• Entertainment Weekly’s Popwatch blog shares the Dr. Manhattan character banner from the Watchmen movie.

• In his weekly Q&A column on MySpace, Joe Quesada spends the entire column answering fan questions, as his regualr partner in crime, Jim McLauchlin, just had a new baby. Congrats to the McLauchlin family and their new son, Logan.

• Johanna Draper Carlson shares the process she went through in judging the Isotope Award For Excellence in Mini-Comics, and lists five other contenders she liked.

• SLG shares progress on the creation of their new retail store.

• This list of 50 facts about Barack Obama says the U.S.’s new president is a fan of Conan the Barbarian and Spider-Man.

• Early Star Wars storyboards. Via.

• 14 movies have been submitted for the Oscar’s best animated feature category, including Wall-E, Kung Fu Panda and the unreleased Bolt.

• Season premiere updates … Lost returns Jan. 21, and 24 returns Jan. 11.

Over on her blog, comics creator Jill Thompson shares some pages she created about five years ago for a proposed Nightmare Before Christmas comic for Dark Horse that neevr saw the light of day. Too bad; I enjoy her stuff, and she’s the perfect choice for a project like this.

Artist Lou Romano shares a bunch of early development artwork from the Disney/Pixar film The Incredibles. I wonder if the image posted above, which Romano calls a “gag drawing,” hints at a possible, darker future for the shape-changing Jack-Jack …

Via Super Punch

This post over at Jim Hill Media is of interest for a few reasons; first, to box office watchers who like to see how the major studios squirm when their summer blockbusters underperform, especially when compared to mega-hits like The Dark Knight. Hill takes a look at Disney’s summer, specifically Prince Caspian and Wall-E, both of which pale in comparison to the performance of the new Batman flick (Then again, what didn’t? At least they didn’t release the X-Files sequel or Speed Racer). Maybe I’m a little jaded after watching too much Entourage, but I imagine behind closed doors quotes like “sucked the air out of the room” probably have a different meaning.

Second, it’s a reminder that studios react to what’s hot by trying to do more of the same. Hill says that Disney’s response to this summer is to look at doing its own comic book-y movies, whether they be new properties like Time Jumper developed with Stan Lee, or adaptations of comics from their upcoming Kingdom Comics division. Which, if you’ll recall, is looking at revitalizing some of Disney’s older live-action movie properties in graphic novel format.

And third, the post is a reminder that once upon a time, Disney employed Jack Kirby to draw a newspaper strip based on their snoozefest of a film, The Black Hole, in the late 1970s. Some of the strips were collected last fall in one of Disney’s checkout aisle digests, in an issue that also featured Art Baltazar and Matt Feazell (a quick search on eBay turns up nothing, alas). Hill ends his piece by saying comic fans would probably rather see all those Kirby strips collected than a new Black Hole graphic novel by Kingdom Comics, and I’d say he’d be right.

The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the copyright issues surrounding the cartoon Steamboat Willie and Mickey Mouse, in particular recent allegations of an “imprecision” in copyright claims dating back to the character’s first appearance:

Film credits from the 1920s revealed imprecision in copyright claims that some experts say could invalidate Disney’s long-held copyright, though a Disney lawyer dismissed that idea as “frivolous.”

So does this mean I can finally publish my Steamboat Willie II: Electric Bugaloo comic? Not so fast, says one legal expert:

No one expects Disney, which declined interview requests, to surrender Mickey without an all-out legal brawl. And the cost of what has been an academic exercise would soar if moved into a federal courtroom.

“Law and equity might line up on the side of forfeiture,” said Michael J. Madison, associate dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. But “Disney has enough ammunition on its side to dissuade all but the most well-financed competitor, or any but the most committed public-interest advocates, from challenging Mickey.”

Also keep in mind that there’s a difference between copyright and trademark … Jeff Trexler talked a little bit about the differences between the two when discussing the Siegel/Superman case here. You can read the government’s definitions of both, as well as patents, here.

Via.

This is an actual exhibit.

– Stan Sakai shares the character designs for Usagi Yojimbo and Gen from the current Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. Setting my TiVo to “stun” …

– Willy Harold Vassaux is creating an Olympic comic. And will our search hits skyrocket if I mention “superhero” Michael Phelps?

– Brigid Alverson and her fellow contributors at Good Comics for Kids discuss Robot Dreams making Oprah’s Reading List for Kids.

– Film.com analyzes the most rabid fanbases — movies fanbases, that is, like Trekkies, Twilighters and Potterheads. They say Harry Potter fans are the most rabid, even more so than Whedon fans, who I would have picked for the top spot.

– “Because I want to set you free.”

– I’m sorry, but that’s just wrong.

– The New Yorker blog interviews Comics Curmudgeon Josh Fruhlinger.

– Tom Spurgeon talks to Abandoned Cars author Tim Lane.

Compiled by JK and Chris.

According to the Daily Mail, maids, bellhops, cooks and dishwashers from all three Disney-owned hotels in Anaheim staged a protest outside the happiest place in the world, with 32 of them being arrested. The protesters — some of whom were dressed as Mickey Mouse, Snow White, Peter Pan and other Disney characters — staged the demonstration over pay, health care costs and other issues related to ongoing negotiations between their union and Disney. They’ve been working without a contract since February.

Historian/Uncle Scrooge writer Geoffrey Blum will be at Comic Relief in Berkeley Aug. 23. The complete press release can be found after the jump.

