Superman fanboy Thomas Denton, blogger and charitable eBayer, was so grateful for the help his family received from Candlelighters during his young nephew’s bout with cancer, he enlisted a team of comic artists willing to donate their artwork, some of which featured depictions of Superman. We’ll call them Superfriends, just to be snide toward Warner Brothers, DC’s parent company.

Denton set up auctions via eBay’s charitable auction channel to sell the Superfriends’ artwork, all proceeds, minus eBay’s fees**, to be forwarded to Candlelighters. But all was not well. A team of WB lawyers crashed through the skylight and forced eBay to pull the auctions, citing copyright and trademark violations.

DC owns Superman, they said, and Superman’s not allowed to help unapproved cancer patients, not even kids. (Cue dramatic villain music, and raucous, menacing laughter.)

Denton acknowledged his mistake despite being "heartbroken," and refused to play the victim. He asked that concerned Metropolis citizens still donate to Candlelighters. DC wasn’t completely devoid of sympathy and "made a exemption" [sic] for one of the listed items—you know, just to show they’re not complete ungrammatical jerks. Denton will still have to foot the fees for the auctions not reinstated.

This story has an even sadder end than that. Denton blogs he will be shutting down his Superman fan site. "I’ve sort of lost my enthusiasm for promoting WB’s products," he said. All because WB (and other corporations these days) can’t keep its lawyers on a tighter leash. 

Can anything save Thomas’s love of Superman? Is it too late for the Candlelighters? Will Metropolis ever be out of the iron grip of the overly litigious?

Citizens of Metropolis, without Superman it’s up to you, and Denton has nine other auctions running at eBay, with a day left to bid.
 
 

_{*If in fact she is, as her jilted hubby claims, a "cheating, lying, adulterous slag of a wife," selling a person is pretty much illegal (and wrong) everywhere, especially on eBay, million dollar bids aside.}   

**No good deed goes unpunished, eh?
 

The site is scheduled to launch in October and will have multiple on going Web comics. After the sites launch most of the Web comics will be selected by Zudacomics.com’s visitors who will vote on new comics during periodic competitions. Winners will receive commissions to create a year’s worth of comics for the site and will have their work published in print formats as well.

"There is an explosion of creativity in web comics," said Paul Levitz, DC Comics President & Publisher. "We want to build a great stage for this new generation of creators to perform on, a solid system for their work to reach audiences online and in print, and for the creators to share in the profits their creations can generate."

"In this time of rapid technological and cultural change, DC wants to be a good publisher for the evolving and growing community of online comic creators, so that we can be their partner for showcasing new kinds of works to entertain future generations."

DC Comics says they want comic creators to submit material that runs the spectrum of comic book genres such as humor, romance, science fiction, fantasy and superheroes.

A Zuda comic will be made up of a series of 4:3 aspect ratio screens, so that users can read a comic without having to open an additional browser. On going comics will run for 52 total installments.

 DC Comics used IBM to design and build the site. The site will have blogging, commenting, rating and tagging to allow user to participate and for artists to receive feedback on their work.

The Zudacomics teaser site will launch in July, during the San Diego ComicCon. "Zuda Comics will be a transparent publishing operation," said Ron Perazza, Online Director. "We’re asking the community and the creators to participate in the growth of a new business.

"They need to have access to every bit of information we can provide, so we’re going to roll out our submissions process, our contracts and agreements throughout the summer, well before our October content launch."