The Amazing Library-Man

Wonder Woman TV show picked up

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 06:39:39 -0500

(From deadspin.com)

NBC Picks Up David E. Kelley’s ‘Wonder Woman’, Michael Patrick King’s Drama BY NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday January 21, 2011 @ 7:39pm PST Email This Wonder Woman will fly this pilot season after all. New NBC entertainment president Bob Greenblatt capped a day of high-profile pilot pickups with a surprise order to David E. Kelley’s Wonder Woman reboot. Additionally, he formally greenlighted another hourlong project from an A-list showrunner, Michael Patrick King’s Mann’s World. Both shows hail from Warner Bros. TV. Meanwhile, the commitment to the J.J. Abrams/WBTV-produced drama Odd Jobs starring Michael Emerson and Terry O’Quinn, whose script came in very late, is being rolled to next season when it will be applied to the same or new Bad Robot project. And Greenblatt has passed on the Josh Schwartz/WBTV supernatural drama Ghost Angeles starring Rachel Bilson. WBTV took Kelley’s Wonder Woman spec out to the networks in the first week of January. At the time, NBC was the most interested but, with Greenblatt still on the sidelines, the network couldn’t commit to the type of license fee that the studio was seeking in order to do the show Kelley had envisioned, and WBTV decided to shelve the project. With Greenblatt now firmly taking the reins and Kelley just delivering one of the most promising new series for NBC this season, Harry’s Law, NBC stepped up to greenlight Wonder Woman. The project is described as a reinvention of the iconic D.C. comic in which Wonder Woman —aka Diana Prince —is a vigilante crime fighter in L.A. but also a successful corporate executive and a modern woman trying to balance all of the elements of her extraordinary life. “I had a lot of fun writing it,” Kelley said of the script at TCA last week when the project had just been put on hold. “It’s a huge project, and it was probably a bit too much to ask anyone to try to chew on it for next season. But I’m confident it will still happen. It’s a very complicated piece, which is the most fun thing about it.” Mann’s World, which King will also direct, is a one hour drama following the complicated life of Allan Mann, a celebrity hair stylist in glamorous Los Angeles as he navigates the complexities of his business, his family life, and his goal to stay relevant in a world that moves quickly. The project is already casting.

LittleBigPlanet 2 review

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:37:21 -0500

As a game the first iteration of LittleBigPlanet was fun but flawed. Conceptually it was ingenious, a 2D sidescrolling platformer with an adorable mascot that also featured a fairly robust level creator. Sadly the controls were far from perfect and there was a real lack of precision for jumping that is key to this genre of game. And while the community was strong and turned out some amazing custom levels, the controls really turned a lot of people off of the game.

Fast forward to now and the release of LittleBigPlanet 2 and Media Molecule should have a bona fide hit on their hands. Everything that worked in the first game was kept in place and then refined and expanded upon and the controls got a fine tuning to match the pace and lay out of the story levels. If you want nothing more than a fun 2D platformer in the vein of the Super Mario Bros series, LBP2 has you covered, but again where the game really shines is in the community feature. Like the first game, LBP2 features a robust level creator, but again in the sequel it has been expanded upon and improved tenfold. Media Molecule have essentially created a game that could be its own gaming platform just through the level creator. As a member of the beta team I played levels that were games unto themselves—an Atari 2600-esque run n jump game, a top down action RPG (complete with boss fights), a top down racer (a la RC Pro Am for NES), a Geometry Wars twin stick shooter clone, proof of concept of a 16bit style RPG, and so on. Even in just the few days since the games release I have seen some amazingly creative community levels.

If the original game was a proof of concept, the sequel is the polished, finished product. I personally hope that Media Molecule resists the temptation of doing semi annual sequels and instead offers periodic title updates and new level packs for download through the games built in store. In closing LittleBigPlanet 2 is the first game of the year that shouldn’t be missed and should end the year at the top of many Game of the Year lists. I highly recommend it.

