Thursday, February 6, 2025

Irv Gotti Has Died

Irv Gotti has died at the age of 54 due to a stroke. Unless you like to study the minutiae of music you may not know who Gotti is, but you definitely know the music he worked on. In the late 90s and early 2000s, the man created chart-topping hit after hit with the Def Jam imprint, Murder Inc. Created with his brother, the Murder Inc. imprint featured artists such as Ja Rule, Ashanti, Fat Joe, DMX, and more. Gotti crafted hits featuring everyone from Jennifer Lopez, to Mary J. Blige, Lloyd, and more. 

Infamously abrasive and blunt, Gotti was an incredibly controversial figure, accused of money laundering for a drug lord (Murder Inc. offices were even raided by the FBI although he was later acquitted) and he was apparently sued for sexual harassment/assault with an unnamed woman in civil court last year. Gotti was without a doubt a creative genius who knew how to make good music even if he also appeared to also make questionable legal choices. A good deal of hit artists maybe wouldn't have achieved fame without Gotti and the musical landscape would look a lot different today without his work. Def Jam records said in response to his passing how he, "Defined an era," and based on his discography, one would have to agree, flaws and all.

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Diamond Hemorrhaging Clients, Massive Taking on Indies, Dark Horse Laying off Staff, IDW's Future Uncertain, and More Comic Industry News

A lot is happening in the comic-book industry. I mean, a lot. Ever since Diamond announced its Chapter 11 bankruptcy it hasn't been able to reorganize so much as lose a ton of clients to PRH or Lunar. If Diamond can't find someone to help take on their debt/purchase them then they could shut down as soon as April 1st. Will there even be much left to buy at this rate, however? Everyone seems to be jumping ship who is able and one interesting note is the publisher known as Massive is joining Lunar and adding a sub-distribution program known as, "Massive Indies." Designed to help smaller publishers who are currently stuck with Diamond (PRH or Lunar can be selective in who they take on, after all) it will allow them to have titles distributed with assistance from Massive as a bit of a workaround. It is an interesting idea for publishers struggling to survive--and it seems even bigger ones are feeling a crunch.

Dark Horse used to be privately owned, was bought by Embracer (a company that focused more on video-games), and had been chugging along. However, they just started implementing sweeping layoffs related to, "market conditions, economic factors," redundancies, and other corporate-speak for positions that basically cost more than Embracder thinks they make/are worth. A decline in sales, the ongoing threat of tariffs (that comes and goes at Trump's whim), and Embracer's own business issues have apparently made it necessary for Dark Horse to cut a lot of staff to survive. At least it looks like Dark Horse will survive, as some publishers have a grimmer possible future.

IDW has pushed back on a recent auditor's report that expressed, "Substantial doubt," about the publisher's future. Apparently, some of this relates to who owes money to whom from back when IDW was with Diamond and how PRH is like Rhianna in her song, "Bitch Better Have My Money," and wants its funds from anybody who can pay them--and Diamond can't, so IDW's gotta put some cash forth. IDW has claimed they are working things out with PRH and all will be fine, but whether that's true or its a case of a ship sinking and the captain trying to keep everyone calm while he/she sneaks off to a private escape craft remains to be seen. Clearly, a lot of is happening in the comic-book biz, much of it worrisome. I sincerely hope that everyone will be able to remain in business and that as few jobs as possible will be lost from bankruptcies, layoffs, etc. Optimism can only carry us so far, however.

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

"Fantastic Four: First Steps," Has Dropped its First Teaser Trailer

"Fantastic Four: First Steps," is coming this July from Marvel and released a teaser trailer. It looks fun and appears to be set in a retro-futuristic 1960s. I'm not sure how it can take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for that reason (the main MCU is more like the real world we live in...minus the superheroes), but I imagine it is in a different dimension that will end up in the, "Main," Marvel World during the upcoming, "Avengers: Doomsday," or, "Avengers: Secret Wars." Give it a look:

This is a teaser trailer so only so much is being revealed to us, obviously. It seems the team has been in action for a bit and already has a base of operations. Also, we get a peak at what looks to be a big baddie in the form of Galactus (OG costume as opposed to the Fox iteration of, "Fantastic Four," which made him a weird cloud). I'm intrigued for sure and almost anything that has Pedro Pascal in it at least is watchable, so I'm eager for July 2025 when this hits theaters!

