DJ Coffman has closed the books on Platinum:

Fed Ex showed up with a check from Platinum paying me up to date anything that was owed to me, so that whole issue is over with. I’m glad they paid me, and honestly none of this would have blown up for me if I hadn’t nearly lost my house and life banking on or trusting that money would show up on time. It is what it is though, and I learned a valuable lesson that there is no job security anywhere, no matter what a piece of paper says. The envelope included a letter saying my “consultant” agreement with them was terminated as of today, which is fine with me, because in my mind it was terminated when checks never really showed up on time in the terms of that agreement.

But, in a Carrie-like surprise hand from the grave, he adds the following:

So listen, #1, my original contract is still intact with them, and I’ve never once ever disputed the fact that Platinum owns Hero By Night, I gladly and willingly SOLD IT TO THEM, straight up. Trust me, there are no loopholes or weaselly ways out or about it, they own it, it’s fine, and I’m still connected and I’ll still make money with anything they ever do with it, and that’s what I originally signed on for with Comic Book Challenge.

Emphasis ours.

Bonus: The conversation continues on the Bendis board:

But the conflict between DJ Platinum isn’t about creator‘s rights. DJ getting back the rights to Hero By Night was a footnote in what the conflict was about. According to DJ, DJ getting back the rights came up from Platinum as a thank you for everything DJ had done for them, and was a way DJ could maybe continue Hero By Night and Platinum could maintain visibility for their project for the hopes of movie, TV, action figure, lunch boxes, and/or condom deals. Whether Platinum intended to or didn’t intend to isn’t important, this was a separate thing.

Technorati Tags: Platinum Studios

§ Warren Ellis

Went out to dinner with William and Ariana last night at a remote and relatively ancient steakhouse, which was offering dinners-for-two for $39 to celebrate their 39th year in business. Across the road, next to the Des Plaines Chamber Of Commerce, were stores called THE BAREFOOT HAWAIIAN and REBEL’S TROPHYS (sic). The air’s like soup. I stuck my arm out of the window earlier. First, my flesh took on the consistency and moistness of crushed watermelon. And then it caught fire anyway.

§ Alex Robinson

Speaking of which, this afternoon we caught a Cubs game at Wrigley field. For all the talk about the Cubs being great this season it certainly wasn’t in evidence today as the Orioles clobbered them 11-4. Plus, I was sitting next to some coked out Red Sox fan (!!) who would not stop fidgeting like a jerk. Plus, leaving the game, a bird (an oriole, I bet!) shit on my brand new Cubs shirt I bought only hours before! Will this suffering never end??

§ Todd Allen:

The question of whether or not this will be the last Wizard World in Chicago was still a concern on the floor. This wasn’t exactly helped by Wizard having sign-up forms for August 7-9, 2009, which would put the show back in the post-San Diego shadow, next year. Not all publishers I talked to were aware the show was moving back to August. We’ll have to see what happens. Then again, not everyone was aware there was a Horror Convention across the street for the weekend. That one, I’m not going to blame Wizard on. I suspect they had their reservations first. I live in Chicago, and I only heard about the horror show last week, and another local I ran into tonight hadn’t heard about it, so who knows?

Ben Towle wraps up Heroes Con with a detailed list of observations and he confronts what many people saw as low sales for indies at the show in a very constructive way:

Smile! It’s probably a bit of a regional bias, but I definitely saw some residents of Indie Island who really gave off a mopey, unapproachable vibe. While this is absolutely, 100% preferable to the other end of the spectrum, the loathsome “hard sell”/carnival barker routine, one of the things Heroes is known for is how friendly and personable ‘most everyone is. If you look like you’re in the midst of an existential crisis, you’re not really inviting people to come check out your work.

We know that by pointing out such things we’ll be accused of making excuses for a poorly run con — which Heroes was not — but we happen to agree with that assessment. This year’s Indie Island was a bold attempt to break into a new market with a lot of fabulous comics, and we’re not ready to say if it worked or it didn’t. I know some people who were used to seeing books fly off the table at MoCCA, San Diego and SPX were disheartened. And yes it disheartening that you can’t just put a book by Charles Burns or Gary Panter on a table anywhere on earth and see it sell. Sure, I think a little more salesmanship may have sold a few more books…but given the limited budgets and resources of most indie publishers I don’t think asking them to slave away at mining a new territory is entirely fair either.

