A Very Special Thor Poster

by Mike Hansen

Seen in China:

They look adorable together, don’t they?

Source

COPYRAGE: Sony screws Bob Dylan fans with ridiculously limited-edition box set

by Mike Hansen

Way to rub it in everyone’s faces, Sony!

U.S. copyright law tends to revolve around ensuring that Disney continues to own Mickey Mouse in perpetuity (along with Warner Brothers clinging tenaciously to Superman and Batman, Marvel to Captain America, etc.). In Europe, it seems to be all about its music superstars.

Today, Rolling Stone reported something sure to annoy 99.999999999999% of Bob Dylan fans: about 100 copies of an official 4-CD, 86-song Bob Dylan box set of 1962 outtakes (Dylan’s first year with Columbia Records, now owned by Sony Music).

“This isn’t a scheme to make money,” a Sony Music source tells Rolling Stone. “The copyright law in Europe was recently extended from 50 to 70 years for everything recorded in 1963 and beyond. With everything before that, there’s a new ‘Use It or Lose It’ provision. It basically said, ‘If you haven’t used the recordings in the first 50 years, you aren’t going to get any more.'”

So even though Sony doesn’t intend to make money from these recordings (most of which are widely available on bootleg), it wants to ensure that they don’t enter the public domain so they can be freely copied and shared. Really? Is Sony that afraid of having to compete with anyone’s ability to package, release, and distribute the material in a manner of their choosing?

Bob Dylan’s 1962 debut LP became a part of the European public domain on January 1st, meaning anybody in Europe can release the music without paying Dylan one dime. “The whole point of copyrighting this stuff is that we intend to do something with it at some point in the future,” says the source. “But it wasn’t the right time to do it right after he released Tempest. There are other things we want to do in 2013 though.”

Oh, okay: so Sony DOES intend to make money off it. LATER. So they’re lying. Classy!

I’m all for compensating artists for their work, but these are recordings that sat on the shelf for over 50 years while the artist and record company made no effort to make a penny off them. And instead of just allowing the material to become public-domain (like Dylan’s first album and, I assume, the Beatles’ earliest recordings), Sony released just *100* copies of the material to protect its copyright while ensuring that virtually 0% of Bob Dylan fans will actually (legally) hear the material. In a business where record labels routinely underpay their artists (and overpay their executives), this is simply a corporate move to hold onto property it doesn’t care about, just in case it might be worth a few dollars later. This doesn’t benefit the artist; it doesn’t benefit the consumer; and it doesn’t benefit the corporate behemoth greedily clutching the rights. What’s the point?

According to the New York Times, it looks like only Dylan fans in France and Germany can legally download this material from the artist’s website. What?

… Sony is not alone. Universal, which owns the Motown catalog, has released a series of jazz, gospel and rhythm and blues albums under the rubric “Motown Unreleased 1962,” which makes a large body of its unissued archives eligible for the European copyright extension.

Wow. If this isn’t abuse of copyright law, I don’t know what is. It’s no wonder music fans continue to use extralegal methods to acquire music. This is Exhibit A for why copyright law needs to be amended for the benefit of creators and the public, instead of for corporations that behave like mental patients.

DISASTERLAND, a Disney parody art show: opening tonight in L.A.

by Mike Hansen

From here:

Disasterland is Mexican artist Rodolfo Loaiza‘s tribute to pop culture, fashion, animation, horror films and the undeniable attraction of celebrity. The stage is set for fantasy to collapse and surrender to the inevitable apocalypse of 21st century Hollywood. Fairytale characters continue to dominate his latest project –this time caught in the headlines of our favorite tabloid stars.

Continuing his penchant for cleverly depicting the “uncouth” customs of our dichotomous society, Rodolfo explores what would happen to our fables if they were flesh and blood and confronted with the frenetic and excessive world of fame. Who among them would prove susceptible to the excesses of drugs, alcohol, harassment or vanity?

With his sharp and characteristic black humor Loaiza captures images once morbidly circulated by the media, and proposes a novel way of reviewing them. In Disasterland, heterosexual happy endings have been discarded; outdated. In this story, discriminated minorities will finally achieve the resolution they’ve yearned for, beyond any bias or phobia.

Behold an apple infused with truth; behold a mirror in which we can truly see our reflection. This is our magical world of disaster.
What are we waiting for? Let’s enjoy it!

Here are a few highlights – click here for the gallery info and more images.

This next one might be a tad NSFW:

THE NIGHT BEAST reviews Pixar’s Brave!

by Mike Hansen

Hi everyone, we’re back in effect – we’ve got some big plans for Comic-Con, and I’ve been working on a few projects that I can talk about really soon (probably right after the Con) – but in the meantime, I’ll try to get as many cool posts up on ALL DAY COMICS as I can!

Reader THE NIGHT BEAST just sent in his review of BRAVE… I can’t wait to see this one. Remember, reader reviews are always welcome – this site’s for all of you guys! Here’s what he thought:

Brave (2012)
Last night I finally got a chance to see Disney’s animated film Brave.
Brave is simply an absolutely gorgeous film. But before I go any further
about Brave I have to get this out of the way….La Luna!!!

La Luna is an animated short that was shown before Brave and
folks….folks……holy jahwakamolie….MAGNIFICENT! La Luna is a tiny yet grand
tale of wonderment. It dares to tell you that this dream is real with its
message of purpose filtered through life, love and light. During this
superb exercise in lighting you quickly get lost as the story draws you in
with no words (well there is communication but well…you’ll see) but only
the action of the job at hand. I have to admit I teared up a little for
the story, the characters and the visuals as the story enlightened you on
the wonders of this world. La Luna, I must say was a pleasant surprise. La
Luna….sigh….la luna

Ok…Brave!!

I saw Brave in 3D. I have to say I prefer

A Buck for Jack

Our New God. (Image via Wikipedia)

 

 

by Mike Hansen

Kurt Busiek tweeted this link today – Nat Gertler of About Comics (founder of 24 Hour Comics Day) has started a reasonable donation campaign asking that people who go see Marvel movies (for which Jack Kirby‘s estate receives nothing) donate one dollar per film; the money will go to the Jack Kirby Museum. Lots more info in the link.

Jack Kirby’s heirs have received nothing for the millions of reprints of Kirby’s work. Kirby’s creativity and creations are responsible for the vast majority of work that Marvel has published over its long history, yet he benefited least from its success (relatively speaking). While DC has given creator credits and royalties for the majority of its work, Marvel continues to be very profitable without paying the Kirby estate royalties. (In fact, most early Marvel work and foreign licensing results in no royalties being paid out.)

Gertler’s motives are honorable and sound; he wants to celebrate Kirby:

This isn’t a campaign