Hero By Night is back?

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Soliloquy

Some of you may remember this one from the Halfpixel days:

To be brief, Hero By Night was a fairly entertaining superhero comic by D.J. Coffman. It won some "Webcomics Challenge" contest back in the day, which promised the winner a publication deal... so long as they sign over the rights to their characters to the publisher.

When Coffman won, Scott Kurtz warned against the deal in what I assume was his usual adorably inflammatory manner. Coffman took the deal, things went sour, and Coffman was left without any money or character rights.

Kurtz proceeded to say "I told you so" with all the tact and diplomacy we expect of him, and things ended up going exactly how you'd assume. I even remember Kurtz threatening legal action at some point during all this.

Anyhow, the rights to the comic seems to be back in the hands of its original owner, and it is being published again. I might end up following it if I have the time.
 
I can't recall, but wasn't there some controversy about Coffman himself, as well? I don't even remember what it was, but I remember a number of people swore of the comic as a result.
 
I think Coffman didn't exactly respond to kurtzs' kurtz-ness with grace either. I remember his "I'll draw anything" drive where he drew pvp characters doing.....things.
 
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Soliloquy

Yeah, it really did turn into a duel of the egos. I remember the drawing rather vividly, actually :/

Red Skull skull-fucking Skull was the one that started it all, I believe
 
Ahhhh right. I remember that now. I seem to recall he passionately defended that he was drawing these copyrighted characters without permission doing those unlawful things. Honestly, his attitude turned me off his work entirely. Think it'll remain that way.
 
CBR has reconstructed the arguement as it played out on Twitter. I think Kurtz comes off a bit worse than Coffman.
pvponline: Hey, asshole. I officially do NOT give you permission to draw the red skull fucking my character. take that shit off your website
djcoffman: Removed it
pvponline: and P.S. Since you made 2 bucks off that, you owe me two fucking dollars.
djcoffman: Ha, but i'll give you two dollars after you give George Lucas money for the Han shot first shirt
pvponline: the Han shirt is commentary and satire (i.e. fair use) DJ. What you did was infringement. my paypal is kurtz@pvponline.com.
djcoffman: No, that was "dark satire" you twit. RedSkull, fucking skull, and he also requested any other skulls I could throw in. So blow me
pvponline: Where was the satire? Maybe if you understood these things better you would still own Hero by Night. So blow ME.
djcoffman: Of course ,I'm sorry that type of humor upsets you. I understand. Now drop it and move on.
djcoffman: And if you allow it to run on your forums I'm going to re-publish it on my site. Just a heads up
pvponline: Scott Rosenberg has taught you well. You two so deserved each other
djcoffman: Well, sorry it upset you. You should see the ones I've turned down. There are a lot of people who don't like you.
pvponline: How noble of you, DJ. You're a real gentleman.
djcoffman: I try?
djcoffman I haven't had this many laughs on a Sunday since I don't know when.
JTSHea: Yep. he'sa piece of work isn't he?
djcoffman: No. He's the world's largest hypocrite. Maybe he should remember things from 1999 like this:
tombrazelton: Wait. This mystery drawing w/ Skull being sodomized is bad, but this one is okay?
pvponline: Why can't it just be about the fact that I don't like seeing my characters get skullfucked?
tombrazelton: That's very understandable. But I think you took a cheap shot mentioning copyright. Either it applies to everything or not.
pvponline: Let me see if I can break it down for you guys: Skull getting eye-fucked=not like. PvP being parodied in Foxtrot with reverence=DO like
onlyduh: So copyright applies only to things that YOU don't like? Either its all or nothing, you can't pick and choose
pvponline: Yeah. that's how it works. I like people who strengthen my brand, not damage it. I like positive intent over malicious intent.
onlyduh: Totally understand not wanting skull portrayed in that manner, but isn't it a situation of having to take the good with the bad?
pvponline: it's not about good or bad. It's about intent. Most people that aren't disney don't pursue infringement of good intent.
happymrlocust: Out of curiousity, if it was a copyright issue, couldn't an conventional cease-and-desist work just as well?
pvponline: I figured just letting the guy know I was upset, was a proper first step.
drwright: It was better than sending a cease and desist letter, but it would have been better still to settle the dispute privately
djcoffman: I only took it down because he got upset. Not because I broke ANY laws. It's clearly satire. In bad taste
pvponline: Why is it okay for DJ to draw Skull getting a cock in the eye, but I'm out of line for getting upset about it?
drwright: You're not out of line for getting upset; there was no need to take DJ to task publicly
djcoffman: any more dicky discussion about the drawing I took down, and I'm going to republish it. Fair warning
happymrlocust: Ah, ok. I just figured that "hey, asshole" would be more damaging to the brand than a shiny C&D from a lawyer
pvponline: The twitter post was much cheaper
djcoffman: in fact, maybe I'll just start a whole other comic about ways to skullfuck trolls? I've got time
 
I...wow. Just wow. I already don't have a lot of respect for Kurtz but...wow.
Added at: 07:33
Also, "comes off a bit worse" is an understatement.
 
Oh, Nick, you weren't around back then. Kurtz was always pulling shit like that on the PVP boards. We are talking about the guy who nuked his own forums because he couldn't handle people talking negatively about his comics on the forum.
 
I was there for some of it. I was there for the original "Fuck you, it's funny." Hell, I thought it was dickish of him to ask for our advice or suggestions on a few things (remember the Shakespeare thread?) with full knowledge that the forums were getting nuked soon.
 
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Soliloquy

He wasn't to fond of his forumites' advice to be the bigger person, either.

Either that or he took our advice too literally. BAM!
 

Zappit

Staff member
Shit. How'd I miss this? I like HBN.

As for DJ - he's actually a really helpful guy who has given free professional advice (unlike other independent creators) and really supports the cartoonists who want to do it themselves. I like him, despite the outbreaks of immaturity, and think he's a decent guy. It's one of the reasons I recruited him as a Webcomics Idol judge for a few of the competitions.
 
Someone should find all Scott's rants and attacks over the years and compile them to one site. That would be some entertaining reading.
 
He'd probably bitch that site all to hell, taking personal pot shots, and being really immature about the situation.

Which, in turn, would go up on the site. :D
 
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