Is Brightest Day going to end in Nanda Parbat?

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:00:25 -0500

So with only eight issues left of Brightest Day and Deadman’s White Lantern Ring fully charged I’ve been thinking of where exactly the series will end and it reminded me of a panel from week 32 of 52. Ralph Dibny travels to Nanda Parbat to seek audience with Rama Kushna about possibly resurrecting his deceased wife Sue. When Rama Kushna appears before him, she does so in a blast of light that resembles what we currently know as the White Lantern logo. Geoff Johns was one of the four writers who collaborated on 52, and he has often said in interviews that he plots out his story arcs anywhere from five to seven years in advance—this specific issue of 52 was published in 2006 which would fit nicely into that five to seven year span for the end of Brightest Day. The image below is a comparison of the scene and the logo, and while they are not an exact match, I feel it’s close enough to warrant discussion, especially if you look at the dialog from Rama Kushna concerning death…

Superman Earth One review

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:42:15 -0500

I will be the first to admit that as a character Superman bores me to death—here is a person who can literally do anything he wants and if not for remnants of space rock from his exploded planet and the occasional bit of magic, could never be defeated by anything. And despite his status as one of the most iconic characters (not just in comics, but in general) his stories have always left something to be desired in my eyes. So it was with great interest that I had followed the developments of DC’s line of Earth One graphic novels when they first announced last year—they are to provide fresh starts for iconic characters and let interested readers jump right in and not have to worry about years and years of often muddled continuity in the monthly comics (right now Superman is the only one that has been released, there will be a sequel to it, as well as a Geoff Johns penned Batman book releasing this year and rumors of a Wonder Woman book in the works).

This fresh approach worked wonders for me in regards to Superman—here you have Clark Kent moving to Metropolis after graduating from Smallville Junior College looking to make a name for himself and make enough money to take care of Ma Kent. He realizes he can do pretty much anything and tries out for both professional football and baseball teams, applies at scientific r&d firm, oh and of course the Daily Planet. It is not until an alien menace arrives on Earth looking for Clark that he dons the cape and tights and becomes Superman. We learn that the threat assaulting the Earth has traveled the galaxy looking for the last son of Krypton—they lived on Dheron, a neighboring planet of Krypton. The denizens of Dheron and of Krypton sadly did not live in peaceful co-existance, and every 20 years, when the planets were close enough in their orbits, the two would go to war. Eventually a mysterious figure arrived on Dheron and gave them not only advanced technology but explained how to drill into the core of Krypton and destroy the planet once and for all.

After discovering a lone craft was able to escape Krypton, Tyrell (the Dheron general) led his forces across the galaxy destroying every world in his path until arriving on Earth. After a massive battle in Metropolis, Superman ultimately defeats Tyrell and his Dheron forces and saves Earth from the extraterrestrial invaders.

One of the more interesting plot points to me was that after Superman saves the world, he is not suddenly beloved by all, in fact many doubt him and question if he wasn’t actually a part of the plot and isn’t here to take over the Earth and rule it for himself. Given the circumstances this is not a stretch, how would you react if someone appeared out of nowhere (with powers beyond comprehension) and singlehandedly defeats and alien attack and apparently wants nothing in return. It’s far more likely you would be suspicious of this character rather than welcome him with open arms.

Ultimately I really enjoyed this updated take on the Superman mythos and am interested to see where JMS takes things in volume two.

Flashpoint - what is it?

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 20:28:23 -0500

So every Friday DC’s official blog, the Source, is unveiling teaser information for the upcoming Flash event “Flashpoint”. Flashpoint will be written by current Flash and Green Lantern scribe Geoff Johns with art by Andy Kubert. I’m a bit disappointed with Kubert as the artist as Francis Manapul’s work on the main Flash monthly has just been outstanding, but what can you do. Yesterday they posted the following teasers “Their marriage was arranged to prevent war”, “Where is his ring”, “They experimented on him in a lab for years”, “He spends his days running Wayne Casinos”, “The spaceship never crashed.”

