Our week here at Blog@Newsarama started pretty quiet, but things picked up in the wee hours of Tuesday morning shortly after Melissa Krause posted the latest edition of Meanwhile. One of the people she linked to this week apparently consulted his team of lawyers and issued a “cease & desist” notice, asking us to remove a link to his blog. Melissa immediately complied, and even though the link was gone, the drama was only beginning.
He Who Must Not Be Named also raised a stink at Melissa’s other blog, When Fangirls Attack, where Melissa and her WFA partner (and fellow Blog@Newsaraman) Lisa Fortuner decided not to comply with a similar request. As Fandom Wank pointed out, “the rest of the commenters, and much of the surrounding comics blogosphere, tell him to STFU.” Many people also pointed out that the best way not to be linked is not to have a blog in the first place, and apparently said blogger took that to heart and abandoned his blog altogether.
Y’know, when Shane Bailey and I first talked about the idea behind Meanwhile, I never imagined that simply linking to someone’s blog would cause such drama, consternation and faux legal threats. Many thanks to the many bloggers and commenters who pointed out how ludicrous that line of thinking is. For the record, to anyone who ever has issues or concerns or whatever about something that appears on Blog@, feel free to drop me an email. I may or may not remove a link, but at least I can save you some public humiliation.
And in other news, we have an update on another story we posted this week; the Rachel Bilson/Wonder Woman rumors we reported on have been confirmed as being bogus, according to Bilson. But if you’d like to see the young actress dressed up as the Amazon princess, go check out YouTube.
And lastly, some internal site news … I wanted to throw out a “get well soon” to Kevin Melrose, who you probably won’t be seeing around here much for the next week or so as he gets over a nasty illness. And because I might forget, I also want to throw out a “bon voyage” to Graeme McMillan, who leaves for vacation on Sept. 23 and won’t be back until the second week of October.
Yes, this means we could possibly be down two of our daily contributors over the next few weeks, but fear not … we have a plan. Oh yes, do we have a plan. Stay tuned.
Other highlights
Hollywoodland opens at No. 2
Ledger promises ‘more nuanced and dark’ Joker
Comics are for kids (well, these are)
Mark Millar explains it all. Potentially.
Synergy: Batista on Smallville
Come for the James Jean, stay for the James Kochalka
Comic books and the male physique
Creator profile: Mark Siegel & Siena Cherson Siegel
Retailer Summit: Marvel and DC announcements
Will the carnage ever end?
Byrne: Your old moaning was better
Mindy Owens is crying about now: Whedon on Runaways
Citigroup on Marvel’s stock
Ken Jennings, mild-mannered trivia guru
Nextwave #11 cover: Mark Millar licks goats
Jim Lee times three
Credits where credits are due: Splinter title credits
The King Is Half Undressed
Kyle Baker on his audience
The Bakers/Jingle Belle crossover
Mostow to rewrite and direct Sub-Mariner
TCJ: Big fish little fish cardboard box
Justice League Heroes: Alternate costumes
Awwww. Wook at da widdle Spider-Man!
16-inches of Wonder and Steel
JMS off FF, Thor wishing he had an acronym now
USM: 100% sales
More cheap downloadable comics
The Dose: I just can’t seem to plug myself in
Marvel rewrites history, now they never had a gay character policy
Features
Can’t Wait for Wednesday
Meanwhile …
The Fifth Color
Grumpy Old Fan
Amateur Art Appreciation
September 17th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
Wait.
He was threatening to sue because you LINKED to his blog?
Linking is at the very heart of the Internet. Linking is it’s soul. It’s one thing (granted, a stupid thing) if you don’t want to link TO anybody, but you can’t decide who links to you.
How absolutely absurd this person must be.
September 17th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
I invite you to link to me as often as humanly possible.
September 17th, 2006 at 10:47 pm
Hey Newsarama -
How dare you post my comment here in the comments section where I posted.
HOW. DARE. YOU.
CEASE & DESIST RIGHT TFN!
September 17th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
To clarify, JK was being tongue and cheek with the consulting lawyers bit. But just by using the legal phrase “cease and desist” it implies legal action. Hair splitters would say many of us inferred threat of legal action. But anyways, I hope this does not prevent bloggers plugging un-named former blogger’s significant other http://comicsfairplay.blogspot.com/ .
September 17th, 2006 at 11:59 pm
Meant to say tongue in cheek, but channeled a variation of tongue and groove…yeesh.
September 18th, 2006 at 1:01 am
His objections hardly stopped anyone from linking his blog, let alone his wife’s.
September 18th, 2006 at 9:24 am
You understate: his objections encouraged people to start linking to his blog copiously and ubiquitously (albeit sarcastically). Most bloggers wish they could get that kind of action.
September 18th, 2006 at 10:31 am
I have had people upset with me on more than one occasion for linking to convention photos they had posted on their blogs, insisting that the posts were intended for their friends only. In one case, a girl deleted her entire blog because some of here co-workers had found her blog through the link on my site, and she had been saying things that she did not want them to see. I pointed out to her that I had found her blog through a search on Technorati, and if I had found it so easily, so could her co-workers. And for the record, her blog was highly customized with graphics so I had no idea it was intended to be private, which by being on the internet, pretty much guaranteed it wouldn’t be.
September 18th, 2006 at 1:55 pm
If James Meeley didn’t want people to find out about his blog, why did he post its address back in May on the website SEE KLYLE DRAW. http://www.seekyledraw.com/archives/000804.php
It was in a discussion where he’d discussed why he thought the sexual undertones in YOUNG AVENGERS were inappropriate (he had a letter to that effect printed in YOUNG AVENGERS). Why he would take down his website and go into hiding is very curious.