Tie?
No.
He beat the Sentry and almost Smash Earth but the Satelite Neutralize him in time.
If Deadpool had been there he would pull him into two pieces and throw them to different half of the globe like he did to Wolverine.
In these days of Dark Avengers I look at Sentry being jobbed to Hulk in that series now and laugh a bit.
Different scales of power. During the Hulk sentry fight Hulk was at pretty much the strongest he'd ever been due to the level of righteous fury he possesed and still being super charged by the exploding warp drive on Sakaar. Sentry by comparison was just coming around to his need and didn't want to fight the hulk with every fibre of his being.
What I liked about that fight was that it took everything that Hulk and sentry had in them to finish the fight, until there was nothing but there de-powered selves flailing away at each other until bob fell down.
If that fight were to be repeated NOW, Hulk would probably lose. He wouldn't get jobbed like ares did (sentry would probably just disintegrate him like he did MM), but the fact that he's all crazy powerful thanks to getting a second hit of the serum and being more in touch with his dark half would make it a david vs. goliath match for the hulk.
Other than public shaming and Radical ceasing publication of his series, I doubt we'll see any serious fallout. Kubo seems to be taking it in good humor too.
A LOT of foreign fans have contacted me overnight about a comic book plagiarizing BLEACH. I don't really understand English, but I went and looked at the website, and apparently it was something about a comic that Gene Simmons' son is writing.
I'm more interested in the fact that Gene Simmons' son is a manga-ka than whether he's plagiarizing me or not.
Seems like a pretty funny dude.
What always amazes me about artistic plagiarists in the cavalier attitude they display. I suppose it's better not to own up to your mistake in case your words would later be used against you in court, but I really just want to see David Mack, Greg Land, or Simmons to just admit they got lazy and fucked up, rather than lie or make excuses for themselves.
Other than public shaming and Radical ceasing publication of his series, I doubt we'll see any serious fallout. Kubo seems to be taking it in good humor too.
A LOT of foreign fans have contacted me overnight about a comic book plagiarizing BLEACH. I don't really understand English, but I went and looked at the website, and apparently it was something about a comic that Gene Simmons' son is writing.
I'm more interested in the fact that Gene Simmons' son is a manga-ka than whether he's plagiarizing me or not.
Seems like a pretty funny dude.
What always amazes me about artistic plagiarists in the cavalier attitude they display. I suppose it's better not to own up to your mistake in case your words would later be used against you in court, but I really just want to see David Mack, Greg Land, or Simmons to just admit they got lazy and fucked up, rather than lie or make excuses for themselves.
There was a really good article pointing out how many of the fans who are ready to lynch to Simmon's are the same ones that hurt Kubo more by just reading scanlations of his work and DL sub versions of the anime.
Reading scanlations does not hurt him in the least. Piracy has never affected any industry's sales to any noticeable effect ever. Otherwise, blank tapes would have killed the music industry. VHS would have killed the movies. Blank CDs would have ended the music industry. Napster would have killed the music industry. Torrents would be killing the movie, music, comic and every other media industry. Yet EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM seems to be increasing their profit margins every year.
Every single independent (ie: not funded by the RIAA) study has shown people that pirate music (havent actually read any regarding movies or comics piracy) buy MORE music albums per year than people that do not pirate. One study went so far as to map buying patterns in relation to piracy and found those filthy pirates buy around 0.44 albums per song pirated more than their non-pirating friends. Albums per song. Not one song, but entire albums.
Movies continue to gross higher and higher (even with inflation accounted for) every year. Wolverine: Origins was released a month before the hteatrical release online in DVD quality with a few minor effects unfinished. It was downloaded millions of times, on every news site, blog and even on television. They went on and on about the effects of piracy. The movie was panned by EVERYONE that watched it. Even official reviews around release stated how bad the movie was. It did gangbusters at the box office. Goddamn pirates. Cant believe they hurt that shitty movie (37% on RT) so much it only made like $370+ million.
