[via Press Release and hat tip to Newarama Contributor, Amanda McDonald]

REBEL-NYC, New York City October 12th, 2012Excitement continues to build as ROCK COMIC CON rolls out what promises to be the major party event of convention week during the New York Comic Con. This year, ROCK COMIC CON is partnering with the COMIC BOOK LEGAL DEFENSE FUND to create the ultimate Nerd Rock music party experience.ROCK COMIC CON is a perfect place for Heroes, Zombies, Jedi Knights and Fans of all kinds to get their “Nerd” Rock on and help support freedom of speech through the Comic Book Legal DefenseFund. ROCK COMIC CON is the ultimate place to mingle and will rock your face off with a flurry of nerd rockbands. It will also feature LIVE Art by Marvel, DC and Indie artists, prizes, costumes, giveaways and Special Guests.’

Nerd Rock’: [nurd 'rok] a  genre of music that tends not to take itself too seriously, often referencing “geek” pop culture, comic books and video gameswith signifcant doses of irony and humor.

ROCK COMIC CON features an array of national acts; hard rocking and musically adept nerd bands including Schaffer, the Dark Lord, a New York City-based rapper and comedian with material best suited for brainy and/or drug-addled audiences. With manic energy and a verbose vocabulary, STD skewers such topics as religious zombies, sci-fi sex fantasies, grammar snobbery and obsessive cat enthusiasts. STD has released three full-length albums and toured the country with mc chris, MCFrontalot and MC Lars.  He is also a co-producer and co-host for the nerdy, themed production, EpicWin Burlesque. He has three releases (2004′s “Meet My Maker,” 2007′s “Mark of the Beast” and 2009′s “Manslaughterer”) and the music video for his single “The Rappist” has garnered a half million views on YouTube.

H2Awesome! is a hilarious NYC band that is a cross between Weezer, the Bloodhound Gang and Iggy Pop…but MUCH nerdier. Comic Geek Speak called them “pure punk rock goodness”. H2Awesome! is fronted by NYC brothers, Charlie and Jeff LaGreca who cut their comedy teeth working and training with such notables as Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Adam McKay, Rob Riggle and many others and have written or been seen on Comedy Central, Conan O’Brien, American MovieClassics, Nickelodeon & the Food Network.  Their repertoire includes catchy and well-crafted tunes referencing geek culture, including an anthem for Walking Dead fans entitled “Carl, Stay In the House!”, and Frodo? Fredo?, a song about two confused potheads watching The Godfather and the Lord Of The Rings at the same time. The Doubleclicks are a self-proclaimed “nerd-folk” duo, based in Portland, Oregon. The band is made of the Webber sisters: Berkeley College of Music graduate and cellist Aubrey, and songwriter and ukulele player Angela. In 2011, the band started a “song a week” project, in which they posted new songs on their YouTube channel every week for a year – ranging in topics from superpowers to grammar. Their music video for their “Dungeons and Dragons” song created by Brooklyn-based artist Brad Jonas, boosted the Doubleclicks into position as a songwriting voice of the geek andgamer community. The band has toured to gaming and comic conventions and has shared the stage with Wil Wheaton, Amanda Palmer, and Paul and Storm. Though the tracks on The Doubleclicks’ first studio album “Chainmail and Cello” come from “a geeky place,” reviewers note that the Doubleclicks’ music has a broad appeal that can reach beyond the walls of the local game store.

Special guests include singer/songwriter Molly Lewis and Illusionist Nelson Lugo of Epic Win Burlesque.  Lewis, whose original songs and covers, accompanied by her masterful ukulele playing, have earned her over 4.4 million views on YouTube and won her the “Ukulele Video of the Year” award from UkuleleHunt.com.  Her first album, “I Made You A CD, But I Eated It,” was released by DFTBA Records. Illusionist Nelson Lugo first started performing magic when he was nine and a half years old.  Fed on a steady diet of comic books, video games and Benny Hill – Nelson’s performance style combines classic magic with a refreshingly geeky contemporary twist. He dreams of one day creating a magic act that somehow combines his love of Batman, Dr. Who, Star Trek, and pie. He is the founder and executive producer of EPIC WIN Burlesque and the co-host of the EPIC PIE cast.

ROCK COMIC CON will also feature MARVEL, DC and independent artists who will be creating live art throughout the night. This art will then be used to raise money to help support the COMIC BOOK LEGAL DEFENSE FUND, a program that protects artists.