Monday, February 3, 2025

CGC is Embroiled in a New Scandal with Pokémon Cards

CGC has had it rough. They had a huge scandal early last year when scam artists took advantage of a lack of oversight to have regular comics graded as being special editions (Mark Jewelers and such) but the company seemed to weather the fiasco okay. This probably was due to how in regards to comics, CGC is still the big dog. When it comes to cards they are relatively less popular, with PSA and other companies getting more love for grading sports cards or non-sport stuff such as Magic, Pokemon, and the like. PSA is actually getting into comic grading too this year, interestingly enough. One wonders if the timing will work well for PSA as CGC now has suffered a huge hit to their credibility with a Pokemon card forgery scandal. 

Cards worth millions of dollars that had been certified as legit by CGC and slabbed were supposedly prototypes of Pokemon cards from 1996. A number of these cards were examined with professional forensic equipment by individuals who then determined a large amount of the cards were, in fact, printed in 2024 and elaborate forgeries. This is extremely bad for CGC and could cause their reputation to take a massive hit. Comic fans will stick with them almost no matter what because they're a huge name in comic-books. When it comes to cards they have a lot of stiff competition--competition who can take advantage of this fiasco. I'm not going to jump to extreme conclusions such as stating this will lead to the downfall of CGC or something equally dramatic, but this is without a doubt going to hurt them, severely.

Sunday, February 2, 2025

Today the Infamous Rodent Saw His Shadow

Today was February 2nd, 2025. That means it was Groundhog Day. The somehow eternally young groundhog known as Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. He deemed that for such a reason we will have six more weeks of winter weather, Spring equinox (March 20th) and a warming planet be damned! He is only right about 35% of the time, but I doubt most people trust a magical rodent so much as they find this whole thing to be some whimsical and silly fun. Plus, we got a really good movie with Bill Murray out this event (literally titled, "Groundhog Day," and nothing else) so that's a nice fringe benefit of this pseudo-holiday. 

Phil will most likely be wrong about the weather based on past statistics, but at least he didn't bite anybody like a less-famous groundhog did (multiple cities apparently have them) some years ago. I'd rather somebody call the forecast incorrectly but at least keep their teeth to themselves! That would make for an interesting episode of the, "Today," show, however, if Al Roker decided to just chomp down on some bystanders in the plaza one day. Anyways, Phil saw his shadow, nobody cares. The holiday itself is what's fun, not what the groundhog actually sees.

Saturday, February 1, 2025

The Upcoming, "Superman," Movie Has Been Hit with a Rights Lawsuit

There is a big, "Superman," flick on the way. Directed by James Gunn, it is meant to kickstart a new DC film universe that Gunn and Peter Safran are overseeing. This movie has been hit by a lawsuit from the family/heirs of Joe Shuster and have Marc Toberoff representing them. The argument is that certain rights have reverted to the family in some countries/territories and they want to block the flick's release in those locations. This case maybe would fail in court, but as soon as a huge company like Marvel or DC gets even a hint there could be an actual problem they usually settle out of court. Toberoff was the attorney who represented the family of Jack Kirby when they sued Marvel and once it became apparent there was even a 1% chance things could go sideways everyone settled out of court for an undisclosed (but presumably large) amount. 

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman decades ago and depending on who you ask were screwed over and tricked or made a bad deal in good faith upon selling the rights regarding Superman for $130 to the company that became the DC we know today. A lot of time has passed and copyright law is always evolving, so new actions are being taken. Whether this is a case of a family wanting what is fair or greedy children trying to get an easy check can be argued, but I've always been on the side of creators and their families as opposed to megacorporations, myself. The owner of DC (Warner Brothers Discovery) could very well try to get a quick dismissal of this case and if that fails quietly settle out of court to avoid bad press as the date of this new, "Superman," nears.