Avatar is the most downloaded movie ever and there are currently screeners from back around the awards floating around and received just as much news attention as any other movie on blogs, news sites, etc. Think it did alright at the box office. Barely broke a billion, but it's a bad economy. We can blame piracy on it though.
Comics? Oh, ya, they get downloaded every week. It's weird though. Ever since it really took off around end of hte 90's/ early 2000's, comics seem to have improved in sales every year. Even trades see higher sales. Only time they've had difficulties seems to be when a) economy tanked - and even then, it was minor compared to every other industry - and b) when comics increased to $3.99. Hmm, piracy levels stay about the same throughout, sales increase every year except when they increase the price by 33% during an economic crisis. Piracy definitely caused the relatively minor decrease (few %). Definitely piracy.
in short, anyone that blames piracy on decreased sales is a sanctimonious lemming of the RIAA that failed to do an ounce or research on the effects of piracy. It is purely a marketing tool that allows them to blame failures in marketing, product quality, pricing models and economic timing on a phantom menace. Even the music industries bullshit metrics doctor their numbers by pointing out decreased physical sales. Guess what they never mention in that? Ya, digital sales are through the roof. But no, it's piracy resulting in people not wanting hunks of plastic cases and useless CDs anymore. That's the obvious reason CD sales are down. NOt the fact they buy mp3s and use mp3 players and dont give a fuck about physical media anymore. They never really look at the possibility that their product is terrible either. People get tired of recycled Nickel Back songs and the same generic American Idol bullshit. But if they keep producing it and it doesnt sell, it's obviously piracy.
But hey, let's blame piracy. You wouldn't download a car, would you? Because, really, no one has ever rebuilt a car in their garage from downloaded schematics. Or maybe they are trying to imply that physically stealing a product is the same as piracy, which is copyright infringment. It was a catchy bit of propaganda though, so who cares how absurd it actually is.
I generally agree that piracy doesn't translate to lowered sales for physical products. The people that like the product, want to support it, and have the means to do so, will. The people who only like it enough to download it for the sake of completion, a sentiment I've heard many comic pirates express, were never going to buy the thing anyway.
For instance, I don't download comics, but when I'm at the local comic shop I'll page through ones I have no intention of buying. Because, I want to see if anything happens I'm interested in, or whether the book might be worth buying in TPB down the line. And if my local comic shop owner told me to knock it off, I certainly would. But I'm not going to buy the thing either way, so the dude really doesn't have anything to lose by letting me flip through Teen Titans or JLA. Because some stuff I really only care to read or look at if I can do it for free.
Plus, it's sort of a weird situation with the scanlation crowd, as they're downloading material not even available to them in an official format, and many of them probably do buy the official, licensed material later on.
One interesting thing I've heard is that US soldiers in Afghanistan/Iraq are finding that they can buy pirate cd's containing that week's recent comic releases for very cheap. Which I think is actually a good thing, not because I support our troops, but because the comic media is being distrubted to an audience that doesn't have any other means of obtaining it. Sure, its piracy, but I also believe that it is an intrinsic right of people to be able to have access to different forms of media that they may not otherwise have access to.
I've often wondered if its ethical to be able to view comics that I may not otherwise have access to myself. For instance, I absolutely love Marvel's 2099 series. However, even though Marvel massively overprinted in those days, it can still be next to impossible to track down all the issues. And Marvel doesn't republish the 2099 imprint (except for the recent Spider-man 2099 trade). So is it wrong of me to try to find the 2099 series online?
It has happened before that works of art or serially produced media have had their originals destroyed and all other copies destroyed or missing. Shouldn't we take efforts to ensure that art and literature is preserved? I would say that this takes precedence over piracy issues. Let's take the Heavy Metal magazine. Sure, its included comics can be hit or miss. But there are some real gems in there on occasion. But I have never seen a collected Heavy Metal trade, nor have I seen the stories contained collected elsewhere. Isn't it worth preserving in an electronic format?
