Monkey Covers

Sunday is Monkey Covers day here at YACB. Because there's nothing better than a comic with a monkey on the cover.

Today we feature the 1957 cover to Tales of the Unexpected #14, drawn by Sheldon Moldoff. You know, things like this seem to happen to me all the time...

(Standard disclaimer about green gorillas not really being monkeys applies.)

Image courtesy of the GCD. Click on the image for a larger version.

More on Super-Hero Trademarks

Over at Comics Should Be Good, Brian Cronin has a very good Q&A about the whole trademark thing.

Had I known that Brian was going to write all that, I probably wouldn't have bothered with my own little rant in the first place, as he does a much better job.

As a side point, if you're ever wondering why sometimes Marvel or DC will produce a one-shot or a mini-series with a b- or c-list character, it is often done in order to preserve the trademark. Unlike patents, which last for 20 years from the time of issue, or copyrights, which last Life + X number of years from creation (until/unless Congress extends them again and again and again...), trademarks have no set time limit before they expire. A trademark can theoretically last forever, as long as the owner continues to use it. But if the owner goes a certain period of time without using the trademark, it becomes abandoned and anyone can use it. So if every few years Marvel puts out a comic with the Colossus logo slapped on the cover, they continue to protect their trademark.

Team-up comics used to be great for this. Put out a comic with Batman, Superman or Spider-Man teaming-up with your lesser known characters, slap their logos on the cover, and you're all set.

(Again, I am not a lawyer, just a librarian.)

YACB Bulletins

ITEM! Garfield is funnier when Garfield doesn't think/speak.

ITEM! Kryptonite Monkey!

ITEM! Looking at the list of manga titles in the April Previews over at Love Manga, my immediate thought is that just about every single publisher is putting out twice as many titles as they should be...

ITEM! A big welcome back to the comics blog-o-sphere to Kevin Melrose, whose new blog, Comics, Covered, is all about comic book covers.

New This Week: March 22, 2006

Based on the NCRL list for this week's comics shipping from Diamond, here are a few things to look for at the local comic shop tomorrow:

The Pick of the Week is the paperback edition of Alan Moore & Gene Ha's Top 10: The Forty-Niners from ABC/WildStorm/DC. The hardcover was my pick for Favorite Original Graphic Novel last year, so those of you who balked at the hardcover can now save your $7 and get the softcover.


In other comics:

Antarctic have a new issue of Gold Digger (#72).

DC have the second Seven Soldiers of Victory collection; OYL titles Batman (#651), Catwoman (#53), Hawkgirl (#50), Manhunter (#20), and Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes (#16); and new issues of American Way (#2), Hellblazer (#218), and Testament (#4).

Fantagraphics have the third volume of Mome.

IDW have the second issue of Supermarket.

Image have a new issue of Noble Causes (#18).

Lobrau have the debut of Toupydoops.

Ludovico have the third issue of Living in Infamy.

Marvel have the latest Runaways digest (vol. 5); the final issue of Supreme Power: Hyperion (#5), just in time for the debut of the non-MAX Squadron Supreme; and new issues of Captain America (#16), Daredevil (#83), Nextwave (#3), She-Hulk 2 (#6), Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane (#4), and X-Factor (#5).

Rebellion bring you classic Alan Moore with DR & Quinch Complete.

Viz debut ROD: Read or Die.


Enjoy your new comics!

Who owns 'Super-Hero'?

Sigh.

Every so often some fanboy gets in a tizzy because he learns that DC & Marvel have a trademark on the term 'super-hero'.

The latest is this stupid item over on SciFi.com, which refers to a two-year-old posting on Newsarama as if it were brand new news and manages to get just about every point wrong, including which aspect of intellectual property law is at issue ("DC/Marvel Copyrighting 'Super Hero'"). (screenshot here in case SciFi comes to its senses and fixes it.)

(Update: Scifi.com did indeed remove the news story after I sent them an email pointing out their errors. Kudos to them for rectifying the situation, although an actual correction notice would be better.)

Here, folks, are some salient points:

• DC/Marvel are not "trying to copyright the term 'super hero.'"
  
  
• One cannot copyright a phrase.
  
  
• DC & Marvel hold a joint *trademark* to the term super-hero for use in publications, and have held it for many years. The registration number for the applicable trademark is 1179067 (see this).
  
  
• Holding a trademark on 'super-hero' means that they are the only companies who can use 'super-hero' in the title of their comic books. It does *not* mean that no one else can ever use the term 'super-hero'.
  
  
• DC & Marvel are required by law to defend their trademark in order to keep it, and that is what they did in this instance.
  
  
• If you're going to publish your own comic book series, it would be prudent to do a trademark search before choosing a title.
  
  
• If you would like to know more about trademark law, Nolo's Website has a good introduction.
  

I really hope that this will be the last time this goes around, but I suspect it won't be.

(Dislaimer: I am not a lawyer; I am a librarian at a US Patent & Trademark Depository Library. My comments are my own and do not necessarily represent the view of my employer.)

New Library Comics: Week of March 13, 2006

Here are the comics we got in for our library collection last week:


Aragones, Sergio. Sergio Aragones the Groo library /Milwaukie, OR : Dark Horse, c2001.

Brown, Chester, 1960- The Playboy : a comic book /Montreal : Drawn & Quarterly, c1992.

Brown, Jeffrey (Jeffrey David), 1975- Bighead /Marietta, GA : Top Shelf Productions, c2004.

Drawn & quarterly showcase. Book 1 : [an anthology of new illustrated fiction / Kevin Huizenga, Nicolas Robel] /Montreal, Quebec, Canada : Drawn & Quarterly ; San Francisco, CA : Distributed in the USA and abroad by Chronicle Books, c2003.

Kuper, Peter, 1958- Speechless /Marietta, Ga. : Top Shelf Productions, Inc., c2001.

Lutes, Jason. Jar of fools : a picture story /Montreal, Quebec, Canada : Drawn and Quarterly, c2003.

McMillan, Stephanie. Attitude, featuring : Stephanie McMillan : minimum security /New York : NBM, c2005.

Moore, Alan, 1953- Promethea /La Jolla, CA : America's Best Comics, c2000-c2005. v. 1-4

Talon, Durwin S. Comics above ground : how sequential art affects mainstream media /Raleigh, NC : TwoMorrows Pub., c2004.

Tijuana Bibles : art and wit in America's forbidden funnies /New York ; London : Simon & Schuster, 2004.

Monkey Covers

Sunday is Monkey Covers day here at YACB. Because there's nothing better than a comic with a monkey on the cover.

Today we feature the 1957 cover to Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #24, drawn by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye. Wouldn't it have been cool if Jimmy Olsen stayed as a gorilla, then became Elastic Lad, and he'd be an Elastic Gorilla? Just me, huh?

(Standard disclaimer about gorillas not really being monkeys applies.)

Image courtesy of the GCD. Click on the image for a larger version.