Winters' Tale

Johnny and Edgar Winter, albino brothers of Texas rock legend, are going ahead with their lawsuit against DC comics. At issue: "the Autumn Brothers," half-human, half-worm villains in DC's 1995 comic Jonah Hex: Riders of the Worm and Such. The Autumn Brothers' look is closely based on the Winters, who claim that the appropriation is not protected by copyright parody provisions. In the book, Jonah Hex eventually kills the loathesome Autumn brothers. The Winters are less easily deterred, and their case was resurrected and held up on appeal after a Los Angeles court initially threw it out; a decision is expected soon. Supporting the suit is the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation. The Winters' lawyers note that DC used the Winters' names in promotional materials. "Were they just ripping off two celebrities to sell a comic book?" asks Winter lawyer Vincent Chieffo. Clearly, when Edgar urged us all to "Come on and take a free ride," he didn't mean it literally.

Comments

[Croesus]

Some albino groups are also pissed off about the "twins" in "The Matrix Reloaded." Though the twins aren't albinos, they are just dead (apparently the roots of their dreads have color in them, etc.).

[Russ]

You'd think they'd be happy for the free publicity, instead they come off as petty pricks.

And as the "Illustrated Man", should Johnny win the case, will he have to reimburse the tattoo artists since it's possible that he may be exploiting the images on his skin to sell tickets (even if no one is buying)?

[Warren]

Yet another example of why we'd be better off scrapping "intellectual property" all together.

[Croesus]

BTW, I suggest that everyone see "The Matrix Reloaded." It will be the most important movie of the year - that is if you like Baudilaire and Hong Kong martial arts films. 🙂

[Jon B.]

Yay for scrapping intellectual property. Lets get rid of second rate, egomaniacal rock musicians while we're at it.

Wonder if Edgar paid anybody to use "Frankenstein"? Wonder if either bro really thinks the average comic reader knows who they are anymore (or have they had a comeback that I missed). Since when is name dropping a violation of copyright?

Seeing Matrix tonight at the first local preview. Unfortunately the early buzz is less than enthusiastic. Megacritic gave it 67 compared to 71 for X-Men, and Harry Knowles panned it (if you care what Harry thinks- he WAS the model for comic-book-guy on the Simpsons). Mostly props for the wire-fu and thumbs down for the Baudilaire (too constipated).

[Anonymous]

I actually prefer movies with stories, but thanks.

[Jim]

Russ,

I suppose it would be an issue if the tattoo artists copywrited their works. They probably recognize that when you tattoo something on a person, it's going to be public domain. (After all would you even do it if you knew they could charge you a percentage if you made money off of the tattoos in some sense, like being a dangerous-looking rock star?)

I've been to a tattoo parlor once - I don't have any but I went with a friend who was getting one. They literally have hundreds of designs that I'm sure they didn't create themselves. Do you suppose the original artist that created the design owns a copyright on them? Or are they all public domain? Anybody know the answer to that?

[Sven]

I've heard that the Warchaworski - er Wachawowski brothers cover a lot of ground, but how did they work in 19th Century French poets?

[Croesus]

Sven,

Excuse me for the Freudian slip, I meant the French philosopher Braudillard, famous for his work "Simularca and Simulation," which was featured in "The Matrix." Neo uses the book (whose pages are cut out so as to turn the book into a box - when I first saw that I got chills) to store his illicit software.

Baudrillard describes the history of "disappearance" from Plato onward in _Simulacra and Simulation_. First the image reflects reality; then it masks it; then it hides the absence of it. Finally, it has no relation to any reality at all, which has disappeared. There is thus the disappearance of distinction.

The following qoute from Morpheous is straight out of Heidegger (think of the dasein) BTW:

"You're here because you know something. What you know you cannot explain but you feel it, you've felt it your entire life, but there is something wrong in the world, you don't know what it is but it's there like a splinter in your mind driving you mad, it is this feeling that has brought you to me."

[Russ]

Jim, by tattoo artists I meant the creator of the artwork, not the person tracing it onto the skin. Your point was sort of my point, there's a lot of uncompensated artwork used as tattoos.

[Douglas Fletcher]

I watched "The Matrix' on the tube the other day. Best nap I've had in a while.

[Sven]

Free your mind, Douglas.

[Jim Treacher]

That lawsuit is beyond the pale. Sounds like they were seeing red. Well, at least it's not getting whitewashed.

[Douglas Fletcher]

My mind's never freer than when it's asleep.

[Jon B.]

Couple of quicks-

Groening probably was. It was a (lame) joke.

Matrix Reloaded was great (judging it for what it was). Go see it. Esp. if you dig Cyberpunk.

No story? I consider any Kung-Fu movie with a plot deeper than a typical game of Magic to be the exception to the rule.

[gregor]

Didn't dee-light (sp?) file a lawsuit recently because of a comic book - a character dressed and tressed and make-uped like her? She should be profoundly grateful anyone bothers with her at all.

Re tattoos, couldn't the artist or copycat sign their work?

[Chas Rich]

"Were they just ripping off two celebrities to sell a comic book?" asks Winter lawyer Vincent Chieffo.

If so, you'd think they'd choose two that would actually result in sales.

As I recall, this mini-series wasn't much of a hit. Any sales was due to the popularity of the artist, Tim Truman.

[geophile]

I was under the impression that the model for Comic Book Guy was Matt Groening himself.