NBA
DC Comics is kryptonite to NBA’s merchandising plans
The planned "Krypto-Nate" T-shirt
DC Comics put a quick end to the National Basketball Association’s plans to sell “Krypto-Nate” T-shirts commemorating the slam-dunk victory of Nate Robinson.
However, the New York Post reports, the NBA is trying come to an agreement with the comics publisher and parent company Warner Bros., which hold the rights to most everything Kryptonian.
“The NBA decided not to release the Krypto-Nate T-shirt because of future initiatives we are working on with Warner/DC Comics,” an NBA source told the newspaper.
Robinson, a New York Knicks point guard, beat Dwight “Superman” Howard in the Slam Dunk Contest held Feb. 14 during the NBA’s All-Star Weekend. Dubbing himself “Krypto-Nate,” the five-foot-nine-inch Robinson catapulted himself over the six-foot-11-inch, cape-wearing Howard.
Within two days of the win, the NBA launched plans to sell a green Knicks T-shirt bearing Robinson’s No. 4 and the words “Krypto-Nate.” A day later, those plans were scrapped. (The Post notes the NBA Store is close to the DC Comics offices.)
Talking Comics with Tim: GTAS’ Frankel & Britt
Garbage Time All-Stars (GTAS)
So with the Super Bowl settled some sports fans have moved on to other sports, such as following their favorite NBA team again. Or maybe they want to laugh about their least favorite basketball team. (Honestly, as an Atlanta native, I can say with great authority that for many years with the Hawks, all you could do is laugh . . . or cry). Why am I talking about sports at a comics blog? Well, this interview happens to focus upon the creators of the Garbage Time All-Stars (GTAS) webcomic: Josh Frankel and Mark Haven Britt. As noted here: “Josh and Mark are the cartoonists responsible for the weekly NBA satire of Garbage Time All-Stars. Their comics first appear every week at the Yahoo! Sports Ball Don’t Lie blog, and are then archived here.” This week’s strip (posted on Wednesday morning) aims to welcome NFL fans back with a summary of the NBA season so far. Thanks to this interview, I now want to ask Tom Spurgeon if he thinks the 1979 addition of the three-pointer revitalized or ruined the game.
Tim O’Shea: How did the strip first come about?
Mark Haven Britt: Josh brought it up. He’s a huge NBA nerd. Even bigger than me. He knows the blogs, the sites and the community of NBA fandom. No one was really doing comics about the NBA and that he was sure that there was an audience for it. I thought it sounded like such fun. Josh is hilarious. I had to be a part of it so I weaseled my way into drawing it.
Josh Frankel: It’s true, I am an NBA nerd. I play fantasy basketball which requires total information gathering — stats, injury reports, local dispatches about coach moods — and it leads to long NBA rants in emails to friends. If I’m already doing all of that work I might as well try to get a comic out of it. Of my comics friends Mark is the guy I’ve always talked hoops with. It all fell into place.