Ticket sales for ROCK COMIC CON, the NYC Nerd Rock Music Festival are now underway. Don’t miss this fantastic, rocking, fun, colorful and outrageous event taking place at the Rebel-NYC,251 30th street, New York City, NY 10001 (Betw 7th & 8th Aves)  on Friday, Oct 12th.

Doors open at7pm.TICKETS:$12 Advance, $15 Door.Advance tickets are available at www.RockComicCon.com

Founder of Atlanta’s Dragon*Con was arrested Tuesday for violating conditions of his bond from previous child molestation charge. Edward Kramer was taken into custody after he was discovered alone in a motel room with a 14-year-old boy.

The Gwinnett County News of Atlanta reported Kramer, who launched the popular convention in 1987 but claims no association with it now, was arrested in Connecticut after Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter received a tip Tuesday from someone in Florida whose daughter was filming a movie in the town he was staying. “The woman alleged that Kramer was claiming to be the guardian of a 14-year-old boy who was acting in the film and that he was staying in a motel room with the boy, ‘which is exactly like the allegations in our case,’ Porter said.” He is not accused of molesting the boy, but child endangerment in this particular arrest.

Eleven years ago, Kramer was charged with multiple counts of child molestation and aggravated child molestation. The paper writes, “Three teenage boys asserted that he sexually abused them after dazzling them with action figures, sci-fi memorabilia and celebrity connections.” He had long claimed he was too ill to stand trial for the alleged crimes and was under house arrest for some time until a judge lifted that order in 2008. But accounts from several witnesses in Connecticut say he isn’t as ill as he’s appeared in the past. “The movie is being filmed in a campground, in a fairly rural area,” Porter said. “Mr. Kramer was hiking on the trails, didn’t require a cane, didn’t have his breathing apparatus and didn’t ride in his wheelchair.”

His defense attorney Edwin Marger made this statement to the paper: ”I am more than surprised, I am flabbergasted. As I told the judge today, I don’t know if this was a 14-year-old child or a 41-year-old midget, so until I speak to my client, I’m not taking anything for granted.” The paper says, “Conditions of his bond stipulated that he report his whereabouts on a weekly basis to the Gwinnett County district attorney’s office and that he have no unsupervised contact with anyone under age 16.”

In his latest report to the district attorney’s office,” writes the paper, “Kramer claimed to be staying in Brooklyn, N.Y., so that he could be near his mother in her ‘last days,’ Porter said. However, authorities have since learned that Kramer’s mother died in March.”

Kramer is currently being extradited back to Georgia.

UPDATE: Dragon*Con chairman Pat Henry has issued this statement via Facebook:

Edward Kramer resigned from the Dragon Con Convention in 2000 after legal issues. He has not had any role in Dragon Con planning or activities since that time.

Since 2000 the convention has been managed by three of the other founders. These men have been involved with the convention since the beginning. In that time the convention attendance has grown from less than 10,000 to over 46,000 this past Labor Day.

I’m sure the current convention runners and fans of the show find the connection to Kramer unfortunate but him being the founder of Dragon*Con is part of his persona and therefor part of the story.

When last we heard about the ongoing Jack Kirby Estate vs. Disney/Marvel lawsuit, the company had won summary judgements against the estate and appeals were being planned. Today, the estate filed an official notice of appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeal.

“We respectfully disagree with the court’s ruling and intend to appeal this matter to the Second Circuit,” the estate’s lawyer Marc Toberoff told The Hollywood Reporter. “Sometimes you have to lose in order to win.”

With the suit, the Kirby Estate is attempting to terminate early copyright grants of more than 45 characters including Captain America, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Avengers, Iron Man, Hulk, The Silver Surfer and Thor . According to THR, the estate sent notices to Marvel not just Marvel but its licensees Sony (Spider-Man), Fox (X-Men), Universal and others.

“Marvel then sued in New York federal court claiming Kirby’s creations were ‘works for hire’ and thus not subject to termination,” wrote THR. “The two sides filed summary judgment motions, and last month the circuit court sided with Marvel, ruling that Kirby created the characters as works for hire.”

Deadline added, “Normally these kinds of lawsuits are run of the mill for Hollywood. But not when they’re litigated by Toberoff, who is the bane of Big Media studios because he has a winning track record.” Needless to say, a win for the Kirby Estate here could potentially impact the Marvel brand irreparably.

