Amazon has (finally) spoken
Like most people that tried to take advantage of Amazon’s great Marvel Comics omnibus sale/mistake this past weekend, I received an email from Amazon late this afternoon informing me that my order was canceled.
From Amazon:
Hello,
Our records indicate you recently ordered:
- Daredevil Omnibus, Vol. 1
- Daredevil by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev Omnibus, Vol. 2
- Fantastic Four Omnibus, Vol. 1 (v. 1)
- The X-Men Omnibus, Vol. 1
- Wolverine Omnibus, Vol. 1
- The Death of Captain America Omnibus
Unfortunately, due to a pricing error, we sold many more than expected. In fact, we completely sold out — we don’t have any in stock right now, and we’re not even sure if we’ll be able to get more.
As a result, we’ve had to cancel your order. I realize this is disappointing news, and I’m so sorry for any inconvenience this causes.
You may want to check our website from time to time to see if this item is available. If anyone is selling it, you’ll see a “More Buying Choices” box on the product detail page; if it’s not available from any sellers, you might see an “Order it used” or “Alert me” link. “Order it used” allows you to place a pre-order for the item in case another seller lists the item for sale later. “Alert me” allows you to sign up so we can e-mail you when Amazon has stock available for purchase.
I’m sorry I don’t have better news. We hope to see you again soon.
I’d like to report who wrote this letter, but it wasn’t signed even though it was written in the first-person. Maybe this too is a mistake on Amazon’s part.
If this massive sale on Marvel Comics omnibuses was truly a “pricing error”, why did it take Amazon over two days to inform me that they were canceling my order? I ordered these books early Sunday morning. They didn’t cancel my order until late this afternoon. If this was truly a pricing error, they should have caught it a lot sooner.
Also, why are they selling more books than they actually have? There ought to be a law against retailers selling products they don’t have.
I think it will be a long time before I waste time ordering something from Amazon.
I take back everything I said earlier. Amazon and me, we’re good. They sent me an email today informing me that they were crediting my account $25 to make up for the tragedy of not being able to purchase $100 omnibus books for $8.24 each. I’d still like to pick up the Daredevil books, even if they are a lot closer to the suggested retail price of $75.
‘Iron Man 2′ trailer
Evidently the movie industry threw itself an award show last night and for some odd reason, it was televised on national TV. Immediately after this award show, give or take an hour, a commercial for the new Iron Man 2 debuted. If you can judge a movie by it’s trailer, then I’m ready to declare that Iron Man 2 will be the greatest comic book movie ever made.
Seriously, this thing looks awesome.
The great Amazon Marvel Comics omnibus glitch of 2010
I was reading Bleeding Cool this morning when I read that Amazon had most (if not all) of the Marvel Comics omnibus hardback editions massively on sale for only $8.24. These books normally retail for $75 to $100. I immediately went over to Amazon and quickly purchased the following books:
- Fantastic Four Omnibus Vol. 1 Hardcover $8.24
- The X-Men Omnibus Vol. 1 Hardcover $8.24
- The Death of Captain America Omnibus Hardcover $8.24
- Daredevil Omnibus Vol. 1 Hardcover $8.24
- Daredevil Omnibus Vol. 2 Hardcover $8.24
- Wolverine Omnibus Vol. 1 Hardcover $8.24
I placed my order and received a confirmation email. I’ve since read that this sale was in fact a glitch. Amazon never intended to sell these books for $8.24. Amazon has corrected the prices.
The question is, will Amazon honor my morning purchase or will they invoke some kind of glitch Mulligan and cancel my purchase?
You call that feminism?
Chris Sims at comic book blog Comics Alliance posted a blog post entitled, Girl Week: A Celebration of Feminism. It features comic book images showing females attacking men in the testicle region. I’m not really sure how any of these images pertain to feminism, not that I am an expert on the subject.
The above image is the first one shown on the blog post. I don’t know where it was taken from and I don’t know the story’s context, but it appears to me that the woman is engaging in physical violence towards the heavy-set older man because he made her mad.
He doesn’t seem to be threatening her.
She does not appear to be in any sort of danger.
He has simply made her angry.
I didn’t know someone making you angry was ever justification for using physical violence towards someone. I’ve always believed it was the complete opposite. I’ve always thought that just because someone makes you mad does not mean you have the right to hit them or kick them. In fact, that is exactly the justification abusive husbands and/or boyfriends have made when they are confronted over the act of beating their wives or girlfriends.
They did it because the woman made them mad.
That’s not an excuse. It’s not an excuse when a man does it and it’s not an excuse when a woman does it.
I’ve got to believe that there is more to feminism to kicking men in the nuts. Maybe not.
In Christopher Hadley’s own words
Eric A Chase, the attorney for Christopher Handley, the Iowa manga collector that plead guilty to two criminal counts in connection to books he ordered from Japan, posted a statement on The Comics Journal.
By all means, it should be read by anyone interested in this story.
You know what else should be read? The 96 page sentencing document filed with the court by the U.S. Attorney prosecuting the case.
It’s chock-full of information pertaining to the case. For instance, on May 23, 2006, Christopher Handley submitted a voluntary written statement to Troy Raper, United States Postal Inspector for Des Moines, Iowa. Part of this written statement can be read on page 20 or this 96 page document. It reads:
After time and for the past couple of years my interest in the Japanese “cartoons” I evolved a fascination for the images of young girls engaged in sexual activity. Within the past 2-3 years this interest has centered upon young girls within the ages of 14-15 years and I used masturbation as an outlet for these phantasies [sic] using these images.
So in Christopher Hadley’s own words, he ordered the manga from Japan so that he could masturbate to images of 14-year old and 15-year old girls engaged in sex. When he was initially interviewed by Inspector Raper, he acknowledged that his sexual fantasies focused on having sex with females between the ages of 14 and 15.
According to this same document, nearly all of the books in Christopher Hadley’s possession were in Japanese, a language he cannot read (page 25-26). He wasn’t “reading” these books. He was only looking at the pictures, evidently so that he could masturbate to them.
Later on, Christopher Hadley changed his story. He wasn’t collecting the books so that he could fantasize about having sex with the young girls in the books. No, he told Dr. Jason Smith during a pretrial psychosexual evaluation that he was fantasizing about being the young girls having sex in the books (page 21).
I’m supposed to believe that since I enjoy comic books, I somehow share something in common with Christopher Handley? That his legal fight is somehow my legal fight simply because he likes to masturbate to drawings of 14-year old girls being brutally raped and I enjoy reading comics involving Wolverine, Superman, and Daredevil?
