My Husband is a Super Villain!

My husband Marc Greenberg & I were blown away when one of our favorite artists, Darick Robertson, told us that he featured Marc as the big bad super-villain Maxwell Vanderbilt of Big Dick Industries (Sex & Crime & Rock N Roll). He is revealed as the bad-guy-in-chief in Black Mask's Ballistic #4, and meets with a nasty (but colorful) demise in Ballistic #5. Now Marc is immortal! Thanks Darick!

Marc Greenberg as Maxwell Vanderbilt in Ballistic #4,
art by Darick Robertson, written by Adam Egypt Mortimer (2014)

Comic Art, Creativity and the Law: Video Review

We were thrilled to see this thoughtful and detailed review of Marc's new book, Comic Art, Creativity and the Law from UK Barrister Phillip Taylor MBE of Richmond Green Chambers.

Other reviews: The 1709 Blog | Art and Artifice | ICv2

SDCC 2014 - CAC panels, Greenberg & Batman

As usual, the Comic Arts Conference, an academic conference within and in conjunction with San Diego Comic-Con International, offered a heaping platter of scholarly goodness. Several panels and presentations really stood out to me this year.

Marc Greenberg, author of Comic Art, Creativity and the Law (my husband) and Rob Salkowitz, author of Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture, talked about what the potential future of comics might look like, and the legal complexities of the models they identified. They discussed corporate comics, indie comics, crowd funding, retail and digital sales, and many other topics, based on the four projections laid out in Rob's book and continued in Marc's.

It seemed to me that all four concepts have been happening simultaneously: the "Endless Summer" scenario, in which major corporations maximize the possibilities of their intellectual property and their audience; "Ghost World," in which the audience tires of the mainstream, and artists and indie publishers succeed in offering grassroots alternatives; "Infinite Crisis," in which a passionate but dwindling pool of fans and collectors support specialty retail, and the "Expanding Multiverse," in which a more diverse and global creator population harness the web, mobile, games and other platforms to tell their stories.

Rob Salkowitz and Marc Greenberg after their panel. Photo by Kim Munson.

 Following Marc and Rob's panel was a brilliant panel on British Comics, many unique to the UK titles like Misty, Doctor Who, and Judge Dread, and how their Golden Age comics borrowed (or outright copied) elements and characters from popular US comics.

British Comics: Julia Round presents as Pete Coogan, Chris Murray and
Phillip Vaughan look on. Photo by Kim Munson.

Down on the exhibit floor, CAC regular Trina Robbins was at the Fantagraphics booth signing Pretty in Ink, her ultimate take on the "herstory" of women cartoonists. One of Trina's finest moments was her rediscovery of Lily Renee, an influential cartoonist of the WW2 era with an amazing story (read The Golden Age of Lily Renee here). Lily, who is 91, flew in from New York for a day of signing at the booth.

Lily Renee and Trina Robbins at the Fantagraphics booth. Photo by Marc Greenberg.

 I enjoyed a presentation on Bill Hume's Babysan comics by historian R.C. Harvey and the final wrap-up panel of presentations by students of Matthew J. Smith on fan studies and marketing. Most of these students had never been to SDCC before, and it is always interesting to see the convention anew through their observations.

There were many panels and displays celebrating the 75th anniversary of the publication of Batman. Dean Trippe, author of Something Terrible spoke with Tommy Cash about how reading Batman rescued him from the mental anguish of childhood abuse (one page version here, you can buy the entire comic for 99 cents).

Cover graphic from Dean Trippe's Something Terrible.

Here's a blurry photo of the whole
tribe at the Who Created Batman? panel.
Photo by Kim Munson.

On the all-star panel Who Created Batman?, scholars and family representatives had a lively debate over who actually did create Batman, presenting panel art from Golden Age comics, research and anecdotal evidence to try to piece together how much of the creation of Batman could be attributed to Bob Kane, and how much to his collaborators Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson. To the surprise of no one, the conclusion was that Kane's claim of total ownership was probably exaggerated, and that Finger was the real brains behind the operation, joined later by Robinson. Panelists included Moderator Travis Langley (Henderson State University); Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson (granddaughter of the original founder of DC Comics); Tom Andrae (Batman and Me); Athena Finger (Bill Finger estate); Marc Tyler Nobleman (Bill the Boy Wonder); Denny O'Neil (Batman); Brad Ricca (Super Boys); Jens Robinson (CartoonArts International); Arlen Schumer (arlenschumer.com) and Michael Uslan (Dark Knight film trilogy).

Down on the exhibit floor, DC had a huge Batman display that included cases of props from the films and a fascinating art project with Bat themed art painted on capes. 

