Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Politics In Comic Books, Part One


I recently decided to take a look and see what political causes and candidates the various men and women (but, lets be honest here, its mostly men) who run comics have decided to support financially. This information is actually relatively easy to find, thanks to two independent websites dedicated to shining a light on non-confidential political contributions: Political Moneyline and Fundrace Neighbor Search. In all cases the attempts to verify the identity of the officers in question have been completed to the best of my ability, and the officer’s spouses have been searched as well, when that information has been available.

This is a purely unscientific and obviously cursory examination. All names were verified twice according to both websites – but to the credit of the webmasters in charge of their respective sites, there was rarely any light whatsoever between the two groupings of results. These results are only as accurate, however, as the information provided by these sites, so caveat emptor. All of this information is readily available and in the public domain, so if you want to do the legwork yourself it’s fairly easy stuff to verify.

Marvel Comics

(As provided by Marvel.com)

Marvel Corporate Officers

Allen Lipson - President and Chief Executive Officer – No Contributions Listed (Spouse Cheryl Lipson - No Contributions Listed)
Avi Arad - Chairman and CEO of Marvel Studios - No Contributions Listed, No available name for Spouse
Kenneth West - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer - No Contributions Listed, No available name for Spouse

Alan Fine - President and Chief Executive Officer of Toy Biz, President and Chief Executive Officer of Publishing - No Contributions Listed, No available name for Spouse
Tim Rothwell - President, Consumer Products Group – No Contributions Listed, No available name for Spouse
Bruno Maglione - President, Marvel International – No Contributions Listed, No available name for Spouse
David Maisel - President and Chief Operating Officer of Marvel Studios – No Contributions Listed, No available name for Spouse
John Turitzin - EVP and General Counsel – Turitzin is an active donor to the PAUL HASTINGS JANOFSKY & WALKER LLP POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (PAC), w/ his wife Barbara. This appears to be a small PAC established by partners at the PHJ&W law firm. With contributions spread across the political spectrum – albeit primarily for incumbents

Marvel Corporate Directors

Morton E. Handel - Chairman of the Board - No Contributions Listed (Spouse Irma Handel - No Contributions Listed)
Isaac Perlmutter - Vice Chairman of the Board - No Contributions Listed, No available name for Spouse
Avi Arad - Director - See above
F. Peter Cuneo - Vice-Chairman of the Board - No Contributions Listed, No available name for Spouse
James F. Halpin - Director - Multiple contributions for James Halpin, but none of them confirmed as the Halpin on Marvel’s board. No available name for Spouse.
Sid Ganis - Director - Multiple Democratic contributions – specifically two contributions totaling $2,000 to John Kerry (on 3/31/ and 6/23/04), one contribution to Howard Dean for $2,000 on 9/9/03, and one contribution to Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer’s re-election campaign for $1,000. Wife Nancy H. Ganis contributed thousands of dollars to multiple Dem causes, including MoveOn.org, Friends of Family Planning, as well as Dem. Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s re-election fund. Unsurprisingly, gossip maven Army Archard has concluded here that Ms. Ganis is Pelosi’s strongest ally in Hollywood. Interestingly, the Ganis’ optioned the distribution rights to Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Alexandra Pelosi’s documentary on George W. Bush, "Journeys With Geroge", filmed by Pelosi on Bush’s tourbus during the 2000 campaign.
Richard L. Solar - Director - No Contributions Listed, No available name for Spouse

Marvel Miscellaneous

Joe Quesada - EIC - No Contributions Listed, (Spouse Nanci Quesada - No Contributions Listed)
Bill Jemas - Exiled President - No Contributions Listed, No available name for Spouse
Stan Lee - Figurehead - Too common a name for a useful search.
Jim Shooter - Dark Prince - No Contributions Listed, No available name for Spouse

Tomorrow: DC!

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