Above, you’ll find the cover of Saved By The Bell #2, published way, way back in the wonderful days of 1992. Can you believe that was 21 years ago? Why are we showing this comic book cover to you today, when we typically only depict legally themed comic book covers? Well, two years ago today, we published our interview with Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer, the stars of “Franklin and Bash,” a silly lawyer show on the TNT network.  Gosselaar, of course, played Zach Morris on “Saved by the Bell.”  Apparently, “Franklin and Bash” is still airing, and its third season premieres in several weeks.  We will not be doing another interview with them, though. Alas.

Over at Law360.com, there’s an article entitled “5 Ways Law Firms Screw Up Their Blogs,” in which we are mentioned (as an example of how NOT to screw up a legal blog):

“If a blog is well-written and sufficiently targeted, it can create the perception of market leadership quickly,” said Ross Fishman, CEO of Fishman Marketing. “It can help put you on the automatic short list for certain types of legal work or industry practices.”

…

Fishman pointed to Abnormal Use, a product liability blog written by lawyers at Gallivan White & Boyd PA, as an example of a blog with strong writers who convey substantial information with a sarcastic sense of humor. Blog posts have discussed a suit stemming from an explosion at a manufacturing facility, known as “the flaming rat case,” and ruminated over the perils of dropping pop culture references at depositions.

“They don’t take themselves too seriously,” Fishman said. “They are willing to show their personality, and that’s attractive.”

If you’re feeling nostalgic, here is the “flaming rat case” post mentioned in the article, and our old post “The Perils of Making Pop Culture References at Depositions” chronicled a failed attempt to invoke Bryan Adams on the record.

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“I Met My Murderer!” proclaims the cover of Lawbreakers Always Lose! #10, published way, way back in 1949. For one, we kind of dig this comic book cover because the title of the series is a complete sentence. (Quick trivia question: How many films can you name where the title is a complete sentence, and of those, what is your favorite? Ours, clearly, is The Empire Strikes Back, but only the one released originally in 1980, not the souped-up, re-digitized detritus George Lucas would re-release later over the years.).  Second, the guy on the cover has a cool hat.  That’s probably a small consolation for meeting his murderer – although he may be the murderer.  We’re not sure.

From the Ultimate Classic Rock website: “15 Infamous Rock Lawsuits.” Yes, the Judas Priest litigation is included.

The New York Times offers this interesting piece on the use of Urban Dictionary by lawyers and even the courts.  We have to admit that we have consulted this resource a time or two, but we’d be way to shy to cite it as persuasive authority in briefing.

Our friend Ryan Steans of The Signal Watch muses on the past and present of The X-Men comic books.

Rest in peace, Ray Mazarek, fabled keyboardist of The Doors.  We were please to see this tweet from the actor Kyle MacLachlan, who played Mazarek in the 1991 film, The Doors, directed by Oliver Stone. Let’s all listen to “Riders on the Storm” this weekend, shall we?

Above, you’ll find the cover of the recent book, The Law of Superheroes, by friends of the blog James Daily and Ryan Davidson.  As you might recall, those two run The Law and The Multiverse blog, a site dedicated to”superheroes, supervillains, and the law” and the exploration of legal issues through comic books.  While we here at Abnormal Use typically feature a legal themed comic book cover each week, James and Ryan analyze in detail how particular statutes and common law rules might apply in a given comic book universe.  We’ve loved their site from the beginning, and we’re pleased that they’ve published some of their material in book form. (For more on this book, please see here.).

You may or may not watch TV’s “Survivor,” but we’re amused to note that this season’s winner – named this past Sunday – is a Harvard law student by the name of John Cochran.  Our favorite part of the season finale: Cochran, who has made it to the final three, is planning the opening statement that he will deliver to the jury, composed of former competitors who were “voted off the island.”  Cochran remarks to an interviewer that addressing a jury is something that Harvard Law school did not prepare him to do. Ouch.

