johnorlandella

December 12, 2008 8:07 am I love Santa for reason #8 alone.  My son is only 20 months old, but he knows that something funky is going on.  Putting a live tree in the middle of the living room.  Hanging large socks from the mantle.  We keep telling him Santa will bring him presents, but he is still too young to understand what that sentence means.  He does understand toys, though, and I cannot wait to see the look on his face when we tell him to unwrap something and it reveals a toy inside.  And on top of that this Jolly Fat Man gave him all these gifts because he was a "good" boy this year.

November 14, 2008 11:11 am @PaulMontgomery - I was reading some stuff this morning and from what I was reading the color e-ink/e-paper is here, but the resolution is not.  Those were also year old articles.  I am very interested in seeing what the kindle 2.0 will be.  I could very easily see them waiting until they can have a "full" color version.

November 14, 2008 9:44 am

This article follows along with my thoughts all week as I read everybody's articles.  We need comics on the Kindle (or any e-reader).  I just did a quick google search for color e-paper, and it now does exist, but probably another year, at least, away from the consumer marketplace.

On a similar, but different topic, does anybody use a tablet pc to read digital comics?  I usually turn my pos laptop on its side to read them, but have always wondered about the benefits of a tablet for something like this. 

November 13, 2008 2:11 pm I am not sure if anybody has mentioned this before but I, for one, would not be against going back to the lesser paper stock.  I read a couple issues of The kids Shazam book by Mike Kunkel, and was not appalled by the quality.  If that means keeping lower costs, I'd be all for it.  Otherwise it is going to be a smaller pull list and more trades and library searches.

November 12, 2008 3:33 pm @conor - My wife is a great example of a traditional book reader.  She would buy 5-6 books at a time and fly through them on her commute to and from work.  Last winter I shower her the kindle and the Sony e-reader and she said exactly what you said, in that she enjoyed reading the actual paper.  Coupled with instead of buying books she started going to the library.  On the flip side she did not understand the need for an iPod (or any other mp3 player).  She felt one cd at a time was fine.  Then I bought her an iPod 3 years ago and she never looked back.  I think the time for the e-reader is coming, it just need to drop in price and be more accessible to the traditional book reader.

November 12, 2008 3:24 pm

This article comes out at a perfect time, for me.  My wife and I are expecting our second child in February, and with that comes a new lack of money.  So we are in the process of going through our budget to see where we can save money, and the two "luxury" items I am hanging onto are Gamefly (which prevents me from buying games, so saves money) and comic books.  She accepts the $20/week I spend buying them because she knows that I enjoy them.  The thing that always sits in the back of my mind is that I could very easily save the money and pirate all the books I currently read, and only buy trades of things I want for posterity (Invincible and Walking Dead being great examples).

The moral problem I have is with the stealing part.  When I was 18, downloading every song I could get my hands on was cool, and I thought nothing of it.  At 28, I am past that, and much like Mike said, I understand that paying for the stuff is showing my support for the writer's and artists I enjoy.  Here is the major problem I am starting to have, though.  For (soon to be) $3.99, I am not getting my money's worth.  Yes, I love the stories, but when I am getting less than the "standard" 22 pages for a book, and said book is also littered with ads, I don't want to deal with it.  Also, when I can buy a trade now, in what equates to a discount off the face value price of the individual issues, I do not see the need to buy the single issue.

Music is no longer pirated in my house, simply because iTunes is easy to use, and slightly cheaper than a hardcopy.  We get the $60 gift card pack at Costco for $55, and we can buy any music, rent/buy any movie, and I can buy any app for my iPod Touch.  It really became a no-brainer with my Wife and I.  We recognize the luxury item as something we do not always buy, maybe 3 or 4 times a year, but we both enjoy having the ability to download music without having to worry about throwing more things on our credit card.  It also prevents us (well mostly me) from going crazy on iTunes.

If Marvel or DC just offered something that straight forward, I would be doing cartwheels.  I don't want flash players or 6 months delays.  I want a cross platform and cross company format that I can throw on my pc, laptop, or random media device and read with ease.  Yes, I would be sad that it would probably mean the death of my favorite local comic shop, but I will have to deal with that.

I was actually thinking of this exact topic this morning while reading my Ultimates 2 HC.  A full color e-reader is the first thing that is really needed for the comic companies to feel it being viable.  I've heard great things about the kindle, but it still needs to drop in price before I think of buying one.  But e-reader or not, for $2 an issue, I would be all about digitally subscribing to the comics I love and receiving a digital copy that I can store locally and read wherever and whenever I want.

Somebody in the comments already mentioned that movie companies have been forced into putting digital downloads onto DVDs and Blu-Rays.  The last time I actually looked at a CD, they had all kinds of whacky extras included.  Books put up little fight and are embracing digital.  Comics should do the same.  Movie and Music execs cried the wrong-doings of the music and movie pirates, instead of embracing the digital revolution.  You hear less complaining now, because they know that the iTunes and Amazon's of the world are making more than enough money for them, and if people who want buy the product (digital or hardcopy) will.  The pirates were never going to buy to begin with.

September 24, 2008 7:59 pm You need to see the movie version of Battle Royale.  It is weird and violent, but not as over the top extreme as the manga appears from the review of the book.

August 22, 2008 8:46 am @josh - While the price to put a comic book ad during Lost would be expensive, it would not be as bad for a Saturday morning cartoon or one of the cable kids channels.  A 7 or 8 year old doesn't know (well I'm not actually sure, my son is only 17 months) that after watching Spider-Man or The Batman that there are actually monthly books he could buy.  Putting something at the end of the show saying you can read more about these characters at your local book or comic book store (hell even target has a limited run of comics in their books section) would also be a great help.

August 21, 2008 1:34 pm

Being a wrestling fan as well, I have seen this happening to the WWE for the last 5 or 6 years.  They had a formula that worked and stuck with it no matter what the numbers were telling them.  They would see a "strong" profit, and think they are ok, but not admitting to themselves it was because of higher prices and not a stronger fan base.  They are now starting to realize that they need to create new young fans who will be the next generation of viewer.

Here is the difference between the two mediums.  The WWE has already gone through the pains of the internet with their content and spoilers, and are coming out of the woods in that regard.  The comic book industry really is in the infant stages of both.  Only the most diehard fans know, I think, how to get comics via the web.  I grab comics I usually would have no intention of buying, but that doesn't stop me from purchasing around 10 books a week.  What happens when downloading comics is a known as downloading music or movies for the average person.  If little Timmy gets his first Spider-Man book that  way instead of going into a comic book store it will be next to immposible to then reel him in as a paying customer, in my opinion.

August 5, 2008 3:20 pm Gotta be like Nightwing and just have all his friends do the work for you.