Digital Distribution

I've discovered something useful on the internet. That doesn't happen every day. As a recovering comicbook collector (now reformed and self-labeled "reader") every day in modern pop culture can be a battle. For users, its harder and harder these days to find a reliable dealer. True comic book stores are hard to come by these days. And the fact is that its an expensive habit. Keeping up with your favorite heroes (or anti-heroes for that matter) is daunting task in an era where the death of Peter Parker in the Ultimate universe mirrors the continued existence of Spider-Man in original form. The newest Spider Hero is a multicultural icon, half black and half Puerto Rican. But it can leave you needing an advance on your student loans to grab all 5 books in the original Marvel Universe as well as the Ultimate Universe. I don't even wanna get started with the X-Men. The current storyline is one I've been waiting for since I was 12 reading collected trade paper backs from the Golden era of X-Men tales (Chris Claremont, credited for more than 200 issues of Uncanny and setting the general tone of X-Men up to and including the box office-shattering movies, was the best writing influence on comics through the 80's and into the 90's). SCHISM pits the ideals and leadership qualities of the Cylcops against Wolverine for the direction and strategies of the team into the forseeable future.

Anyways, I don't have the money to buy all these books. I'm saving up to possibly get into a mortgage and the general pace of life leaves little room (physical, to store in my house, and conceptually, for my gf to understand) for the amount of comics I would like to buy every week... So They found a better way.

I've been reading tons of free selections from Marvel's On-Line distribution library and discovered that for access to the entire 15,000+ library I need only pony up 5.99 a month. Marvel's even all caught up with iPhone/Pad apps for anytime/anywhere consumption. Dark Horse Comics' On-line distribution setup similarly awesome. Most books are 1.99 but they sell bundles of complete storyarcs mostly for 4 or 5.99. Since Dark Horse's bread and butter is licensing, the flagship titles most notably being the entire line of Star Wars comics, it goes without saying that there is a ton of material there that I would never go searching for in stores. The online services are changing all that.

I encourage people to check out these libraries. There is so much awesome stuff to look for. If you just wanna go searching for X-Men storyarcs from the 80's (Phoenix Saga), 90's (X-Tinction Agenda, Age of Apocalypse) or straight Wolverine gigs (First Class, etc) you can stick with that. But like I said, Marvel offers a monthly or full year subscription service and its just letting me devour stuff I otherwise wouldn't have the time, money, or honestly general motivation to go after.

Its worth searching the Android or Apple App stores for other comic distro services. They are out there. And in the same way that the internet gave rise to hordes of musicians gaining access to world-class distribution network over night, comic book creators have also established a niche. Yeah, there is plenty of shlock to wade through but there is tons of good free stuff out there...and in the event you discover something truly awesome you can buy, subscribe and support in other ways directly to artists without getting that nerd-stench of old french fries and mom-basement that hangs in the air at your local establishments- assuming there still is a comic book store within 30 miles of where you live.

So take some inpiration from that, and then take an afternoon off and get a hold of 5-10 X-Men issues or Hellboy or Buffy comics or whatever floats your boat. You'll be way glad you did. In the mean time I'm gonna keep scheming on how to go about creating a retail outlet for pop and comic book art that doesn't strictly attract magic card and miniature game-players. This shit is still cool. In many ways now more than ever. Just check box office returns. Comic books are not leaving. They're just evolving..

Visit Dark Horse online....https://digital.darkhorse.com/
Visit Marvel online....http://marvel.com/digital_comics

You Don't Get to 500 Million Friends Without ReBooting a Few Franchises

Ok, this will be a relatively important Superhero movie not called 'Dark Knight' in 2012 as well... Am I concerned? Of course. Am I excited? More so than originally. Director Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer and a bunch of music videos) does NOT inspire...anything really. Its easy to get angry about the demise of Sam Raimi's well-envisioned Spider-Man. Before Bale lowered his voice a couple octaves while trying to catch the doomed Ledger Raimi's portrait of a kid struggling with his own identity - secret or otherwise - was the modern blueprint. And while Andrew Garfield's sympathetic turn in The Social Network may have earned him a good chunk of studio credibility the fanboys are not gonna be quick to anoint the second coming of Peter Parker...especially if the whole venture still wreaks of sparkly vampires and shirtless werewolves (which, lets be honest, is exactly the demographic Sony is looking to snare with this backpedal into 'Spider-Man Goes to High School with obligatory love triangle' territory) when it lands in July....sometime after the Dark Knight Rises and before the Avengers Assemble next year.