I have never accessed pirated comic issues in an electronic format, nor would I know how to begin. Unfortunately, delving into that realm would involve constant sanitization of my computer. When I saw the complete Spider-man run collected on CD, I bought it right away. It was a good deal for $15, even if there was no real effort to organize and present the comics. It was essentially a bunch of straight PDF scans of the comics, complete with advertisements. And if you wanted to read the comics, you had to do some funky scrolling from time to time in Adobe Acrobat. But at least it was available. I heard later on that they also did the same with the Fantastic Four , Incredible Hulk, and Uncanny X-Men. I intend to pick those up at some point before they're no longer available, because I imagine that with digital distribution the back issues could become profitable for Marvel to distribute to Kindle/iPads. They're already rising in price from when I originally saw them for sale.
What comic books have you truly enjoyed that are no longer available?
One interesting thing I've heard is that US soldiers in Afghanistan/Iraq are finding that they can buy pirate cd's containing that week's recent comic releases for very cheap. Which I think is actually a good thing, not because I support our troops, but because the comic media is being distrubted to an audience that doesn't have any other means of obtaining it. Sure, its piracy, but I also believe that it is an intrinsic right of people to be able to have access to different forms of media that they may not otherwise have access to.
Hey, guess where I am right now? Iraq! Guess what I've been doing? Buying comics online. There are numerous places that will ship to APO addresses (aka military overseas), and some places will even throw in free shipping. My home station is Japan, so I quickly learned how to acquire my usual reading materials, and in the same way that I have my favorite books shipped over there, I can have them shipped over here.
spookymuffin on
PSN: MegaSpooky // 3DS: 3797-6276-7138 Wii U NNID: MegaSpooky
WATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTERRRRRRRRRRRRRR! I WILL HAVE MY REVENGGGGGGGGGGE!
Batman would disarm the shield when thrown and thats it, its down to Cap actually engaging in combat and I rarely see him very effective without his shield compared to master of all martial arts Batman who himself has a number of long and close range weapons. Sure in a marvel/DC crossover Batman will always lose and shrug it off and then blow Cap because hes Cap but Cap sucks.
Reading scanlations does not hurt him in the least. Piracy has never affected any industry's sales to any noticeable effect ever. Otherwise, blank tapes would have killed the music industry. VHS would have killed the movies. Blank CDs would have ended the music industry. Napster would have killed the music industry. Torrents would be killing the movie, music, comic and every other media industry. Yet EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM seems to be increasing their profit margins every year.
Every single independent (ie: not funded by the RIAA) study has shown people that pirate music (havent actually read any regarding movies or comics piracy) buy MORE music albums per year than people that do not pirate. One study went so far as to map buying patterns in relation to piracy and found those filthy pirates buy around 0.44 albums per song pirated more than their non-pirating friends. Albums per song. Not one song, but entire albums.
Movies continue to gross higher and higher (even with inflation accounted for) every year. Wolverine: Origins was released a month before the hteatrical release online in DVD quality with a few minor effects unfinished. It was downloaded millions of times, on every news site, blog and even on television. They went on and on about the effects of piracy. The movie was panned by EVERYONE that watched it. Even official reviews around release stated how bad the movie was. It did gangbusters at the box office. Goddamn pirates. Cant believe they hurt that shitty movie (37% on RT) so much it only made like $370+ million.
Avatar is the most downloaded movie ever and there are currently screeners from back around the awards floating around and received just as much news attention as any other movie on blogs, news sites, etc. Think it did alright at the box office. Barely broke a billion, but it's a bad economy. We can blame piracy on it though.
