Stan Lee's Stolen Blood Was Used To Sign Marvel Comic Books (tmz.com) 134
ISoldat53 writes: Someone stole a sample of Stan Lee's blood and stamped comic books with it to increase their value. TMZ reports: "We've learned several 'Black Panther' comic books are currently available at the Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. store on the Las Vegas Strip. Each edition comes with a certificate of authentication that details the item as a 'Hand-Stamped Signature of STAN LEE using Stan Lee's Solvent DNA Ink.' Stan's friend and partner Keya Morgan discovered the 95-year-old's blood was allegedly stolen back in October after a former business associate presented Lee's nurse with fake docs that authorized that a sample be drawn. Our sources say the nurse pulled enough blood from Stan for him to feel lightheaded and dizzy. We're told the 'Black Panther' comic with Stan's Hancock in blue is selling for $250. The one in gold is twice that at $500. Stan's legal team is currently weighing its options to go after the former business associate who allegedly lifted Lee's blood." Evan Michailidis, a legal rep for the Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. tells TMZ, "We're a retail store which purchased product from Hands of Respect LLC and DLK Brand Consulting LLC that appeared certified and obtained with authorization. The books were removed from our shelves immediately."
And people would buy them? (Score:1, Troll)
Just reinforces my belief that adults heavily into comics** are more than a little bit weird.
**No, they're not "graphic novels", a novel implies a substantial, long and complex storyline, not small amounts of simplistic text in speech bubbles in something 20 pages long about characters in silly custumes with their underpants on the outside.
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How does it feel to be so cultured and superior to people you disagree with?
Just wondering, if you met comic fans in person, would talk just like this to them IRL or do you just talk like this on the internet?
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Don't discount this. The rules of engagement in that culture are that when he talks to them IRL, he gets to wear a mask.
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Why would I want to go down to an overcrowded, smelly convention centre to spend time with muppets dressed up in costume?
You think people who read comics only exist in convention centres? How delightfully retarded.
Maybe it's just because you want to dodge the question of if you would speak like that IRL. Yeah, probably.
Disclaimer: don't give a fuck about comics and don't read them.
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Besides, you won't be meeting anyone from your mom's basement.
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Why would I want to go down to an overcrowded, smelly convention centre to spend time with muppets dressed up in costume?
I kept hearing about this TV show "Star Trek". People seemed really excited about it and I wanted to learn more. Since I assume that none of my friends or coworkers have ever watched an episode, I naturally booked a flight to Vegas and went to the convention. Turns out that every single Star Trek fan is freaking obsessed with that show.
tl;dr: Convention attendees are not representative of all fans and "normal" fans are easy to find.
Re:And people would buy them? (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't give a fuck about comics, but had I known they exist, I would have bought as many as I could have gotten my hands on.
1) Signed with the writer's blood. I have no idea what kind of comic it is but if it's some sort of vampire story, all the better. The geeks will go nuts about this.
2) This will be considered illegal soon, and the books will no longer be available. Even if the blood had been drawn legally, we're looking at a health hazard. There are VERY strict standards about what you can do with blood. Mostly because there are SO many diseases associated with blood that we know, and we don't even have a clue about what we do NOT know yet. In labs, you'll notice that blood is usually handled in ways that already assume it's somehow hazardous.
3) Now combine the demand that results from 1) and the very limited supply that results from 2).
4) Profit.
Re:And people would buy them? (Score:5, Funny)
Username checks out
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Don't know. Don't care. I'm not in the business of buying and selling comic books.
get the wooden stakes! (Score:3)
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To be honest, on numerous occasions I have intentionally transferred a specific bodily fluid to my wife. Am I in trouble?
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1) Signed with the writer's blood.
My question is, signed by who . TFA doesn't address this point, but surely these are all forged signatures.
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So? It's still his holiness' very own blood. Who gives a fuck who wrote with it?
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If you're going to scribble on my book with blood, I'd prefer a pentagram or some Wakandan tribal art to a forged signature. Even just a round blot with a note that says, "Aim cloning ray here." I'd prefer a book still in mint condition to one with a fake autograph.
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Solvent DNA Ink
So I take it this probably isn't viable for cloning?
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Oh, if only it were just that. It's signed in the writer's stolen blood, without his consent! That's already next-level material. If these sell well, next year every trendy/wannabe metal band is going to sign their albums in blood, but it won't be nearly as cool because they'll be doing it to be cool.
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That's gonna be SO last year!
Re:And people would buy them? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, they're not "graphic novels", a novel implies a substantial, long and complex storyline, not small amounts of simplistic text in speech bubbles in something 20 pages long about characters in silly custumes with their underpants on the outside.
If you think that's what they all are, you're pretty damn ignorant. Many graphic novels definitely contain long and complex storylines - often moreso than many mainstream novels on the bestseller lists. Compare V for Vendetta's depth to that of Twilight. Or Sandman to 50 Shades of Grey.
