Nat in San Diego

For those of you headed to San Diego for the 50th anniversary of what is now called Comic-Con International, I’ll be there most of Friday through Sunday. While you can flag me if there’s something of particular interest you want to discuss, here’s where you’ll be able to see me in an organized manner:

Friday, 4:30pm, Room 24ABC

Comics Law: Disney, Malibu, and The Uncensored Mouse

Malibu Comics made headlines when it republished two volumes of public domain Mickey Mouse newspaper strips in The Uncensored Mouse . Disney sued Malibu and the series ended. Public domain law and the comics that get published will be discussed using The Uncensored Mouse as a case study. Hear the lively discussion with Tom Mason (Mouse editor), Dave Olbrich (Malibu publisher), Nat Gertler (About Comics publisher), and Michael Lovitz (trademark, copyright, and entertainment attorney and Comic Book Law School founder). What does it take to keep public domain material in print in 2019?

Sunday, 2:00pm, Room 24ABC

Catholic Cartoon Nunsplosion

In the 1950s, cartoon booklets about nuns and other Roman Catholic figures became a fad, with creators from Platinum and Golden Age comic book artists to an actual monk and a future nun. Comic book historian Jessica Tseang interviews About Comics publisher Nat Gertler about these forgotten books and efforts to reprint them.

 

Discounts
Costco eases out of books

Membership-based store chain Costco has announced that they are backing out of carrying books as a year-round item, the New York Times reports. Those big tables filled with stacks of best-sellers and deluxe and kid-friendly titles will instead just be dragged out for the last third of the year, for …

Discounts
Sam’s Club special

AAUGH Blog reader Bill alerted us to the fact the Sam’s Club stores have the boxed set The Peanuts Collection for a mere $11.98, about $9 less than when Costco had that set two years ago, and far far less than the total cost of the enclosed books (The Peanuts …

Discounts
Various post-holiday notes

I hope that all of you who were Christmassing had a good one, and all of you who are Hannukafying are taking pleasure in these last few hours of the festival. Me, I not only got presents for both holidays, I got Peanuts presents for both. I’ll have pictures of …