World Comic Book Review

18th March 2024

Japan cracks down on manga piracy

Japan has passed an amendment to its copyright laws that will make it illegal to specifically download manga, magazines and academic texts without authorisation. The law comes into effect on 1 January 2021. The penalties for downloading these materials without authorisation will be up to two years jail and two million yen (about AUD27,000). Also … Read more

Sony in legal challenge with DC Comics over ‘Zero Hour’ Trademark

Long-standing readers of DC Comics’ superhero fare will remember the publisher’s 1994 comic book series Zero Hour. This was a limited series designed to reboot DC Comics’ superhero continuity. It was creatively remarkable in that some of the last pages of various issues were intentionally blank, to demonstrate erasure of the existing continuity. In 1995, DC … Read more

The Weeknd and Marvel’s Starboy Comic in Court

Pop singer The Weeknd’ superhero alter ego, “Starboy,” was misappropriated from a start-up comic book creator. This is the allegation set out in the lawsuit the comic book creator has commenced against the singer (whose real name is apparently Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, according to court documents) in California. Eymun Talasazan, the comic book writer and … Read more