Today DC released this image:

The most surprising of these is that the arranged marriage is between Aquaman and Wonder Woman.

So what does it all mean? Obviously none of these are in line with current DC continuity, especially considering Wonder Woman has been removed from it entirely. Based off the most recent issue of the Flash (which was a secret origin issue of Professor Zoom/the Reverse Flash) my guess is it’s going to center around the Reverse Flash. We know he is able to not only travel back in time, but actually change the past—something none of the other Flashes can do. I’m guessing that he is going to travel back in time and prevent or alter the defining moments that spawned DC’s heavy hitters. He’ll show up in Crime Alley and keep the Waynes from being murdered, somehow turn Superman over to the government (they experiment on him in a lab for years), instigate a war between Paradise Island and Atlantis (their marriage was arranged to stop a war), somehow prevent Abin Sur’s ship from crashing on earth (the spaceship never crashed), and possibly keep Barry from ever becoming the Flash (where is his ring), etc.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the teasers pan out over the course of the next few months leading up to the May event.

Still hope for the Wonder Woman series after all?

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:06:09 -0500

(From www.superherohype.com)

Despite all the major broadcasters having passed on the show, David E. Kelley tells The Hollywood Reporter that he still thinks his vision for Wonder Woman will air down the road. “I think the likelihood is we’ll see it next year,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m being optimistic but I don’t think I’m being unrealistic.” Kelley noted that the script was “rolled out very late in the game” and said that he would bring the project back to NBC, which reportedly passed. The project reportedly failed to move forward there due to executive reshuffling. He said that the network… would be a “good home for it” under incoming programming chief Robert Greenblatt. “I like to think of it as a smart script and I know he responds to smart material,” Kelley said Thursday of his vision in which Wonder Woman would be explored as a “real complex woman and not just a superhero.” Another option for the show could be cable.

Review of NBC's new drama The Cape

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:12:03 -0500

How do you make a live action Batman show without actually having the rights to Batman? You make the Cape. NBC’s new superhero drama takes place in the fictional city of Palm City and follows the exploits one former cop turned hero Vince Faraday.

In the series premiere we find that Palm City is rife with crime and prominent city figures have been targeted by a mystery killer named Chess. With the death of the police chief by Chess, it opens the door for a private security firm (named Ark) to move in and create the country’s first privatized police force. Faraday is recruited to join Ark by a friend and meets up with its owner, billionaire Peter Flemming. After accepting his new position with Ark, Faraday receives an email from the mysterious blogger Orwell telling him a shipment of highly dangerous explosives are being smuggled into Palm City in Ark freight cars down at the rail yard. Faraday makes the mistake of calling his partner to meet him there and investigate the lead from Orwell—shortly after Faraday’s partner arrives (Marty Voyt), so do Ark security forces. They capture Faraday and it is revealed that Chess is no other than… Peter Flemming (because no one saw that coming!). After roughing up Faraday they put a Chess mask on him and release him—his pursuit is then aired live on television so Flemming can frame Faraday as a former good cop gone bad who murdered the chief. After a pursuit, Faraday is shown going under a tanker car which is then fired upon and explodes—so for all intents and purposes, Vince Faraday is now deceased (of course his wife and son witness this all go down on TV as it happens).

Only of course Faraday is not dead, he was able to remove a grate under the tanker car and fall into an underground tunnel where he was discovered by the Circus of Crime. After they rough him up as well, he is able to convince them he is not Chess and was framed by Flemming and Ark. He briefly works with them, allowing them to use his security card (which of course is still functional) to break into a number of Ark owned vaults and steal money from them. Faraday decides that this is not enough though and decides he needs to do more to strike back at Flemming personally. The leader of the Circus of Crime (a man named Max) trains Faraday in the arts of illusion (primarily disappearing/vanishing) and a special cape with weighted ends that he can manipulate and use to strike or grasp objects. He then takes the name the Cape (after his sons favorite comic book hero) and begins his one man assault on Flemming and Ark.