Comics? Oh, ya, they get downloaded every week. It's weird though. Ever since it really took off around end of hte 90's/ early 2000's, comics seem to have improved in sales every year. Even trades see higher sales. Only time they've had difficulties seems to be when a) economy tanked - and even then, it was minor compared to every other industry - and b) when comics increased to $3.99. Hmm, piracy levels stay about the same throughout, sales increase every year except when they increase the price by 33% during an economic crisis. Piracy definitely caused the relatively minor decrease (few %). Definitely piracy.
in short, anyone that blames piracy on decreased sales is a sanctimonious lemming of the RIAA that failed to do an ounce or research on the effects of piracy. It is purely a marketing tool that allows them to blame failures in marketing, product quality, pricing models and economic timing on a phantom menace. Even the music industries bullshit metrics doctor their numbers by pointing out decreased physical sales. Guess what they never mention in that? Ya, digital sales are through the roof. But no, it's piracy resulting in people not wanting hunks of plastic cases and useless CDs anymore. That's the obvious reason CD sales are down. NOt the fact they buy mp3s and use mp3 players and dont give a fuck about physical media anymore. They never really look at the possibility that their product is terrible either. People get tired of recycled Nickel Back songs and the same generic American Idol bullshit. But if they keep producing it and it doesnt sell, it's obviously piracy.
But hey, let's blame piracy. You wouldn't download a car, would you? Because, really, no one has ever rebuilt a car in their garage from downloaded schematics. Or maybe they are trying to imply that physically stealing a product is the same as piracy, which is copyright infringment. It was a catchy bit of propaganda though, so who cares how absurd it actually is.
I would absolutely download a car.
And I would definitely be curious to see what the breakdown of sales figures was when Marvel started moving comics over to $3.99. Was it lower sales of the $3.99 comics that drove down performance as a whole? Did people keep reading the $3.99s, but simply buy fewer comics (of the $2.99 and $3.99 variety) to recoup costs? Did the more 'fringe' $2.99 comics take big hits as people dropped them to make up the difference? I've been interested in that for a while, but not quite interested enough to go and dig into it (although I know that the information's out there).
Personally, when certain books went up to $3.99, I regarded that as the perfect opportunity to say "hmm... do I really even like this series?" Surprisingly often, the answer was no, and the price increase has also made me far less willing to wait out long periods of stagnation in a book. If I'm uninterested for a few consecutive issues, I'm dropping the series entirely as often as not. And the icing on the cake is that I have a few friends who want to get into comics, and I'm having trouble making recommendations on what to read or where to start because it's a pretty expensive hobby to maintain even if they're only reading the 'core' books, so these guys arent reading a lot of the interesting stuff (like, for example, Daredevil or Punisher) that I think would get them hooked as fans.
So yeah, I definitely agree with KVW here- this is pure Law of Unintended Consequences at work. Raising prices does not always equal raising total revenue, and when you add in all the other adverse effects (centralizing revenue onto core books, making it more difficult to expose fans to new creative teams and content), it's just a clusterfuck all around.
Reading scanlations does not hurt him in the least. Piracy has never affected any industry's sales to any noticeable effect ever. Otherwise, blank tapes would have killed the music industry. VHS would have killed the movies. Blank CDs would have ended the music industry. Napster would have killed the music industry. Torrents would be killing the movie, music, comic and every other media industry. Yet EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM seems to be increasing their profit margins every year.
Every single independent (ie: not funded by the RIAA) study has shown people that pirate music (havent actually read any regarding movies or comics piracy) buy MORE music albums per year than people that do not pirate. One study went so far as to map buying patterns in relation to piracy and found those filthy pirates buy around 0.44 albums per song pirated more than their non-pirating friends. Albums per song. Not one song, but entire albums.
Movies continue to gross higher and higher (even with inflation accounted for) every year. Wolverine: Origins was released a month before the hteatrical release online in DVD quality with a few minor effects unfinished. It was downloaded millions of times, on every news site, blog and even on television. They went on and on about the effects of piracy. The movie was panned by EVERYONE that watched it. Even official reviews around release stated how bad the movie was. It did gangbusters at the box office. Goddamn pirates. Cant believe they hurt that shitty movie (37% on RT) so much it only made like $370+ million.