DC Batman 75th Anniversary display at SDCC 2014. Photos by Kim Munson.

The Big Show - Past Posts about San Diego Comic-Con

Since I started this blog in 2008, I've posted about events at San Diego Comic-Con International pretty much every year. Following is a year by year recap with links:

2012 - In 2012, I was fascinated with the Steam Punk phenomenon. Here are interviews with Matthew J. Daly, writer for the Steam Punk inspired Bruce Boxleitner series Lantern City (will have a big panel at SDCC this year) and an interview with ace comic artist Darick Robertson about his Image Comics project Oliver! The Comic Arts Conference supplied a rich group of panels on many topics including Kirby, Morrison, female cartoonists and Canada.  I interviewed Randy Duncan and Matthew Smith, who hosted a stellar panel of scholars that contributed to their Eisner nominated book Critical Approaches to Comics. Photo Gallery.

Unknown fan seduces us with the
force at SDCC 2012

2011 - In 2011, I was really wrapped up in the launch on the Comix Classics: Underground Comix app. Michael Dooley interviewed me at SDCC about the censorship issues we were experiencing with Apple while launching the app.

2010 - Commentary on the Wonder Woman relaunch by JMS and the CAC Action Chicks panel. Ray Bradbury turns 90. Marc Greenberg speaks about Kirby litigation. Photo Gallery.

2009 - Writers & Artists: Bradbury, Kitchen, Robbins, Oliphant, Chin, Lopresti, Green Lantern/Blackest Night. Kevin Sorbo on Manistee, Michigan where I grew up. I speak on Comics & Museums, Marc Greenberg speaks on Superman litigation. Photo Gallery.

2008 - General recap: Mike Turner tribute, Nathan Fillion, Comic Arts Conference.

Free Comic Book Day at Comic Outpost

Crowd at the Outpost on Free Comic Book Day. Photo by
Bill Watters of Big Wow! Comicfest (San Jose Convention Center, May 18-19)

We really enjoyed Free Comic Book Day this year. Our favorite comics store in SF, the Comic Outpost had a special event, a taco truck, and a Timey Wimey Dr Who TV Party! And free comics! Who could ask for more?  I was pleased to see people of all ages, especially kids snapping up a wide range of free comics, from The Simpsons and The Mouse Guard to the latest promos from DC and Marvel (photo gallery).

2 books available on Free Comic Book Day.

I'm still making my way through my stack, and missed some issues that were gone by the time we arrived. So far my two favorites are Fantagraphics Prince Valiant and Valiant Masters (Valiant in titles coincidental).

As a child, I loved Prince Valiant in the newspapers. I was fascinated by Foster's drawings and the world he created, but had a hard time following the stories. Prince Valiant, I think, has greatly benefited from re-issues in book form. I can read and truly appreciate entire story arcs.  Valiant Masters showcases 4 new characters developed by creators like Jim Shooter, Barry Windsor-Smith, Joe Quesada, David Lapham and others. Space ninja! Spy ninja! Mythical fantasy warriors! Seemed very fun and retro to me.

Here's a view of 1 hour of the crowd at Comic Outpost condensed to 24 seconds!

 
Video by Gary Buechler of Comic Outpost.

Tim Boxell, Gary Buechler, Kim Munson & Marc Greenberg
enjoying Free Comic Book Day. Photo by Jay Jay.

Gallery Views of Determining Domain

This past Wednesday night, our long talked about exhibition opened at Intersection for the Arts. Determining Domain is an investigation of intellectual property  issues like infringement, appropriation, derivative works and parody/satire and the tangled web artists have found themselves in since appropriation and/or "borrowing" has become a ubiquitous part of the contemporary artist's palette.  All the artists featured in the show are re-purposing, satirizing or paying homage to the work of another for a wide range of reasons, with great results. I hope that everyone enjoys the photos below, and can make it to the gallery to view the real thing.

Marc H. Greenberg will be doing a lecture about issues in IP at Intersection on 12/8 (Sat) from 1-3. There will also be a workshop on copyright basics (how to register, etc) for artists on 1/16 from 7-9 led by IP attorney Inder Comar.

Determining Domain.

November 7, 2012 – January 19, 2013

Gallery & Community Hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays, 12–6pm, FREE
Intersection's 5M gallery is in the San Francisco Chronicle building at 5th & Mission. See their site for directions, artist's bios (with links to their web sites) and other info. I was happy to see the show listed as a "can't miss" in today's SF Chronicle!

Scott Kildall & Nathaniel Stern, Wikipedia Art & Farnaz Shadravan's Apocalyptic bathtubs.