There were two booths at the show that got quite a bit of attention. One was for the book Light Children and the other was for a publisher named Steam Crow. Here they are.

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[NOTE TO COMMENTERS: PLEASE NO SPOILERS!]

Before you see HANCOCK, the new Will Smith movie about a dissolute superhero, I advise you to heed two terrible words of warning: AKIVA GOLDSMAN!!!

It also invokes Heidi’s Law of Movies: The quality of a film will be in inverse proportion to the number of short films based on production companies that precede said film. The list of producers includes Ian Bryce, Akiva Goldsman, James Lassiter, Michael Mann, Jonathan Mostow, Richard Saperstein and Will Smith…that’s a lot of cooks.

This is a very odd movie. It’s like some production assistant was walking along carrying a Steve Gerber superhero movie script and a Thor movie script and then dropped them on the floor and mixed up the first half of the Gerber movie with the last half of the Thor movie. I know this movie had a loooong development process, but perhaps one of my Hollywood pals can chime in on just what happened, because there is so much tinkering evident with the premise that the resulting film doesn’t make any sense. A lot of stuff happens but it isn’t about anything in particular.
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Over at Blog@, DC publisher Paul Levitz speaks out on John Nee’s departure

Now before you decide that Paul Levitz reads Journalista (although it wouldn’t surprise us) we’ve been using “Kremlinology” for YEARS now, although the search function is messed up right now so we can’t find an actual link. Anyway, we call dibs!

CB Cebulski teases Marvel work by famed manga and fine artist Junko Mizuno.

stuck at the airport with Joe Quinones and Maris Wicks:
Many flights were delayed!

WB released a bunch of Dark Knight press materials today, and we’re too lazy to check which photos have already been put up on the web.
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Steve Bissette weighs in on the Platinum situation, where creators have signed away most of their rights and are now not being paid:

Welcome to the 21st Century, where abuse of creators is rampant and the illusion that all the battles were won and such affairs somehow aren’t Creator Rights issues is part of what allows outfits like Platinum to get away with this kind of crap.

Of course, they have the now-tradition of the 1990s (e.g., Scott Rosenberg, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, etc.) to depend upon — after all, Rob and Todd published and continue to publish work by prominent creators they didn’t treat fairly and haven’t paid a dime in reprint or royalties to, so what’s to stop others from emulating the same behavior?

Scott Rosenberg has been quite public about why he publishes comics, and what he and Platinum are about. The Comic Book Challenge, like the recent debacle over TokyoPop, is simply put a program legally designed to elevate, exploit and legally separate a creator from their creative property for Platinum’s financial gain.

We don’t have time to give this all that it deserves, but the saddest part of the whole Platipop situation is that us old timers stood there telling these kids it was a bad idea. We’ve been saying it for years. And the kids storm out of the room, saying “I can handle it! I’m a grown up!” And then, a few years later, sheepishly, they admit maybe they didn’t quite know what was going on at the time.

Bissette goes on to write: “Isn’t it time for the creative community to aggressively pool resources and quit acting like Creator Rights isn’t a war that was won, or somehow doesn’t apply to them?”

He’s right. Other companies are are putting out bad contracts right this minute. And trusting creators are signing them. That’s the sad part. Every time we think we’ve killed the snake a new bunch of rubes gets off the bus and signs the same yokel contract. And that’s why the snake will never die. They know they will always have a fresh and willing pool of talent to steal from.

But it isn’t just signing away your own creations with a work for hire contract. The sickness has spread to Hollywood, we hear. You know all those “such and such has been optioned” announcements that arrive every day? There is no set amount of money for an option. It could be between $500-$750K, as with Jeff Smith for Bone. Or it could be $1.

Now, not everything is a beloved classic like Bone, but increasingly, we hear, creators are settling for far less than their books are worth on the open market with a resulting devaluation of comics properties on the market.

Granted, its hard not to fall for the first cute guy at the dance who shows an interest in you when you’ve been sitting down sipping punch for years. You believe in your creation so much you just want to get it out there at any price! Once you get it out there, fame and fortune are sure to follow!

That’s what Siegel and Shuster thought; and Jack Kirby, and Mart Nodell and Joe Simon and all the rest. They were just grateful to be paid, grateful to put some food in their families’ mouths.

