Monday, August 31, 2009

Disney to buy comic book powerhouse Marvel for $4B

The Walt Disney Co. said Monday it is buying Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing such characters as Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse and WALL-E.

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.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Mercy Thompson's (Graphic Novel) Homecoming

When I was a kid, my father used to take my older sister and me to 'the green striped store' once a week and give us each a dollar to buy comic books. I can remember getting to buy five each (which should date me!). Oddly enough I don’t remember the ones I used to buy, probably because I read them to shreds and they ended up, after a suitably long time under my bed, in the garbage. But I remember the ones my sister had. She was OCD about keeping them looking new, organizing them, and keeping them away from me. She had more success in the first two tasks than she had in the last.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

I'm at the Post office right now, but not to mail a letter. I am here to try to keep our St. Pete Beach post office open. More to follow...

Monday, August 24, 2009

An Appeal: Call to Time Spirits, Thundercats, Silverhawks Fans…

This is from the website of artist Steve Bissette:
I hate to do this — in fact, I’ve never done this. I hate doing this. But the situation is dire.

If you are or ever have been a fan of the work of writer Steve Perry of Time Spirits, Thundercats and Silverhawks – not to be confused with either the prolific and popular sf writer or the rock star — and you can afford to help a man on his last legs, please, do so.

Despite the best efforts of myself and others, Steve is in dire straits at this very moment, suffering terminal cancer and lack of any support, and sorely in need of any help that can be sent his way.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Murder of Wealthy Florida Businessman Reveals Bizarre Family Troubles

Best blog post evar!
The discovery of the body of a wealthy Florida businessman and hotel heir has turned out to be only the beginning of what has become a multi-state investigation involving reports of kinky sex, catfights and Batman comic books.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Truth, Justice And Superman Is Totally Ours, You Stinky, Greedy Siegel Family

When I saw this quote:
No matter how many times it's asserted in moral terms, fans do not own anything because they're fans of something, even if they feel entitled to that ownership. This is the same kind of ownership a three-year-old feels playing with another kid's toys while the moms sit and visit, combined perhaps with the lovely impulse of an angry drunk bellowing out the hit song's name from the audience when a band is playing their newest stuff and a sprinkle of one of those jerks writing an article that starts with them pulling into JD Salinger's driveway. Just stop.

linked from Steven Grant's Permanent Damage column over at the Comic Book Resources website, I knew that I had to put this quote and this article out for further consumption.

While, I don't think the "feud" that Spurgeon's post hits upon is really about this at its root...I think that this quote does cut to the chase of a lot of the overdeveloped feelings of entitlement that develop among fandoms, whether those of comics, movies, RPGs, novel series or whatever people might want to "fan" about. Basically I saw this quote and decided to spin it out into a mini opinion piece for this blog.

Fans do not own what they are fans of and they are also not "owed" anything by whomever owns and/or produces material that they are fans of. (I know, that is a horrible way to end a sentence but still...) Being a consumer, or being a fan, does not entitle you to anything more than further materials to consume and obsess about in various fora online.

In a response to the article above, this was written: "In the case of Superman, the character should have become the property of the public and the fans of the character already." (find the original article here) This is, really, nothing more than the usual misunderstanding of how copyright works among laymen bolstered by the above mentioned sense of entitlement. Being a fan of something does not give you any greater moral authority towards that something than anyone else, certainly not more so than the creators of the something (or their heirs in this case). To think otherwise is nothing but an overdeveloped sense of entitlement.

Sadly, this is something that is becoming more and more prevalent in the "geeky" communities (look around for comments being made about the announcement of a new Battlestar Galactica movie to be made by Bryan Singer). Fortunately, the more frothy and irrational that people act over these topics the easier it becomes to discount them.

Being a fan of something, anything, and producing whatever (web site, fan forums, print zine, fan fiction) over that something doesn't give you a piece of the ownership pie. It never has, and it isn't going to at any point in the future. Really, all that it does is make the rest of us dorks and geeks look bad by comparison.

On a last note for this posting, I want to remind people that this blog isn't a democracy, nor are you guaranteed freedom of speech. Just as you have the ability to post your opinions in comments to this post, so do I have the right to not publish your comments. And as this is my blog, my rights win out over yours.