No, I’m seriously asking.

This is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

This is an unnamed foreign dignitary from X-Men: Schism #1, by Carlos Pacheco, Cam Smith and Frank D’Armata:

Now, I’m not asking “Wow, does an obvious swipe leave Marvel open to legal action,” because if anyone at the publisher was concerned about that, Greg Land wouldn’t be working on Uncanny X-Men right now. But what I am talking about is – That’s clearly Ahmadinejad. Yes, the Marvel U Ahmadinejad apparently started losing his hair earlier, but the similarity is unmistakable… which makes this panel all the more problematic: (more…)

File under “What the what?”: Ghostface Killah is being sued for, amongst other things, using the name “Tony Starks” without paying any royalties to Marvel Comics. And, to make matters more strange, he’s not being sued by Marvel.

The suit against the Wu-Tang Clan rapper and co-defendants Sony Music Entertainment has been brought by composer Jack Urbont over what he claims is unlicensed use of the Iron Man theme music he wrote for the 1960s animated version of the character on the 2000 album Supreme Clientele; the “Tony Starks” claim is, seemingly, just an unconnected add-on thrown in there for good measure. Color me interested to see what attorneys from Marvel or parent company Disney have to say about the lawsuit.

Sony President and Chairman Howard Stringer finally speaks out about their network’s breach and offers those affected a literal sense of security.

In a letter posted on the Playstation blog, Stringer apologizes to users about the breach. “As a company we — and I — apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused by this attack. Under the leadership of Kazuo Hirai, we have teams working around the clock and around the world to restore your access to those services as quickly, and as safely, as possible,” wrote Stringer.

The Playstation Network has been down since a hack on April 20 that caused over 70 million users’ secured information like names, addresses, telephone numbers, passwords and possibly credit card information, to be at risk. But users were not immediately aware of the reason they couldn’t log on to the network.

“I know some believe we should have notified our customers earlier than we did. It’s a fair question,” wrote Stringer, “As soon as we discovered the potential scope of the intrusion, we shut down the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services and hired some of the best technical experts in the field to determine what happened. I wish we could have gotten the answers we needed sooner, but forensic analysis is a complex, time-consuming process. Hackers, after all, do their best to cover their tracks, and it took some time for our experts to find those tracks and begin to identify what personal information had — or had not — been taken.”

Stringer insists that to their knowledge none of the credit card or personal information has been misused and that they are continuing to monitor the situation. But to put customers at ease, Sony is offering some security.

“We are also moving ahead with plans to help protect our customers from identity theft around the world,” wrote Stringerr, “A program for U.S. PlayStation Network and Qriocity customers that includes a $1 million identity theft insurance policy per user was launched earlier today and announcements for other regions will be coming soon.”

The security comes in the form of Debix Inc., an identity theft insurance firm in the U.S. who will use “AllClear ID Plus” for any affected customers. For time lost on the Network, Sony is offering other incentives. “As we have announced, we will be offering a ‘Welcome Back’ package to our customers once our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are up and running. This will include, among other benefits, a month of free PlayStation Plus membership for all PSN customers, as well as an extension of subscriptions for PlayStation Plus and Music Unlimited customers to make up for time lost.”

Stringer stated that he knows this is a frustrating time for users but that the network will be up “in the coming days.” Until then, “Our investigation is ongoing, and we are upgrading our security so that if attacks like this happen again, our defenses will be even stronger,” he wrote. “We are working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies around the world to apprehend those responsible.”

What do you think about Sony’s reaction time and resolution ideas? Have they forever lost your trust or are you willing to use the PSN again?

You remember that tongue-in-cheek 3D horror flick Joss Whedon wrote? No? Well neither does anyone else because it never came out. Well now it looks as if a release for The Cabin in the Woods may finally be on the horizon thanks to Lionsgate.

The Whedon flick, directed and co-written by frequent Buffy the Vampire Slayer partner Drew Goddard, has been on the back-burner for almost two years. The original release date was October 23, 2009 but then MGM went bankrupt and the future of the film was uncertain. It was set to be released on yet another date until it was decided the film should be converted to 3D.  Deadline now reports Lionsgate is making a deal with MGM to distribute the film.

