I seem to be reading a lot of all-ages stuff lately, which I attribute to the fact that I am desperately trying to get my 9 year-old son into more comic books. Top Shelf’s Monster on the Hill may be the book that brings him over to the graphically exciting side, my friends.
Finish the rest here
read the rest here
by Chuck Suffel
I was 11 in 1981. It was a hell of a year in film, movies like Raiders of The Lost Ark, Clash of the Titans, Escape From New York, Excaliber, even Stripes were in theaters. Television premiered shows like; Simon and Simon, The Fall Guy, Today’s F.B.I. and a bunch of others I loved. It was a really good year. But then we had the cartoons…
Ouch. I mean really, Goldie Gold and Action Jack and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends were okay I guess but there was also; The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam!, The Kwicky Koala Show, Space Stars, Trollkins, and of course The Smurfs.
I get it, I was eleven. These shows weren’t meant for me, but the fact remains I’ve never bothered looking at any of Peyo’s (creator of the Smurfs) work because of that show. It’s one of those cartoons that can actually drive me to violence. (Which is probably why my 7 yr old insists on watching it whenever she notices it’s on)
Well I review comics now, so when a publisher sends you something to look at you kind of feel obligated to at least check it out. Which is of course how I happened upon Benny Breakiron.
finish reading here
Plot Summary: From Walt Disney Animation Studios comes “Big Hero 6,” an action comedy adventure about brilliant robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada, who finds himself in the grips of a criminal plot that threatens to destroy the fast-paced, high-tech city of San Fransokyo. With the help of his closest companion—a robot named Baymax—Hiro joins forces with a reluctant team of first-time crime fighters on a mission to save their city. Inspired by the Marvel comics of the same name, and featuring comic-book style action and all the heart and humor audiences expect from Walt Disney Animation Studios, the CG-animated “Big Hero 6” hits theaters in 3D on November 7, 2014.
Big Hero 6 is a superteam in the Marvel Comics universe. They technically first appeared in Sunfire and Big Hero 6 #1 (September 1998), though they were created by Steven T. Seagle and Duncan Rouleau in the pages of Alpha Flight, volume 2. That issue sparked interest in a mini-series which Seagle and Rouleau did not have time to create, thus Scott Lobdell and Gus Vasquez were assigned the mini-series. Scheduling issues resulted in the mini-series appearing before Alpha Flight #17, though the Alpha Flight issue was chronologically their first appearance in the Marvel Universe. A new 5 issue miniseries was launched by Marvel Comics in September 2008.
By Robert “Rob Base” Greenwood
Comic book piracy
Before anyone bashes this article let me just say. Piracy and theft of copyrighted material is a crime and is not something that should be supported.
Now that the formalities are over,lets talk about the music business for a second. Since the whole piracy issue really affected them the hardest.
Back in the early 80s cassette tapes brought on new dimensions of listening pleasures and with that the first true modern advent of ”piracy” took hold.
But as far back as I could remember we still purchased the record or tape no problem. Sales grew ten folds as new genres of music paved it’s way across the air waves. Even with this knowledge labels screamed abuse due to blank audio cassette tapes and the creation of the ”mix” tape.
Yet rock stars still flew private jets and rap stars still sold out arenas. So years pass and the next big thing took hold, it was called the compact disc. The CD created new level of sound and listening euphoria.
This new age of enlightenment was dubbed the “Computer Age” and with it came the dawn of coping disc to share across the Internet via file sharing sites. This spurred much debate. On top of everything else sales started to slump, keep in mind that these sales slumps weren’t across the board and music stores still existed.
So what changed?
Why was the music business hit so hard? There are many theories out there but never fully touched on this subject.
Supply and demand.
The high cost of music production be it in the realm of sales or R &D. Pay checks to Execs who for the most part do nothing. Walk into any real record label I dare you! you will find that they have a ton of low paid people who know their stuff and the Execs are never in their office , they party on money racked in by the performers.
Cd sales dropped so what did the music stores do ? Raised the price of a cd. The average price of a cd was 11 bucks and here’s the thing , we all buy blank cd’s to do many a task and we know how cheap it is. 32 cents per disk even less now and it costs roughly 10 cents for a case. So, the real question is why? Why is a cd with 12 songs costing 15 to 22 bucks?
The lovely little term ”overhead”. Instead of knocking down the price of a cd, they raised it to keep their personal bankrolls stable.
Invention of the Internet will always bring Good and bad things. On to the subject at hand comic books. Unlike CDs which retain no value or have little collect – ability. Comics have always been a market based on a collector,who wish to read the comic and collect the book.
Artist and publishers can blame piracy for the down fall of comics but the truth is comics created the downfall themselves.
With the creation of image comics and companies relying on hyperactive art over substance and the ”chase” cover. Comics slowly sealed their own doom. Plus the ever raising price in a modern market place is another factor.
No kid will spend 5 bucks on a 32 page comic with 6 pages of advertising. Comic books have been on a rise due to better stories and better art. Yes people pirate comics. So the question how do you stop it?
Piracy is created out of a lack of money or the lack of willingness to commit to a product. People are willing to spend money if the price is right. Yet understand that Comics and all printed medium fight for that 32%. (All printed media are fighting for less than 40% of all consumers. This was from a consumer report from 2011)
If it’s free they will read. I want a comic artist nowadays to tell me they buy CDs!
Ask anyone if they buy music and they will say “Oh I download and buy from apple or amazon.” Well good for you, I do the same for comics. make it worth while and I will buy.
In the end piracy will always be there. Nothing can truly stop it nor completely control it.
On the subject of digital comic books the price is still a bit high but on any given day Comixology has 99 cent deals. In the end, if you want and enjoy these comics buy some.
I love armor on Barbarians but this new outfit looks more like a New God outfit than actual Armor. I know a lot of people feel He-Man doesn’t need armor but he does wear armor.
Say what you want but He-Man without armor is just Tarzan! I know He is stronger than Tarzan but his look should retain classic and Iconic. Bring back his Conan like roots.
