DC and Marvel have lost their trademark on the phrase Super Hero. Goats Flying Press announces aggressive 2025 slate. Ridley Scott’s Scott Free company is partnering with graphic novel publisher Mechanical Cake.
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Episode Transcript:
DC and Marvel lose Super Hero trademark.
Goats Flying Press announces 2025 slate.
Ridley Scott partners with graphic novel publisher.
This is Comic Book Club News for September 30, 2024.
DC And Marvel Lose The Trademark For Super Hero:
DC and Marvel have lost the trademark for the phrase Super Hero, and it’s all thanks to Superbabies. Does that require some more explanation? Sure! Here we go.
In 1967, a company called Ben Cooper, Inc. registered the trademark for Super Hero – no dash, two words – thanks to a line of Halloween costumes. Meanwhile, Marvel was busy registering “Marvel Super Heroes” and DC registered “Legion of Super Heroes.” Then in 1972, a company called Mego Corporation tried to register “World’s Greatest Superheroes,” tied to a line of action figures. Ben Cooper, Inc. contested them. In a twist of fate, with Mego unable to financially challenge the lawsuit, Mego sold the trademark to Marvel and DC for joint ownership. DC and Marvel, you may not be surprised to hear, were able to challenge Ben Cooper, Inc. financially, and they subsequently filed for the trademark in 1977. In 1979, they were jointly granted the trademark, and since then the two companies have shared it. Until now.
Per Reuters, S.J. Richolds’ Superbabies Ltd. successfully freed the trademark back to public use after contesting Marvel and DC’s usage of the term. The company was attempting to use Super Hero concerning a line of comics about super-powered babies. And when Marvel and DC didn’t file an answer in response to the lawsuit, the trademark was freed from their control and is now openly usable by the public.
What’s perhaps most surprising about this is that up until this point, DC and Marvel have been aggressively litigious about protecting the trademark. Here, it seems like they just gave up. So who is the real Super Hero here? S.J. Richolds, of course. And Superbabies.
Goats Flying Press Announces 2025 Slate:
After a careful start in 2024, upstart publisher Goats Flying Press has announced an intriguing slate of books for 2025.
Per The Beat, the four books hitting in 2025 are led by The Fables of Erlking Wood, a folklore retelling graphic novel by Juni Ba and Aditya Bidikar, “spanning the centuries-long life of one accursed fiend.” Next up is an oversized three-issue sequel series to Sebastian Girner’s Scales & Scoundrels titled The Silence in the Storm, which finds a dragon princess trapped in human form teaming up with a group of thieves.
Lake Yellowwood Slaughter by Alejandro Arbona and Gavin Guidry is an over-sized one-shot riffing off slasher flicks like Friday the 13th. And The Consumption is another three-issue series, also written by Girner with art by Jack Mandrake about an AI fusing with a customer service rep to protect humanity from aliens that want to use us for raw materials.
Release dates are TBA, but you can find out more at Goats Flying Press’s booth at this year’s New York Comic Con.
Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Partners With Graphic Novel Publisher Mechnical Cake:
In an announcement that feels like it missed San Diego Comic-Con by two months, Ridley Scott’s production company, Scott Free, is partnering with a company called Mechanical Cake to publish a series of graphic novels.
Said Scott via a press release provided to Comic Book Club, “Mechanical Cake is a terrific company. They understand the art of graphic novels. As an artist and painter, these projects are exciting to me, and I look forward to collaborating with Jesse, Tom, Dave, and the Mechanical Cake team.”
While this might seem like your typical Hollywood vanity project, Mechanical Cake has assembled an impressive array of talent for the fledging company. Dave Elliott is the Editor-in-Chief, and the artists involved include Bill Sienkiewicz, Chris Weston, Dan Panosian, Brian Rood, and more.
The first three books from the publisher are Modville, a sci-fi southern gothic about AI humans; Hyde, a book that posits what if Mr. Hyde didn’t die, but instead lives in the London sewers; and Nick, a Yule war story based in Norse legends. Modville will be the first out of the gate with an issue to be released in March of 2025.
For Super Hero Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And I can say that now, finally, with no legal repercussions. Thanks, Superbabies!
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