Interestingly, Bob Kane knew better — or at least his family did. His father insisted he get his rights on paper and even gamed the system himself:

Bob Kane had his father (a printer who knew the industry) represent him and negotiate a very good contract on his behalf. During the period where Siegel and Shuster were suing for Superman, Bob Kane would tell DC he was a minor when he signed his original contract. Faced with potential lawsuits of both their biggest cash cows, DC would renegotiate a much better deal with Kane. Truth was, Kane was in his early 20’s when he co-created Batman. As per then Jewish tradition, Kane’s father got rid of his son’s birth certificate. Without any paperwork indicating Kane’s actual birth date the courts would have to rely on the word of his family. Kane said his family was willing to lie on his behalf.

There is always an option. There are always alternatives. But as long as the kids keep thinking they’re all grown up and don’t listen to the warnings of the people who’ve already been there, the theft will continue.

Benjamin Ong Pang Kean continues his look at the Tokyopop fallout with a look at the Manga Pilot program that created such a ruckus:

NRAMA: Okay, guys. There’ve been much debates about the contract, or rather, “the pact”. We’re not going to go into legal terms and what-not here but what’re your initial/general thoughts on the whole arrangement?

GA: The moment I saw it I thought the language was extremely patronizing. I knew it was a legally binding contract of course, anything you sign your name to is, but it seemed as if they were trying to get me to focus on the language rather than the “fine print”. (Like how a magician executes a trick by distracting the audience.) To their credit, it worked. In my desperation to get my next story published I signed, believing I could endure whatever they threw at me for the sake of earning some money while doing what I love.

Steven Grant looks at the crazy goings on of the past week, specifically the “Dan DiDio is getting the Willie Randolph treatment!” rumor and how it becomes morphed into fanthink:

Fanthink is an interesting beast. It starts with the premise, which perhaps not coincidentally is what the DC comics universe has been based on for the last 20-some odd years, that reality is whatever you want it to be. Which is perfectly fine for a fictional world controlled from on high where any unpleasant complications can be explained away, rebooted or ignored as desired, as long as you’re aware that anything done will have fans unwilling to accept your explanations, reboots or willful ignorance. In the real world? Mmmmm… doesn’t work so well at all, like when you invade a country while figuring all you’ll have to do in the aftermath is dropping a malleable new government into place and sweeping up the flowers its grateful citizens strew in your armies’ path. Nonetheless, it has become a popular game among Internet comics fans especially to decide on the outcome they’d prefer to see, act as though it’s already reality, and extrapolate their arguments backwards.

Steven nails a very important part of today’s internet culture, and one that’s very difficult to deal with for a site like this. For instance, there are a couple of assumptions Steven makes in his column that I could refine based on well-sourced information that I have heard. But is it worth it? Every time bits of actual inside information are posted on the web, the fans go ape-shit spinning-off all sorts of totally bogus claims and reverberations about that information.

So is it even worth it? Usually not.

Fanthink is bad enough with popular movies and TV shows, But in the comics industry where everyone knows everyone else, it’s downright deadly.

Have you heard that new Neil Diamond song Pactin’ Oni? This time out they have pacted with online entertainment producer 60Frames for a bunch of comics-and-web projects written by Hollywood types:

First titles include “Men With Guns: Assassin,” created by Tom Fontana (“Oz,” “Homicide”), as well as “Ark,” from “Freaks and Geeks” scribes Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, now showrunners on the CW’s upcoming redo of “Beverly Hills, 90210.”

The two properties will launch simultaneously in print and as Web series next year.

“Ark,” a sci-fi series created by Robbie Thompson and developed by Sachs and Judah, follows a young woman who wakes up in a coffin-like capsule on a large spacecraft. Series will explore how and why she got there and if she can get home.

The Web series will feature a combination of live-action and CGI.

A press release is forthcoming, but the puzzling Harvey nomination in the Meanwhile … Comics in the “Best Biographical, Historical or Journalistic Presentation” category. Blog@’s JK Parkin fond this nom particularly odd:

Please don’t get me wrong here — John, Jason and Scott, the contributors to the blog, are doing some fun stuff over there. My question had nothing to do with whether their content was worthy or not to be nominated. No, the question I had was how a site that launched in April made the list when nominations for the Harveys were due in March.

Turns out a clerical error had turned votes for RC Harvey’s MEANWHILE… into votes for the little known site.

