Category Archives: Around the Web

Around the Web September 19, 2014

Those of us who are not fans of Digital Rights Management (DRM), will be happy to hear that there has been another victory against it. Comixology has announced that over 4000 comics available on the site have been made DRM free. Comics from twenty publishers are now available with PDF or CBZ files that can be downloaded, stored and used however the reader would like. While Marvel and DC are not among the publishers going DRM free, hopefully they will start to feel the pressure soon and jump on the bandwagon.

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I’m not exactly holding my breath, but I think that eventually they won’t have much choice. Continue reading

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Around the Web September 5, 2014

Most geeks I know are looking forward to the premeire of Gotham in just a few weeks.  Unfortunately, most of the people I know also lead busy lives and might miss an episode or two. With DVRs that’s less of a worry, but is not completely alleviated. I know from experience that I have both forgotten to record shows or the DVR has screwed up and only recorded five minutes. As far as Gotham is concerned, it’s no longer a worry because Netflix has already acquired the rights to the show. In a fairly unprecedented move, Netflix has obtained the rights to a completely untested show (that isn’t a Netflix original), and it will be the international source for video-on-demand services.

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It’s worth noting that Amazon did something similar with Under the Dome, though not to the same extent as Netflix. Continue reading

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Around the Web August 16, 2014

This has been a pretty good week for anybody who is following the production of Star Wars: Episode VII. First was the leaking of what appears to be the helmet of a Stormtrooper. Although it has been updated, it is still obviously a descendant of the iconic black and white helmet. Of course the picture popped up on Twitter and disappeared from the original source about as quickly, but given that this is the internet, nothing ever truly goes away. At this point, a quick Google search will bring you a ton of images of the new helmet. There is the possibility that this is just the doing of some fan and that it’s not a real movie prop, but we should be accustomed to this kind of thing by now.

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I wonder if the new helmet will help them aim better.

On to the second bit of Episode 7 business. We’ve also gotten what looks like costume designs for everyone’s favorite scoundrel. While the first does look something like a mix between Jedi robes and his old costume, the second one looks an awful lot like his costume from Hoth. The one thing that did catch my eye is something that looks quite a bit like an Imperial rank insignia on his chest. It might turn out to be nothing, but then again, there might be something worth looking into later.

Harrison Ford having some fun at a photo shoot for Star Wars.

Also, it appears that Ugg boots have invaded a galaxy far, far away. These are truly sad times.

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The last thing on today’s agenda is something that has nothing to do with Star Wars, but is in fact a short tale from my own day today. I got into comics about eight years ago, right around the time of World War Hulk, a Marvel event by Greg Pak and John Romita Jr. At the time I was new to comics and didn’t really understand what exactly makes comics valuable (I’m still working on this one, don’t judge) and so Joseph De Paul and I bought up the whole set of them and got Greg Pak to sign them. Despite our best efforts, we never did get Romita Jr. to sign them. Only after all our hard work was done did we realize that absolutely nobody wanted signed copies of these books because I don’t think anyone turned out to be a real fan of the series. On top of all that, my local comic store had an insane amount of World War Hulk back issues due to a customer who bought hundreds of copies just to get the varient cover. Every time I would go looking though back issue boxes, there they were, mocking my failure. Needless to say, I learned a valuable lesson.

Today, however, into my inbox drops an email from Comixology informing me of the sale on the “fan favorite epic” that was going on right now. After my personal experience, my first reaction was to fight the overwhelming urge to take a rolled up newspaper and whack someone from Comixology on the nose like a bad dog and say “NO” in a stern and authoritative voice.  In my opinion, they can think themselves lucky I didn’t rub their noses in it

 

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Around the Web August 1, 2014

Anybody who is anybody knows that today is the release of Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel’s newest cinematic epic. The film features Chris Pratt as Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord. But unlike Marvel’s previous films, the Guardians are all relative unknowns. Well Comics Alliance has provided us with a brief, humorous, and slightly helpful history of Star-Lord. I’d use this mostly for laughs, though I can strongly agree with them about needing to read the Abnett/Lanning run of Guardians. It’s a spectacular run that didn’t get enough credit when it was in publication. Also there is a Comixology sale going on, right now!

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Go forth and educate yourselves!

Of course, with Guardians of the Galaxy coming out, the big question on everyone’s mind is “What will Marvel do next?”. Well our friends over at Yahoo have some theories of what Marvel should be thinking about. I’m not too keen on a couple of their suggestions, especially bringing The Sentry to the big screen, because all he does most of the time is go crazy or sit around all depressed. (Let’s be honest, real life is depressing enough. We watch superhero movies to forget that life is depressing.) I do, however, agree with X-Statix and Great Lakes Avengers (although they left out Squirrel Girl in their description). Marvel has a really deep bench of great material and they should start tapping into it more.

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They can however skip over pretty much anything Rob Liefeld did, except for a potential Deadpool Cable movie. I’d be down for that.

And what kind of geek culture blog would we be if we didn’t mention at least something from San Diego Comicon? The US site for the British newspaper The Guardian takes a look at the long standing Black Panel at SDCC. They’ve got a great interview with the man who created and runs the panel, Michael Davis. I really love the way Davis runs his panel. He noted that in the past, similar panels tended to be all about bitching, and that he wanted to do something positive. The panel’s main purpose is the discussion of how to create characters and stories that feature African-American heroes, but it goes beyond that, and regularly involves prominent members of the black community in the discussion. The biggest take away I got was the very last paragraph. I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s a great way to look at things.

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I really want to know what Shaq had to say about comics.

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