Thanks, but no thanks, I’m not buying it.
This week’s second million dollar comic book
It was only a few days ago that a graded copy of Action Comics #1 went for a million dollars. It marked the first time a comic book had sold for one million dollars.
It now has company.
Bleeding Cool is reporting that a graded copy of Detective Comics #27 has now sold for over one million dollars, $1,075,500 to be exact. The comic features the first appearance of Batman.
I’m having a hard time relating to something like this. I once owned a comic book that Wizard magazine was worth $80. It was a mint copy of The New Mutants #87. It featured the first appearance of the time traveling mutant known as Cable. For the life of me, I cannot remember what I did with it. I only know that I no longer have it. Not that it really matters. I remember seeing it at a comic book convention for $20.
I think this just goes to show that even though many Americans are unemployed and people are losing their homes to foreclosure, some people have more money than they know what to do with.
World’s first million dollar comic
Click to see larger version
Comic Connect is reporting that they have sold a graded copy of the Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman, for $1,000,000.
And to think I thought spending $5.00 on a newsstand copy of Captain America #602 was excessive. I guess all things are relative.
The book has been graded 8.0 by CGC and because of this fact, is encased in air-tight plastic that makes reading this book imposable. Let’s hope the unnamed buyer wasn’t planning on reading it.
That’s a lot of money, especially when you stop to consider that we are currently suffering from an economic Apocalypse that has left many Americans dirt broke, jobless, and homeless.
I guess at least some people have money to blow.
$4.99 for a Marvel comic?
I was in Books-A-Million yesterday when I noticed they had copies of Captain America #602 sitting on the shelf. It’s the issue that takes a well deserved poke at members of the TEA Party for being the racist xenophobes that most sane minded people ( liberals) think they are.
I decided to purchase a copy. When I took the issue up to the register, I was more than a little surprised when the bill totaled over five bucks. Sure enough, I looked at the price next to the barcode and it showed that the comic was $4.99. Since when did Marvel start pricing comics at $4.99?
When I looked for this issue on the official Marvel website, it showed that the issue is $3.99. So why is this copy priced at $4.99?
I’m guessing that perhaps the fact that this is a newsstand copy and not a direct market copy might explain the price difference, but I didn’t know there was a difference anymore between the two.
Five bucks seems kind of pricey for a monthly comic.
Christopher Handley sentenced to 6 months
Christopher Handley, the Iowa man that pleaded guilty to possessing obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children and mailing obscene materials, has been sentenced to 6 months in prison:
From the Anime News Network:
As part of the prosecution’s argument, although Handley did not have any criminal history nor did he possess any real child pornographic images, Handley admitted he searched the Internet for manga with stories involving the sexual abuse of minors. The prosecution also stated that “The works at issue do not even have arguable scientific, literary, artistic, or political value, such as Vladimir Nabokov’s famed novel, Lolita, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, or even Alan Moore’s recent, but controversial, graphic novel, Lost Girls. By the defendant’s own statements, the works for which he was convicted of receiving and possessing are clearly obscene.”
According to Handley, he developed a fascination for images of young girls engaged in sexual activity, but he didn’t know such images could be considered obscene.
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) supported Handley in this case until they learned a month after the fact that he had pleaded guilty.
Teabaggers up in arms over their portrayal in a comic book
Click to see larger version
Captain America #602 shows a group of
As if Teabaggers aren’t doing enough on their own to give people that impression.
Marvel Comics is reacting to the outrage by Teabaggers and like minded anti-tax, anti-government Republicans by claiming that it was a mistake to include the sign and the sign’s language would be removed from future printings.
Erik Larsen claims comic scans don’t look as good as ‘real’ comics
Comic Book Artist Erik Larsen
Comic book artist and Image Comics co-founder Erik Larsen has written a piece on Comic Book Resources about the new Apple iPad. It took the comic book blogosphere about two nanoseconds to realize that this latest piece of shiny tech from Apple will be perfect for reading comic book scans.
From Larson’s column:
For some time, everybody’s been running around like chickens with their heads cut off screaming that the sky is falling as fans have busily scanned and uploaded comics. Illegal comics are thriving. Guys scan in and upload new comics all the time and you can get new comics on your computer the day they hit the stands in many cases. The big difference for those who care is that these are scans out of comics–and they simply don’t look as good as real comics do.
If Erik Larsen truly thinks that scanned comics don’t look as good as paper comics, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. In many ways, scanned comic look superior to paper comics, or as Larsen calls them, “real” comics.
After reading this, I’m left wondering if Erik Larsen has ever read a scanned comic book in his life. If that’s the case, he needs to just come out and say that instead of making stuff up.
For years now some people have argued against digital comics because the reader is forced to sit at their computer to read. With paper comics, the reader can read the comic where ever he or she wants. Apple’s upcoming iPad will make that criticism moot. If people who are against comic scans want to continue opposing the technology, they need to come up with a much better reason than the complaint that digital comics don’t look as good. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
I for one am hoping that the $499 iPad will encourage comic book publishers to not only publish comics on dead trees for the people that prefer a physical item, but to also make comics available as a 99 cent digital download.
Marvel Comics running a promotion based on the destruction of DC Comics books
Marvel Comics is running a special promotion for comic book retailers that is based on retailers removing the covers from certain DC Comics and sending them in to Marvel Comics. For every 50 covers from Adventure Comics #4, Booster Gold #26, Doom Patrol #4, Justice League Of America #39, Outsiders #24, or R.E.B.E.L.S #10, comic retailers will receive a “special” copy of Marvel Comics’ Seige #3 featuring Deadpool pretending to be Ali G, the white hip-hop aficionado comedic character played by Sacha Baron Cohen.
It seems comic book retailers may have multiple copies of the before mentioned books lying about due to a promotion DC Comics was running in relation to the Blackest Night crossover event. Retailers were encouraged to order these books in droves so that they would receive special colored plastic promotional rings.
I don’t know what’s more stupid: Marvel basing a promotion on DC’s product or that the special variant cover is based on a comedic pop culture character that hasn’t been relevant in years. When was the last time Ali G was seen?
Retailers have until February 16 to send in the clipped covers.
Does DC Comics care that Marvel Comics is running a promotion based on the destruction of their books? If they do care, they are in a position to do something about it. If they wanted to screw Marvel Comics, they should go back to the presses and print up a whole bunch of covers to one of the qualifying comics and then send 50 of these covers to each and every comic book retailer in North America. That way, the books don’t have to be destroyed and comic book retailers will still get their special variant cover of Seige #3. Granted, DC Comics would have to pay for printing up these covers, but Marvel Comics would need to produce an entire book for every 50 covers. If I was running DC Comics, I would go ahead and eat the cost of printing the covers.
