Virgin Comics

Wow... in the year that I've blogged, I've received a handful of comments and e-mails from unexpected corners... something I'm grateful for. This is the first time anybody's e-mailed me with content.

It could be my ignorance, but I've never heard of Current.com before receiving an e-mail pointing me at the video embedded above. (That's right! I've now embedded a video! I've just stepped into 2005.) I'm not positive if there's any business connection between Current.com and Virgin, but as Gotham Chopra seems to appear on Current.com, it does seem like a possibility.

But moving past the potentially promotional nature of the piece, it's an interesting video about the creation of a stronger media industry in India. The increase interest in anime and manga from Japan over the past decade shows that US consumers are open to this kind of entertainment from foriegn sources. Heck, the Indian film industry (Bollywood) has a following in our country, which birthed the Motion Picture Industry. Comics and animation from India could very well prove popular, especially as fans become more jaded with mainstream US comics.

As I move my comic purchases online to save money, maybe I'll take a look at a few of Virgin's titles.

Let's Do the Time-Warp Again!

Wow. I've already read this week's issue of Amazing Spider-Man.

Wow.

Coming to me apparently via the US Postal Service's temporal delivery service, I have this Wednesday's issue of Amazing Spider-Man.

Now I realize there's no street date on comics. I mean the script for this issue was probably finished at least three weeks ago, possibly even further back. And it's not like Marvel's going to fine themselves $10,000 for shipping me the book early. I'll just have to remember to check the mail more often. Truth be told, this actually arrived yesterday. I'm just so conditioned to think of New Comics and Wednesday as the same concept that getting a book on Monday or Tuesday... that's just crazy-talk!

I've actually subscribed to four additional books through Marvel, at a special price of $19.97. (Sadly, the offer was limited to four titles.) So Daredevil, Captain America, The Invincible Iron Man and X-Factor will be coming to me factory direct from the House of Ideas. It's good to know that even as I begin to move towards online purchases for my new comics, I'll still get a few books near their ship dates.

Marvel Comics... Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

It's weird... over the course of one day, I had two experiences that carried me to two very different thoughts about Marvel as a whole.

First, let's start with the positive. I got my first issue of Amazing Spider-Man direct from Marvel. It arrived day and date with the 'newsstand' release. I received it in the mail on the day I would have purchased it in the store. That's extremely cool. With the alternatives I'm exploring regards to getting my comic fix cheaper, it's great to know that this option is letting me purchase Amazing Spider-Man three times a week for less than half the cover price. My purchase price for the issue was roughly $1.39 and I can't complain about that.

What I can complain about is Secret Invasion. I love the concept of the event, and in some ways the execution has been pretty cool... but I can't for the life of me figure out why I'm paying an extra dollar for it. It's not a longer title... it's not bereft of advertising. Why is it more expensive than any of the other 32-page monthlies out there? Can anybody answer me that? Aside from that complaint, there's also the usual gripe that it's Bendis doing what Bendis does. The entire second issue could be summed up by saying "we think that Mockingbird from the ship isn't a skrull." Maybe I need to re-read it, but I think that's all that actually happened in SI #2.

But I think that the positive outweighs the negatives. And on top of that, Marvel's offering me further discounted titles for being a subscriber. I guess that'll make up for an extra dollar a month.

Something I Don't Want To Do

So, it's no surprise that with the US economy sprialing down the tubes, that everything's getting more and more expensive. This trend, fortunately, hasn't hit comics yet... but as $40 won't fill my gas tank anymore, anything I can do to help lower costs is something to be admired.

To that end, I'm finding myself seriously considering dropping almost my entire sub-form, and going to an online service like DCBS for most of my comic books. I've already taken a first step in removing my comics from ye olde comic shoppe by subscribing to Amazing Spider-Man, now three times a month, directly from Marvel. (They've got a rather nice deal, available via the above link, offering 36 issues, a full year of the book for $49.97.)

Services like DCBS allow you to place advance orders through their service at seriously discounted prices. However, it seems to me that you're responsible for placing your order each month, so you have to keep much more on top of what you're buying. And the big downside (as I see it) is that to take the best advantage of the service, you get your month's worth of comics in one shipment.

There's a special joy, to me, in purchasing new comics directly from the store every week. The guys down at ye olde comic shoppe don't need to ask my name, they know where my pull file is. I know a few of them, and consider them friends. I'd feel a little guilty pulling my business from behind the store, but when it all comes down, less money spent is less money spent. I've been shedding titles over the past few weeks, but I'm not sure that's enough.

