March 2009 Archives

Tactical Philanthropy pointed this out recently, and it's a must for anyone in the nonprofit/social enterprise world: The Jargon Finder over at the Communications Network.

One of the ironies of the push for more effective philanthropy is that it uses such ineffective language to promote the cause. The words function well enough as means of status signaling, establishing that a person is associated with others in the movement. However, they communicate far less useful information that their proponents tend to think, confusing a shift in terms with actual progress in analysis & strategy.

As I noted in my recent Chronicle of Philanthropy op-ed, social enterprise is all too often just the Dilbertization of charity--businesslike to be sure, but not in a good way.

As if kids really needed a multibillion-dollar corporation to sell them on eating crayons . . .

From the upcoming show 2 Many Artists, a "public Summit on the infallibility of comic books, fairy tales, and emerging artists – a cut to the core of blue chip art and born-into pop culture."

As the above example illustrates, it's going to be filled with avant garde comic art images the likes of which no one has never seen before, like, y'know, riffs on the whole Bang! Pow! thing.

The complete article from 1939 is available at Animation Archive.

As has long been the case with comics, a charity benefit plays a central role in the Adam West & Burt Ward bio-pic Return to the Batcave. In the set-up, Adam West receives a last minute invite to a charity event and offers an apt reflection that, apropos of his Batman tv series, works on multiple levels.

Via Gothamist & Kinetic Carnival, video of a 1905 school outing to Coney Island. So much of interest here--the fashion, the barrel roll, the mechanical horse ride and, of course, the "charabang."

I was looking through legal materials last night and noticed something that had been there all along but had not previously caught my attention:

DC Comics, Inc. does not exist. In fact, it died the same year as Superman.

Really. As noted in court filings in the Superman case, in the early 1990s DC Comics, Inc. was dissolved and converted into a general partnership co-owned by two Time Warner subsidiaries (see this court order, p.4, #20) . The Superman court documents state that this happened back in 1993, but contemporaneous SEC filings state that the restructuring actually took place back in 1992:

TWE and WBI each owns a 50% interest in DC Comics, a New York general partnership, formed effective June 30, 1992 to continue the business previously conducted by DC Comics Inc., a New York corporation.

A search of the New York Corporations registry confirms that the name "DC Comics, Inc." is no longer active.

I'm a bit time constricted right now, so I'll have to leave out much of the legal analysis I'd provide were I writing this on Blog@, to which I plan to return soon once I finish my current writing project. For all I know, this may have been a major topic of discussion back in 1992, a period of time when I was temporarily out of the loop in all things comics--when I have a bit more time, I'll do a bit more digging.

Meanwhile, a few quick notes:

*DC Comics still exists, just as a general partnership. That partnership is the entity that co-owns Superman and assigned the rights within Time Warner.

*Unlike a corporation, a partnership does not pay corporate tax. It is what is called in the biz a "flow-thru" entity. This tax status may have been at least partially a reason for the switch, though the enhanced organizational integration of DC's intellectual properties with Warner entertainment entities also may have been a factor.

*One trait a general partnership does not have is limited liability. What particularly struck me in regard to this is that Time Warner did not restructure EC Publications, Inc., which publishes Mad Magazine and could be more of a lightning rod for lawsuits.

*For reasons I *really* won't go into now re the history of corporate taxation, if the transaction had been being structured today I wonder if Time Warner would have set up DC Comics as a Limited Liability Company instead of a general partnership.

*Again, this is all off-the-cuff reflection, lacking the more intensive research & review I'd do for a post elsewhere. If anyone knows more re this, feel free to drop me a line.

A must-see exhibit with a must-buy book: The Brinkley Girls, exploring the art of Nell Brinkley:

Nell Brinkley widened her scope to include pen and ink depictions of working women. Brinkley used her fame to campaign for better working conditions and higher pay for women who had joined in the war effort, and who were suffering economic and social dislocation due to acting on their patriotism. Unlike most of her contemporaries, she drew women of different races and cultures.