I would do whatever I had to do to make sure Marvel Comics would never again run a promotion based on the destruction of my books.
Could this be the worst comic book shop in all of North America?
I was browsing the Craigslist listings for western Maryland when I stumbled upon this gem of a listing. It’s for a comic book shop in nearby Martinsburg, West Virginia. I wasn’t even aware that Martinsburg had a comic book shop.
It doesn’t appear that I’ve been missing much.
From the listing:
comic books $1 up and action figures $5 up plus board & rpg games
take king st exit off of rt 81 follow signs to railroad station , located next to RR station, in business here 25 years, open 11 to 5 most wed thur fri and 11 to 2 most saturdays. no minors without a parent , browsers must show $25 cash to enter. cash payments only. i buy your unwanted comic books and fantasy adventure mens scifi magazines and books, huge inventory of games miniatures comics action figures etc, catalogues available for prepaid orders above $50. no cash refunds.
I’ve been in some really crappy comic book shops. I’ve never had to first show the proprietor a wad of cash before I’m allowed entry. This very well may be the absolute worst comic book shop in all of North America.
Bowen Designs warns customers to limit the visits to their website or else
From the official website of Bowen Designs, makers of fine licensed Marvel Comics comic book characters:
Please Do Not attempt to use any type of software to repeatedly access our site to monitor for changes or updates to the site. This is abuse of our server – and may have been the cause for the technical difficulties experienced previously.
Going forward we will be monitoring all IP addresses and any abuse of the website or server will be dealt with accordingly.
We appreciate your understanding and cooperation. – The Bowens
I don’t really know what to make of this “warning”. I signed up a while back for email updates to their website so that I would know if and when they produced new sculptures. Though I like Bowen Designs statues and busts, I only own one bust. It is a Spider-Woman and she has a cracked finger. I was doing some dusting about a week after I bought it and I accidentally tipped her over.
I took that as a sign that maybe I shouldn’t collect Bowen busts or statues. I’m too clumsy to trust myself with them.
I’ll be totally honest and admit that I don’t know an awful lot about denial of service (DoS) attacks, but to the best of my knowledge, they require a massive amount of computers to perpetuate the attack. One computer simply reloading a web page over and over isn’t going to adversely effect the server in any way.
And if their hosting provider hasn’t been logging I.P. addresses from day one, they need to find a new hosting provider. That’s a basic function of any website host.
If they are receiving what they deem to be an excessive amount of visits to their website from one computer, why don’t they simply block that person’s I.P. address from accessing their website? Once again, that’s something any hosting provider can and will provide to any hosting customer. I’ve never been a big fan of mass warnings.
Are the Comic Book Haters back?
While perusing the World Wide Internet Web today, I accidently clicked on the wrong link in my bookmarks and it took me to the official website of the Comic Book Haters, a podcast that stopped putting out new episodes a long time ago. Seriously, I don’t remember the last time they did a new show, but I seem to remember Ronald Reagan being the president and listening to the show on my Sony Walkman personal stereo cassette tape player with Dolby B noise-reduction.
It was a really long time ago.
It appears though that they have returned to the world of podcasting. It looks as though they put out a new show on December 14, 2009. I haven’t listened to it yet, so for all I know it’s 45 minutes of Schooly G going through his copy of Previews picking out the comics he wants to read three months from now.
Now that I think about it, that might not be that bad to listen to.
Conan O’Brien visits his local comic book shop
Conan O’Brien steps off the Universal Studios lot to check out some of the local businesses, including a comic book shop. The Hobgoblin will now forever be known to me as the Gay Prankster. Don’t let the Gay Prankster throw a turnip through your window!
I think I want that inscribed on my tombstone.
Before you are allowed to watch this video, you are forced to watch an obnoxious Bud Light commercial. I don’t know what’s more repulsive, the taste of Bud Light or this stupid commercial. Bud Light is an awful beer. Just because I’ve embedded this video on my blog, don’t think for a minute that I in any way endorse the drinking of Bud Light. If you are going to drink a beer, act like a gentleman and drink a beer you can taste.
I recommend Guinness, either Guinness Stout or Guinness Draught.
How am I supposed to read this?
A while back I purchased Powers: The Definitive Hardcover Collection Volume 1. It collects the first three story arcs of Powers, the somewhat monthly comic written by Brain Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming. I never read the comic, but I thought the basic premise of a world where people with superpowers is common and because if this, the police department has a section devoted to superpower related homicides, sounded interesting.
I finally got around to reading it. That is, I finally got around to trying to read it. The problem is, the book is so poorly bound that some of the pages cannot be read. For example:
I cannot read page 9 because one of the panels is obstructed by the binding. Even though I shelled out money for a deluxe edition, I cannot read it. Wonderful.
It’s not even like I could have flipped through the book before purchasing it. When I found it at my local Borders, it was sealed in shrink wrapped plastic. As a consumer, I had to simply trust Icon, an imprint of Marvel Comics, that they knew how to properly bind a book so that it could be read.
Only a comic publisher would produce a book that cannot be read by the people who purchase it. No other publisher would treat readers this way.
‘Kick-Ass’ the movie trailer
Kick-Ass
Trailer Park | MySpace Video
I’m looking forwarding the the movie adaptation of Kick-Ass, the comic book by writer Mark Millar, about a regular kid that decides to be a superhero. From the look of this trailer, the movie will be staying true to the über violent source material.
Scott Kurtz is a tastemaker with a large podium
Scott Kurtz
Oops.
Scott Kurtz replied in typical Scott Kurtz fashion. He sent Larry Ernst a nasty email and he posted it to his blog. It reads:
Dear Larry,
First of all my name is not Kurt. It’s Scott. Scott Kurtz. It’s written right there in the email you just pretended to send me. Not that my name’s important or that you are actually aware of who you’re addressing. I’m a pioneer in my field and a “tastemaker” with a large podium, why would it be important to get my name right? Let’s not dawdle on such mundane details.
Your conventions are total horseshit, so it’s wise to stop branding them with the name Wizard. But no amount of polishing is going to make me want to attended any of the 5 turds your company is going to crap out in 2010, especially when you schedule them against other shows in some bullshit dick measuring contests that serves no other purpose but to fracture an already dying industry that I have nostalgic ties to.
