Intellectual Property Part II: The Fans

In my last post, I told you how Marvel and 20th Century Fox (among other film studios) are battling for intellectual property rights of comic book movie super heroes.

I know that Marvel studios owns that property; a piece of paper is not going to convince me otherwise. Just like a piece of paper doesn't always mean a couple should be married. I personally had a friend that went off to college that married his best friend's girlfriend (and all three of them were knowingly involved in this!) just to get financial aid benefit for school. Marvel is where these characters originated, where they were founded and believed in millions of comic book nerds globally.

My dilemma with this issue isn't even so much on the topic of intellectual property being stolen. What really bothers me is that Fox refuses to give up the licensing rights to these super heroes because they're only focused on maximizing their profits. Let's be honest, the X-Men movies were terrible, same with the Fantastic Four, and the other super hero movies they put out. The writing was sub par, and all they really passed for was summer action movies. But Fox sees how well Marvel has done with the Iron Man series, Thor, Captain America and the Avengers and they just won't loosen their grip. It's time to let go, Fox.

The reason Marvel Studios is doing so well with these movies isn't just because they know their way in and out of these characters, but that they put the show on for the fans. They add every little quirk of these characters without being overly cheesy or boring. They know how to do it right. The fans are the single most important selling point for these companies and without having Marvel's full line of heroes, the fans will never be fully appeased. Story lines like Civil War are an absolute must for comic book movies. On Bruce Lidl's website, Digitalwerks, he highlights that, "The Power of Spider-Man does not come, as J.K. Rowling might have it, merely from what the publisher puts out every month, but from the intense embrace fans give him, whether through a hand-made convention costume or through all the online discussions, wikipedia entries, fansites, etc." It's like the expression, "If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Spider-Man would have no impact if people weren't around to make him so popular. The more and more fans get together and discuss things like the back story, progression, artwork, design, psychology of characters and so on, the more a fan base is built. The fans are the foundation, and while Marvel sees that foundation and turns it into a memorial, Fox makes it a dirty pathway where fans are just walked on top of.

Marvel Studios and 20th Century Fox are in it for the same reasons, and yet, they can't come to any sort of reasonable conclusion. They could settle this so easily, and yet they choose to wage their very own

...Civil War

I know where I stand, do you?

Intellectual Property Part I: The Debate

It's 2012. Nearing close and closer to 2013. In this day and age, an idea can be considered worth more than any tangible object. Ideas have proven to be worth billions. Bill Gates created the personal computer. Steve Jobs created the iPod. Ideas revolutionize the way people live their lives, especially in the advanced civilizations we live in now. How are these ideas protected? An idea can't be held in your hand; one can only use their imagination to create and manifest their ideas into tangible objects, like Gates' personal computer and Jobs' iPod. Your intangible ideas can be preserved and your ideas do have exclusive rights. It is called intellectual property.

Intellectual property rights include things like copyright, trademarks and patents. According to Jonah Lehrer, in his book Imagine, it was in Shakespeare's time, around the 1580's that the concept of intellectual property really took off. It was was at this time, Lehrer says that people realized that "ideas have value."  Inventions, books, recipes and many things you use in your daily life are subject to intellectual property. Including comic books. Comic books, however, have a pretty difficult history with intellectual property.

Since comic books were first created in the 1960's, there has been much debate over who actually owns the intellectual property behind the heroes in comics. Is it the original creator(s)? The current writer(s)? The company that owns the comic? One of the biggest issues right now is the battle between Marvel (now owned by Disney) and 20th Century Fox, not for comic books, but rather for film.

Marvel's The Avengers

Before Marvel was bought by Disney, the company went through a few rough patches and in the process, sold the rights of several comic book super heroes in an attempt to make money. Fox now owns the rights to Daredevil, Silver Surfer, the Fantastic Four and many of the most famous X-Men. Marvel also licensed other characters to different studios, including Spider-Man and Ghost Rider to Sony and the Punisher to Lionsgate.

At first, this all sounded good in theory, but the tragedy behind it lies in the fact that Marvel cannot use these superheroes in their own movies so long as the rights are licensed to other companies. One of the biggest events in the Marvel universe occurred when a series called Civil War went into publication in 2006. Due to how successful the book series was, I can only assume that they would want to make a movie based on it. But the civil war is between almost all major Marvel super heroes, including the ones whose licenses are to other studios. I'm not alone on this assumption, either! Comicbookmovie.com user steveorjoe bases his entire lawyer-like argument around the fact that Marvel would certainly want to create Civil War into a live-action movie, especially since movies like Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and the Avengers did so well in the box office. He claims, "They would have to get the intellectual property rights back from these other studios before they could start production on such a major film without being sued by one of the other studios." Steveorjoe and I aren't the only ones who can see the issue in this. Thousands of comments are flooding webpages and forums on the internet of outraged fans.

