Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey at Midtown Comics Book Club!

Zoe, Thor, Ryan and Fred
chatting about Comic Book Comics!

This month, the Midtown Comics Book Club featured the ever-awesome Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey, who were talking about the collected edition of Comic Book Comics!

In case you haven't been reading Comic Book Comics, this series chronicles the history of comics through creative storytelling and design.  Many of the stories are ones that we hear as comic readers but never get the full story.  Van Lente and Dunlavey do their best to provide an unbiased look at how the comics industry came to be.  We have all been big fan since this release party for the fifth issue, the All-Lawsuits Issue!

Here are some tidbits from their Q & A, masterfully moderated by Midtown's Thor Parker and Zoe Gulliksen:

Are You Ready for an Autograph Bonanza?

If you have been following [insertgeekhere] lately, you may have noticed that we have gone to a lot of events lately. Combine that with my secret stash, and do you know what I have? A BONANZA!


Not just any bonanza, but an autograph bonanza! And I'm not just calling it that because I like the word bonanza. We have a crazy amount of autographed items to give away!


We have in stock:

Supernatural: Origins #6 signed by artist Matthew Dow Smith

American Vampire #12 signed by writer and creator Scott Snyder

Comic Book Comics: All Lawsuit Issue #5 signed by writer Fred Van Lente and artist Ryan Dunlavey

The Fall signed by writers Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan


And for good measure, a sealed death bag of Fantastic Four #587, which has a chance of being signed by Jonathan Hickman.


Excited yet?!


To win, you gotta follow us at @ighinsider and tweet this or post it on our Facebook page. Do both for double entries!

"Come on down to [insertgeekhere]'s Autograph Bonanza!" 

Contest ends March 26th at midnight EST and is open to US and Canada only.

Comics Book Comics Release Party

This Wednesday, I attended the Midtown Comics Release Party for Comic Book Comics #5 by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey. This series studies the history of the comic industry, with this issue dedicated to the comic lawsuits. Also on the panel was Jeff Trexler, the pro bono lawyer and writer for Newsrama, who consulted on the issue. The panel was expertly moderated by Midtown Comics' own Thor Parker, who introduced himself this time. ;)


The lecture started off with the guys telling us two of the stories from the book. This was the same slide show given at the NYU law school. The two stories they read were The Grabbers and Mouse Pirates. The Grabbers is about the copyright fights between creators and publishers, with a focus on the Copyright Act of 1976. The Mouse Pirates is about a publisher that parodied Disney characters into porn. Both Van Lente and Dunlavey (Dunlavey even had a cold!) impressed me with how well they did voices for all of their characters. Guys, if comics doesn't work out, go into voice acting.

After storytime, we learned about how this issue came to be. It took a long time to research for stories. After Van Lente wrote it, they had Trexler check everything. He did say that Van Lente did a great job on research.


One fan asked how this series has been received by Marvel, since they both have worked for Marvel. According to Dunlavey, Marvel is a big fan of this series and even tried to do one with him but it didn't pan out. Van Lente did stress that the stories in this issue reflect very different regimes in these stories. Trexler added that comics like this and internet forums have made companies rethink how they handle pursuing cases. They are now much more open and transparent.


The best tidbit that came out of this whole discussion is this from Van Lente. When discussing the impact that this history had on the industry compared to other industries, he said that the history of comics is held up by certain franchises, which makes it hard for creators to parody or satire. The companies may never be able to pay back creators.

I even asked a question! I asked about the stories they found that didn't make it in to the book. There were two stories they mentioned. One was about the Trademark and Copyright characters on the front of the book. They had a story about the differences between trademarks and copyrights, but Van Lente said it just didn't fit with the flow. The other story was a comic version of the Creators Bill of Rights as an airline pamphlet. When Dunlavey began to sketch it out, it was just too big of an undertaking for it to fit. I would still like to see that if you get a chance though!


Finally, we got a little insight into the next issue, which is sadly the last one. In it is the Future of the Comics Industry including Japanese comics, graphic novels, digital comics and piracy.


If you are interested in the law or comic history or just plain fun, go pick up this issue. I personally find the law incredible boring but this kept my attention. They made the subject matter fun and easy to understand. The story they didn't read, 1986 AD is a fascinating read about how American Comics impacted in Britain with Captain Marvel at the center of it all! Go pick it up today!!!


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