We really shouldn’t be working today. We would much rather be seeing Star Trek Into Darkness.

Here’s another century old comp claim from @TweetsOfOld.

Above, you will find the cover of Superman #41 published way, way back in 1946.  As you can see, Superman seems to be frustrated with a case of writer’s block.  We definitely empathize with his dilemma – especially when due dates are upon us.  But, we must wonder why Superman is writing his own comic in the first place.  Talk about the opportunity to flatter one’s self.  Faster than a speeding bullet?  More powerful than a locomotive?  Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?  Whatever you say, Superman.  It’s amazing he ever revealed the whole green Kryptonite vulnerability thing.  Alas.

Here is an interesting article from The New Yorker discussing the drawbacks of Entropica, the latest artificial intelligence system garnering tons of internet buzz.  We think the authors could have saved a lot of time and Internet space by simply reminding us of The Matrix.

According to a Gawker report, a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom has been ordered to recall bags of nuts for failing to disclose that they contain nuts.  You might recall our own Stuart Mauney discussing a similar issue some time ago.  (Hat tip:  Overlawyered).

Don’t forget! You can follow Abnormal Use on Twitter here and on Facebook here! Drop us a line!

Above, you’ll find the cover of Captain Marvel #39, published way, way back in 1975.  It’s a part of the storyline “The Trial of The Watcher,” which the website Comicvine tells us involved “Uatu the Watcher [being] put on trial among his race for his interference in several Earth affairs.” The cover proclaims that the issue will offer “The Fate of the Watcher . . . and the Deadly Verdict!”  That does not sound promising for Uatu, does it?

Mental Floss offers us “11 of the Most-Watched Television Trials.”  You can probably guess most of them.

This review of My Cousin Vinny by AtomicSam links our prior coverage of the 20th anniversary of the film.

Well, Trevor Fehrman at Film Racket is arguing that “Attack of the Clones is a Film of Incalculable Historical Significance.”  Oh, my.

Finally, comedian Ricky Gervais offers his thoughts on product warning labels. Not a fan of them, we think, based on his comment.  For good measure, be certain to read some of the comments to his tweet to get an idea of the public perception of certain warning labels.

Above, you’ll find the cover of Police Line-Up #1, published way, way back in 1951.  “Crime Can’t Win,” proclaims the issue. Check out the armed guy on the cover raiding the police files. Note that this comic book is so old, and presumably rare, that the only version of its cover we could find is one defaced with ancient scribbles and doodles. We wonder if the scribbler – whose identity is inevitably lost to history – became a lawyer. Sadly, we’ll never know.

This, by the way, will be our 896th post. Can you believe that? That is a great many blog posts. We too are stunned. Have you read them all? When is the last time you read the Abnormal Use mission statement, published on January 4, 2010? In fact, when is the last time we read it?

Friend of the blog Tamara Tabo published her first column at legal mega-blog this week.  You can find it here.

Don’t forget! You can follow Abnormal Use on Twitter here and on Facebook here! Drop us a line!

Above, you’ll find the cover of Brik Jones: Attorney for Earth #1, published not so long ago in 2012.  It’s funny to think that there have been legal themed comic book covers brought into existence after we started this blogging thing. Wow. However, we must confess that we have never heard of Brik Jones, and we find it hard to believe that his client is Earth.  I mean, his client is the planet? Who would he present as his representative for a 30(b)(6) deposition?

Well, you might have  noticed that the site suffered a brief outage yesterday.  Rest assured, dear friends, we have rectified the issue, and it will trouble you no more.  (We were told it was a minor, but thankfully ephemeral, hosting issue.). Thanks to the eagle-eyed readers who first noticed the issue and brought it to our attention.  This blogging thing can get complicated!

Here is an interesting article from The Daily Texan, the official student paper of The University of Texas at Austin, detailing how the University enforces its trademark. (Hat tip: The Daily Texan Twitter Account.).