Remember Mike Wieringo? Remember how you guys only cared about him when he was the “hot artist” for a window of time and then you quickly forgot his name despite the fact that he was producing some of the best work of his career on Fantastic Four with Mark Waid? And then remember how after he died you had the balls to name one of your panel rooms the Mike Wieringo room? I will eternally hate everyone associated with your company for that. For eternity. For Jack Kirby’s version of Eternity where the concept is embodied as a giant man made up of the universe. That’s me, hating you for the Mike Wieringo thing. Forever.
Maybe if you cared enough to actually get my name right, or maybe if you cared about creators like the late, great Mike Wieringo beyond what they can do for you THIS FIVE MINUTES, the entire industry wouldn’t all be anticipating your inevitable bankruptcy.
Give Dushku my best. She’s pretty hot and Dollhouse is alright. Otherwise, shove everything else up your ass.
Best.
Scott (Kurt) Kurtz
Cartoonist
www.pvponline.comp.s. please take of me off the comp list for your retarded super-hero boobs magazine.
After reading this response, I have to believe that Scott Kurtz was going to be removed from Wizard Entertainment’s comp list one way or another. It seems to me that telling Larry Ernst to shove something up his rectum would ensure just that.
I’ll be totally honest and admit that before reading Kurtz’s email yesterday, I had never heard the word “tastemaker” used before. Then last night while watching Community, I heard it again. How weird is that?
Obviously, Scott Kurtz had a real problem with Larry Ernst not knowing who he was. From the level of hostility in Kurtz’s reaction, you might think that he would never make the same mistake. If you thought that, you would be wrong.
Marge Simpson to appear in ‘Playboy’
Marge Simpson, the blue haired wife of Homer and mother to Bart, Lisa, and Maggie will appear in the November issue of Playboy. They say that it’s the first time that a cartoon character has appeared on the front cover of the magazine. I’m guessing that it will also be the first time someone has appeared in the magazine with blue pubic hair, unless of course the drapes don’t match the carpet.
Every time something like this happens, it reminds me that Playboy is still being published. For the life of me I can’t figure out why. Magazine sales have been plummeting ever since the popularity of the Internet took off. People are turning away from traditional print media, whether it be newspapers or magazines, and instead they are accessing content on the Internet. Not only is it more convenient, it’s far more timely. By the time you read something in a magazine, it was probably on the Internet days, weeks, or even months earlier.
Playboy is especially susceptible to the threat posed by the Internet because it’s entire business model is based on giving men access to images of nude woman. Why would a man want to purchase a magazine containing images of naked females when such images can be easily found online? Or so I’ve been told.
Finding out that Playboy is still being published is a lot like finding out people are still using rotary phones.
Robert Kirkman talks about ‘The Walking Dead’ on AMC
Robert Kirkman, creater of The Walking Dead, the Image Comics series about people living through a zombie apocalypse, talks with Rick Marshall from MTV’s Splash Page about The Walking Dead, the AMC television series based on the comic book.
One of the highlights of the interview (at least for me) was finding out that that Kirkman will be an executive producer on the show. That should ensure that the television series doesn’t stray too far from the excellent source material.
As popular as zombies are, why hasn’t there already been a TV series based around them?
One of the problems with continuous copyright protection
The children of the late great comic book artist Jack Kirby are taking steps to legally acquire at least partial ownership of the copyrights to many of the comic book characters their father helped to create.
From the Los Angeles Times:
The four children of Kirby, who co-created a number of Marvel’s best-known super-heroes, including the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Thor and the Hulk, have served so-called notices of copyright termination for 45 characters to Marvel Entertainment, Disney (which recently agreed to buy Marvel for $4 billion), Sony Pictures (which owns movie rights to Spider-Man), 20th Century Fox (owner of movie rights to the Fantastic Four and X-Men), Paramount Pictures (which has a film distribution deal for four upcoming Marvel-produced films) and Universal Pictures (which has distribution rights to Hulk movies).
Jack Kirby co-created Thor? I thought Thor was a mythical Norse god that was “created” centuries ago by guys that wore horns on their head and sailed around in big wooden boats.
In a perfect world, works created years ago by Jack Kirby would now be in the public domain and nobody, including Marvel, Disney, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, or even the legal heirs of Kirby, would be able to claim ownership of something created so long ago. The same applies to Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
They should be in the public domain too.
I guess I don’t really understand why Kirby’s adult children should have any claim to work done by their father. To the best of my knowledge, they didn’t so much as sharpen his pencil or refill his inkwell. Why should they be able to claim ownership to something he created?
I’m not faulting his adult children. They are simply working within the absurd reality that is the U.S. copyright laws. Much like how they didn’t create any of the work in question, they didn’t create any of the silly copyright laws that we have either.
As the great philosopher Ice T once said, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”
If you ever fantasized about Spider-Man fighting Mickey Mouse, today may be your lucky day
The Walt Disney Company announced today that they are buying Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. From AP Business:
Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters. Many of them, including the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, were co-created by the comic book legend Stan Lee.
Analyst David Joyce of Miller Tabak & Co. said the acquisition will help Disney appeal to young men who have flocked to theaters to see Marvel’s superhero fare in recent years. That contrasts with Disney’s recent successes among young women with such fare as “Hannah Montana” and the Jonas Brothers.
“It helps Disney add exposure to a young male demographic it had sort of lost some balance with,” Joyce said, noting the $4 billion offer was at “full price.”
Young male demographic? Has David Joyce stepped into a comic book shop lately? Though he’s right about the male part, there is nothing young about the comic book demographic. Middle-aged male demographic more like it.
When is a collection too much?
There is an ongoing series of blog posts over at Comic Book Resources entitled Shelf Porn. It’s where people send in photos of their bookshelves so that other people can look at them and admire the things that they own. It started out with people sending in photos of their books. It’s since evolved a bit to include not only books, but action figures too.
The latest entry is the action figure collection of Will Morelli. As the above photo shows, to say that he has a lot of action figures is an extreme understatement.
When does a collection become so big, so massive, that it becomes too much?
Will Morelli’s collection of plastic action figures is so massive in size that it’s almost impossible to take it all in. The human brain can only process so much visual input. I can’t help but wonder if it’s better to display fewer pieces. At least that way you can actually see and process each individual piece.
Sometimes less is better than more.
I no longer want to go to the San Diego Comic-Con
I used to want to attend the San Diego Comic-Con, the world’s largest and most attended comic book convention, but not anymore. I’ve been reading reports online pertaining to this year’s convention which was held July 23- 26, and I can honestly say it’s not something I would have enjoyed.
In fact, I think I would have hated it.