Despite the premiere only covering the timeframe of a couple of weeks, Faraday is not very bright in his foray into superhero-dom. When he first begins to take down Ark agents he does absolutely nothing to disguise his voice and only wears an oversize hood to partially cover his face (looking very much like recycled concept art from the Assassin’s Creed video game series). It’s only after failing to make progress, getting poisoned, and rededicating himself and actually training, does he create a mask.

As mentioned in the opening the entire thing is a fun riff off of Batman and the Gotham City universe. Like Batman, Faraday has no real superpowers, instead he uses trickery, deception, and hand to hand combat training to even the playing field. When he and Orwell (played by Summer Glau) eventually meet, we discover she is very much an Oracle (better known as Barbara Gordon, daughter of commissioner Jim Gordon and former Batgirl) type figure—she’s plugged into a vast surveillance network and guides Faraday with through an earpiece communicator, much like Oracle does for the Birds of Prey in their self titled comic series. One of the first Ark agents that Faraday goes after is named Scales (played by Vinnie Jones) and is an homage to the Batman villain Killer Croc. Actually, the look of Scales would be a great way to do Killer Croc in a Batman film. Jones is a hulking, muscular individual and in the series he gets his name from a skin condition that makes it look like he is scaled.

So while not completely original, the Cape was a fun attempt at bringing the world of superhero comics to the small screen. It was by no means perfect, but there is definitely potential and room for growth.

Women and comics

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 13:26:00 -0500

It seems that about three to four times a year I’ll be linked to or stumble across a female targeted website that runs a story about what female readers want from comic books and the comic industry. They usually have some survey questions answered by readers and conclude with statements such as wanting strong, independent, complex female characters, diversity, and other buzzwords. I do not disagree with any of these statements, and feel they should apply to both male and female characters. What does bother me is when these stories are invariably run and then conclude and act like there are no comics out there that already meet these criteria—it creates the image that if you’re a female reader and have an interest in mainstream comics there are absolutely no options for you if you want to read about strong women characters, which is absolutely incorrect. It also bothers me in the sense because it also implies that girls only want or should only read comics with female lead characters. By that logic as a guy I should only be reading books that feature male characters and not female characters.

But back to my original point, these kind of posts just strike me as lazy reporting and rabble rousing just for the point of rabble rousing. Is it really hard to swing by DC or Marvel’s website and look and see what books they release and offer a few up as suggestions for female readers looking to get into the hobby?

Just on the DC end of things you have the following books that either feature only female main characters or are predominately female—Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Batwoman, Gotham City Sirens, Zatanna, Power Girl, Supergirl, and Birds of Prey (which is written by a woman, Gail Simone, to boot). This doesn’t include titles such as Justice League or America, Justice Society of America, Legion of Super-heroes, Teen Titans, and the Green Lantern books all of which feature prominent, strong women characters on the respective teams. In fact, one of the Lantern Corps (the Star Sapphires) in the Green Lantern universe is comprised entirely of females and each of the other Corps also have strong female members. You also have the year long limited series Brightest Day, which also features strong, complex female characters. And those are just titles being currently published, if you look at trade paperbacks you have titles like Hawkgirl, 52, various Batman collections, Black Canary, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and other numerous collections.

Marvel doesn’t have as many solo titles for female characters since they more focus on team books, but you can still find She-Hulk, Spider-Girl, X-23, and Scarlet solo books. If you look at the their books you have the Avengers, Secret Avengers, Fantastic Four, and the various X-Men titles that all have strong female characters. And like DC you also have countless trade paperbacks to work through if you find the idea of jumping into monthly books too daunting.