There are many, many very good, very complex and substantial works consisting of "text in speech bubbles". Some of them even are about "characters in silly costumes with their underpants on the outside" and still manage to say a lot (such as Watchmen or Kingdom Come).
Re:And people would buy them? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Many graphic novels definitely contain long and complex storylines - often moreso than many mainstream novels on the bestseller lists"
Yeah, right, and oddly they manage to get it done in about 1/20th the amount of prose. I suppose you could be kind and called them abridged.
Once again, showing your ignorance of the medium. A very large amount of a prose novel is tied up in descriptions of visuals, or elements that are redundant to the pictures in the medium (such as the words "said", "shouting", etc.), as well as white space around shorter paragraphs. A more realistic estimate taking this into account is that comics are only getting about 1/4 the information across in the same space. Couple this with the average graphic novel page being twice the size, but with the same average font size, and you'll realistically only be talking about 1/2 the amount of information per page. If you want to make some kind of asinine argument about information contained in the work, it'd be more realistic to say it's more akin to a novella than a novel.
Of course, that ends up with you basically saying the longer a book is, the more important it is, and content be damned. (But, considering your "arguments" up to this point, I wouldn't be surprised if that was truly a criteria you believed mattered.)
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A very large amount of a prose novel is tied up in descriptions of visuals, or elements that are redundant to the pictures in the medium (such as the words "said", "shouting", etc.)
In tome like fantasy (I like those) sure. Tell you what, read a Jane Austen novel and count how many words fit your description. If you like anti heroes, I'd recommend Lady Susan.
Naturally I picked a very famous author there. Not all authors get bogged down in lengthy descriptions.
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Yeah, but Stephen King makes up for their lack of brevity.
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Re:And people would buy them? (Score:5, Insightful)
A very large amount of a prose novel is tied up in descriptions of visuals, or elements that are redundant to the pictures in the medium...
You took a roundabout path to "A picture is worth a thousand words."
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But what's another trite superhero story worth?
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What's it worth? Black Pather's taken in better than $650M. That's what it's worth.
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I could take a screenshot right now and illustrate those 7 words, a bunch more, and some album covers all in one picture.
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On a comic page, the illustrator could embellish those seven words with whatever context strikes him as appropriate. One great aspect of a graphic novel is the marriage of prose and illustration.
Nitpicking (Score:2)
In a certain nitpicky way, the above poster happens to be right, simply because in lots of circumstances (ex.: author competition), the difference betwen "short story" and "novel" is defined by the number of words.
By this extremely strict definition, "graphic novel" is simply contradicting the definition of "novel". But on the other hand "graphic short story", in turn, is contradicting the definition of "short" anyway.
But once you throw in the common saying that "a picture is a thousand of words", then sudd
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You are attempting to argue that a postcard (IE visual novel) can contain more information and a longer story line compared to a tiny 30 book encyclopedia set...
A photograph could easily contain more information than a page of text describing that photograph. I don't know how you're leaping to the encyclopedia set.
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That would be because a text novel is using *only* the prose to tell the story, so it needs more. In a graphic novel, it's only part of the medium, so not as much is needed.
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Compare V for Vendetta's depth to that of Twilight.
So you read Twilight then?
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I read them up until I was about 10. Then I discovered books.
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Just reinforces my belief that adults heavily into comics** are more than a little bit weird.
We live in a world where adults run around chasing Pokemon characters, spend hours playing Candy Crush, and take countless pictures of their own face behind dozens of Snapchat filters. Adults reading comic books is refined compared to that childish pointless shit.
**No, they're not "graphic novels", a novel implies a substantial, long and complex storyline, not small amounts of simplistic text in speech bubbles in something 20 pages long about characters in silly custumes with their underpants on the outside.
Uh, they're considered novels because they happen to be complex storylines that are essentially broken up and sold as individual chapters. And that "simplistic" text and speech has generated billions as those exact same storylines are brought to
Re:Respect is the first thing to learn from japane (Score:5, Insightful)
In japan manga comics almost always display borderline pre-teen girls in sexy outfits. Hardly the sign of a heathly hobby.
Just because those are the only ones you read, doesn't mean they're the only ones that exist.
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I’m not a comics fan, but I lived in Japan during the heyday of manga. Those things were the size of telephone books, and every ordinary business commuter on the subway was reading one.
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In japan manga comics almost always display borderline pre-teen girls in sexy outfits. Hardly the sign of a heathly hobby.
I'm impressed. Here I thought you were only ignorant of western culture.
Re:And people would buy them? (Score:5, Funny)
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Get off your fucking high horse already and stop being a cultural snob. No one died and made you king.
Logicomix: An epic search [amazon.com] for truth is 352 pages.
Watchman [amazon.com] is 448 pages
No one gives a fuck how long a graphic novel is -- only if they were entertained.