[Link via Troy]

Nick Magazine editor Chris Duffy writes to tell us that Nick Mag has an archive of many of its comics online now. Most are based on Nick shows, but there are also original creations by many top indie cartooners. Dave Roman has some more info, but Chris helpfully points to some of the highlights:

Sam Henderson comics
Deitch Bros. comics
Jef Czekaj
Mark Martin

PLUS: comics written and/or drawn by Mark Crilley, Brian Ralph, Kazu Kibuishi, Stephen DeStefano, Bobby London, Craig Bartlett, Jhonen Vasquez, Kyle Baker and more.

Adult befuddlement note: If small children can actually navigate this flash-based maze of design, we really have no fear for America’s future — we are raising a generation of super-soldiers.

Oh boy, will the drama never end. Dylan Squires, founder of Drunk Duck — the webportal purchased by Platinum Studios, and a source of some of its thousands and thousands of potential movie franchises — has left Platinum:

I just want to let you all know that a short while ago I left Platinum Studios to pursue new opportunities. DrunkDuck has been great, and I hope under Platinum’s guidance it continues to grow and prosper.

Everyone is free to contact me of course, and I’ll drop in now and then, but I think it’s time I shift focus and really concentrate on my future.

Xaviar Xerexes moves in quickly to ask what and how:

Can you work on other webcomic projects now?

I’m not… sure. I’d probably take the cautious point of view and assume the sale contract includes a provision that prevents me from leaving drunkduck and starting something competing with it. If I, in my non-existant legal knowledge would put something like that in, i’m sure Platinum would as well.

Squires does mention he’s now working on a new start up project.

MEANWHILE, over at TokyoPop, Benjamin Ong Pang Kean shows that Newsarama can do a good job when they try with a huge round up of Tokyopop news including reactions from multiple creators:

Tokyopop, the manga giant and one of the market leaders of the past few years is, depending on who you listen to, going through some reorganization efforts, heaving and bucking as it sheds creators and projects, or circling the drain. The company has been a target of the blogoshphere for quite some time, given creators and would-be creators’ issues with its contracts, but most recently, the company announced a substantial reorganization and reduction in output for the coming year. The move left many creators’ projects homeless.

There is much, much praise for Tokyopop’s editorial staff, but also many many unanswered questions…developing.

UPDATE: Part Two looks at what’s going on with Tpop’s various OEL titles.

Frequent PWCW contributor and Beat pal Laurel Maury has been named the new official comics reviewer for NPR. Congratulations to Laurel! Her first piece covers THE RABBI’S CAT:

If you’re used to comics smacking you over the head with superheroes and fantasy, prepare to be seduced and charmed. Joann Sfar’s series about the rabbi and his talking cat draws on the Franco-Belgian artist’s roots to recreate the sights, smells and vibrancy of early 20th century Algeria.

Dollar Bin has the audio of the infamous Covering Comics panel from Heroes Con up, so you can judge for yourselves how pathetic we sound.

God, this is depressing. How can intelligent people say this stuff and not acknowledge what’s coming out of their mouths? This isn’t journalism, or criticism, this is public relations. Promotion. It’s disgusting.

Participant Johanna has her own comments:

At this point, I said, “I’m glad I have a day job” because it gives me a certain amount of independence from corporate pressure; I don’t care if I piss someone off, because I don’t answer to anyone but myself. (Later, several people asked me if I was a librarian — apparently, I have that air. No, I’m not. I work in a corporate communications department for a real estate-related financial services company, where I write, proofread, copy edit, manage projects, and maintain websites.) Heidi and Matt both acknowledged altering their coverage to keep publishers happy to maintain the possibility of future stories.

I wouldn’t say that I’d “alter” a story to keep a publisher “happy”, but I may have used that word, so I’ll take my lumps. I have certainly run corrections from publishers. As I’ve said many times, here and on the panel, I have too many personal connections in this industry to begin to be objective or have the kind of independence a real journalist needs.

The panel also provides my best friend Dirk Deppey with a new opportunity to give us all a schoolin’:

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I know I just shut down another thread, but here’s the link to the whispering women of the Spirit. It’s esp. fun when you run your cursor over it real fast.

Ivan Brandon has an army of 58 Zombies, 42,000 Zombie points and is a Zombie God!

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