Avatar is the most downloaded movie ever and there are currently screeners from back around the awards floating around and received just as much news attention as any other movie on blogs, news sites, etc. Think it did alright at the box office. Barely broke a billion, but it's a bad economy. We can blame piracy on it though.
Comics? Oh, ya, they get downloaded every week. It's weird though. Ever since it really took off around end of hte 90's/ early 2000's, comics seem to have improved in sales every year. Even trades see higher sales. Only time they've had difficulties seems to be when a) economy tanked - and even then, it was minor compared to every other industry - and b) when comics increased to $3.99. Hmm, piracy levels stay about the same throughout, sales increase every year except when they increase the price by 33% during an economic crisis. Piracy definitely caused the relatively minor decrease (few %). Definitely piracy.
in short, anyone that blames piracy on decreased sales is a sanctimonious lemming of the RIAA that failed to do an ounce or research on the effects of piracy. It is purely a marketing tool that allows them to blame failures in marketing, product quality, pricing models and economic timing on a phantom menace. Even the music industries bullshit metrics doctor their numbers by pointing out decreased physical sales. Guess what they never mention in that? Ya, digital sales are through the roof. But no, it's piracy resulting in people not wanting hunks of plastic cases and useless CDs anymore. That's the obvious reason CD sales are down. NOt the fact they buy mp3s and use mp3 players and dont give a fuck about physical media anymore. They never really look at the possibility that their product is terrible either. People get tired of recycled Nickel Back songs and the same generic American Idol bullshit. But if they keep producing it and it doesnt sell, it's obviously piracy.
But hey, let's blame piracy. You wouldn't download a car, would you? Because, really, no one has ever rebuilt a car in their garage from downloaded schematics. Or maybe they are trying to imply that physically stealing a product is the same as piracy, which is copyright infringment. It was a catchy bit of propaganda though, so who cares how absurd it actually is.
WATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTERRRRRRRRRRRRRR! I WILL HAVE MY REVENGGGGGGGGGGE!
Batman would disarm the shield when thrown and thats it, its down to Cap actually engaging in combat and I rarely see him very effective without his shield compared to master of all martial arts Batman who himself has a number of long and close range weapons. Sure in a marvel/DC crossover Batman will always lose and shrug it off and then blow Cap because hes Cap but Cap sucks.
I think the era of the local comic-book shop is coming to an end, or at least heading for a significant downturn. With rising prices of single issues, the availabilty of trades online and at major booksellers, and the changing direct distribution coming soon, I think local comic shops just can't compete.
Personally, I've been shifting a lot of my comic book expenditures away from my local comic book shop. I've cut down my list of weekly comic books I get, and for the ones that I'm not getting, I wait for the trade to come out, dependent on reviews.
For example, I'm about to order the complete Incredible Hercules from Amazon (because I don't think they have any plans to omnibus that run). I'm saving $3 to $4 per trade as opposed to how much I would spend at my local comic shop.
What can local comic shops offer that other distributors can't? The ability to read a comic in the store? The ability to browse back issues (which is being eclipsed by e-bay and the like)? Even their specialty goods (busts, figures, t-shirts) I can get cheaper online.
Welp, according to lil' Nick Simmons, it looks like plagarism can be re-interpreted as paying 'homage' to the original source...
I'm gonna go trace me a Mona Lisa.
Eh I think he's got a point to be frank, when he says" certain fundamental imagery is common to all Manga. This is the nature of the medium."
It's not like Bleach has these unique and revolutionary designs which set it apart from all other manga... to me it looks just like the many other books and anime shows I've seen over the years. Guys with huge creepy grins and too many teeth, tiny thin guys kicking the shit out of huge muscle men etc... it's all very generic to be frank.
There's a difference between drawing on fundamental imagery, and creating a plot that's apparently a mish-mash of Bleach and Hellsing, and then drawing imagery and character designs from both.
If I draw a picture of a dude tearing his shirt open to reveal his superhero costume underneath, that's fair. If I trace, or even do a side-by-side copying of another artist's interpretation of that visual, then I'm just being a dick. You can draw on iconic or resonant visuals without copying the actual drawing.