Above, you’ll find the cover of Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney – Investigations #4, published not so long ago in February 2013.
According to Wikipedia, Miles is Ace Attorney Phoenix Wright’s “long-time friend and first rival in the court room.” You may recall that we here at Abnormal Use mentioned Phoenix Wright way back in June of 2011. Whatever the case, here’s the plot of this issue, according to our favorite comics website, Comicvine:

Stranded in the middle of the mountains, Gumshoe and Edgeworth spend the night in a nearby hotel. The employees believe an ogre has been set free by a recent fire, and is terrorizing the guests! Is the hotel really a host for the occult, or is this just a novel scheme? Edgeworth, along with Gumshoe and Candy Holly, must uncover the truth before the entire hotel falls into ruin!

This does not sound like a typical case for any attorney. Oh, well.

Um, apparently, there is a show called “Vampire Prosecutor.” (Hat Tip: Adam Frazier).

The Minnesota legislature was doing interesting things in 1891, apparently.

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We hope you enjoyed Monday’s post – our fourth April Fool’s Day blog entry.  Though some find April 1 joke posts to be silly and unnecessary, we have to admit that we love writing them.  If only you, our dear readers, loved reading them.  Maybe you do. If you missed it, the title was “North Carolina Court Declares Harlem Shake ‘Over,’ Enjoins YouTube From Accepting Further Videos Depicting Same.”  Yes, yes, we wrote a post about a dying meme, but the best part is that the post is about the fact that the meme is dying. See how we were capitalizing on it and distancing ourselves from it, too? That’s the only way to be.

By the way, in the interests of completism, we present these links to our three past April Fool’s Day Posts:

“American Bar Association Denies Provisional Accreditation To Miskatonic University School of Law” (April 1, 2012)

“Star Wars Prequels Unreasonably Dangerous and Defective, South Carolina Federal Court Finds” (April 1, 2011)

“Unsatisfying Snickers Bar Unreasonably Dangerous and Defective, Texas Court Holds” (April 1, 2010)

So, even a few days after this year’s April Fool’s Day, you can now go back and revisit our posts from April Fool’s Days past.  Better late than never, eh? Enjoy.

By the way, above, you’ll find the cover of Franklin Richards: April Fools #1, published by Marvel Comics not so long ago in 2009.  Franklin Richards, as you may know, is the son of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, both of the Fantastic Four.  His relationship to April Fool’s Day remains unknown to us.

Above, you’ll find the cover of Captain America #611, published not so long ago in 2010. This issue features the first installment of the storyline “The Trial of Captain America,” which you may recall we previously mentioned here and here. Apparently, Captain America is taken into custody by the law enforcement authorities, but they fail to remove his mask. How do they log him into the system without removing his mask and determining his identity? How do they ascertain any prior offenses or warrants if they do not confirm his real name? Is it the respect and awe that the officers must hold for the fabled Captain American that prevents them from performing their routine? Isn’t there a safety concern in allowing a suspect to remain in a costume? Why do superheroes always receive special treatment from cops or prison wardens with respect to the retention of their costumes? We may never know.

Robert Kessler of The Atlantic Wire asks: “Why aren’t there cameras allowed at the Supreme Court again?”

Buzzfeed, as you know, is always making lists. List after list and list. But here’s one we couldn’t resist sharing: “The 33 Most Beautiful Abandoned Places in The World.” There are some hauntingly beautiful – or beautifully haunting – photographs in that collection, so we encourage you to pause today from your quotidian toil and investigate.

This weekend, of course, is Easter. We here at Abnormal Use and Gallivan, White, & Boyd, P.A. wish you and your family a happy and safe Easter.

Don’t forget! You can follow Abnormal Use on Twitter here and on Facebook here! Drop us a line! You know you want to! Did you know, also, that you can follow our lawyers Gray Culbreath and Mills Gallivan on Twitter, as well? Since it’s #FollowFriday on Twitter, why not give them a follow today as we head into the weekend?