The discussion is about music, but this could apply to most any talk about art:

... because of our Internet facilitated increased inter-connectivity, less people are making personal art.  Deep engagement with one's own surroundings can seem so boring, so artists look outward with the ease of the click of a button.  The Techno producers in this ( Read more... )

Two items in today's Times provide not just food for thought but a whole buffet table. The first is the next chapter in the ugly, protracted and deeply problematic copyright custody battle that Jack Kirby's heirs are waging over his creations for Marvel Comics.

The dispute ... is also emblematic of a much larger conflict between intellectual ( Read more... )

Over at Vertical, Inc., they're in the process of setting up a bunch of new licensing requests - some of them in-house items, some gleaned from wishlists provided by fans. I didn't figure they could talk specifics - like Criterion and most other media companies of their ilk, they tend to remain tightlipped about what's been licensed until all the ( Read more... )

More perspective on how to do something about the stagflation in the manga/anime world:

unCLAMPing from the status quo.
While I would personally like to see more international team-ups in Japan, too, creators don't have to team up with Stan Lee to collaborate. Even without international collaboration, all it'll take is a few successful mainstream ( Read more... )

Among the usual roundup of links in this week's AICN Anime installment, there are several overviews of the industry in general. The word is not good, and a lot of that is because Japan remains hidebound by old-school ways of doing business.

SOFT POWER, HARD TALK / Is this the year Japan jumps the shark?

When I raised the possibility that ( Read more... )