To say that Hollywood has realized over the last few years that San Diego Comic-Con was a cheap and easy place to get publicity for their projects is nothing new. This has been going on at the SDCC for a few years now. At first the studios used the event to promote comic book or superhero type movies.
Now it seems anything goes.
A few years ago it was Snakes on a Plane. I never saw the movie, but I don’t see any connection to the medium of comic books.
This year the teen girl friendly vampire motion picture franchise Twilight was front and center at the SDCC. A good many of the fans in attendance at the con where there for Twilight and had no interest in the rest of the convention.
It wasn’t just Twilight. DC Comics presented a panel for Fables that unfortunately a good many Fables fans could not attend. The reason? Prior to the Fables panel was a panel for the movie Boondock Saints 2. Immediately following the Fables panel, the room was scheduled for a Venture Bros. panel. Evidently a good many of the people who attended the Boondock Saints panel decided to stay and not give up their seatd so that they could attend the Venture Bros. panel.
They had no interest in the Fables panel.
It’s even possible that they only attended the Boondock Saints panel so that they would get a good seat for the Venture Bros. panel. I’ve never heard of Venture Bros., but they evidently have a large fan base.
The result of all this was that a good many fans of Fables, some even dressed up as their favorite Fables characters, were not allowed into the Fables panel, A panel that featured Fables creator Bill Willingham, artist Mark Buckingham, editor Shelly Bond, and others associated with the book, because the room was already filled to capacity.
If I was at SDCC, the Fables panel would have been my number one event to attend. To think that I would have been denied entrance because fans of a cartoon I’ve never heard of were “camping out” would have infuriated me.
I would have probably done something stupid.
I’d say that the SDCC needs to decide what it wants to be, a comic book convention or a movie and TV convention, but I think they have already decided.
Michael George will stay in jail
Comic book retailer and Pittsburgh Comicon organizer Michael George will be remain in jail as he awaits his a new trial for the murder of his wife, Barbara George. From the Detroit Free Press:
Michael George, who awaits a second trial in the 1990 death of his wife after his conviction last year was set aside by a Macomb County judge, has been denied a request to have his bond lowered by the Michigan Court of Appeals.
George, 39, was convicted by a jury in March 2008 of first-degree murder. Circuit Judge James Biernat set aside the verdict six months later, saying prosecutors unfairly used George’s admitted philandering to paint him as a killer.
The appeals court is still weighing prosecutors’ requests to have the verdict reinstated. George remains in the Macomb County Jail on $2.5-million bond. His wife, 32-year-old Barbara George, was shot to death in the back of the comic book store she owned with her husband.
Michael George used to own and operate the comic book shop I shop at, Comics World located in the Chambersburgh Mall in beautiful Scotland, Pennsylvania.
Google honors the San Diego Comic Con with a special logo
Google released a special comic book related logo to honor the San Diego Comic Con that started yesterday. Not only do they have the fancy logo, but they now have a bunch of comic related iGoogle themes to choose from. My iGoogle page is currently sporting the Superman one.
The San Diego Comic Con is by far the largest comic book convention in the world, not that it’s really even about comic books anymore. The movie industry more or less hijacked the convention a few years ago, realizing that the event was the perfect place to promote their newest projects.
Rob Liefeld responds to the gayness of Shatterstar
In a recent issue of X-Factor, two male characters, Shatterstar and Rictor are seen making out. I’m no expert, but I assume this means that Rictor and Shatterstar are now both officially gay.
As luck would have it, not everyone is happy about this new development, including Rob Liefeld, the artist that created the Shatterstar character back in the 1990’s while working for Marvel Comics. Liefeld recently wrote on his message board that Shatterstar is not gay:
As the guy that created, designed and wrote his first dozen appearances, Shatterstar is not gay. Sorry. Can’t wait to someday undo this… Shatterstar is akin to Maximus in Gladiator. He’s a warrior, a Spartan, and not a gay one.
Yes, because we all know that there is nothing gay about gladiator movies.
Knowing now that it bothers Liefeld to have one of his characters retconned gay, I think Marvel Comics ought to turn all his old characters into Friends of Dorthy. They could then inform him that all his old characters will remain gay until he learns how to properly draw feet.
So in other words, all his old Marvel characters would remain gay permanently.
More proof that Image Comics just might be the best
Rich Johnston over at Bleeding Cool is reporting that the entire first issue of Chew will be included in The Walking Dead #63 which goes on sale July 15. The first printing of Chew #1 sold out quickly. The second printing also sold out quickly. The third printing is scheduled, but not for a while.
Copies on eBay are going for a little over $30.
What’s even better, it appears Image is including the entire first issue of Chew for no extra cost. If you click on the image of the cover of The Walking Dead #63, you will see the price is $2.99.
The Harvey Awards are in a bundle of trouble
I don’t understand the purpose of the Harvey Awards. Wikipedia says that they are given for achievement in comic books, but I always thought that was what the Eisner Awards was for.
The Harvey Awards employ a nomination system based on an open vote among comic book professionals. The top five nominees in each category are placed on a final ballot for a final round of voting. Who qualifies as a comic book professional?
Who knows.
It says on the official Harvey Award website that ballots are sent to publishers in bundles who in turn are instructed to distribute them to the comic book professionals that work for them.
I’m curious to know how many ballots were sent to NASCAR Comics, the publishing arm of NASCAR. One of their books, NASCAR Heroes #5, oddly enough made the top five comics for 2008 in the category of “Best Single Issue or Story“.
How big was their bundle?
Now I’ll admit that I haven’t read NASCAR Heroes, nor do I want to. I don’t remember anyone putting it on their top-5 list for 2008. It is still up for a supposed major award.
I think it’s time to retire the Harvey Awards.
Comic Collector iPhone App: Clz Comics
The iPhone App for Comic Collector 4 is now out. If you use the Comic Collector software to keep track of your comics collection and you have an iPhone, buying this app is really a no-brainer.
I was more than a little surprised to see at least one person actually complain about the $9.99 price. Ten bucks seems like a small price to pay for the ability to take a complete record of your comic book collection with you everywhere you go.
Before this app, the only way you could take a record of your collection with you on your iPod was if you exported collection as a text file and used a notes program on your iPod to access it. I did just that a few years ago when I went to the Pittsburgh Comic-Con and it turned out to be more cumbersome than I thought it would be.
I don’t think that will be a problem with this app. It looks extremely easy to use.