So this doesn't show us much. But I'm more intrigued than I was before I saw it. For the record I am sincerely rooting for Andrew Garfield. I just think he is getting thrown into a Fanboy meat-grinder and he may not be ready for the backlash. Not that I sympathize... Herrrre 'goez

From Superman '78 to Superman 2012... How Hollywood decided to Embrace, Bastardize, Cast-Off and then Fall Back in Love with SuperHeroes

Exploring the relationship between Richard and Shula Donner, Joel Schumacher, Bryan Singer and How the Dye for the Modern Superhero Movie was Cast…And WHERE does Joel Silver fit in?

Enter Shane Black-A forgotten writer with credits that include Lethal Weapon, The Last Boyscout… and the Lethal Weapon Reboot? Where does he fit in?

Christoper Nolan and David S. Goyer as overseers of the Superman reboot to be directed by Zach Snyder (sweet!) and all-around DC (movie) Universe Supervisors.

What's Past is Prologue....

I’m trying to draw some concrete lines between some of Hollywood’s ruling class and the direction and tone that all superhero movies have taken since the release of Superman in 1978. There is a definitely a direct connection between Richard Donner (whom I’m a big fan of) and Joel Schumacher (who has far more arguable credibility) and somewhere mixed in there is a sprinkling of producer Joel Silver and director Bryan Singer who has, honestly, been questionable since The Usual Suspects, but is responsible for the tonality of the X-Men franchise before he jumped ship to work on the abandoned (by glitter-meister McG) Superman project which ultimately flopped, and Fox essentially jumped ship on the X-Men, relegating it to the man behind such gems as Rush Hour 1,2 and 3, non other than Brett Ratner (how do I hate thee for destroying the limited credibility the X-Men franchise had attained? Let me count the ways.)

In any event, when the dust cleared, the was much to be said about the way Singer handled the X-Men in movie one and two, casting at time relative newcomer Hugh Jackman in what would ultimately be the lead role of Wolverine and, and cast the rest of the team in a not necessarily star-spangled manner. He also made the plight of the mutant in society (read civil rights movement) tantamount to the storytelling the way Chris Claremont did in his epic 17-yr run helming the writing duties of Uncanny X-Men. Whether or not I agreed with the feel of much of the first movie and disagreed with the way they side-swiped most of the characters in favor of Wolverine (perhaps due to the not-completely-thought-out decision to cast the team with somewhat less than dynamic personalities) is sort of beside the point. I still can’t quite understand why FOX studios is so determined to keep moving backwards in the X-Men timeline in order to tell the story forward. It’s one thing to "back story" Wolverine (although if it wasn’t for the director and writer by way of story I’d be sick to death of him too). It's quite another to keep pushing the X-Men themselves into younger and younger scenarios in order to RE-TELL the Xavier-Magneto story just doesn't make any sense! I can't see the gameplan. And I haven't heard anyone explain to me how Bryan Singer has been allowed back into the room to help with the development of X-Men: First Class and Wolverine 2.But in any event here are some links that I think are somewhat enlightening when you think about how everyone got to playing the parts they do in crafting what the world will remember of the X-Men (and Superman for that matter.)

An article about Singer and how he approached the X-Men source material. Shula Donner (wife of Richard and Producer in her own right) worked closely with Singer from a production standpoint. Singer relates the atmosphere (dealing with the pressure from hokey hero flicks of the late 90’s presented by Schumacher in Batman Forever/ And Robin and Ben Stiller’s send-up(ironically titled Mystery-Men, a reference to the ultimate 4^th wall hero send-up, Flaming Carrot Comics)

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2010/03/18/bryan-singer-and-the-xmen-together-again/

 An Article detailing Richard Donner’s development as a Director and list of Hollywood achievements, which include directing important and well-canonized films such as The Omen, The Toy (one in the series of Gene Wilder/Richard Pryor films, likely as not introducing Donner to Prior and sparking the relationship that would land Prior in the Superman Franchise, as well) Directed all the Lethal Weapon films, from a script by Shane Black produced by Joel Silver, and directed THE GOONIES from a story by Spielberg, who produced the flick with Frank Marshall. Also directed the Lost Boys. Worth a read just for director details. And proof positive that Donner is world-class material. It’s sad to think about how much better the Superman franchise might have been handled if he hadn’t been pulled.

