Getting to Know: James Daily, Ryan Davidson and Law and the Multiverse Part 6

Please read Part 5 of the interview before reading Part 6

Final Questions with Daily and Davidson

1. Have you ever come across a comic storyline that boggled your mind so bad that you just couldn’t figure out how to apply any law or regulations and wish you were able to? If yes, what was it about?

RD: This actually happens with some regularity in Golden and Silver Age comics. Some of the plots are just downright silly in ways that make legal analysis somewhat superfluous. Comic books frequently contain impossible things, and that as such doesn’t pose any particular difficulty for us. But when they contain downright illogical things, the analysis can switch rapidly from “That’s illegal!” to “Okay, that’s just dumb.”

Getting to Know: James Daily, Ryan Davidson and Law and the Multiverse Part 5

Please read Part 4 of the interview before reading Part 5

Beyond Blogging

In Geek Speak, Davidson said, “I’d much rather collaborate with comic creators on law-related plot points. We actually made contact with a few creators over the past few months and really hope to do a lot of this in the near future.”

Getting to Know: James Daily, Ryan Davidson and Law and the Multiverse Part 4

Please read Part 3 of the interview before reading Part 4

Book Questions

I read in Geek Speak that Daily and Davidson “retained an agent by the end of 2010, and the auction for the book rights was held within a few months.” Because I am not familiar with the whole book and publishing process, I had to ask them about the agent and auctioning of book rights.

Getting to Know: James Daily, Ryan Davidson and Law and the Multiverse Part 3

Please read Part 2 of the interview before reading Part 3

Comics and the Law

1. From looking through your book, you reference varies laws and cases, and it would be hard to bring in a superhero unmasked to a court room.

a. However, is it possible to have a superhero appears at any level of the court system or type of court, whether it be state, supreme, federal, civil, criminal, etc. if s/he became a defendant or a witness to a case?

JD: This is a complicated question. For example, the Confrontation Clause only applies to criminal cases, which means that it’s possible that superheroes could testify while masked in civil cases.

RD: As James says, that’s a really complicated question. But I will say that of the half-dozen or so judges to whom I’ve put similar questions, not a single one hesitated to say that they’d order the person in question to take off their mask as a matter of course. There is no general right to anonymity, so any interaction between a masked character and the judicial system is going to probably result in the mask coming off.

Getting to Know: James Daily, Ryan Davidson and Law and the Multiverse Part 2

Please read Part 1 of the interview before reading Part 2

The Coming of The Law and The Multiverse

So far their experience running and writing for the site has been full of “positive surprises.” It also helps to have a positive support system; their colleagues have been very supportive of their blog and book, The Law of Superheroes, but how did the dynamic duo come together?

I understand that Daily teamed up with Davidson through MetaFilter. Till this day, the internet is not considered a safe place for many. Plus, one may not know who s/he is really talking to. Now my question to the lovely gentlemen is how did they know that the other person is who they were really talking to and that they were going to provide the same amount of dedication to the site as they would?

Getting to Know: James Daily, Ryan Davidson and Law and the Multiverse

I first learned about Law and the Multiverse through a law librarian. He showed me an article in a journal (probably related to law librarianship) about comic books and the law. From a quick glance, I thought it was going to be about some copyright situation. However, when I had the time to read the article, I was intrigued. I thought using comic book storylines in teaching law or at least for us non-lawyers to understand was an interesting approach. So, I started checking their website and purchased their book. Then I had an opportunity to meet them at their NYCC 2012 panel, and now I present to you my interview with James Daily (JD) and Ryan Davidson (RD).

Thumbs Up To Anime Boston & Massachusetts Convention Center Authority

First off, I would like to compliment Anime Boston (AB) and the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA) on their smooth and quick entry process. Second, thank you for making the Volunteers visually obvious amongst the crowd. This was especially important if an emergency happened and we needed to find the proper assistance.

Ultimate Lolita Fashion Show 2012

Before the Show Started

Some of the Lolita models practicing their walk backstage.