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Lying In The Gutters – September 21st, 2009

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Yesterday, Bleeding Cool broke the news to the comics community that the heirs of Jack Kirby had sent notices of intent to reclaim copyright on his works for Marvel, and media spinoffs at Sony, Fox, Universal and Paramount.

There's been a lot of speculation to to what Kirby's heirs could and couldn't claim, and what the hell Sony has to do with this, considering that they only deal with the Spider-Man movie franchise.

Now Jack Kirby did create a Spider-Man design that predated Steve Ditko's work on the character but it was never used and Kirby also drew the cover to Amazing Fantasy #15. But Kirby creating Spider-man has always been the more contentious claim over the years from the Kirby and it rarely comes up these days. However Sony have created a number of animation series, some of which have used Kirby created characters, which may be affected by this claim.

As to the argument that Jack Kirby created these characters as "work for hire", this could only be watertight after 1976 in US law. And either way, under current law US creators and their estates can reclaim copyrights to their work fifty-six years after initial publication. Which we'll be coming round in five years for Fantastic Four…

Expect a large battle over exactly who created who and what in the years to come.

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The themepark Beanoland, based on the seventy-year old British weekly comic book The Beano is to close. Part of Chessington World Of Adventures, it will probably be replaced by something based on alien robots or something, I dunno…

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Do you know Mike Carey's Felix Castor novel, Thicker Than Water? It features a defunct cinema, the EMD. in Walthamstow, London, which is home to a zombie crowd.

Well, there is a planning proposal to turn that cinema, now closed, into a church. And there's a groundswell of opposition to it. This is the last week for any objections to be received by the council, so if you want to save those zombies, make your voice known. Facebook listings can be found here, here and here and the Waltham Forest Guardian dives in here.

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Other fun stories from the week, we had some preview pencils from Frank Miller/Neal Adams' Batman Odyssey series…

We laid out odds for the new DC Publisher (currently lots of people now are talking up a Hank Kanalz Publisher/Jim Lee Editor-In-Chief dream team) and found some very fan-friendly footage for Diane Nelson from a few years ago.

Marvel found themselves surrounded with DC logos as the costume shop that straddles one of the office doorways went to town with DC Hallowe'en costumes. And Staz Johnson went nippletassletastic with his work for Agent Provocateur.

The buyout of Library Binders was a setback to the comics collector – but since then we've learnt that the comics binding service will be kept on while they try to find the best solution.

Belgrade grafitti artists protested the anti-gay protestors during a planned Gay Pride event using stencil DC superheroes to make their point.

Before there was Rick Olney there was Ross Rojek, head of Another Universe, Comics & Comix, Mania.com, all those famous names. Who went to jail for fraud. And has yet returned to publishing, repentant, and paying back moneys owed. There's hope for anyone.

Alan Moore talks Blackest Night, we screencapped Bored To Death, a comic shop closed and, for old times sake, a hilarious Downfall mashup over the history of the John Byrne Message Board…

Check your e-mails next Monday! Till then, contact me on richjohnston@gmail.com or call +44 7801350982 (07801350982) or write to Bleeding Cool, 8 Robin Hood Lane, London SW15 3PU, UK.

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