So as you can see, it’s not like comic book industry is ignoring female readers and doing nothing to diversify their rosters of heroes. The onus of blame here really falls on the sites that again, just fail to do any kind of research and point their readers in the direction of existing books that fit their criteria.

Now if we could just do something about Hollywood and the TV networks and get that Wonder Woman project off the ground.

End of the year favorites

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 17:15:00 -0500

My New Year’s resolution is to actually use this blog more.

With that said here are my top five lists from 2010 in no particular order

Comics:
Batman & Robin #16
Green Lantern #55
Green Lantern: Larfleeze Christmas Special
Amazing Spider-Man #636
Amazing Spider-Man #637

Books:
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Player One by Douglas Coupland
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan
75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking by Paul Levitz

Movies:
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
How to Train Your Dragon
Tron: Legacy
Toy Story 3
The Social Network

Video Games:
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All Stars
Star Wars: the Force Unleashed 2
Red Dead Redemption

Albums:
Arcade Fire - the Suburbs
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - the Brutalist Bricks
Ryan Adams - Cardinals III/IV
the Crocodiles - Sleep Forever
Vampire Weekend - Contra

Meet Ankanna...

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 11:31:08 -0500

My character in the newly launched PS3 beta for the DC Universe Online MMO.

Nothing like combining sorcery with the speedforce!

Two clips from the upcoming Young Justice animated series

Sat, 20 Nov 2010 10:25:05 -0500

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

and

Green Lantern trailer (forgive the Spanish subtitles)! Pause it...

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 19:50:51 -0500

Green Lantern trailer (forgive the Spanish subtitles)! Pause it at 27 seconds and notice Carol has the Star Sapphire logo on her helmet.

This looks appropriately epic in scale and Kilowog, Sinestro, Tomar-Re, Abin Sur and Hector Hammond all look fantastic.

What is the War of the Green Lanterns?

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 10:15:00 -0500

So as the Brightest Day story event concludes Geoff Johns will be moving the Green Lantern Corp into it’s next mega event—War of the Green Lanterns. On a side note you would think Johns would be tired of writing this huge event stories by now, but I guess not, what with this starting in March and the big Flashpoint story arc next spring/summer as well.

So what exactly will the WotGL entail? So far this little blurb from the DCU Source blog [1]is about the most information we have: “From REBIRTH to SINESTRO CORPS to BLACKEST NIGHT, Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart and Kyle Rayner have stood by each other and fought together to save our universe. After all that, what could possibly tear them apart? We’ll find out in WAR OF THE GREEN LANTERNS starting in March’s WAR OF THE GREEN LANTERNS #1 and throughout the Green Lantern titles in March, April and May. Every Green Lantern is about to be tested — and tested against one another.” Which really doesn’t tell us anything we can’t discern from the title of the story arc.

I do have some thoughts on how it seems to be setting up though. In a nutshell I think the GLC will be split in half—one side will be made up those who either want incorporate the rest of the Lantern Corps into one larger group that represents the entirety of the emotional spectrum (or at the very least continues the truce established in Blackest Night) and one side who wants nothing to do with the rest and feels the GLC is the only corp that is needed. If you look at some contextual clues this really isn’t too much of a stretch.

First let’s go back to the Final Crisis story and Johns’ own Legion of 3 Worlds story. This was a side story during the Final Crisis arc and was part of the greater reimagining of DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes team (the book was brought back this year). The bit of relevance here is that Sodam Yat is the last of the Green Lanterns and his oath is a bit different than what we had previously seen. Gone is the traditional “In brightest day/in blackest night/no evil shall escape my sight/let those who worship evil’s might/beware my power Green Lantern’s light!” and instead we have “In brightest day/through Blackest Night/no other Corps shall spread its light!/let those who try to stop what’s right/burn like my power, Green Lantern’s light!” A few things jump out here—first the last two lines are ripped straight from the Sinestro Corp oath. Secondly the reference to (the) Blackest Night and other corps spreading their light.

