La Disputa

Yet another tiny artist vs. Corporation Extreme case.  This time it’s Starbucks filling in for the pompous victim role.  Kieron Dwyer drew a comic book using the corporate logo of Sbux as a basis for his parody concerning consumerism.  Starbucks noticed and served Dwyer with the motion 3 days before the case (using a bike messenger, no less)- leaving no time for Dwyer to get a lawyer or prepare his case.  Fortunately, before Dwyer published his book, he had asked a lawyer on the legal issues, and all was permitted.  Starbucks had expected a quick case, but Dwyer definitely is not taking it lying down.

So far, the results are interesing.  Dwyer cannot make money off his drawing as of now, however, the drawing is now treated as a political cartoon and is fully legal in the eyes of law.  Now we wait for the court date for the final results.

David Cerny managed to trick ALL of Europe into believing he’s 27 artists creating a serious work about the unification and glory of Europe.  And by “glory of Europe” he really meant the crappiness of Europe.  Well, he did succeed in uniting the continent in their dissatisfaction of the piece.  I guess they can blame the Czechs for hiring him.  I laughed, anyway.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/world/europe/15mosaic.html

Since we’re on the subject of manga, I’d like to take this moment to talk about a really good one I just started reading, one that is very different from anything in that genre I’ve ever seen. Monster by Naoki Urasawa is absolutely fascinating. It documents the life of a brilliant surgeon on his way up- when everything goes terribly wrong when he makes the decision to save one patient over another. When the patient turns out to be something unexpectedly terrible, guilt-ridden Dr. Tenma finds himself in the difficult position of trying to make up for his mistake. The story is exciting, multi-layered and full of questions about human ethics. I honestly enjoyed reading it (and I’m not done yet!), and would absolutely recommend this- whether or not you’re a manga enthusiast.

Excuses aside, I am trying to take this blog off its unprecedented hiatus.  I have been working and schooling and homeworking, but I have been keeping up with arts news.

And here’s the latest horror.

A man had been charged with possession of child pornography.  But get this, he owns NOTHING OF THE SORT- unless you account for his manga collection.  The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund suddenly found itself in a very weird position of having to defend this man and his books.  Neil Gaiman had something to say about this.

I can see the how quick one can slip down this slope, but I feel there is much good in manga, yaoi or otherwise- and to start prosecuting tons of honestly normal people for owning such books is wrong.  I don’t own any manga myself, but I feel absolutely strongly about other people being charged for such ownership.  Maybe tomorrow they’ll come for me for owning Sandman by Neil Gaiman or even Jane Eyre (because she wasn’t 18 when Mr. Rochester spied her).

I can only hope Christopher Handley will be defended well.

In the midst of the flurry of late-in-the-year work meetings and final school projects, I managed to see the Kim Deitch: Retrospective show.

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