The Cabin in the Woods stars Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford plus Whedon favorites Amy Acker and Fran Kranz. The film also stars the Almighty Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, albeit before he filmed the superhero role. Whedon is currently teamed up with the Aussie actor again on the set of The Avengers.

MGM is also selling their Red Dawn remake, one of the other last films they produced, which also stars Hemsworth. Oh but wait, there’s more. Red Dawn stars our new Wonder Woman, Adrianne Palicki, too. So technically, they could make out better on these two movies than they ever dreamed.

Deadline says it’s unclear when Lionsgate will release The Cabin in the Woods, but October may be the target.

The Weinsten Company is suing Relativity Media over the rights to remake the 1994 film, The Crow. Meanwhile, people everywhere else wonder why more than one person wants to remake The Crow.

It was just a few weeks ago entertainment sites started reporting The Crow was on its way to being remade. Based on the comic book series by James O’Barr, Relativity already had a director on board with Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) and was looking at Hangover star Bradley Cooper to take on the lead role. The Hollywood Reporter even said singer/songwriter Nick Cave had written the most recent draft of the script.

Not so fast says The Weinstein Co.

THR says that in the lawsuit, “TWC claims that Relativity, the Ryan Kavanaugh studio, has breached a 2009 distribution agreement that allegedly gives TWC the right to release the movie globally. Harvey Weinstein and gang claim Kavanaugh has now been shopping distribution rights elsewhere in violation of the deal.”

If you like legal speak, you can read the entire lawsuit here but basically, the Weinstein Co.’s lawyer says they had a contract and they aren’t going to let anyone sell the distribution rights to the film.

Relativity has responded to the suit with this statement:

This is yet another typical litigation stunt from the Weinsteins, who have a long history of threatening lawsuits with the sole purpose of intimidation. If served, Relativity will seek immediate dismissal. While we expect these types of antics from the Weinsteins, we are shocked that a lawyer of Mr. Fields’ caliber would make such false, reckless and intentionally harmful statements to the press about Relativity and Mr. Kavanaugh. We intend to seek appropriate remedies for this misconduct. Clearly, this is a feeble attempt to create a press stir and a malicious effort to interfere with Relativity’s development of the project.

Relativity has hired lawyer Carol Genis to represent them and has since fired back with their own allegations in a letter to the Weinsteins. From THR, “Genis blames TWC for failing to meet obligations on the 2009 musical Nine, which was financed in part by Relativity but released by TWC. ‘It takes gall for your client to make demands upon Relativity about The Crow, which has not even been greenlit, when TWC’s failure to properly distribute Nine demonstrated that it will disregard and breach any and all of its distribution, marketing and financial obligations.’ the letter states.”

Genis also says in the letter, “Your client is forewarned and proceeds at its own peril.” Yikes.

I have no window into the company’s legal issues but it is important to note that The Crow was originally released under the Miramax Films Dimension imprint which The Weinstein Co. took with them when they left Disney. No idea how this one will shake out but it will probably get even nastier before the end.

Correct me if I’m wrong but putting on a cape doesn’t actually *make* you a superhero, right? Well, Florida officials are now investigating why one unemployment agency in the state spent $14,000 to buy red capes for 6000 unemployed citizens. Yes, this actually happened.

The agency, Workforce Central Florida, had an idea to start a campaign called ”Cape-a-Bility Challenge.” It gave both job seekers and employers the chance to win $1000 prize packs. In order to do so, WCF asked them to participate in various activities like taking a Facebook quiz titled, “Which superhero are you?” liking the WCF Facebook page, reccomending someone on LinkedIn using the word “super,” tweet a job opening from their website or take a photo with Dr. Evil Unemployment. Yes, they even made up their own supervillain.  (more…)

There’s another setback for Warner Bros. in the lawsuit with the estates of Superman co-creators Joel Shuster and Jerry Siegel. A judge has rejected Warner Bros.’ attempts to open documents that reportedly show an agreement between the estates not to make further copyright deals with the studio.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, “the documents are said to also contain a formula for how the two estates will share proceeds on Superman once they successfully terminate Warner’s rights to the lucrative franchise.”

“The documents are said to be “consent agreements” between the Siegel and Shuster estates and their existence came to light during settlement discussions during the first phase of the Siegel trial,” said THR. “Once [Joanne Siegel's lawyer Marc] Toberoff mentioned the presence of these agreements, Warners almost immediately demanded the documents be shared. During the first trial, Toberoff successfully got a judge to agree that those documents were protected by attorney-client privilege.”

