Cartoonist and writer James Sturm on why he’s going to boycott the Avengers movie.

I respect Sturm’s opinion — especially because he’s a lifelong comics fan who also wrote a Fantastic Four miniseries (and a good one!) — but I’m not sure what he’s asking for. I wish he were more specific. If it’s a cash settlement:  Jack Kirby, indisputably the most important creator in the history of Marvel comics, is deceased, meaning that a settlement would benefit his heirs — who, like every one else at Marvel then and now except Kirby and Lee, also didn’t create these characters. (Nevertheless, it would be nice to see the family get some small share of the billions generated from these characters.) If it’s recognition that Sturm is advocating, I believe there’s a title card at the front of most of the Marvel movies that acknowledges Jack Kirby.

I doubt I’ll be boycotting the movie — I saw the other Marvel movies — but I’m interested in other viewpoints.

One of our elected “leaders” thought this piece in the Onion was for real — and posted about it on Facebook, as part of his campaign against Planned Parenthood. He seemed to believe that the agency actually is opening an $8 billion “abortionplex.”

I wonder what this guy is voting on today. (And shudder.)

I’m waiting for the little fat one to scream “Obaammmmaaaaaaaaa!”

I was in Hollywood last night at the Hollywood & Highland complex for the 125th anniversary of Hollywood. (And if you think that’s a lot of ways to say “Hollywood,” well, welcome to Hollywood.) While I was there, I noted yet again the scores of amateur costumed characters pestering tourists to get their picture taken with them — and then insisting on a “tip.” One guy couldn’t even bother with a costume; a semi-fit black guy wearing a black muscle shirt emblazoned with the sobriquet “Mr. Muscles” commandeered a section of sidewalk near the Kodak Theatre and bellowed out “Mr. Muscles! GIT your PICture with MR. MUSCLES!” Nobody seemed eager to do so.

Tonight, once again, and once again in front of the Kodak, a brawl erupted. Someone posing as Jack Sparrow got into it with Catwoman (my money’s on her) and an alien and another pirate. Here’s the story in the LA Times. (If this other pirate is the one I’m thinking I’ve seen there, I’m not surprised he was involved.) Spider-Man was led away in handcuffs, and SpongeBob was detained. You can’t make this up.

Here’s a prediction:  The police and the city and the local merchants are going to get more involved in this. Exercising your free rights to parade around in a costume is one thing; presenting a public nuisance and menacing passersby is another. And my experience every place I’ve been, inside the U.S. and out, is this:  Whenever it threatens the tourist trade, the local authorities swing into action.

Roseanne Barr is running for President.

(I don’t think Obama is sweating this.)

I’ve seen I don’t know how many films now with my friend Richard. He hasn’t liked any of them. (Not even “Snakes on a Plane”!)

I think I have finally found something with unarguable artistic merit.

Here it is.

What does it say for us when we rely on a puppet to come out and speak the truth?

Courtesy of a friend visiting China.

During a recent debate in South Carolina, Newt Gingrich said the “Stop Online Piracy Act” was unnecessary because “We have a patent office, we have copyright law. If a company finds it has genuinely been infringed upon, it has the right to sue.”

So the composer of “Eye of the Tiger” has taken him at his word and is suing Gingrich for using his song without permission at campaign events.

Turns out that some women object to the urinals in the new Rolling Stones museum.

I have to admit some personal trepidation about putting myself in there.