During the lead up to Blackest Night it was revealed that each color of the ROYGBIV spectrum was tied to an emotion and had it’s on corp. Red is representative of rage, orange is avarice, yellow is fear (which was established via Sinestro and his corps and wasn’t a revelation), green of course is willpower, blue is hope, indigo is compassion and violet is love (established pre-Blackest Night through the Star Sapphire). Blackest Night was preceded by the “War of Light” that saw the various Lantern Corps at odds with each other, trying to spread their respective light through the galaxy. So for Sodam Yat’s oath in the 31^st century to directly reference this, and in a negative manner ties back into my idea that there will be a camp of GLC members who want to eliminate/do away with the rest of the other Corps.

Also during Blackest Night, Ganthet and Sayd the (former) Guardians of the Blue Lantern Corp have a small conversation during which it is said that the future of ALL the Lantern Corps will need to be discussed once the Blackest Night is over. In the current story arc of Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors we find Guy Gardner and Ganthet have an oath to work with Atrocitus of the Red Lantern Corps on as of yet undisclosed mission. This was set up with Gardner saying that when his mission is complete Hal Jordan will want to “kill” him. Jordan it is worth noting has been less than welcoming to the different Lantern Corps that have sprung up and not exactly trusting of their intentions or motives. The most recent issue of GL: Emerald Warriors also saw Sodam Yat rejecting the Guardians and essentially striking out on his own.

So why would the various Corps feel the need to unite or at least maintain their truce to not attack each other? As we well know both Atrocitus and Sinestro would be completely happy eliminating the Guardians of the Universe, and aside from Larfleeze, the different Corps all want to spread their own respective light through the universe. The thing that in my mind ties it all together is what is going on in the current New Guardians storyline in the main Green Lantern book. We already have Hal, Saint Walker, Larfleeze, Sinestro, Carol Ferris (Star Sapphire), and Atrocitus working together (Indigo-1 disappeared with Black Hand at the end of Blackest Night) to solve the mystery of the White Lantern (which represents life) and discover who is stealing the respective emotional avatars. Again we know from this arc that the hooded mystery figure responsible for taking the avatars is doing so in hopes to eliminate all emotion from the universe—which in my mind would make the Lanterns powerless as they would have nothing to draw upon, and as we know politics and extenuating circumstances can make for strange bedfellows. Faced with this crisis they will realize that for the universe to remain in balance, all emotions are needed and hence the Lantern Corps need to stop trying to eliminate one another.

Ultimately I will probably be completely off mark when it’s all said and done, but at least for now this what contextual clues are leading me to believe will be the cause of the next Green Lantern event.

[1] http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2010/11/15/dcu-in-2011-what-is-war-of-the-green-lanterns/

Woohoo, HD quality capture of the Green Lantern promo!

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:23:22 -0500

Woohoo, HD quality capture of the Green Lantern promo!

Yay for a terrible quality sneak preview of the Green Lantern...

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 07:13:00 -0500

Yay for a terrible quality sneak preview of the Green Lantern movie!

Let the fanboy complaining commence!

For early footage I think it looks fine. I know people are already complaining about the dialog (especially the “let’s get these pants off and fly a plane line”) and are already assuming it’s a comedy, but we only have 30 seconds of footage here. And quite frankly, not every comic book movies needs to get the Christopher Nolan grimdark treatment. Also that one shot of Kilowog is awesome.

agentmlovestacos: Wait…what?

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 09:06:22 -0500

agentmlovestacos:

Wait…what?

Flash #7 Variant cover

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 11:38:10 -0500

I don’t normally go for variant covers but this upcoming variant for December’s Flash #7 by Darwyn Cooke is pretty amazing.

Source: http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2010/11/09/more-cool-art-%E2%80%93-darwyn-cooke%E2%80%99s-variant-to-the-flash-7/

Really Marvel? Spider-Man was going so well (aside from that...