The fighting, which has gone on for more than ten years now, doesn’t seem to have an end in sight. Last year Warner Bros. had argued that the agreement itself was a violation of the Copyright Act and could not be kept under wraps.

“The prior case, however, didn’t address this particular situation,” said THR, “where the heirs of the original creators apparently agreed to negotiate together, and not grant future interests to anyone, including Warners.”

The opinion, issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge Ralph Zaresky on Monday, doesn’t “settle the question of whether such an agreement does in fact violate copyright law, but says that Warners’ assertion that it is illegal does not necessarily make it so.”

Got all that? Warner Bros. has until 2013 to try and win this battle, that’s when they’ll lose specific rights to the famous, and lucrative, character.

While the Siegel and Kirby families continue to fight their battles in court, readers who want to a fun and accessible overview of the legal issues at stake should pick up the special All-Lawsuit Issue of Comic Book Comics, out in comic shops today.

Comics Alliance has a generous preview, and tonight in New York Evil Twins Fred van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey will be signing copies of the book at the 64 Fulton Street location of Midtown Comics. I’ll be there too for the panel discussion, since I served as the book’s pro bono legal consultant.

Earlier this week, BOOM! Studios announced the new name for their all-ages imprint; the payoff to their “BOOM! Kids 2.0″ teaser first released last September: “kaboom!”

Well, some, including Pipeline columnist Augie De Bileck Jr., remembered that there was a comic by Jeph Loeb and Jeff Matsuda in the late’90s called Kaboom (sans exclamation point), published under Rob Liefeld’s Awesome Comics.

Someone else who remembered? Rob Liefeld, who tweeted thusly, in response to Augie:

And yes @augiedb my lawyers are drafting a complaint. Busy week. Shouldn’t be an issue since we released the KABOOM! HC and trade last year.

BOOM! Studios declined comment on the matter at this time.

Entertainment Weekly reports that teen-themed network The CW is pursuing a new zombie show to ride the success of AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” The show will feature “two sisters who face off…right as the zombie apocalypse” begins.

The interesting thing to us comic book fans, though, is the title of this zombie story, “The Awakening.”

That’s interesting, as “The Awakening” is already the title of a zombie story, the two-volume comic book from Archaia [read the first issue here]. There is no mention of the comic in EW’s news blurb, and the two don’t appear to share any story similarities aside from the presence of zombies, but this still seems odd; you’d think the first thing a studio would do before announcing the name of a new show would be a simple google search of “The Awakening zombies”.

So, will Archaia be pursuing a name-change from The CW? We’ve asked, and we’ll fill you in as soon as we get any response.

After pleading guilty to the charges last year, Christopher Handley has been sentenced to six months in prison for possessing manga drawings of “children being sexually abused,” Anime News Network has reported.

Handley was charged after the U.S. Post Office seized the following books, back in 2006:

Mikansei Seifuku Shōjo (Unfinished School Girl) by Yuki Tamachi (LE Comics)
I [Heart] Doll by Makafusigi (Seraphim Comics)
Kemono for ESSENTIAL 3 (THE ANIMAL SEX ANTHOLOGY Vol.3) by Masato Tsukimori et al (Izumi Comics)
Otonari Kazoku (Neighboring House Family) by Nekogen (MD Comics)
Eromon by Makafusigi (Seraphim Comics)
Kono Man_ ga Sugoi! (This Man_ is Awesome!) by Makafusigi (Seraphim Comics)
Hina Meikyū (Doll Labyrinth) by Makafusigi (Seraphim Comics)

These books all have drawings of minors engaging in sexual activity, including with adults and animals. According to ANN’s thorough coverage of the legal documentation, Handley’s interest in manga eventually “evolved” in the mid-’90s to ”fascination for images of young girls engaged in sexual activity.”

Handley’s trial had the backing for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which did back out following Handley pleading guilty to the charges. Handley said that if he had known these were against the law he would never have ordered them.

That said, the prosecution’s main argument does set my Spider-sense tingling: ”The works at issue do not even have arguable scientific, literary, artistic, or political value, such as Vladimir Nabokov’s famed novel, Lolita, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, or even Alan Moore’s recent, but controversial, graphic novel, Lost Girls. By the defendant’s own statements, the works for which he was convicted of receiving and possessing are clearly obscene.”

