Pop Culture Roundup Oct. 16, 2006

Members of Monty Python reunited for the London premiere of "Spamalot."

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"Veronica Mars" producer Diane Ruggiero is developing a superhero/comedy series for the CW.

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Indy cartoonist Daniel Clowes ("Art School Confidential," "Ghost World") is recovering from open heart surgery performed earlier this week.

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The mainstream press finally cottons to the fact that pop artist Roy Lichtenstein was a plagiarist, swiping his "comics panel" paintings wholesale from real comics panels by the likes of Irv Novick, Russ Heath and other folks who toiled throughout their careers as work-for-hire freelancers with no benefits or royalties.

Comic book companies owned the original copyrights. DC Comics declined to comment for this article. Russ Heath, a DC artist whose work Lichtenstein used, says the publisher was never interested in suing Lichtenstein, probably because there wasn't much money to be made. ``He never even had me over for a cocktail, and then he died. So I guess I'm out of luck."

Ninety-year-old artist George Tuska couldn't come to the phone, but his wife, Dorothy, says they had no idea that a 1961 Buck Rogers panel drawn by her husband became ``Emeralds," a valuable Lichtenstein canvas. ``Oh my God," she says. ``That is unbelievable." Sotheby's sold ``Emeralds" to an anonymous buyer for $1.6 million in 1999.

One artist whose work Lichtenstein appropriated, Joe Kubert , says he doesn't care. ``My focus is on what is happening today." As it happens, the Lichtenstein Foundation uses an exact copy of a Kubert picture of a fierce dog, titled ``Grrrrrrrrrrr!!" to illustrate a warning to copyright violators on its website. Grrrrr indeed.


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Oct. 29 is Wonder Woman Day in Portland, Ore.:

...as a charity benefit for Portland's most protective women and children's shelters — Raphael House and Bradley-Angel House — Excalibur Comics will host "Wonder Woman Day" on Sunday, October 29th from 2pm to 6pm. The free all-ages event will include a trio of comic book artists signing Wonder Woman comics and special art prints, as well as a silent art auction with over 100 of the world's top artists contributing original art, plus raffles, costumes, rare memorabilia, and more!

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Via Drawn!: Check out the Comics Cover Browser.

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"Lost" secrets: Here's the transcript of a long interview with "Lost" creators J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.

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