Another student social design project, featured in Osocio. Also interesting on this front: the Design Rebels course noted in conjunction with this review of Do Good Design.

Utah Tap :: Here's to the World from Mike Morris on Vimeo.

One of my refrains re higher education is that it should shift from a culture of info consumption to production--college should be a place where students go to learn by creating, not by taking tests & writing reports that no one but their professors will read.

The BYU Ad Lab "is a student-run, professionally mentored ad agency" where undergrads create PSAs. Their animated Utah Tap project has been getting a fair amount of good press.

This is truly one of the most unusual charity-related stories that I have ever encountered. Lucy Baxter works with Mencap, a charity for people with learning disabilities. She also has a 21-year-old adopted son with Down's Syndrome.

Her ongoing mission: to find him a woman volunteer to have sex with him:

'I'd like all my boys to find love and enjoy sex.

'I would have no problem paying for Otto to go to Amsterdam to visit a brothel if that's what he wanted but I dare say he could afford to pay for it himself.

'A few of his friends suggested it a few months ago and since then I've talked to Otto about it in an adult way.

'Why shouldn't he enjoy the same experiences as other men his age?'

To accomplish this distinctly social purpose, Ms. Baxter has helped Otto set up a profile on social-networking site Bebo.

A Down's Syndrome charity exec comments:

Chief Executive of the Down's Syndrome Association Carol Boys said yesterday: 'People with Down’s syndrome have the same feelings and desires as everyone else and there is no reason why they shouldn’t have relationships like the rest of us.

'There are many people with Down’s syndrome who have found a partner and some that have gone on to get married.

'Otto’s experience highlights that there are different challenges that people with Down’s syndrome have to face because they have a visible disability.'

By curing women of B.O.! Which, apparently, men didn't have back in 1934. Larger size here.

A key thing to note re the history of hygiene: grandma's advice to "bathe regularly"--a relatively recent social norm.

By enabling married women to get day jobs! An ad from 1936.

In German, Kafka's "The Trial" is "Der Process." For more on the Kafkaesque experience of bureaucratic process in the do-gooder world, check out the ongoing meditations at Blood and Milk.

That's the not-so-hidden subtext of this 1945 ad from Parke Davis Pharmaceuticals.

The Dieline features this new sustainable marketing initiative from Norway. They're not sure what makes this eco-friendly; nor am I. Still, that's the claim!

A 1916 ad from The Portland Cement Association

Still in the thick of writing for media outside the web, which is why posting here is slowed to a crawl--actually, slower than a crawl as the term is now used in reference to cable news. Quick links & thoughts are showing up at my Twitter feed & on JustMeans.

Above, a window display at the Strand that caught my eye--if paying a grand for his bio is a bit too steep, head over to the Smithsonian for a crisp write-up on the notorious Mr. Ponzi.

Another thing that may be of interest to folks who read this site: today's FT articles on design and social enterprise.

And more in my posts for JustMeans.

A conservative social enterprise uses theatrical performances to promote its message back in 1959.

An interesting tidbit in today's FT article about fire sales of corporate art:

Meticulous planning is essential. Ms Skipwith oversaw the sale of the art collection of the London-based bank Robert Fleming to the Fleming family when the bank was taken over by Chase Manhattan Bank in 2000. Before the sale, she made sure that Flemings' directors knew the importance of the collection: started in 1968, it is considered a highly significant collection of Scottish art.

"I asked what would happen [to the paintings] if the company got sold and it was taken over," she says. "It was agreed that if the company was sold, the Fleming family would buy the collection back at market value and give it all to a charitable foundation trust. We got everything approved and then put it on ice."

The collection raised a good price - £10m. It also stayed intact rather than getting caught up in the sale of the bank and being sold, possibly in haste, at an inappropriate price. And after it gained its independence, the collection's managers then had the freedom to acquire further works.

Today, the collection can be seen not only by investment bankers but also by the general public: housed in its own site in Berkeley Street, it receives 100,000 visitors a year.

There's more about the history of the Fleming Collection on its website.