The case of Dr Pepper/Snapple vs Dublin Dr Pepper basically ended with DrP/Snapple getting everything they wanted and everyone else getting screwed, which was actually a bit worse that what I expected. I was hoping they’d at least let them continue bottling the product, either under a new name or with stricter distribution controls, but nope, it’s all shut down.

I’ll miss Dublin Dr P, and Dr Pepper in general, since I’m certainly not giving this company my money anymore after what they did.

I know some may be thinking right now “huuh First World problems, he doesn’t get to drink his favorite soft drink anymore, poor guy”… but it really is a big deal because it’s yet another demonstration of how much in favor of huge corporations our legal system has become. Personally, I thought DrP/Snapple’s lawsuit was baseless, but whether or not it was doesn’t even matter. DrP/Snapple could afford to pay for an endless legal battle and Dublin could not, so the winner of the battle was pretty much foregone.

I’m sure you all have seen this happen more than once. It’s one of the reasons the legal system and capitalism in general has gotten pretty broken. And it’ll probably never be fixed. Corporations love how broken it is. Why wouldn’t they?

A comic artist fell victim of this too. In 2000, cartoonist Kieron Dwyer was sued rather abruptly (there was no C&D) by Starbucks for producing an image that was entirely protected by Fair Use.

In this case Starbucks was clearly in the wrong but Dwyer was an indie cartoonist and Starbucks was… well… Starbucks, so suffice to say the settlement did not favor him.

And this is what makes all these internet bills rather alarming… it’s all the provisions they seem to contain allowing websites to be blocked without warning. Everyone knows this is something the big corporations could take advantage of, much like the situations above. Just as a small business can’t afford to pay endless legal fees, they could not afford to have their websites down for more than a week.

Well, this went off on a longer tangent than I expected, and I wish I could end this with some kind of upbeat solution, but I can’t?

fraspargs

just finished the colors to the next Wendy page, will be postin it in a couple hours

lines by superbabe as always!

thinhline:

thin h liner: Josh Lesnick

I met Josh way back when he made a trip to Tokyo and he made a special stop to see me and we worked on this strip (I, unfortunately, didn’t have a better strip idea for us at the time).

Josh is a supremely good human being.  Why?

1) Way back when there was the Fan Art Headquarters, Josh was given the keys to run it after the founder retired.  Many people, including myself, thought he didn’t have the skills to run a site for artists. Now, he runs Slipshine, pretty much the model of running a site for artists, which he makes enough to support himself.  What did we know.  Josh 1, Me 0.

2) Josh was kind enough to give me a shot at said site Slipshine, which I managed three whole pages before getting artistic block and giving up. Instead of manning up to the problem and apologizing, I basically tried to avoid him, like I do with any problem I have. Josh 2, Me -5 (I mean, I deserve minus points for this).

DESPITE THIS… Josh has always supported me, came around to see me in Japan, followed this blog, and even linked to depression comix to give it a boost. Josh 5, Me -10.

Josh, you’re a far better person than me and I’m eternally grateful for your existence.  Thank you for everything, I’m sorry for the FAHQ and my failure at Slipshine.

awww dude c:

Japan was really cool, although a bit awkward since I was basically visiting it with my gf while we were in the middle of a breakup, but this visit helped make things a bit nicer. We drew this at KFC if I recall correctly. Perhaps we’ll meet again someday, but in fact that was the last time I’ve been outside the US… :o

(also thanks for leaving out the part where I basically failed with the FAHQ, hohohoho… but that whole time in general was a crazy learning experience)

radiomaru:

your welcome~

oh the guy who owned radiomaru.tumblr was nice enough to give his blog to mal i seee

I’ll follow him I GUESS >:|

character design for upcoming wendy3k chapter

(Source: mattbors.com, via mattbors)

auuug I <3 this

(Source: sunbakerey)

blahblahbob:

I inked over ruined Josh Lesnick’s awesome sketch.

oh hey!

(eventually I’ll ink this myself too :] )

superhappy:

(click for a larger version)

rerun. should i do more of these?

garfieldminusgarfield:

With SOPA, Garfield minus Garfield would probably have never happened. Protest SOPA.

haha, that’d be nice…

…except Jim Davis & Paws completely embraced G-G and used it to market themselves to dumb internet kids, further increasing their empire? obviously they don’t have a problem with it, and I’m not sure who else would try to have the site blocked through the bill.

not even SOPA could stop this shitty website. thus, there is still nothing good about SOPA.

blgghgh

taeshidiary:

Click here and view it full size!!

So you guys wanna know why I was hours late posting this comic update? Yeah I was just doodling 100+ webcomic characters on a whim

I simply sat down and drew whatever I could think of, one thing after the other. I particularly liked being able to include the webcomics and artists I’ve personally enjoyed reading over the years. It all makes for an amazingly diverse collection of designs and ideas, doesn’t it?

huh for some reason i didn’t hear about her tumblr until now, follow follow

also yaaay, man i dunno what makes me more giddy… my characters being in it, or quite a few characters from webcomics i thought only i liked and/or heard of being in it.

drV analyzing sums&hats yessss

(veronica draws bcb for those who don’t know)