What Munch said. Just because you can say "Oh well all of that looks the same to me" doesn't mean he's not straight-up copying pages from the guy's work.
Posts
"Normally I'd hesitate to hit a lady, but no one can be a nazi and a lady"
Get out.
Cap hasn't beat Taskmaster 1 vs 1 to my knowledge.
Deadpool can beat Taskmaster.
There for Deadpool can beat Batman and thus the entire DC universe! Except maybe Deathstroke.
Sounds like we need to do another Graphic Violence battle royale.
so, he could probably beat four thors
Because Green Scar Hulk beats all.
The World Breaker can beat anyone on Earth or smash Earth.
Now if Deadpool had been there...
Tie?
No.
He beat the Sentry and almost Smash Earth but the Satelite Neutralize him in time.
If Deadpool had been there he would pull him into two pieces and throw them to different half of the globe like he did to Wolverine.
So what? Hulk has Gonorrhea?
In these days of Dark Avengers I look at Sentry being jobbed to Hulk in that series now and laugh a bit.
Different scales of power. During the Hulk sentry fight Hulk was at pretty much the strongest he'd ever been due to the level of righteous fury he possesed and still being super charged by the exploding warp drive on Sakaar. Sentry by comparison was just coming around to his need and didn't want to fight the hulk with every fibre of his being.
What I liked about that fight was that it took everything that Hulk and sentry had in them to finish the fight, until there was nothing but there de-powered selves flailing away at each other until bob fell down.
If that fight were to be repeated NOW, Hulk would probably lose. He wouldn't get jobbed like ares did (sentry would probably just disintegrate him like he did MM), but the fact that he's all crazy powerful thanks to getting a second hit of the serum and being more in touch with his dark half would make it a david vs. goliath match for the hulk.
Cyclops uses the Void and his Optic Blast which is solar powered gets amplify with the power of a thousand suns.
Jail? Law suit?
Seems like a pretty funny dude.
What always amazes me about artistic plagiarists in the cavalier attitude they display. I suppose it's better not to own up to your mistake in case your words would later be used against you in court, but I really just want to see David Mack, Greg Land, or Simmons to just admit they got lazy and fucked up, rather than lie or make excuses for themselves.
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There was a really good article pointing out how many of the fans who are ready to lynch to Simmon's are the same ones that hurt Kubo more by just reading scanlations of his work and DL sub versions of the anime.
Every single independent (ie: not funded by the RIAA) study has shown people that pirate music (havent actually read any regarding movies or comics piracy) buy MORE music albums per year than people that do not pirate. One study went so far as to map buying patterns in relation to piracy and found those filthy pirates buy around 0.44 albums per song pirated more than their non-pirating friends. Albums per song. Not one song, but entire albums.
Movies continue to gross higher and higher (even with inflation accounted for) every year. Wolverine: Origins was released a month before the hteatrical release online in DVD quality with a few minor effects unfinished. It was downloaded millions of times, on every news site, blog and even on television. They went on and on about the effects of piracy. The movie was panned by EVERYONE that watched it. Even official reviews around release stated how bad the movie was. It did gangbusters at the box office. Goddamn pirates. Cant believe they hurt that shitty movie (37% on RT) so much it only made like $370+ million.
Avatar is the most downloaded movie ever and there are currently screeners from back around the awards floating around and received just as much news attention as any other movie on blogs, news sites, etc. Think it did alright at the box office. Barely broke a billion, but it's a bad economy. We can blame piracy on it though.