Now, I'd plan on keeping 'event' comics on sub-forms at the store. I don't want to wait to read Final Crisis #3 until weeks after the news sites have already posted all of the spoilers. And any orders I'd place via DCBS will be for two or three months in the future.

So, I'd ask anybody reading the blog to chime in... have you used an online comic service? What did you think? Do you have a strong thought on the subject one way or another? Let me know!

Defining Moments in Cool

Henry Peter Gyrich may very well be the defining a-hole of the Marvel Universe. Hey may have stolen a prototype weapon meant to help defend the earth from a mystical threat from another planet, and used it to zap Storm, draining her powers. And he may run secret black-ops projects and employ former nazis trying to construct his power-base in the Initiative's training camp at Fort Hammond.

But it takes some serious cool to wear sunglasses inside a space suit! I couldn't pull that off... what if they slid forward? What if they made your nose itch?

Agent Gyrich... I salute you!

This image brought to you by the wonder and majesty of ROM#63 in which Forge supervises construction of a gigantic orbital weapon to zap all of the menacing Dire Wraiths off the Earth at once. Somebody saw a little too much Star Wars.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

As a rule, I keep my posting to this blog limited to comic-book related subjects only but today I'm going to make an exception.

What I enjoy most from my comic books, and from any other media that I consume, is quality storytelling. Ideally when I crack a book (whether it's got paragraphs or panels) I'm looking to be taken away to another place... whether it's Gotham City, Azeroth or the decks of the Galactica, I'm looking for a writer (sometimes assisted by artists or actors) to immerse me in the lives of other people and their own personal struggles.

Today, I completed Grand Theft Auto 4.

It's no big surprise that I love video games, but it was a surprise to me that I really enjoyed this one. I'd played a couple of the earlier GTA games, but they'd largely wound up as stress relievers for me. Had a bad day? Open up with a shotgun in a crowded street, and see how long it takes for the cops to bring you down. The story was simplistic at best, as you went from one mafia cliche to another, pulling off more difficult crimes until I lost interest. That's usually something that happeed fairly quickly. That's NOT what happened in GTA4.

I bonded with the main character, Nico Bellic pretty quickly. For the three people who might read this without being aware of the specifics, in GTA4 you play as Nico, an illegal immigrant from an unnamed country in Eastern Europe. He arrives in a fictionalized version of New York called Liberty City, to find that his cousin's promises of wealth and opportunity are unrealized dreams. Most of the activities that Nico takes a part in are no different than those in the previous games... but he's given an interesting past, as the survivor of a civil war in his homeland. He also has a personal mission in Liberty City as he searches for the man who betrayed his unit in the war, leading to the death of men he'd known from childhood. It's a story of vengeance that, for me at least, had a real impact. I cared about Nico, and about the new friends he made in his new home.

I came to the climax of the story today, and while the events of the climax are sad, I can honestly say I'm satisfied. The game's makers, Rockstar North, didn't skimp on the story. There was a theme that ran through the entire game (and it took me over 40 hours to reach the end.) In an art form where the pacing, and to some degree even the content are not decided by the creators, I'm truly impressed that the story told in this medium was as mature and developed as it was. This game deserves to get some press... for the right reasons.

Heroes Con 2008 Preparation -or- Hunting the Wild Autograph

As we roll inevitably into a sweltering South Carolina Summer, I find comfort in the fact that it means that the annual pilgrimmage to Charlotte and Heroes Con draws nigh.

I love Heroes Con... it's usually adjacent to my birthday, which means I almost always have some money I can spend there. It might be a bit of a drive, but I've yet to have a bad experience there. And the experience has only gotten better since I added two items to the menu: signings and panel discussions.

The panel discussions are thoroughly enjoyable. I won't pass up on the DC Nation panel, because even though my interest in DC's heroes is waning in favor of Marvel, I can't deny that Dan Didio brings energy and enthusiasm into a panel. Even if I don't like what he's saying, he usually manages to amuse me. The Marvel panel last year fell really short of my expectations, and the fact that I don't see Joe Quesada on the guest list makes me wonder if we aren't going to see the same thing again this year, but hope does spring eternal. And if nothing else, the panels give me a place to rest my legs and look over my haul thus far.

But one thing that I think has really energized my experience at the convention is bringing books with me to be signed. I'm not usually an autograph junkie, and I don't tend to bother famous folks when I do stumble onto them, but I think that the signed book is the perfect memento of a comic book convention. I look at the scrawl on the cover, and it manages to take me right back to the experience of waiting in that line, and helps to keep the day fresh in my head. And the guest list for this year is considerable. Right now I find myself seated at my computer, trying to decide what to take with me.

Just a little over a month to go, and the excitement is building.