TokyoPop Manga: Psy-Comm

TokyoPop Manga: Dark Metro

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Fantasy Flight Games Announces Warhammer ® Fantasy Roleplay ™ 3rd Edition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 12th 2009.

Fantasy Flight Games ('FFG') announced today they will release Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition, a new version of the classic roleplaying game set in Games Workshop's Warhammer world. This version features an entirely new innovative approach to role-playing, one that FFG hopes will attract a whole new generation of gamers to the role-playing experience.

'We're proud to re-introduce the Warhammer world to role-playing with this revolutionary approach,' said Christian T. Petersen, CEO of FFG. 'It is one that harnesses the flavor of prior WFRP editions, but brings about that experience in a more evocative, tactile, and visual way than the past,' he continued. 'We’ve worked long and hard to to publish a game that we hope will represent a positive paradigm shift in roleplaying game design, production, and play experience. This is not another re-tread of the traditional RPG approach, this is something new, something exciting. Something that existing RPG fans will want to test for themselves.'

The massive Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition box, which will retail for $99.95, contains everything a group of adventurers will need to play – four different rule-books, 36 custom dice, over 300 cards, counters, 'character keeper' boxes, and much more.

'We're bringing something new to the table,' added Jay Little, Senior RPG Developer for the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay line. 'This is a roleplaying system that captures the grim and gritty Warhammer world that fans have grown to love, wrapped up in an innovative design and shipped with the stunning production quality that FFG is known for.'

Jay Little will be hosting seminars showcasing Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition at the Gen Con games convention in Indianapolis, IN August 13-15, where a preview of the core set and its components will be on display in FFG’s booth. Preview articles will begin their publication on FFG's website – www.fantasyflightgames.com – in the weeks following the Gen Con convention and will continue leading up to the game's release this Fall.


About Fantasy Flight Games:
Fantasy Flight Games is a publisher of board, card, and role-playing games based in Roseville, MN. Founded in 1995 by Christian T. Petersen, Fantasy Flight has published hundreds of successful titles, including Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game, the Lord of the Rings series of board games; board and card games based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos and George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones, and many original board games such as Twilight Imperium, Runebound, and Descent: Journeys in the Dark.

For more information, visit the Fantasy Flight Games website at www.fantasyflightgames.com.

For further information:
Fantasy Flight Games
Jeremy Stomberg
jstomberg@fantasyflightgames.com
Phone: (651) 639 1905

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay © Games Workshop Limited 1986, 2005. This edition © Games Workshop Limited 2009. Games Workshop, Warhammer, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, the foregoing marks’ respective logos and all associated marks, logos, places, names, creatures, races and race insignia/devices/logos/symbols, vehicles, locations, weapons, units and unit insignia, characters, products and illustrations from the Warhammer World and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game setting are either ®, TM and/or © Games Workshop Ltd 1986-2009, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world. This edition published under license to Fantasy Flight Publishing Inc. Fantasy Flight Games and the FFG logo are trademarks of Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners.

Friday, August 07, 2009

Six Years of Bootie


It's the 6th Anniversary of BootieSF and BootieSL and Club Republik are part of the show. There's a cover charge to hear the music in real life, but in Second Life all you have to do is show up and have fun (and maybe tip your DJs too).

For the 6th Anniversary of Bootie in San Francisco, they're throwing a party that is not just one but two nights long -- tonight and tomorrow. Plus, come to BootieSL in Second Life and hear Second Life's best mashup DJs: DJ Walton Vieria and Miss Cyberpink setting the tone for the nights with their opening DJ sets. Friday hear a special edition of DJ Walton Vieria's Boot Camp for the anniversary party and Saturday drop in to hear Miss Cyberpink's Mash and Grab start things off. The fun in Second Life starts at 7pm SLT with these DJ's sets and then continues at 9pm SLT with a live free of the party in San Francisco.

Click here for a SLurl to take you to Club Republik in Second Life.