Comics? Oh, ya, they get downloaded every week. It's weird though. Ever since it really took off around end of hte 90's/ early 2000's, comics seem to have improved in sales every year. Even trades see higher sales. Only time they've had difficulties seems to be when a) economy tanked - and even then, it was minor compared to every other industry - and b) when comics increased to $3.99. Hmm, piracy levels stay about the same throughout, sales increase every year except when they increase the price by 33% during an economic crisis. Piracy definitely caused the relatively minor decrease (few %). Definitely piracy.
in short, anyone that blames piracy on decreased sales is a sanctimonious lemming of the RIAA that failed to do an ounce or research on the effects of piracy. It is purely a marketing tool that allows them to blame failures in marketing, product quality, pricing models and economic timing on a phantom menace. Even the music industries bullshit metrics doctor their numbers by pointing out decreased physical sales. Guess what they never mention in that? Ya, digital sales are through the roof. But no, it's piracy resulting in people not wanting hunks of plastic cases and useless CDs anymore. That's the obvious reason CD sales are down. NOt the fact they buy mp3s and use mp3 players and dont give a fuck about physical media anymore. They never really look at the possibility that their product is terrible either. People get tired of recycled Nickel Back songs and the same generic American Idol bullshit. But if they keep producing it and it doesnt sell, it's obviously piracy.
But hey, let's blame piracy. You wouldn't download a car, would you? Because, really, no one has ever rebuilt a car in their garage from downloaded schematics. Or maybe they are trying to imply that physically stealing a product is the same as piracy, which is copyright infringment. It was a catchy bit of propaganda though, so who cares how absurd it actually is.
I generally agree that piracy doesn't translate to lowered sales for physical products. The people that like the product, want to support it, and have the means to do so, will. The people who only like it enough to download it for the sake of completion, a sentiment I've heard many comic pirates express, were never going to buy the thing anyway.
For instance, I don't download comics, but when I'm at the local comic shop I'll page through ones I have no intention of buying. Because, I want to see if anything happens I'm interested in, or whether the book might be worth buying in TPB down the line. And if my local comic shop owner told me to knock it off, I certainly would. But I'm not going to buy the thing either way, so the dude really doesn't have anything to lose by letting me flip through Teen Titans or JLA. Because some stuff I really only care to read or look at if I can do it for free.
Plus, it's sort of a weird situation with the scanlation crowd, as they're downloading material not even available to them in an official format, and many of them probably do buy the official, licensed material later on.
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One interesting thing I've heard is that US soldiers in Afghanistan/Iraq are finding that they can buy pirate cd's containing that week's recent comic releases for very cheap. Which I think is actually a good thing, not because I support our troops, but because the comic media is being distrubted to an audience that doesn't have any other means of obtaining it. Sure, its piracy, but I also believe that it is an intrinsic right of people to be able to have access to different forms of media that they may not otherwise have access to.
I've often wondered if its ethical to be able to view comics that I may not otherwise have access to myself. For instance, I absolutely love Marvel's 2099 series. However, even though Marvel massively overprinted in those days, it can still be next to impossible to track down all the issues. And Marvel doesn't republish the 2099 imprint (except for the recent Spider-man 2099 trade). So is it wrong of me to try to find the 2099 series online?
It has happened before that works of art or serially produced media have had their originals destroyed and all other copies destroyed or missing. Shouldn't we take efforts to ensure that art and literature is preserved? I would say that this takes precedence over piracy issues. Let's take the Heavy Metal magazine. Sure, its included comics can be hit or miss. But there are some real gems in there on occasion. But I have never seen a collected Heavy Metal trade, nor have I seen the stories contained collected elsewhere. Isn't it worth preserving in an electronic format?
I have never accessed pirated comic issues in an electronic format, nor would I know how to begin. Unfortunately, delving into that realm would involve constant sanitization of my computer. When I saw the complete Spider-man run collected on CD, I bought it right away. It was a good deal for $15, even if there was no real effort to organize and present the comics. It was essentially a bunch of straight PDF scans of the comics, complete with advertisements. And if you wanted to read the comics, you had to do some funky scrolling from time to time in Adobe Acrobat. But at least it was available. I heard later on that they also did the same with the Fantastic Four , Incredible Hulk, and Uncanny X-Men. I intend to pick those up at some point before they're no longer available, because I imagine that with digital distribution the back issues could become profitable for Marvel to distribute to Kindle/iPads. They're already rising in price from when I originally saw them for sale.