Z-Cult FM to shut down
It looks as though the one-time popular comic book BitTorrent tracker Z-Cult FM is shutting down. Site owner “Serj” posted a statement that he was shutting it down. The reason he is shutting it down is one of money. He posted the following comment on the Z-Cult FM message board:
Main reason the site is being closed is money issues. The site was on a dedicated server as at time before Marvel etc shut down the site was popular and needed a dedicated server to run but since then I never changed the server hoping that one day we could get all users back but this has never happened. So server is gonna get killed and site put offline for bit.
Even though Marvel and DC both enjoyed a steady increase in sales during the time Z-Cult FM was in existence, both took steps at trying to get Z-Cult FM shut down. At the time it appeared they were successful. Not that this stopped people from downloading comics via BitTorrent. People just switched over to the popular music and video trackers such as The Pirate Bay and Mininova.
So I have been told.
Eventually Z-Cult FM came back, but I think most people just continued downloading comics through the other BitTorrent trackers. If anything, news of the actions by Marvel and DC only made the practice of downloading comics more popular. People who didn’t know that you could download entire issues, even entire runs of comic books, all of a sudden knew about it.
So I have been told.
I’ve always believed, unlike the music or movie industry, file sharing helped the comic book industry. It allowed people to read comics that they wouldn’t normally be able to read. People might be more inclined to starting buying a comic book if they could first go and read the preceding issues in digital form. Unlike the music and movie industry, the digital version of a comic book is a lot different than the version sold in stores.
So I have been told.
Christopher Handley agreed to plead guilty over a month ago
Like most people who have been following the Christopher Handley manga child porn case, I read that he agreed to accept a plea bargain from the federal prosecutor on May 20.
The Department of Justice issued a press release stating just that.
The following day, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) issued a press release stating that they were disappointed to learn from the DoJ press release that Mr. Handley had agreed to a plea agreement. Even though the CBLDF had been working as a consultant to the defense since last year, they did not learn about the plea agreement until they read the DoJ press release like everyone else.
When I read that, I thought that Eric Chase, Handley’s lawyer, really should have shown the CBLDF the professional courtesy of telling them that his client was pleading guilty. After all, the CBLDF had been working with Chase on Handley’s behalf, spending both time and money on the case. I then thought about it further and I figured that maybe the amount of time from when Handley decided to accept the plea agreement to when the DoJ issued the press release was too short an amount of time to facilitate something like informing the CBLDF.
It appears now that was not the case.
If you read the 13-page plea agreement, you will see that it was signed by Charles Handley on April 16. His lawyer then signed the agreement on April 21. It was then later signed by Craig Peyton Gaumer, Assistant United States Attorney, on May 20 and then filed with the court that same day.
The CBLDF really should have been told that Handley was accepting the plea agreement. How much time and money did they spend from April 21 till May 20 when they read the DoJ press release like everyone else?
They really should have been told.
Owners of Emily the Strange get litigious
Marjorie Sharmat and Marc Simont, creators of the book Nate the Great, a book featuring Rosamond, a creepy girl character very similar to the Emily the Strange character, are being sued by Cosmic Debris, the company that controls the rights of Emily the Strange.
Nate the Great was first published in 1978.
The Emily the Strange character first appeared in 1991.
The lawsuit appears to be strictly precautionary. It seeks to restrain Marjorie Sharmat and Marc Simont from recovering damages regarding Emily, and to stop them from claiming that Emily infringes on their work.
The lawsuit seems ridiculous in that anyone looking at Rosamond and Emily can see the obvious similarities. It’s a no-brainer. Instead of suing Marjorie Sharmat and Marc Simont, Cosmic Debris ought to be writing them a big check.
Christopher Handley pleads guilty to possessing obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children
It looks as though the Christopher Handley virtual child porn case is now over. From a Department of Justice Press release:
Christopher Handley, 39, of Glenwood, Iowa, pleaded guilty today in Des Moines, Iowa, to possessing obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children and mailing obscene material.
According to court documents, in May 2006, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intercepted a mail package coming into the United States from Japan that was addressed to Handley. Inside the package was obscene material, including books containing visual representations of the sexual abuse of children, specifically Japanese manga drawings of minor females being sexually abused by adult males and animals. Pursuant to a search warrant, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) searched and seized additional obscene drawings of the sexual abuse of children at Handley’s residence in Glenwood. Handley was indicted by a grand jury sitting in the Southern District of Iowa in May 2007.
Pursuant to his plea agreement, Handley today pleaded guilty to one count of possessing obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1466A(b)(1), which prohibits the possession of any type of visual depiction, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting, that depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct that is obscene.
Handley also agreed to plead guilty to one count of mailing obscene material and to forfeit all seized property. Handley faces a maximum of 15 years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and a three-year term of supervised release.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Peyton Gaumer and Elizabeth M. Yusi of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. The case is being investigated by USPIS, ICE and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. In addition, the FBI’s Language Services Section has provided significant assistance in the prosecution.
I realize that the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) was assisting in Handley’s defense because they thought this case somehow pertained to comic books in general, but I have never agreed with this position. In a written press release, they stated that they spent $2,400 in research pertaining to the Handley case.
If I believe that the medium is just another instrument for crafting stories, one that is just as important and significant as other mediums, if I’m to believe that it is capable of creating intelligent works of art, I have to believe it can also be used to create obscenity. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be giving the medium the respect I think it deserves.
The argument that they are “just comics” falls flat in my opinion.
The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1
There’s an ad on the back of The Walking Dead #61 for something called the The Walking Dead Compendium One. It’s described as a black & white paperback collecting issues #1 – #48 of the series. It retails for $59.99.
I already own all of those issues, either in collected trade paperback or in individual issues. With that said, I’m tempted to get this. It would be nice to have the first 48 issues all in one single volume. Amazon lists the book as being 10.1 x 6.5 x 1.9 inches, in other words, the same exact size as the monthly comic.
The only thing I’m curious about is the quality of the paper. When Marvel or DC republish comic books in their Essential series or Showcase series, respectively, the pages are printed on pulpy newsprint type paper. I wonder, does this book have this type of cheap paper?
Since Amazon is listing the book as weighing more than 3 pounds, I doubt it.
Internet tough guy Joseph Larkin must not like ‘Spinal Tap’
Comic book creators overreacting to the negative reviews of their work is nothing new. It’s a phenomenon almost as old as the Internet itself. Mostly they just whine and cry and denounce whoever is saying not-so-nice things about the comic book they created.
Joseph Larkin recently took his overreaction to a whole other, quite possibly criminal, level.
Kevin Church posted a review of Larkin’s Arcade Of Cruelty by posting a 48 second YouTube clip from This is Spinal Tap. It’s the scene where the fictional band is confronted with some of the most negative reviews.