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Check out the teaser trailer for Up, Pixar’s next film:

It debuted during the Disney panel at the San Diego Comic-Con.

Disney has renewed its first-look deal with Stan Lee’s POW Entertainment.

As part of the two-year agreement, which covers TV, movies, games and other media, Disney has greenlit Time Jumper for distribution across multiple platforms.

The project revolves around an agent of a secret government organization called H.U.N.T. — Heroes United, Noble and True — who has a cell phone that doubles as a time machine. When his brother is lost in time, the agent must find him before a criminal cartel does.

Disney Interactive Media Group’s Disney Online and Disney Publishing Worldwide also will develop their own content based on Time Jumper. A comic is planned, too.

Lee set up three other projects with Disney in April: Blaze, Nick Ratchet and Tigress.

In a follow-up to The Los Angeles Times’ big weekend profile of Mike Richardson and Dark Horse Comics, Geoff Boucher homes in on this interesting, and apparently previously unknown, item: During Marvel’s bleak financial times in the mid-’90s, Dark Horse made plans with Disney to take control of the House of Ideas.

“This hasn’t been out there, but we were in serious talks with Disney about buying Marvel,” Dark Horse founder Michael Richardson told Boucher. “I met with Michael Eisner, who is a good friend of [my mentor, producer] Larry Gordon, and they were going to buy Marvel and put Dark Horse in control of it.”

Obviously it didn’t pan out. But why? A mix of skepticism about Marvel’s financial figures and Disney’s uneasiness about “seeing Wolverine products on the same shelf as Mickey Mouse.”

Be sure to read both articles.

Related: Gerard Way’s favorite graphic novels (Part 1, Part 2)

Kate Culkin has an in-depth article on the newly formed Walt Disney comics imprint spearheaded by Ahmet Zappa and Christian Beranek:

Kingdom Comics plans to release its first book in summer 2009. All publications will be at least 120 pages and consist of a self-contained story, although successful works may spawn sequels. When the graphic novels draw on the Disney vaults, it will be to reimagine less successful live-action features, especially from the 1970s and ’80s, in original ways. “Disney wants to put a lot behind this and there is a good chance these stories will become the next film franchises,” according to Beranek. Zappa and Beranek will coauthor some books, but they are actively seeking other writers as well as artists. At Heroes Con, Beranek and Zappa announced the first creators who will work on the line, writers Scott Lobdell and Steve Niles, with more to be announced soon. “All I can say is, I think the fans will be happy,” Beranek promised.

That’s the question a group of Disney animators will answer this summer in a self-published anthology that’ll debut in San Diego. You can find more details here.

Disney is in final negotiations with Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, who worked on The Mask of Zorro and the Pirates of the Caribbean films, to write a new Lone Ranger film:

The writing duo, best known for their work on the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films, are in final negotiations to write a live-action big-screen adaptation of “The Lone Ranger” for Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

The project will be made by Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films in association with Entertainment Rights.

“Ranger,” owned by Classic Media, began life as a 1930s radio show. Its popularity led to movie serials, TV shows, comic strips and comic books, toys, novels and more.

If they’re looking for inspiration, they should take a look at the Dynamite Lone Ranger series.

TorrentFreak reports that the latest issue of Donald Duck magazine in The Netherlands depicts Donald and his nephews as music pirates who are threatened by the head of a record label — one Scrooge McDuck.

According to the website, the comic strip provides a lesson in copyright as Huey, Dewey and Lewey illegally download an album because they’re low on cash; they’ll buy it later when they have the funds. However, Donald decides there’s money to be made by copying and selling CDs. The boys are horrified, and tell him about copyright, adding, “If nobody buys CDs anymore, the record labels and artists will become beggars.”

Of course, Donald’s plan is thwarted by Uncle Scrooge, who warns him that’ll he’ll have to pay a hefty fine if he doesn’t stop pirating music.

Although some Dutch websites suspect anti-piracy group BREIN was behind the strip, the magazine’s editor said there was no outside involvement.

In related news, an Italian court has ordered Donald and his girlfriend Daisy, Mickey Mouse and Tweety Bird to testify in a counterfeiting trial.

Lawyers say the summons, which cites the fictional characters as damaged parties, seems to be a clerical error. The criminal trial involves a Chinese man accused of counterfeiting Disney and Warner Bros. products.

So Tornante, Michael Eisner’s media investment company, has purchased Topps, makers of trading cards, HeroClix and Bazooka Joe bubble gum. USA Today talked to Eisner, former CEO of Disney, here, where he revealed some lofty plans for Bazooka Joe:

He wants Topps to create a movie, TV, Internet and publishing franchise around Bazooka Joe, the eye-patch-wearing kid introduced in 1953 on the waxy comics that wrap Topps’ Bazooka bubble gum.

“Bazooka Joe could be the next big hero,” Eisner, 65, says. “I’m not saying it’s going to be Raiders of the Lost Ark,” which he oversaw as CEO of Paramount Pictures. “But that would be the goal. Bazooka Joe is my new Mickey Mouse.”

The idea, he says, is to help Topps strengthen its connection with kids and be considered “a real media company that is up there, and at least talked about, with the other media companies that we all know.”

Neatorama points out the gallery of French illustrator Serge Kliaving, who creates mashups of cute Disney characters and images from superhero and gore comics. Look for pieces featuring Venom, Ultron and Iron Man.