What comic books have you truly enjoyed that are no longer available?
Diablo 3 - ArtfulDodger#1572
Minecraft - ArtfulDodger42
Hey, guess where I am right now? Iraq! Guess what I've been doing? Buying comics online. There are numerous places that will ship to APO addresses (aka military overseas), and some places will even throw in free shipping. My home station is Japan, so I quickly learned how to acquire my usual reading materials, and in the same way that I have my favorite books shipped over there, I can have them shipped over here.
Wii U NNID: MegaSpooky
hey everyone, just a note
this is not a WHO WOULD BEAT UP WHO thread
and no, don't start one of those
Okay, done bitching now.
I would absolutely download a car.
And I would definitely be curious to see what the breakdown of sales figures was when Marvel started moving comics over to $3.99. Was it lower sales of the $3.99 comics that drove down performance as a whole? Did people keep reading the $3.99s, but simply buy fewer comics (of the $2.99 and $3.99 variety) to recoup costs? Did the more 'fringe' $2.99 comics take big hits as people dropped them to make up the difference? I've been interested in that for a while, but not quite interested enough to go and dig into it (although I know that the information's out there).
Personally, when certain books went up to $3.99, I regarded that as the perfect opportunity to say "hmm... do I really even like this series?" Surprisingly often, the answer was no, and the price increase has also made me far less willing to wait out long periods of stagnation in a book. If I'm uninterested for a few consecutive issues, I'm dropping the series entirely as often as not. And the icing on the cake is that I have a few friends who want to get into comics, and I'm having trouble making recommendations on what to read or where to start because it's a pretty expensive hobby to maintain even if they're only reading the 'core' books, so these guys arent reading a lot of the interesting stuff (like, for example, Daredevil or Punisher) that I think would get them hooked as fans.
So yeah, I definitely agree with KVW here- this is pure Law of Unintended Consequences at work. Raising prices does not always equal raising total revenue, and when you add in all the other adverse effects (centralizing revenue onto core books, making it more difficult to expose fans to new creative teams and content), it's just a clusterfuck all around.
Are you sure?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZZx1xmAzg
geebs I could totally beat you up
Personally, I've been shifting a lot of my comic book expenditures away from my local comic book shop. I've cut down my list of weekly comic books I get, and for the ones that I'm not getting, I wait for the trade to come out, dependent on reviews.
For example, I'm about to order the complete Incredible Hercules from Amazon (because I don't think they have any plans to omnibus that run). I'm saving $3 to $4 per trade as opposed to how much I would spend at my local comic shop.
What can local comic shops offer that other distributors can't? The ability to read a comic in the store? The ability to browse back issues (which is being eclipsed by e-bay and the like)? Even their specialty goods (busts, figures, t-shirts) I can get cheaper online.
Diablo 3 - ArtfulDodger#1572
Minecraft - ArtfulDodger42
I'm gonna go trace me a Mona Lisa.
Diablo 3 - ArtfulDodger#1572
Minecraft - ArtfulDodger42
Seeing as how the image isn't copy righted. Have fun to your hearts content.
Eh I think he's got a point to be frank, when he says" certain fundamental imagery is common to all Manga. This is the nature of the medium."
It's not like Bleach has these unique and revolutionary designs which set it apart from all other manga... to me it looks just like the many other books and anime shows I've seen over the years. Guys with huge creepy grins and too many teeth, tiny thin guys kicking the shit out of huge muscle men etc... it's all very generic to be frank.
If I draw a picture of a dude tearing his shirt open to reveal his superhero costume underneath, that's fair. If I trace, or even do a side-by-side copying of another artist's interpretation of that visual, then I'm just being a dick. You can draw on iconic or resonant visuals without copying the actual drawing.
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are you telling me you won't do this
TLB, I think it's long since been proven that I'm willing to compromise my artistic and moral integrity for you and your fever dream visions.
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