And the hits keep on coming!

So, with the ink hardly dry on the Marvel Disney deal, the lawyers are tuning up their briefs. According to a blog post in The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog:

But now, no sooner than the ink has dried on the deal, comes a lawsuit. According to Bloomberg, a Marvel shareholder sued in the Delaware Chancery Court alleging that Marvel directors failed to conduct an appropriate sales process. The plaintiff, shareholder Christine Vlatos, is seeking a court order barring the deal as well as unspecified damages. (Complaint not available.) Marvel did not immediately return a call to Bloomberg.

The post goes on to say...

“It sounds like a Revlon claim,” said Chiappinelli, referring to the 1986 Delaware Supreme Court decision Revlon v. MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings. “Under Revlon, directors have a duty to try to get the best price for their shareholders. They don’t have to get the best price, necessarily, just an obligation to try to get the best price.”

Who knows where this will lead, but I’m thinking that someone is going to need a good lawyer.

More Disney/Marvel News

So while fandom is still having some fun with the Disney engulfment of Marvel py posting pics (here), (here), and (here), I’m getting news from other quarters that Disney is already putting down it’s Iron boot on the industry. As I hear it Disney is having stuff removed from eBay — sketches people do of Marvel characters. these images are already being pulled & accounts suspended for a week.

This was reported to me by a cartoonist friend of mine. I can only assume that more of these type of corporate shenanigans will occur. I can only imagine what it will do at conventions.

Tony Isabella has a few thoughts on the matter in his most recent column. While he doesn’t know any more than me (and admits as much in his column), he is always an entertaining read.

Are You now, or could You be A Comic Strip Superstar?

Well, if you think that you might have the stuff to grind out a daily, syndicated comic strip, then you just might be the person that Amazon is looking to discover:

Are you the next Comic Strip Superstar? There's only one way to find out—enter an international search for the next popular comic strip artist, sponsored by Andrews McMeel Publishing and hosted by Amazon.com. The winner will receive a publishing contract from Andrews McMeel Publishing, a $5,000 advance from Universal Uclick, and a monthly stipend for the development of 20 comic strips that will be considered for syndication.

From the comics that are submitted, Universal Press Syndicate will then narrow down the entries to 250 quarter finalists. Those quarter finalists will then be further narrowed down to 50 semifinalists by Universal Press Syndicate editors John Glynn and Lee Salem. As the finalists get to the semifinal round, their work will be judged by popular comic strip creators G.B. Trudeau (Doonesbury), Lynn Johnston (For Better or For Worse), Scott Hilburn (The Argyle Sweater), and Mark Tatulli (Lió and Heart of the City) will choose 10 finalists and post feedback for each on Amazon.com. Amazon.com customers will then have the opportunity to view the finalists' submissions and vote for the grand prize winner.

If all of this interests you, then:

How to Enter

Each entry should be original, unpublished work in a .jpg file consisting of:

1. 10 daily comic strips


2. 2 Sunday comics


3. A title


4. A brief synopsis

For more info, go and read the Official Rules before submitting your entry. The deadline to submit your comic strip is Saturday, September 12.

›Enter now!

And Good Luck.

Its Funny until someone makes a deal with the Devil (Then it’s Friggin’ Hillarious!)

By now you’ve all heard about Marvel’s deal with the Devil Disney Company (Yes, Virginia, that’s 4-billion-with-a-B-billion dollars!

Well, the entire industry has been buzzing with the news all day, and well, some folks have been having a bit of fun with the concept of a Disney-owned Marvel by producing some images that mash-up characters from both companies. As can be expected, many are very funny, and I wanted to share them with you here:

I’d thought that I’d share some of that silliness with you. The first two images were sent to me, while the last three are all mine.





(Whups, almost forgot this one.)





Yeah, that last image is an update of something I did earlier today, I added the Daily Bugle that Spidey is holding in his hand.

More as it happens.

***** THIS JUST IN! *****

I just saw more Marvel/Disney images over here that I wanted to share, and Craig Yo posted this Image that Jack Kirby did several years ago for a book that Craig was publishing at the time. I wanted to include Jack’s image, but I’ll let Craig tell you more about the book itself over at his blog.



If anyone finds more Disney/Marvel images, feel free to add the links. This is getting fun!

Holy Bat S#it, Micky! Is that an Iron Web in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

Settle in for a wild ride kids, I just spotted this in The Financial Times!

Disney buys Marvel for $4bn

New York, August 31 – Walt Disney said on Monday it plans to buy Marvel Entertainment for $4bn in a deal that would add characters like Iron Man, Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four to its entertainment empire.

The cash and stock deal values Marvel at $50 a share, or a premium of 29 per cent to Marvel’s closing stock price of $38.65 on Friday. The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies.

Marvel’s shares shot up to $48.70 in pre-market trade. Shares of Disney, which will acquire ownership more than 5,000 Marvel characters, dropped about 3 per cent.

Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 a share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own.

Can you say, wow?

Not sure what all this means, but off the top of my head:

• I wonder if Universal will still be able to have Marvel Land at their theme parks, or will Spidey and company start showing up at Disneyland?



• Will the more “adult” aspects of some of Marvel’s comics be Disnified?



• Will Disney start to exert editorial control over the Marvel line (i.e., will they force Joe Q. to get Peter and MJ back together?



• Will the cost-conscious Disney trim staff at Marvel, will they trim the budgets of the Marvel films?

Obviously there is more (MUCH MORE) to this story.

Building my Spidey Library

So, my local comicbook shop (A Timeless Journey) shot me an email the other day about a big one-day-only sale. So — given that I’ve been working on the Official Index to the Marvel Universe Spider-Man entries, I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to fill in some of the gaps in my Spider-Titles. So I scored a fist full of comics at a sweet discount.

While I’ve been doing this type of back-fill over the recent years whenever I go to a Comic Con, I finally realized that I sort of owe my local shops some of my back-issue business, and want to purchase as much of my back issue needs from their stock.

I figure over the next couple of weeks I want to seriously take stock of the Spidey comics that I’m missing, and make up a serious list that I’ll start carrying around with me. I really would like to see how close I can come to completing all my runs by the end of the year (I’m not that far off).

I’ll keep you posted.

Now this is a Wedding Cake!

I don’t know the folks who got married and used this cake as their wedding cake, but I do know someone who went to their wedding, and then sent me this photo.

I’m totally envious of the guy who managed to convince his wife that this was a cool wedding cake.



Like I said, totally cool.