Detail of one of Farnaz Shadravan's Apocalyptic bathtubs based on Albrecht
Dürer’s late 15th Century woodcut series.

Marc H. Greenberg & Farnaz Shadravan

Two collages by Bigface.

Work from Sanaz Mazinani's Frames of the Visible series.

The exhibit includes several monitors that show artist's work that has been "borrowed" for commercials and other media,  and wall panels explaining what the law is and showing examples from famous cases.

An example panel on parody and satire, written by Kim Munson & Marc H. Greenberg.

Stephanie Syjuco. Raiders, which repurposes digital photos of antiquities of questionable provenance
from a museum web site. 

Scott Tsuchitani's visual commentary on the Geisha &
Samurai shows at the SF Asian Art Museum.

Scott Kildall & Nathaniel Stern, Wikipedia Art. The display includes the dialog between the artists
and Wikipedia, who sued them for infringement.

A wall of posters featuring free digital books about IP issues & piracy,
curated by Stephanie Syjuco.

Determining Domain at Intersection

Sanaz Mazinani, Redacted March, 2011 (detail)

Determining Domain, Intersection for the Arts, November 7, 2012 – January 19, 2013. A group exhibition exploring complex issues regarding intellectual property and image ownership.

Years ago, I worked with Intersection on a show about the origins of various symbols (the peace sign, the AFL-CIO handshake, etc...). Since then, we have been discussing, on & off, an exhibition that investigates IP/copyright issues like infringement, appropriation, derivative works & parody/satire. The time has finally arrived, and the show will be opening 11/7!

Features work by Bigface, Scott Kildall & Nathaniel Stern, Sanaz Mazinani, Farnaz Shadravan, Stephanie Syjuco, and Scott Tsuchitani.  Marc Greenberg will be leading a copyright workshop for artists in early December (still TBA). See Intersection's site for calendar and more information.

San Diego Comic-Con 2012 Photos

Getting caught up from SDCC. Another overwhelming and amazing con. Great panels, friends, announcements, books and toys! More posts to come.

If you can't see this slideshow, click here to see it on Flickr.

Greenberg on Comics, Courts & Controversy

The Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Review has just published Marc Greenberg's article Comics, Courts & Controversy: a Case Study of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. It is available as a pdf (or other formats) here on the journal's web site, and will be available in hard copy later this month.

Marc says in the abstract, "Cartoons and comics have been a part of American culture since this nation’s formation. Throughout that lengthy history, comics and cartoons have also been a subject of controversy, censorship, legislation, and litigation. They have been viewed as a threat to society and a cause of juvenile delinquency; they are scandalous, indecent, and obscene. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (“CBLDF”), a New York-based non-profit organization, provides legal defense for comic artists, collectors, distributors, and retailers who face civil and/or criminal penalties for the creation, sale, and ownership of comics, cartoons, graphic novels, and related works." The article continues with an interviews and analysis of the Paul Mavrides California Tax Board case, the formation of CBLDF and their continuing fight against censorship, and commentary on censorship "for the sake of the children" in general.

Legal Lecture on Web Design Contracts & Copyright

As some of you may know, my husband Marc H. Greenberg is the founder and co-director of the Intellectual Property Law program at Golden Gate University School of Law here in San Francisco.  A couple of months ago, he agreed to do a short lecture on web design contracts and the basics of copyright law for an advanced HTML/CSS class I was taking at City College of San Francisco. The person introducing him at the top of the video is Claudia DaSilva, who taught the course. While web design is the main topic, there's lots of general information for anyone working in the arts, or setting up their own business (approx 45 minutes).

If you have problems with this video, click here to see it on YouTube.

Photos - San Diego Comic Con 2010

Greenberg on Kirby at SDCC 2010

We're off to ComiCon!  I'm not speaking this year, but husband Marc is doing his annual "state of the Superman case" round-up, plus a summary of the latest doings in the Kirby copyright recapture case.

Thursday, July 22
2:30-3:30 Comics Arts Conference Session #4: Recapturing Copyright for Gold and Silver Age Comic Book Creators— Copyright lawyer Marc Greenberg (Golden Gate University School of Law) covers key developments in the Superman case (Siegel v. DC) and explores the claims filed by the Jack Kirby estate to the rights to the major Marvel Comics characters he created or co-created. Room 26AB

As always, I look forward to meeting colleagues and just geeking out for a few days. Lots of news to come!

Marc on KCBS about ipad

Yesterday Marc (law professor husband) was interviewed on KCBS talk radio about a potentially sticky dilemma faced by people developing content for the ipad. The ipad, unlike the Kindle and other tablet format reading devices, allows images. How will rights and permissions work on this new platform? The question was sparked by this article in the New York Times by Mark Aronson, suggesting that image creators be paid by the download. Complications galore!

