Dc Comics Company

Warner Bros. hopes to cure a case of superhero envy. After years of lagging rival Marvel Entertainment in adapting comic-book properties for the big screen and other media, the Burbank studio unveiled a major restructuring of its DC Comics unit Wednesday that will bring its operations under tighter control. The move is an effort by Warner Bros. and corporate parent Time Warner Inc. to implement a new strategy for DC Comics, which will face stiffer competition from a steroid-charged Marvel as a result of Walt Disney Co.'s deal last week to acquire it for $4 billion.

Warner Bros. hopes to cure a case of superhero envy. After years of lagging rival Marvel Entertainment in adapting comic-book properties for the big screen and other media, the Burbank studio unveiled a major restructuring of its DC Comics unit Wednesday that will bring its operations under tighter control. The move is an effort by Warner Bros. and corporate parent Time Warner Inc. to implement a new strategy for DC Comics, which will face stiffer competition from a steroid-charged Marvel as a result of Walt Disney Co.'s deal last week to acquire it for $4 billion.

DC Comics' big announcement this week at Comic-Con was the launch of its new website, Zudacomics.com, which will be run by the comic book giant, but here's the kicker: All comics running on the free site will be chosen by readers from among amateur submissions. "We're investing in the future," says Ron Perazza, DC's director of creative services, explaining that DC is looking for new talent, trying to build new properties and reach new readers.

Time Warner Inc., the world's largest media company, must share control of the Superman copyright with the heirs of the comic hero's creator, Jerome Siegel, a federal judge has ruled. Siegel's widow, Joanne, and their daughter, Laura Larson, won back his half of the copyright to Superman material, under the order this week by U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson in Riverside.

Years after she first emerged from the Batcave, Batwoman is coming out of the closet. DC Comics is resurrecting the classic comic book character as a lesbian, unveiling the new Batwoman with flowing red hair and spiked heels in July as part of an ongoing weekly series that began this year. "We decided to give her a different point of view," explained Dan DiDio, vice president and executive editor at DC. The original Batwoman was started in 1956, and killed off in 1979.

Pow! Wham! Sunsoft Inc. is starting the new year with a bang. The video-game developer, a subsidiary of Japan's Sun Electronics Corp., said it signed a five-year contract with DC Comics to create Nintendo and Sega video games based on DC's popular super heroes. Sunsoft will develop video games for a variety of platforms based on well-known comic-book characters Batman, Superman, Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and Green Arrow.

Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Supergirl and a half-dozen other DC Comics superheroes will star on new 39-cent postage stamps that are to be unveiled today at the annual Comic-Con International show in San Diego and then will go on sale nationwide Friday. The stamps are sold in a sheet of 20, half featuring the individual superheroes and half showing covers of comic books starring them. The Postal Service reports this is its first set of superhero stamps, indicating more are likely to follow.

Time Warner Inc., the world's largest media company, must share control of the Superman copyright with the heirs of the comic hero's creator, Jerome Siegel, a federal judge has ruled. Siegel's widow, Joanne, and their daughter, Laura Larson, won back his half of the copyright to Superman material, under the order this week by U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson in Riverside.

Jerry Siegel, the teenage co-creator of Superman, an internationally beloved and lucrative comic book character more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and faster than a speeding bullet, has died of heart failure. Siegel was 81. He died Sunday at Los Angeles' Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital, the New York-based DC Comics, which publishes Superman comics, announced Tuesday.

Illustrator Chris Bachalo has just signed a two-year exclusive contract with Marvel Comics to continue drawing "Generation X," the hyperkinetic spinoff title of the long-running "X-Men" series. In addition, a live-action TV movie--also titled "Generation X"--based on the comic-book characters he created with writer Scott Lobdell premieres Tuesday night at 8 on the Fox network (Related story, F2).

DC Comics' big announcement this week at Comic-Con was the launch of its new website, Zudacomics.com, which will be run by the comic book giant, but here's the kicker: All comics running on the free site will be chosen by readers from among amateur submissions. "We're investing in the future," says Ron Perazza, DC's director of creative services, explaining that DC is looking for new talent, trying to build new properties and reach new readers.

Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Supergirl and a half-dozen other DC Comics superheroes will star on new 39-cent postage stamps that are to be unveiled today at the annual Comic-Con International show in San Diego and then will go on sale nationwide Friday. The stamps are sold in a sheet of 20, half featuring the individual superheroes and half showing covers of comic books starring them. The Postal Service reports this is its first set of superhero stamps, indicating more are likely to follow.

Years after she first emerged from the Batcave, Batwoman is coming out of the closet. DC Comics is resurrecting the classic comic book character as a lesbian, unveiling the new Batwoman with flowing red hair and spiked heels in July as part of an ongoing weekly series that began this year. "We decided to give her a different point of view," explained Dan DiDio, vice president and executive editor at DC. The original Batwoman was started in 1956, and killed off in 1979.

Pow! Wham! Sunsoft Inc. is starting the new year with a bang. The video-game developer, a subsidiary of Japan's Sun Electronics Corp., said it signed a five-year contract with DC Comics to create Nintendo and Sega video games based on DC's popular super heroes. Sunsoft will develop video games for a variety of platforms based on well-known comic-book characters Batman, Superman, Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and Green Arrow.