Family and Friends, I have an IMMENSE announcement. Something that is EXTREMELY vitally important to me. Honestly, this should be in a news site or something, I think, so if you own a comic book news site, like Comics All Too Real or Comic Book Resources, PLEASE publish this, its big news for any fans who remember. Back in 1989, I created a Comic Book Character named Manta-Man, along with A LOT of other Characters. I even tried to publish my own Professional Comics featuring these characters. I went as far as appearing at local and far-away Comic Conventions, like MegaCon Convention, promoting my Character and Comics, met the legendary WILL EISNER, who praised me for my Character name and design, saying that it brings back the glory and beauty of the Golden Age. Yeah, HE SAID THAT. Well, my fame and glory was not meant to be, Toybiz, Inc. STOLE my idea and PATENTED it, to use in their ill-fated, short-lived Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle rip-off series, Street Sharks. If you want to look, there IS a character called Mantaman in their entourage...that...IS MY CHARACTER that WAS STOLEN FROM ME BY THEM. Anyway, I called the US Patents and Trademark Office in tears, trying anything to get what was rightfully mine BACK. I explained how I could NOT patent his name, any of my character names, back then, I could NOT afford it (patents cost roughly about $5000 - 8000 PER PATENT). Not only that, but basically my copyright was worthless because it did NOT cover using the NAME of my CHaracter...just publishing a COMIC BOOK about him....but I still could NOT use the name in the comic. Well, by this point, I had already invested almost a MILLION DOLLARS (oh, did I forget to mention I used to be super-rich, yeah I was super-rich) in this comic book, in him...and I ended up losing it all because of those back-stabbing (insert curseword) Toybiz. The Patent Clerks I spoke with told me the only remedy I had was to wait until the Patent AND Trademark was abandoned, which could happen either when the owner died or they stopped paying annual dues for the patent filing (lesser amount, but still too much for me). So Manta-man ended up being a lost dream. I also began an annual tradition of searching the Online Patent and Trademark Database to see if, by chance, Toybiz had found their humanity and decided to let me have my Character back. Nothing...EXCEPT NOW. Ladies and Gentlemen, I can PROUDLY DECLARE...with actual tears in my eyes....MANTA-MAN IS MINE AGAIN!!! His Patent AND Trademark is abandoned and, by default by copyright law, I HAVE THE RIGHTS TO HIS NAME!!!!!!!!! I cannot tell you how this feels...this character is like one of my children...I feel like I got back one of my children! So you can guess what comes next, cant you? Thats right....MANTA-MAN IS BACK AND WILL BE PUBLISHED!!!!!! Stay-tuned, MANTA-FANS! Dear God, it feels so damn good to say that again after so many years!!!!!! Thank you to ALL of you that have supported me all these years, that have stood by me, held my hand, offered comfort and motivation to never give up. So help me GOD, I will make this happen! Look out, Marvel and DC, Manta-man IS BACK WITH A VENGEANCE!
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 19:51:42 +0000