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 21:51:00 -0500

Really Marvel? Spider-Man was going so well (aside from that One Moment in Time nonsense from Quesada) and now you have to go and do this?

The Walking Dead Compendium review

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 21:37:00 -0500

Since this is now a show and I’ll be considerate and remind you that all my reviews (including this one) contain SPOILERS, so read at your own risk and all.

**SPOILER ALERT**

My first experience with the Walking Dead was the premiere of the TV series on AMC, so I came to the comic late. It was one of those books I felt like I should be reading but just ever made the plunge with for any number of vague reasons. When I finally decided to take the plunge last week I wanted to read as much of the story with one purchase as possible, so I grabbed the compendium which containts the first 48 issues of the comic.

The story starts out simple (and familiar) enough, a lone man awakes from a coma in a hospital to find the world in a much different state than he remembers. The dead are walking and have overrun the country and there are very few survivors left. After a botched trip to Atlanta, Rick (the main character), meets up with a group of survivors (included his wife and son) and they do their best just to get by. As expected there are casualties along the way and their numbers diminish.

This is where the story takes an interesting turn—as it progresses it becomes less and less about the zombies and more about how a group of people manage to cope at the end of the world. After they discover that people aren’t turned into zombies from being bitten, but rather just from the simple act of dying. Rick makes the proclamation that it is the survivors who are the titular walking dead, not the zombies. The inevitability of death and the knowledge that it will turn you into a roamer/lurker/biter/zombie. It was an well written bit of misdirection—lure people in with a tale that superficially seems to be about a zombie apocalypse and keep them hooked with a fascinating and extremely well written character study of people who were once normal but now have to live and cope in extraordinary circumstances.

At this point I doubt I will be able to wait for another compendium and will simply pick up the trade paperback volumes, but either way I cannot wait to see where the story goes next

The digital comics initiative

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 19:59:00 -0500

So the digital revolution isn’t exactly new to the world of comics, people have been posting scans of books for ages now. However it’s just recently that the big two (Marvel and DC) have officially gotten behind the digital comics movement. Last year when the iPad launched, it debuted with a Marvel digital comics app and just today DC announced the launch of their own official digital comic storefront On top of that both have been supporting the Sony Playstation Portable’s digital comics app as well.

Unlike eBooks however, I just can’t get behind the idea of reading a comic digitally. I recently heard David Finch briefly comment on the matter and he brought up what I thought were some interesting points. If in a digital format, you have a couple options for displaying comic book pages—you can either fit the page to the size of the screen you are viewing or you can zoom in on individual panels to fit the screen. The zoom to fit option logistically makes the most sense—readers don’t have to squint to make out details or read the text—however doing this can actually detract from the art as well. As Finch mentioned, when you zoom the panel in to fit the screen you lose the impact of having large two page spreads for important events within the book. It takes away a bit of the freedom of the artist in other ways as well—you also lose the ability to do spreads where you have to turn the book 90 degrees to a vertical orientation to display a large imposing figure. And in a lesser common (but seen as recently as Blackest Night #8) layout—the gatefold spread. There’s just something intrinsically cool about getting to a huge revelation/turning point and not only does the art spread across two pages, but you have to unfold the pages to make it essentially a four page spread. In a digital medium how do you convey that sense of significance and awe when maybe all that happens is the screen zooms out a bit to fit all the action onto the screen?

Clearly it’s a decision that makes good business sense for the publishing companies or else they wouldn’t be pursuing it. They can now sell an unlimited amount of back and current issues for anywhere from .99 to cover price and never have to worry about not meeting customer demand. And for those so inclined they can purchase said back issues without having to worry about finding space to store them. But from my perspective comic books just are not a medium that lends itself to a digital format, at least with the current crop of eReaders and tablets. It will be interesting to see how this evolves and changes over the course of the future.

References:

http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.11835.download_the_official_marvel_comics_ipad_app

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2010/11/10/dc-digital-comics-store/