At that point, isn’t it all or nothing? Let’s even step aside the obvious argument of whether a drawing of an illegal act is the same as partaking the real thing — at what point do we start labeling the art as “valuable” or not? When do we start discussing motive for consumption? Will viewers have to own up to seeing Transformers 2 because of the sheer art and beauty of an eye-bleeding transformation, or because they simply find Megan Fox to be extremely attractive? Let’s discuss.

Gosh darn that Parker luck!

The L.A. Times has reported that Ol’ Spidey has gotten himself into a little bit of a tangled web — with the LAPD.

What happened? 39-year-old Spider-Man impersonator Christopher Loomis was arrested by police, after calls came in of Spider-Man assaulting someone at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

A cultural landmark known for costumed versions of Stormtroopers, Chewbacca, Superman, and more, it proved to be difficult for the police to find which of four Spideys clocked a bystander in the face. Second one proved to be a charm, and he was arrested for oustanding warrents to the tune of $5,500.

Looks like somebody’s going to be crashing with Aunt May for awhile.

The Guardian reports that a man who founded the International Church of Jediism has accused a store of religious discrimination.

23-year-old Daniel Jones — or his Jedi name, Morda Hehol — says he was victimized by a Tesco store in Bangor. The crux of the argument? When he entered the store to get some food during his lunch break, store employees told him to take his hood off.

“They said: ‘Take it off’, and I said: ‘No, its part of my religion. It’s part of my religious right.’ I gave them a Jedi church business card,” Jones told the Guardian. “It states in our Jedi doctrination that I can wear headwear. It just covers the back of my head.” Tesco was a little bit more cheeky with its response, saying their main defense is that Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Yoda were all seen without their hoods.

I’ll be honest, I’m kind of torn by this. On the one hand, it’s pretty easy to dismiss the guy as a weirdo for establishing a religion around George Lucas’ film trilogies, but at the same time, if you took out the word “Jedi” there would be some major implications here. What if they told a Jew they couldn’t wear a kippah? If they told a Muslim they would have to remove their hijab? What do you think?

[via Alex Irvine]

Just when you thought the comicsphere could rest easy after the past few weeks — the heirs of Jack “King” Kirby have something to say.

The heirs of one of the architects of the House of Ideas have sent 45 notices of copyright termination to Marvel, Disney, Paramount, Sony, Fox, and Universal, the New York Times has reported.

There’s no word about what characters are involved with this — or if the rights being discussed are for comics, film, television, licensing, or all of the above — but considering Kirby has helped create characters ranging from the (original) X-Men to the Fantastic Four, it could be big. Any change-up would occur around 2014, which would be years after Paramount’s Avengers films, Sony’s Spider-Man 4, or Fox’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine sequel would hit theatres.

On the legal side of things, this is more or less bleeding edge copyright and intellectual property war being waged here. DC has seen similar issues with the Siegel estate’s legal dealings regarding the Superman franchise — and in this case, both the Siegels and the Kirbys have the same lawyer, Marc Toberoff. The phrase “work for hire” will almost certainly come into play here, as the creation of these characters in the early 1960s didn’t typically come with the most ironclad of creator contracts.

But what about that Disney deal? Will this spoil that? Not according to Disney reps, who told the NY Times, “the notices involved are an attempt to terminate rights seven to 10 years from now, and involve claims that were fully considered in the acquisition.” Stay tuned to Blog@ and the mothership for more info…

In a surprising move just days before the San Diego Comic Con, David Elliot, the former editor in chief of Radical Comics, has sued parent company Blatant Entertainment.

The co-founder of the Radical Comics, Elliot said that he was terminated in April, and alleges he was not given his full salary from Blatant.

Elliot also claims that he was not credited some Radical Comics finds such as Aladdin, City of Dust, Caliber, and Hercules; that he was not compensated for acquiring Hotwire, Cholly & Flytrap, and Lords of Misture; and that other projects that he owns part of the copyrights have been exploited by the company without his consent. You can read the complaint in full here.

Another interesting quote, from THREsq.com: “Blatant’s management failed to have any of its employees sign work-for-hire agreements and/or assignments of copyrights, thereby clouding title to all of Blatant’s projects, and making it impossible for Blatant to provide proper chain of title documents and guarantees to investors, production companies, studios, and insurers, to the detriment of its shareholders.” If this is true, this a whole new can of worms for the comics-to-film venture company.