Marc on KRON Best of Bay

Marc appears in a featurette for KRON's Best of Bay for Boulevard Cafe (Daly City) in the "family restaurants" category. I'm in there too, stuffing my face with a wonderful shrimp cocktail. Yummm...

Marc on KRON

My lovely husband, Marc Greenberg, will be on KRON's "Best of the Bay" show talking about our home-away-from-home the Boulevard Cafe, in Daly City near Westlake Village.

Marc is pictured here with Patty Zubov, a Producer from Platonic.TV who shot the segment with her crew at Boulevard. There are also short bits of the owners talking, and Marc & I marveling over their gigantic shrimp cocktail. At the moment, we aren't sure when these segments will air, but I will post again when we know.

Kim & Marc at SDCC

Marc & I both spoke at San Diego Comic Con this weekend. As usual, it was an amazing experience, and we have all kinds of stories. This year the Comic Arts Conference, hosted yearly at Comic Con since 1998, was very well attended and featured 16 panels on a wide range of topics.

I was on the Sunday afternoon panel, Comics in Museums, with Michael Dooley and Denis Kitchen. I presented my new research about The Comic Art Show (Whitney Museum, 1983). You can see the presentation in the slideviewer widget at the bottom of this page. My paper on this topic is in progress and I hope to finish it this fall. Co-presenter Michael talked about High & Low (MOMA, 1990) & Masters of American Comics (Hammer/MOCCA, 2005). Denis talked about some of the initial problems comics faced in the art world enviroment, and then about Underground Classics, a show he just co-curated in Madison WI.

A lively Q&A session followed, but we were pleasantly surprised that the artist selection in Masters wasn't the main topic of discussion as it often is after this sort of panel. Instead, many of the questions had a more businesslike slant. "Are artists able to get more money for their work because of the exposure they get from museum shows"? "Is it easier for a comic artist to crossover into gallery art, or a gallery artist to become accepted as a cartoonist"? "Why did museums seem to resist the narrative function of comics"? Conversation continued and spilled out to the hallway afterword. Thanks to Pete, Denis and Michael for their input and a great experience. If you are one of the people that came to me for more information after the panel, you can find my paper Beyond High & Low, which summarizes many of the events and issues we discussed, on my archive page.

Marc also had a good response to his presentation on the cases of CBLDF and the 70 year (and still not resolved) Superman copyright case. We were amazed to learn that Denis, my co-presenter, founded CBLDF! Small world...

Marc on KCBS

It's old news now, but Marc was interviewed on the KCBS morning show on Friday 2/6 about the Shepard Fairey - AP copyright flap.

It looks like the podcast isn't available on the KCBS site anymore, but if you want to hear it, I uploaded an MP3 version to his archive page.

Marc & Kim speak about comics

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all enjoyed the season!

Husband Marc is on his way down to the AALS (Association of American Law Schools) conference in San Diego this week, to speak to the art law section on a panel concerning comics and the law. Marc is talking about some of his recent research on CBLDF (the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund). CBLDF is a non-profit that represents comics authors, artists, store owners and small publishers in a variety of cases related to censorship or unfair business practices.

Marc's talk will include the Georgia vs Lee case in which Lee, a comics shop owner in Georgia, was threatened with 21 years in prison for unknowingly giving a 9-year-old a comics complilation on free comics day that happened to include a couple pages from Nick Bozzeti 's graphic novel "The Salon," (a must see for arty types) a murder mystery set in 1907 Paris, which featured a few frames of Pablo Picasso painting (and answering the door) in the nude. After many convoluted twists and turns, the case was finally dismissed 10 years and $100,000. in legal fees later.

Marc will also talk about the Mavrides vs California Board of Equalization case. At one point, the California Board of Equalization decided that when comic artists finish their assigned pages and send them in to the publisher, the individual pages should be treated as works of art being sold, and should be taxed accordingly. Mavrides, a comic artist (a contributor to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers) became the test case on this. CBLDF defended him, and the court agreed that submitting comics pages to the publisher was more like submiting a finished manuscript, and the state lost.

Marc also has a 90 minute slot speaking at WonderCon in San Francisco (end of February) on CBLDF, the Superman copyright case and other cases related to pop art/comic artist's copyrights. I will also be returning early from CAA to speak on a WonderCon panel about comic art in museums (this was the focus of my master's thesis). Peter Coogan of the Institute for Comic Studies tells me that the panel will include one other scholar writing in this area, and two artists whose work have been included in museum exhibitions. I'll post more specifics as they become available.