Let me guess, you were probably one of those snobs who thought "talkies" (talking movies) were ruining movies [oldmagazinearticles.com] via a focus on dialogue would subvert the unique aesthetic virtues of soundless cinema. [newworldencyclopedia.org]
You condemn yourself with your ignorance.
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I must admit that, when I saw this story posting, my mind immediately went back to this:
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-ni... [nbc.com]
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a novel implies a substantial, long and complex storyline
And so far there are few novels with as substantion, long and complex storylines as the graphic novels you ignorantly shit on.
What you actually were trying to say is that a novel implies "verbage" which simply is not the case.
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Geek culture in general is degenerate garbage for a degenerate audience. Oh look at me, my identity is indelibly tied to a mediocre sci-fi movie franchise! When they make a bad Star Wars movie it literally kills a part of my soul! At least I have my towering intellect, obsessive personality disorder, and unopened toy collection to console me.
TBBT reference (Score:1)
I possess the DNA of Stan Lee?! ...
Do you realize what this means?
All I need is a healthy ovum and I can grow my own Stan Lee!
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Okay, all I'm giving you is the comic book...
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I possess the DNA of Stan Lee?! ...
Do you realize what this means?
All I need is a healthy ovum and I can grow my own Stan Lee!
Wrong bodily fluid. The issues "signed" with the one you want are *way* more expensive - and sticky -- I mean icky.
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I wonder what kind of documents you'd need to cook up to get that sample? Asking for a friend.
This is terrible - appalling. (Score:2)
Are any of the comics still available for sale?
I expect this to be the response from most people.
Wow... (Score:1)
Bunch of vampires.
"Yes, these are game worn." (Score:5, Insightful)
How do we know? (Score:3)
It could be anyone's blood. Who has the money to check?
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pfff... amateurs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Excelsior! (Score:3)
How much is needed to give me spider powers?
Kinda fitting for the new era of Marvel (Score:1, Flamebait)
Every time I hear about what Marvel is doing on the comic front, it sounds like a vampire draining the life out of its victim. Only in this case it's SJWs who can't produce anything of value on their own taking beloved characters and making them "unproblematic." If it weren't for the movies staying roughly true to the original characters, Lee would have definitely lived to see the life drained out of his legacy by now.
So it has come to this (Score:1)
Quoting hollywood rumor site TMZ. Thanks for nothing Slashdot.
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Quoting hollywood rumor site TMZ. Thanks for nothing Slashdot.
TMZ is leaps and bounds better than most "media" and "news" organizations out there.
TMZ reports facts without regard to political biases.
You may not be interested in the facts they report, but no one's forcing you to watch, and no one's hypocritically setting up TMZ as some sort of faux journalistic "standard" a la "The New York Times".
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The problem I personally have with TMZ is if there was anybody to rightfully be called vampires, it would be those unethical asshats. They suck the life out of anyone in the public eye and will go to any length to "get the story". Their accuracy is surprisingly good, but their lack of any morals or ethics to get that story I take umbrage with. That and as you already mentioned, I don't give a damn about what they report on.
Opportunity knocks! (Score:2)
Turn about's fair play! (Score:3)
"You made KISS use their blood for their book! Now how do ya like it, Mr. Bigshot!"
A derivative work (Score:2)
Eww Blood-Stained? (Score:4, Insightful)
I've bought books on my favourite web-comic series but at no point would I consider buying a blood-stained comic-book even appealing. The only way it would make sense would be if it was horror or something nasty in subject but for regular comics an artist or writer's signature with a good pen is good enough. I mean really what's next Stan Lee's half eaten sandwich wedged in there or something?
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I've bought books on my favourite web-comic series but at no point would I consider buying a blood-stained comic-book even appealing. The only way it would make sense would be if it was horror or something nasty in subject but for regular comics an artist or writer's signature with a good pen is good enough. I mean really what's next Stan Lee's half eaten sandwich wedged in there or something?
No...
First, blood stains.
Second, poop stains.
Third, bloody poop stains.
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Make mine with Santorum! [yourdictionary.com] Yum!
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I mean really what's next Stan Lee's half eaten sandwich wedged in there or something?
He's had just about everything else stolen from him, why not take his sandwich too? Seriously, he should be worth mega millions but a variety of leeches have scammed him and his daughter for all he had.
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"Hand-Stamped" in blood (Score:2)
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Yeah, but foot-stamped means something entirely different.
Not my type of comic book (Score:2)
Stan's legal team is currently weighing its options to go after the former business associate who allegedly lifted Lee's blood.
Fraud and theft for Stan's legal team, I would guess. Assault, elderly abuse, more fraud for presenting falsified documents, etc., for the local DA to consider?
Lucky they caught the guy when they did, sounds like the type who would gladly microtome Mr. Lee and sell "premium" comics with a slice each.
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You should see the laws for medical hazardous waste, which includes blood samples.
The "Lightheaded and dizzy" is a bit much (Score:1)