Radical Comics, which hit the scenes last year, has teamed up with figures ranging from Jim Steranko to Steve Niles to Nick Simmons.

If you visit Wizard’s Storefront Feedback at Amazon.com, it appears something bad has happened of late. The 90 day feedback shows 23% negative, but the 30 day feedback shows 53%. Exploring the full feedback, 35 out of the 50 most recent are 1 star out of 5. These have some interesting comments attached to them:

“I ordered a $200+ robot dog and they sent me plastic superman figurine!??!!?? I sent the seller 2 e-mails and received NO response and it’s been over 2 weeks! What a bunch of crooks! AVOID AT ALL COST!! Amazon should really consider banning this merchant from the marketplace!”

“they send the wrong toy plus it was a cheaper version,and charge me original price they never answer my emails ,i had to contact amazon directly,but amazon saved the day, till this day i havent heard from wizard entertainment”

“The seller falsely advertised the LEGO Star Wars Clone Scout Walker. When contacted a couple days later a crushed box with a piece of junk metal arrived. I contacted the seller several times & got no response. Even after filing a claim with Amazon the seller still refused to acknowledge the defect/cheating they performed.”

Most other comments are very similar. There are several reports of people receiving a Superman action figure in lieu of their items, several reports of multiple attempts to contact Wizard via email and phone being ignored, or being sent damaged or overpriced product, complete with the lower pricetag on the box. I contacted Wizard to ask about what seems to be a major case of mail fraud, and received this official response from April Wiggins:

“This is an issue that we are aware of and are addressing. During a recent
inventory move we incurred some damage to parts of our inventory. Since many
of our customers are collectors, these items are not suitable. When this
occurs, we send people a free gift (with shipping at our own expense) to
compensate them for their inconvenience. They also receive a full refund on
their order.

Although we send a note attached, it is confusing to some. We apologize for
any confusion and we continue to clear up any misunderstandings. To date,
anyone who was inconvenienced received a full refund and a free action
figure.”

Now, there are zero out of those 35 cases where the same poster has posted again to say anything like, “I got my refund” or “I re-read the paper that came with the Superman figure and realized they sent it as an apology,” so it still seems like something else might be going on. According to an anonymous source within Wizard, the customer service phone number no longer “goes to anything” and the non-replies to the email address are on purpose.

In addition, looking at Wizard’s Forums, the customer service problems appear to have been harrowing them for a lot longer than the last 30 days. A post dated August 8, 2006 is the first to note the non-answering of email and the phone number that’s very difficult to find. The frequency of these style of posts kicked up in March of 2009, with six and a half pages of comments similar to the Amazon feedback. Most of these include statements like, “I’ve been waiting 3 weeks,” “My order shipped with several missing items,” and “I’ve emailed several times with no reply.” These customers are seeing charges come up on their credit cards days or weeks before anything is shipped. They contradict Wiggins’s official statement, saying that after several months they had to dispute the charges with their credit cards in order to get their money back.

A moderator, “Jerry Whitworth,” has gone on this thread repeatedly telling people, “Don’t order from a company you have problems with,” as did moderator “jaydee74.”

One poster, Chris Underwood, even pasted in his entire customer service email experience. He received order confirmation April 30, 2009. He then sent emails that weren’t responded to on May 1, May 6, May 8, and May 9, all with no response.

With all this evidence, it seems something more than a note that is “confusing to some” is the problem. Wizard’s official statement says they’ve been prompt with refunds, but the customers tell a different story. While one has recently noted a refund, it was a full month after order placement (and credit card charge), and still with no communication.

This may be indicative of the larger problem Wizard has been facing over the last year or so. With magazine closings, location closings, and layoffs, things don’t look to be getting better. While Gareb Shamus purchased the Big Apple Con and revived the Chicago Comic-Con name, it is interesting to note that both DC Comics and Marvel Comics are conspicuously absent from the list of exhibitors for this year’s Chicago show, which is only about two months away. Image, Dark Horse, and IDW are likewise missing.

President Obama has appointed Charles Rivkin–former Jim Henson Company CEO and current producer of Yo Gabba Gabba!–to serve as U.S. Ambassador to France.

Nikki Finke provides the political backstory. I really don’t have any additional observations, except occasionally it’s a relief to note law-related news that doesn’t involve damages, injunctions or plea bargains.