If you look at C&C’s website, there are Amory Wars signings in nearly every city on their concert tours, advertised prominently (at least there were a few months ago, when my store almost hosted one). I can’t speak for MCR plugging Umbrella Academy or not, but I presume there’s some of that going on.

So, name the friggin’ comic “The Adventures of Pete Wentz and Friends,” and go for the guest appearance by Ashlee Simpson. Thanks to the marketing juggernaut that keeps Wentz in magazine articles and interviews, there would be no lost sales by not naming the comic “Fall Out Boy”.

Claremont’s a friend/fan of theirs, who delighted in dropping Cats Laughing references in his comics.

There’s a decent wikipedia article on them.

Todd McFarlane’s KISS comic, Harvey’s New Kids on the Block comic, Hammerman, and the Jackson Five cartoon.

There’s an idea for a top five in here somewhere.

Pretty sure Neil Gaiman’s Alice Cooper takes number one.

There’s an idea for a top five in here somewhere.

This was, in large part, the argument used by Marvel regarding the trademark to “Captain Marvel:” the word “Marvel” in connection with comic books had a primary association with the comp[any Marvel Comics, and thus Marvel had first say in all comics trademark uses of the word “Marvel.” The Simpsons folks and Bongo Comics can surely claim that “Fallout Boy” and “comic book” bring to mind their character, who is, after all, an actual comic book character and not a licensed tie-in to a real person or people. No one’s going to associate the band Fall Out Boy primarily with their comic book; plenty of people would associate Fallout Boy entirely with comic books, since he’;s a comic book character even in the context of his cross-media origin. In effect, if the band had been more circumspect about declaiming the origin of their name, their comic might not have been

As to the Marvel Radioactive Man, I’d guess that’s more a question of a) Marvel not being in a financial position to take on FOX’s legal team and b) not being terribly worried that a coincidence of naming with a rather minor Marvel villain would cause trademark confusion. By the time Fabian Nicieza and Warren Ellis increased Marvel’s RM, I’d wager Marvel might not have even remembered they had such a character. It also helps that Bongo and the Simpsons staff don’t seem to have taken the name directly from Marvel and, you know, told everyone they’d done so in interview upon interview for two years running.

@Threnodin: But there has been a “Radioactive Man” comic book (which is who Fallout Boy is the sidekick of, not to be confused with the Thor villain) so I would guess that it’s entering an arena where there is potential for confusion. So maybe they didn’t previously send a “cease and desist” because they’re trying not to be jerks about it, dealing heavily in the land of satire themselves. If it were a case of “I have more money than you”, I would think they would have already done something prior to this.

I would probably buy a comic book about the Simpsons character. The band, probably not.

Try searching on “Fallout Boy Simpsons” or “Fall Out Boy Simpsons.” You’ll get to the Wikipedia link on the character – whom I note is spelled with “Fallout” as a single word, different from the band. Wonder if that makes a difference with respect to trademark?

Regardless of which, just being a character in a show does not grant trademark in that character’s name. I can name a character Captain Jack Sparrow and so long as it doesn’t infringe on the copyright (as in, the character is suitably different so as not to create confusion) there is no legal issue because the term isn’t trademarked.

Fall Out Boy, the band, tops the Google searches. It is a recognizable element from the Bilboard charts. It is music played in public places like Target and on VH1. It really has a legal arguement as to who owns the trademark. Did Simpsons ever, before this point, send a Cease and Desist letter to the band? I suspect that they didn’t.

This sounds to me like a case of, “I have more money than you, so you have to do what I say” rather than a case of trademark infringement. But, I don’t know all the facts. Primarilly because of how obscure the Simpsons character must be to not even show up on the official website.

It is just like the band Toad the Wet Sproket. They are named after a Monty Python sketch. But, it isn’t a term that Monty Python trademarked.

Theno

They used too

Fall out boy comic!? WHY?