My setlist for the special edition of the Boot Camp:
1. Wax Audio - George W. Bush's Imagine (Full Version) (2:18)
2. Copycat - Film Girls in Town (Little Boots vs. Duran Duran) (5:13)
3. DJ Schmolli - Bulletproof Radar (La Roux vs. Britney Spears) (3:25)
4. team9 - Screaming Pro (Beck vs. AC/DC vs. Micheal Jackson) (3:52)
5. Simon Iddol - Don't Stop The Dance (4:33)
6. DJ Le Clown - U Not Alone (Will Smith vs Michael Jackson vs The Beatles) (4:44)
7. Divide & Kreate - Forever Denser (Alphaville vs The Killers) (3:50)
8. ToToM - Slave to David Bowie (Roxy Music vs. David Bowie) (4:05)
9. DJ Schmolli - The Trooper Believer (Iron Maiden vs. The Monkees) (3:42)
10. Scott Cairo - Macamuppet (The Doors vs. The Muppets vs. The Macarena) (5:36)
11. Chaos Productions - Wordy Girl (Edwyn Collins vs. Tom Tom Club vs. Chicks On Speed) (3:07)
12. Bobby Martini - Killer Client (Extended 'Hattie' Mix)(Killers vs Client) (7:50)
13. Party Ben - Egy Ket Skank (Fatboy Slim VS Belga) (6:52)
14. Jerver73 - Fuck Word Up (Peaches vs. Cameo) (2:11)
15. Lionel Vinyl - Half Arsed Beats Party Favour No. 1 (Deee-Lite vs. Salt-N-Pepa) (6:33)
16. DJ Lumpy - Fight a Hero (Aphrodite vs. Bonnie Tyler) (5:05)
17. DJ Tripp - Busy French Saviour (Beastie Boys vs. Le Tigre & Rapture) (3:42)
18. Agent Lovelette - Une Professional Destruction (3:01)
19. Miss Frenchie - Camisra Slash Nation Dot Com (Fatboy Slim vs. Unknown) (3:10)
20. Scott Cairo - Rhinestone Cowboy (Glen Campbell vs. Disco Assassins) (3:33)
21. DJ Earworm - I've Got Seventeen Angels (Eurythmics vs. Ladytron & Chic) (6:06)
22. Party Ben - Poker Face (Just What I Needed) (3:07)
23. Mike W Twitch - Pop Up the Muzik (M vs. M.A.R.R.S.) (6:05)
24. lobsterdust - I Will Survivor (Gloria Gaynor vs. Survivor) (3:34)
25. Dublxero - Who's Diner (Suzanne Vega vs. Stereo MC's) (3:07)
26. Pheugoo - In Your Pony Eyes (Pony Pony Run Run VS Kylie Minogue) (4:11)
27. Divide & Kreate - Dance Dreams (Lady Gaga vs. Eurythmics) (3:49)
28. MP3J - Youve Got To Hide Your Lighthouse (The Beatles vs. Fireman) (2:51)
29. MadMixMustang (20 Fingers vs. Enur vs. Vanilla Ice vs. Sesame Street) - The Ice Cream Mash (3:23)
30. World Famous Audio Hacker - Piece Of Me (World Famous Audio Hacker Mix-Up) (4:52)

Click here for the SLurl to take you to Club Republik and two night of BootieSL.

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Life in Comics: The Shape of the Industry - 8/3/2009 5:27:00 PM - Publishers Weekly

This is an interesting viewpoint that I think gets lost in the shuffle of big budget comic movies and over-hyped summer comic events. Click through and give this a read.
In March, the New York Times inaugurated its Graphic Books best seller list, just in time to acknowledge the runaway sales of Watchmen, as the trade paperback reaped the benefits of movie hype. ('Comics have finally joined the mainstream,' wrote George Gene Gustines in the NYT's Arts Beat Blog, perhaps a little self-servingly.)

At Comic-Con, the line for Bryan Lee O'Malley created a lively wall of fans of his graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim, currently in film production with Michael Cera as its lead. O'Malley has been popular for a long time, but news of the movie seems to have pushed that popularity to comics rock stardom. (I admit that I had a twinge of 'I liked Bryan Lee O'Malley before he was cool! Even before Scott Pilgrim!' as I inched my way around this wall.)

But this isn't just another commentary about comics and Hollywood. I've been thinking about it in the context of what Comics Reporter writer Tom Spurgeon recently wrote: 'A successful convention rarely leads to increased industry success because the infrastructure is damaged in fundamental ways....' You can substitute 'convention' for 'comic book movie' in that sentence—or anything at all, really—and it remains just as true.