Like most clips from This is Spinal Tap, it’s really quite hilarious. Equally hilarious is how Kevin Church employed the 48 second video clip to say so much about Larkin’s comic.
You know who didn’t find it so funny? Joseph Larkin. He showed up in the comment section by issuing the following comment:
LOL, my friend! I doff my cap to you, funny guy! A clever “review” like that deserves an equally clever retort. Here’s mine: I just Mapquested (not a real word) directions to [REDACTED], which you may recognize as your street address. I’m about to hop into my expensive luxury automobile, where I will write the word “FAIL” in black magic marker on the knuckles of my right fist, you know, my punching fist. Many hours from now, I will use that fist to pound on your door, which you will foolishly open only to be greeted by a tsunami of punches, kicks and gnashing teeth. I will pummel you until the word “FAIL” is tattooed on your stupid fucking face and imprinted on every one of your stupid fucking teeth, even the ones that will no longer be in your smart little mouth, the one that’s never ever kissed a girl. I’ll handily ask through clenched teeth, “How’d you like THAT shit-sandwich, bitch?!” You will say nothing in response because you are a cowardly pussy of a man that has never kissed a girl let alone fondled a girl’s breasts. See you soon!
I’ve never heard it said before that you can gauge a man’s courage by whether or not he’s ever fondled a girl’s breast. Would a man who has fondled two breasts, both the left and the right belonging to the same girl, be twice as courageous as a man who has only fondled one?
Maybe it’s just me, but I have a hard time believing a guy who starts out a comment by saying, “I doff my cap to you” is really all that much of a bad-ass.
As blogger Laura Hudson points out, his book has only recieved one review over on Amazon and it’s from Larkin himself.
Facebook pulls ad featuring Power Girl for being too offensive
Two comic shops ran ads on Facebook to promote an upcoming appearance to their shops of Power Girl artist Amanda Conner. Both ads were removed from Facebook for being “too offensive”.
From Lying in the Gutters:
When asked in an upcoming interview for the column “Shop of Ideas,” Amanda Conner replied, “I don’t think it’s degrading at all. I think that the person they had red flagging that ad probably knows absolutely nothing about comics, they don’t know who the character is because they said it was irrelevant to the ad when it was 100% relevant. They just set themselves up as the morality police, that’s my guess as to the reason she was red flagged. I don’t feel Power Girl’s costume is degrading. I like Power Girl’s costume, I drew it.”
My guess is that whoever red flagged the ad knows quite a bit about comics, they just get easily offended by artwork they deem to be sexist.
Movie critics don’t like the new Wolverine movie
X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens today and the general consensus among movie critics is that it’s an awful movie. Over on the movie review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the “tomatometer” rating for the movie is only 37%. When only the so-called “top critics” are counted, the ratings drops all the way down to 18%.
Ouch.
I’m not sure why the world needed yet another X-Men movie, let alone one featuring the Wolverine character. By my count this is the fourth movie based on the X-Men characters. What more was there to say? When I’ve watched trailers for the movie, it looked like every other X-Men movie that I have already seen.
And what’s with the PG-13 rating? If you are making a movie based on a character that has razor sharp metal claws that pop out of his wrists, and it receives anything less then a R rating from the MPAA, you are doing it wrong. This movie should be rated a hard R for violence. Remember the chainsaw-in-the- shower scene from Scarface? How about the final 60 minutes of Hostel?
That’s the level of graphic violence that should be in a Wolverine movie. Anything less than that and you are honest being honest with the character.
Free Comic Book Day 2009
This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day. It’s the one day a year you can walk into a comic book shop and expect to legally get something for free. You don’t have to purchase anything first. You don’t have to sign up for anything. You simply grab something from a designated area (usually a table) and it’s yours to keep.
To see a list of all the free stuff you can expect to find this weekend, go to the official Free Comic Book Day website.
Many retailers take the opportunity to also put a lot of their existing merchandise on sale. Not only can you expect to get something for free, you can often find something else you might like at a discounted price.
Paul Pope does Adam Strange
This is a page from the upcoming Wednesday Comics, a weekly, broadsheet-sized, 12-part series featuring 16 stories starring DC characters told in a Sunday Comics style.
I wish Paul Pope and colorist Jose Villarrubia could just do every comic there is. Click the image to see a much larger image.
This looks unbelievably cool.
I guess that cop was not a moron after all
Frank Fisna FRISINA, writer and creator of the web comic Life’s a Bluff, recently got on the World Wide Internet Web to announce that his 14-year-old niece was missing. He wrote:
It took us a few days to get the police to take this seriously since the responding officer on Saturday night had her pigeon holed as a runaway from the start. Thanks to that moron we have lost precious time. Now we have the Colorado Bureau of Investigations involved and they are trying to get phone records quicker than I seem to be able to get them. We would have had them already but CBI needed the Arapahoe County Sheriff to upgrade from runaway to missing. The next step is to get her picture on the local news stations.
Fisna FRISINA was convinced that his niece was the victim of some sort of abduction, even though there was no evidence of foul play. He seemed convinced that she was not just a runaway, even though that was far more likely than being kidnapped.
He announced that he was offering up a $500 reward for information leading to her return. He asked people to donate money so that he could increase the reward. He also asked people to post his niece’s photo on all the various social networking sites.
She was located on April 16. She wasn’t the victim of a kidnapping. It appears that she was indeed a runaway:
On behalf of my family I have to thank each and everyone who helped from the bottom of my heart. You all had so many different impacts on the situtation but most of all you kept us sane. I was quickly crackin though and I am not sure how much longer I could have taken it without really losing it. Those of you who donated reward money… a special thanks. We raised over 3,000 dollars in less than 24 hours. It would have been more but I stopped taking donations. You will all get your money back over the next day. I want to make sure your paypal fees are recouped.
As far as how Jennifer is or what actually happened, all I can say right now is that she is OK and appears unharmed. I don’t really want to go into too many details for various reasons but at least know that she is a little shook-up but is not hurt. It turns out someone she was with saw something on the Internet about her being missing and made sure she got home. So whether it was Twitter, myspace, whatever… That is what did it.
I’m not sure exactly why he is planning on returning the $3,000 to the people that donated it when someone, the person she was with that made sure she got home, seemingly earned the reward. Not that I really know how that kind of thing is handled.
So what exactly happened? Was she abducted or was she a runaway? Frank Fisna is refuses to get into specifics, but he insists that she was not a runaway:
She is safe and at home, she did NOT run away, and we are not releasing any more information at this time.
Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems to me that there could only be two (2) possibilities here: either she was abducted or she was a runaway. What else could it be?
Snake Eyes
Snake Eyes by ~Artlacal on deviantART
To me, a G.I. Joe will always be 12 inches tall and have Kung Fu Grip™. That said, this artist’s rendition of Snake Eyes is really cool. (Link via Super Punch)
Amazon de-lists books dealing with homosexuality
When author Mark R. Probst noticed that hundreds of books dealing with gay and lesbian themes including his own book, The Filly had suddenly disappeared from the Amazon sales rankings, he contacted Amazon about it. Here is the response:
In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.
Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.
Best regards,
Ashlyn D
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage
So Amazon has decided that any book involving gay or lesbian themes is now suddenly “adult”. How nice of them. Let me see if I understand this. If a book has two characters named Chris and Bill that fall in love, it’s “adult”. If a book has two characters named Kris and Bill that fall in love, it’s not “adult”. Does that make any kind of sense?
And it’s not only gay and lesbian fiction that is getting de-listed by Amazon. A biography of Ellen DeGeneres is no longer showing up in the Amazon sales list. If you scroll down to the “Product Details” section, under the “Average Customer Review”, you should see “Amazon.com Sales Rank.” If you don’t, as in the case of the DeGeneres biography, the book has been de-listed.
New ‘Watchmen’ lawsuit, this time it’s over coffee
Massimo Zanetti, the maker of various crappy grocery store coffees including Chock Ful o’Nuts, is suing Warner Brothers, DC Comics, and the Organic Coffee Cartel over coffee that looks an awful lot like a can of Chock Ful o’Nuts. The coffee, Nite Owl Dark Roast, is being sold online with a percentage of the proceeds going to charity.
Clay Enos, the official still photographer of the Watchmen movie, came up with the idea to sell the coffee. Shortly before the movie was released, he was a guest on the Ron and Fez show where he talked about taking photos for the movie as well as his $100 photo book from the movie.
He also talked about this coffee.
Massimo Zanetti is asking the courts for an injunction against any further sale of the coffee, plus they want a percentage not from the coffee sales, but from the actual movie.
Censoring Scott Kurtz
Scott Kurtz
Scott Kurtz, the cartoonist behind the very popular webcomic PvP, got into it the other day with other professional cartoonists over at The Daily Cartoonist blog. The exchange got him banned from posting comments on the blog.
What exactly did he say that got him banned? It was for comments he made in a post reporting that editorial cartoonist Gary Brookins had been laid off from his employer, the Richmond area newspaper, the Times-Dispatch.
Scott Kurtz wrote:
Don’t worry guys. According to Ted Rall, editorial cartoonists have never been more relevant with a more promising future. Everything is going to be juuuuussst fine.
He was referring to things print cartoonist and syndicated columnist Ted Rall has said about webcomics. In a nutshell, Rall is a big believer in the medium of traditional print media, not the Internet, for created content. Scott Kurtz then followed that up with another comment.
He wrote:
Wow. I was just offering a word of support. Ted says that things have never been better for you guys and he would know.
Ted just told me that the money I make in my best year is nothing compared to your worst year. And I’m doing pretty well right now so all you fired guys must be raking it in.
Seriously, if you’re feeling a pinch right now you should talk to Ted. Cause he’s got the real lowdown on how great you guys are truly doing.
This was followed by a comment from the blogger that runs The Daily Cartoonist, Alan Gardner.
He wrote:
I don’t care if you’re webcartoonist, editorial cartoonist or wash dishes at the local taco joint. A good man just lost his job.
Everyone ignore Scott and his comments and bring this thread back to Gary. Scott has been banned from commenting on this site.
If anyone should be against censorship, you would think it would be a group of professional editorial cartoonists. Whether it’s drawing the prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban or pointing out the personal character flaws of politicians or those in positions of power, the absence of censorship is what allows them to do what they do.
Was Scott Kurtz being rude? Maybe, but that shouldn’t really matter. He was using the example of Alan Gardner, an accomplished cartoonist getting laid off from a major print newspaper, to make a point about the state of traditional media.
Often times, editorial cartoonists are rude too. At least the really good ones are.
Wolverine movie leaked on the Internet
X-Men Origins: Wolverine doesn’t hit theaters until May 1, but an unauthorized, slightly unfinished high-quality version is already making the rounds on the World Wide Internet Web via BiTorrent. A spokesman from 20th Century Fox, the studio that is producing the movie said that this version of the movie has temporary sound and music and that it was missing some of the special effects.
So who leaked the movie? The FBI is working on the case. Evidently the movie had forensic marks embedded in it. Investigators will be able to analyze the version floating around on the Internet and pin-point exactly who leaked the movie. Unless of course the person responsible for placing the forensic marks in the movie was the one that leaked the movie.
It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. This isn’t the first time a movie has shown up online before it’s official theatrical release. A working copy of The Hulk showed up online a couple of weeks before it’s theatrical release. Kerry Gonzalez, the man who first uploaded the unauthorized version of the movie, actually spent time in prison because of it.
Comic book featuring a woman in a bikini angers Nebraska woman
Physha Svendsen, a mother in Millard, Nebraska is upset that her 6-year old son brought home a Spider-Man comic from his school library that she believes is too sexually explicit for an elementary school library. She wants it removed from the school library.
The comic in question is J. Michael Straczynski’s Amazing Spider-Man Vol.2: Revelations. It was published in collected form in 2002 and was rated “PG Ages 12+” by Marvel Comics.
I actually find myself almost agreeing with Physha Svendsen about this. What is a comic book rated “PG Ages 12+” doing in a grade school library where a vast majority of kids are not even 12 years old? Not that I think anything shown in this book is even slightly damaging or harmful to children. It features an image of Mary Jane in a bikini. Big deal.
I think that it would be better if the library had comics on the shelves that the children might actually enjoy reading. Though J. Michael Straczynski is truly a gifted writer, I don’t think he writes comics for 6-year-old children. Do 6-year-old children even have enough reading skills to read a comic book?
I’m actually surprised this type of thing doesn’t happen more often. Too many people, including librarians, think comics are just for kids. They’re not.
Celebrating Wolverine’s 35th anniversary with art
Marvel Comics is celebrating the 35th anniversary of Wolverine by declaring April as Wolverine Art Appreciation Month. Various covers of Marvel titles will feature variant covers based on well known pieces of art spotlighting the popular clawed Canadian mutant.
I didn’t know that the 35th anniversary was an important one.
Link (Tor)
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