So long as companies like Fox and Sony keep producing movies with these characters, they renew their licensing to use these characters. The latest Spider-Man movie that came out last summer, The Amazing Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone seemed to have relaunched the entire Spider-Man story all over again, even though Spider-Man 3 with Tobey Maguire was just released in 2007. Why? Well, some speculate it was to renew Sony's license for Spider-Man so they won't lose to to Marvel because comic book movies are such a huge box office success right now.

These legal battles will continue to rage on until Marvel regains their intellectual property, so for now, the war carries on... 

Movies You Didn't Know Were Comic Books (Bonus/Extra Post)

According to popular movie database website IMDB, there are 2,351,010 movies and TV shows worldwide. Many of these films are actually adaptions from novels and short stories. This includes comic books. People are surprised by some of the films that were originally books. It's not uncommon that a movie based on another story goes by relatively unnoticed. There are a handful of comic book movies out there, and if you think you can guess a lot of them, you might be wrong.

It's easy to spot a comic book movie when it's based on super heroes like Superman, Spider-Man or the Avengers. But comics cover just as many genres as movies do: Science Fiction, Non-fiction, comics from the past, and those from the future.

#1 WANTED

 Even when the movie doesn't exactly follow the comic, the result can still be pretty entertaining. Most people don't know that the movie Wanted was originally based on the comic book.

The film, starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman, depicts a frustrated office worker named Wesley (McAvoy) who is met by Fox (Jolie) and he is soon turned into a deadly assassin having inherited his father's superhuman abilities. Wesley finds that he can curve bullets and kill just about anyone he wants with absolute precision.

This is pretty different the original comic written by the infamous Mark Millar, also titled Wanted. Wesley is still at a dead end job, but when he meets Fox, he finds out she is part of a guild of superheroes and Wesley is one of them too, he just needs training. The original is based around actual superheroes and is much more vulgar, violent and gory, while the film maintains a PG-13 rating and focuses only on Wesley's ability as an assassin. Both the movie and the comic are pretty good in their own way.

#2 30 Days of Night

Movie Poster

Comic Book Cover

The vampire thriller 30 Days of Night was both a comic book and a movie but the movie identically matched the comic book. The reason for this was that before it was a comic book, it was actually written as a script for a movie, but was rejected. Written by Steve Niles and illustrated by Ben Templesmith, 30 Days of Night is about a group of vampires that finds the ideal town for their nightly ritual. Barrow, Alaska has 30 days without sunshine allowing for a vampire feeding frenzy. This is a pretty great concept for a vampire movie considering the day time is the only time a human feels safe around a vampire, but now you have this uncomfortable claustrophobic feeling creeping in that refuses to leave. 

#3 The Mask

This is another one of those films that surely takes a different course than the comic book. The movie stars Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz and filled with light-hearted humor and gag reels. Carrey's character is drawn to the mask as it totally changes who he is and gets him the things he want. The mood for the film is pretty mild in term of its violence and it has its moments for humor.

The comic book on the other hand is drastically different. The Mask was created by Mike Richardson and eventually made into comic form by John Arcudi and Doug Mahnke. The series goes through several different main characters as they are killed off. The mask turns its wearers into homicidal killers and the book is filled with violence and gore in a pretty gruesome sense. The tone in the book is very dark and not something you could show children, as you could with the film. Just by looking at the movie poster and the comic book cover, you might get a feel for how different the book and movie really are.

Reading reviews from other people between the movies and the comic book, there is generally a pretty clear line between whether they like the movie or the comic more, often times depending on whether they actually knew the comic existed at all. People who knew about the comic feel justified in that knowledge and claim the comic is better where as people who only enjoy the film claim that the film is better. When it really comes down to it, it doesn't even matter. People have a hard time appreciating these works art, good or bad, in the variety of mediums they come in. It's possible for both to be created well and for people to enjoy them separately or collaboratively. The war between book and film is created by those who are meant to enjoy it. It doesn't have to be a battle between which is better, when really that line should be erased and the two blended together seamlessly.

Read up and know your sources, it makes the movie-going and book-reading experience much more interesting!

*New* Wordle - Topic Change (+Summary)

Wordle - Movies You Didn't Know Were Comics

Many movies created today have been based on books and comic books alike. Many of the comic book movies are under-budgeted and flop, with the exception of more recent films. The movies that spawn from the original stories can be to the T, vastly different, or somewhere in the middle. Many people who have read the book before seeing the movie of almost any film often say that the book is better. This can be for many reasons, including changing or adding scenes, poor cast selection, and interpretation by the creators.

