OWS T-Shirts and Frank Miller’s Holy Terror

Occupy Wall Street, New York City.

The misnamed 99% crowd are working to promote their brand. By patenting their various names, they hope to capitalize on the movement.

T-shirt sales are being looked at as one possible revenue stream. Kinda ironic, no? The scoop:

In recent weeks, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has received a spate of applications from enterprising merchandisers, lawyer and others seeking to win exclusive commercial rights to such phrases as “We are the 99 percent,” ”Occupy” and “Occupy DC 2012.”

Organizers of the protest centered in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park went so far as to file for a trademark of “Occupy Wall Street” after several other applications connected to the demonstrations were filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Nothing like having your cake and eating it too. Protest it and practice it.

And just yesterday Mr. Z (first name: Jay, Mr. Put-a-Ring-On-It-I-Did, Mistah Beyonce) backed out of his shady plan to make money off the protesting hippies. Oh no, Jay-Z got owned:

After a perceived attempt to cash in on the Occupy Wall Street movement by hawking T-shirts with the slogan “Occupy All Streets,” the $22 shirts were suddenly removed from the “Otis” rapper’s Rocawear website Saturday with no explanation (not yet, anyway.)

So, what went down?

Jay-Z reportedly came under fire after word got out that Rocawear didn’t plan to donate any of the proceeds from the sale of the shirts to the Occupy Wall Street movement (which was later confirmed by a rep for the clothing company.)

My guess: 95% of us fall into the 1%, the group the Occupy folks are protesting. I do not know a single protester. Actually, I don’t chat up any bankers or stock traders on a daily basis either. To me, this whole affair simply reeks of charade.

Guess who else is onto the game and fed up with the Occupy crowd? Mr. Frank Miller, the brilliant artist behind Sin City, 300, and The Dark Knight Returns. He had this to say on his personal blog:

Everybody’s been too damn polite about this nonsense:

The “Occupy” movement, whether displaying itself on Wall Street or in the streets of Oakland (which has, with unspeakable cowardice, embraced it) is anything but an exercise of our blessed First Amendment. “Occupy” is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness.

These clowns can do nothing but harm America.

Frank Miller, Comic-Con

“Occupy” is nothing short of a clumsy, poorly-expressed attempt at anarchy, to the extent that the “movement” – HAH!

Some “movement”, except if the word “bowel” is attached – is anything more than an ugly fashion statement by a bunch of iPhone, iPad wielding spoiled brats who should stop getting in the way of working people and find jobs for themselves.

This is no popular uprising. This is garbage.

Please read the rest. I have increased respect for Mr. Miller. I always thought his Dark Knight work was too dark, and not enough knight, for my tastes. But him standing up and writing what he did, he gets the MVB (B = blogger) trophy. Spoiled brats indeed.

Out of curiosity, I searched for Frank’s latest project. Guess what? He is drawing a counter-terrorism comic titled:

Holy Terror, which launched the comic and publishing imprint of Legendary Pictures, was originally conceived as a Batman story and was a response by Miller to the terrorist attacks of 9-11. (The hero is now called the Fixer and features a female cat burglar who is not named Catwoman.)

The early reviews from the usual elitists are brutal. All the right tools are outraged. It just may be good. . .