http://www.hollywoodawards.com/donner/

An article and interview with Bryan Singer, now producer for X-Men: First Class (not to be confused with the comic book of the same name ??????) which deals with a first class of X-Men that has nothing at ALL to do with the orginal quintet featured in The X-Men comic book series, features James McAvoy as a not-hairless Professor Xavier and will even bring the X-Men squarely into the middle of future games of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon since Bacon will be playing Sebastien Shaw of the Hellfire Club. Singer touches on production details such as look and feel (inspired by early Bond tech and filming on location in Europe and the U.S. to create a more "international" stylization) and casting choices as well as the meat of the storyline, which is meant to deal less with the X-Men and more with Xavier and Magneto's original vision of a future in which man and mutant co-exist happily. Oh yeah, and the film is set in the '60s when JFK is president.

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/MarvelFreshman/news/?a=21740

This is the stuff that keeps me up at night...

-B

ENOUGH with the Snarking

A weird combination of ideas and events transpired to get me to a realization. No need for the over-snark or just downright condescending overtone. I'm gonna do my best to accomplish a few things:
1. Showcase music - that was my original intention with this page, to bring some spotlight to Wo-Mass and beyond so  I'm gonna try to get back to my original MO
2. Re-structure the tonality. I'm not interested in offending people with my posts. I certainly have opinions and I dang-well will be voicing them. But I thank I can do it in  a less flam-y
more audience-embracing type of writing. Heck knows there are plenty of blogs full o' swears, tears, spears and jeers. So while it goes against every fiber I'm gonna attempt to take me low-rear quarters out of the speech.
So try to enjoy...
Also, Today's tidbit: Andrew Garfield in his new Spider-Man digs. This is the kid that wowed me pretty good in the Social Network and I think had a pretty nice dramatic turn in his mostly rhetorical dialogue with Robert Redford in Lions for Lambs...
He's got three claw-marks across his chest suggesting to me what most people already took for granted, The Lizard will probably be his first villain nemesis...

Oh, and Emma Stone is playing Gwen Stacey. Remember, this is Spider-Boy, high school version of Parker. Mary Jane is just a glimmer in his eye in this part of the continuity. I'll take Stone. She's been good in everything so far. As disappointed as I am with Sony's decision to reboot, it's shaping up to be a strong one..

Spider-Man is Dying...

Well this is the first I've heard of this and I don't have a penchant for following "Death Of.." storylines because the tendency is to use this gimmick to sell various chromium covers of the same issue and other such nonsense. I stopped being a comic book "Collector" a long time ago. Now I just wanna know the stories.

The Shot that will Change a Universe..cover by Leinil Yu

 

 

Anyways, this is hot off the press. Spider-Man to be shot and killed by..I don't even know who this guy is. With the Captain America Star and the Punisher Skull and the Whatnot... In any event, this takes place within the Marvel "Ultimates" universe. Another clever trick they used to re-tell the origin tales of several of Marvel's key (read movie-ready) characters, some of which were reborn with major character differences such as ethnicity (Sgt. Fury, now portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson in the Avengers continuity).

So fear not, for your friendly neighborhood webslinger is sure to reappear sooner rather than later.. Probably with more than enough time to get ready for his ill-advised movie franchise re-boot...

I do like the nod to the first appearance of The Punisher in Amazing Spider-Man #129. Yu's "crosshair" illustration is more than a slight homage to the introduction of Marvel's most popular and controversial figures.

The story arc takes place during the April run of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #157 and Ultimate Comics Avengers VS. New Ultimates. The above illustration is listed as the cover to the Avengers but somehow I think they may have misspoke.

I just introduced a lot of stuff here. Lemme know if you have questions about the Marvel continuity as a whole, how the movies (Iron Man, Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor etc.) fit in and what the heck the Ultimate Universe is all about... I'm here for the people.

What I'm Doing This For....

Well I started off this blog with a few snarky remarks about intelligence and my own self-worth and immaculate taste. That's just how I roll. At the time I put this blog up I hadn't really thought through what I wanted to say. That's another fairly typical example of my behavior; Speaking before I think it all the way through. I suspect that over the next couple weeks and months I'll become, in various intervals, even more or less certain about what is important to talk about. But for now at least I'm gonna try to focus.