Many people would be surprised to find out which of these movies actually started out as comic books and seeing how they've changed. Some of the changes actually made for pretty decent films. Others were dreadful adaptions. Without knowing that a movie was based on another source of writing, a lot of credit is misplaced when a good film comes out. On the flip side, some decent stories have been made into pretty horrible movies, which give a bad name to the title of that comic book.

It's important to remember to give credit where credit is due, and a handful of movies were created based on comic books and people still have no idea, whether it was a good or bad adaption.

WORDLE + Summary

Wordle - Marvel vs Fox

Since Marvel has sold certain rights away like Spider-Man, certain X-Men and the Fantastic Four, they will be unable to produce movies for stories involving these characters that both Marvel and fans alike want to see happen. Until Fox sells those movie rights back, Marvel is limited in their movie production. It is unlikely that Fox will do so given the increased popularity in comic book movies. Fox, just like Marvel, wants to make as much money as possible.

I have not been a huge fan of Marvel due to the fact that creators do not own their stories, characters, etc., but I am in favor of Fox signing the character rights back over to Marvel. Ultimately, the success of comic book movies lies in the desire of the fans, and the fans demand that Marvel be able to produce the incredible stories they have already written!

Movies, stories, music... It's created to be shared, not to make as much money as possible. Marvel once owned the intellectual property to characters now owned by Fox (for movie production anyway) and without that ownership and because of Fox's gluttony, the fans suffer.

Are you a Nerd?

Nerd [nurd]
noun, Slang
1. a stupid, irritating, ineffectual, or unattractive person.
2. an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit: a computer nerd.

This is the definition for a "nerd" as defined by Dictionary.com

Does this accurately display what it means to be a nerd? Does it even really narrow down what it means to be one? I've found that a lot of people around me these days, and not just random people on the street, but also my friends and family are calling themselves nerds. Not only are they giving themselves that title, but they're taking pride in it. What?! Being a nerd is something that has always been frowned upon and nerds are ostracized and cast out of society for their inability to be social and live normal lives!

Well, at least they used to be. The term nerd is technically slang and it has lost some bearing over the years as a solid definition. Being a nerd used to consist of activities like playing chess, reading comic books and playing computer games. Nerds would dedicate a lot of time to studying, wear unfashionable clothing and obsess in uncommon items, activities, and things in general that most people weren't very aware of. Nowadays, playing video games, reading comic books and having obscure taste in things is considered the cool thing to do.

Before, when being a nerd wasn't cool:

The typical wedgie: available in any bully's arsenal.

Now that being a nerd is cool:

Here we see Goku, Ash Catch'em and Ashitaka trip a
jock for being way too cool and talking to girls.

I blame the Internet.

And Hollywood.

The biggest problem nerds had when they were still social outcasts was that they were interested in things that not a whole lot of people around them were. But then the internet was invented. Suddenly there was a way for nerds to connect with fellow nerds across the planet. Over the years, people, and not just nerds, have been able to share their knowledge about everything that they are interested in. Social Media sites help people connect these interests that were once obscure, but now have amassed quite a following. Reading comic books is one of many types of interests that people have taking a liking to. When the movie industry realized how popular comic books were getting, they decided to put more effort into movies (technology sure helped too). Comic book movies used to be straight to video VHS, but now they're Hollywood's biggest summer blockbusters. As it turns out, comic books are pretty damn cool!

So where is the line drawn between nerd and non-nerd these days? No one really knows, but I say if you're going to be one, don't just throw on a Star Wars shirt and start watching Batman movies. You have to actually be interested in something and spend a lot of time involving yourself in that interest! Even popular things like sports and movies are starting to fall into the category of being nerdy when you see sportscasters who can shoot off statistics dating back to the 70's on the spot or even friends of yours with titles like "movie buffs." So I will repeat this one last time, if you want to become a nerd, don't just act the part to the general public, actually be one. Obsess in your interests!

If you are interested in becoming a comic book nerd in particular, this eHow sets up some general guidelines. I get the feeling that as an author she puts herself a little above the average nerd, but this is nonetheless a decent start.

Open Question

Many of us think of stories in our heads that we would like to see written or made into a movie. This is because as we think about the nature of the story, we can picture how it will be played out on the big screen or how it can be written in the form of narration in dialogue to create a novel. What kind of story do you imagine being written in the form of a comic book/graphic novel? That is to say, a story written through both text and pictures in a sequential panel layout.