregistered trademark can be taken to court with much less trouble.

In the United States, registration, both federal or state, is not required to obtain rights in a trademark. An unregistered mark may still receive common law trademark rights. Those rights, for example, may extend to its area of influence—usually delineated by geography. As such, multiple parties may simultaneously use a mark throughout the country or even state. An unregistered mark may also be protected under the federal “Lanham Act” (15 USC § 1125) prohibition against commercial misrepresentation of source or origins of goods.

For some reason trademarks seem to receive more protection than copyrights due to the historically controversial process known as Common Law.

Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals (also called case law), rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action. A “common law system” is a legal system that gives great precedential weight to common law on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different occasions. The body of precedent is called “common law” and it binds future decisions.

In practice, common law systems are considerably more complicated than the idealized system described above. The decisions of a court are binding only in a particular jurisdiction, and even within a given jurisdiction, some courts have more power than others. For example, in most jurisdictions, decisions by appellate courts are binding on lower courts in the same jurisdiction and on future decisions of the same appellate court, but decisions of lower courts are only non-binding persuasive authority. Interactions between common law, constitutional law, statutory law and regulatory law also give rise to considerable complexity. However stare decisis, the principle that similar cases should be decided according to consistent principled rules so that they will reach similar results, lies at the heart of all common law systems.

So what does it all mean? Well, for publishers who are considering publishing Public Domain works we have to consider the trademark even more than the copyright. Using the Golden Age Captain Marvel, for the example, since DC Comics has been publishing his adventures for nearly 40 years now they may have an argument based on unregistered trademark. They would argue that anyone else publishing new stories of the Captain Marvel characters would cause confusion in the market place therefore bringing into play the  federal “Lanham Act” prohibition against commercial misrepresentation of source or origins of goods. That would be their precedent. This is a public precedent, we don’t know at this time if there are court precedent to go along with this. On the other side a publisher could argue there is established precedent where many publishers have marketed the same Public Domain characters under different trademarks without any confusion. One example especially in recent years is the Golden Age Daredevil which just happens to be another lapsed trademark Stan Lee snatched up for Marvel Comics in the ’60’s.

So whereas, it is clear and by their own acknowledgment, as we’ve shown previously, that DC Comics does not have sole copyright to most of the Golden Age Marvel Family stories, but only to the new material they have generated since 1973. Certainly we can still publish those Public Domain stories, as some already have, but could we publish new adventures of the original Marvel Family without a trademark challenge based on Common Law? That’s the question and the risk! It really depends on how it’s packaged and marketed and maybe more so if it’s profitable and garners a lot of attention. He with the most money and lawyers usually wins.

Next week: We’ll have an update with some preview art on Mega Spectacular #1 which features some of those aforementioned Golden Age, i.e. 1940’s, Public Domain work and, as we have hinted, will have some new material as well. In the meanwhile be here Friday for our regular Friday Film Fes! What will we pull out our digital hat this week? Good question! Be here and find out.

Any questions or comments? All are welcome.

Welcome to Monday’s Mega Comics Group Updates!

Do you have ComicZeal? No, no, that’s not what we mean. Sure we know you’re a comic fanatic, that’s why you are here now! ComicZeal is an iPhone/iPod Touch App for comic book reading. It’s loaded with features. You can download .cbr (comic book reader) format files and use ComicZeal Sync to prep a copy for your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Designed by renowned graphics firm Elixir, ComicZeal shows comics gliding over a luxurious wooden background. Bookmarks and bags show you which comics you’ve started reading and which you’ve finished. Boxes let you know there’s a whole series just a tap away.

ComicZeal has been optimized for HOW and WHEN you read comics. We know sometimes you’re reading while standing on a train, so the interface can be operated one-handed. We know sometimes you’re reading in bed, so you can lock the screen orientation.

How it works: Reading comics is a breeze, ComicZeal has got the best zoom implementation of any reader. Use pinching to set the zoom level and ComicZeal remembers it for the rest of the comic, page to page. To read text or examine artwork simply single-tap anywhere on the comic to bring up our full-screen magnifying glass. Press the arrow watermark to bring up the reading panel, quickly scroll through the comic using the scroller, lock the orientation or take a screenshot of the comic to use as your iPhone wallpaper. Don’t like the arrow watermark? No problem. Turn it off in the Settings app. A double-tap will bring up the reading panel instead. Talking of settings, you can select if you’re left or right handed and choose between western and manga modes.

You can use a Wi-Fi connection to download hundreds of Golden Age Comics and Jim Shelley’s Flashback Universe for free from the their servers. We’re talking about downloading LEGAL Public Domain books available from many sites around the internet. Don’t forget the hundreds of comic bppks available at www.goldenagecomics.co.uk and several hundred more at www.comicbooksarchive.com!

It’s not all Super-Heroes either! In addition to the Golden Age Heroes there are horror, romance, westerns science-fiction, pirate, crime comics and more. Check it out!

ComicsZeal is availa free from www.bitolithic.com.

Below is a sampling of thousands of comic books available free and legal for download from some of the sites mentioned above and many other sites across the web.  Please download responsibly! Make sure the books you download are free and in the Public Domain or else there is clear permission from the copyright holder. Any questions or comments? All are welcome.