Hey there.
This time out I am offering up a hodge-podge of ‘liddle things’ with which to capture your interest at least fleetingly while you surf your way around the web.
* The post-Flashpoint DCU.
I understand that DC has made a big deal – okay, a very big deal, of the fact that they are relaunching everything come the end of September (I hear that they are even going as far as to remove all of the toilet paper rolls from their corporate office washrooms and replace them with brand new rolls – even if the existing rolls were almost new already! They are calling it operation ‘Batman the Dark Knight’ or operation ‘Thunder Agents’ or something) but would it kill them to maybe instead of relaunching even the titles with less than ten issues, to instead just pause those books and restart them – with their current numbering – when the rest of the line has reached that numbering following the relaunch? That way books like the recent Dark Knight series or Thunder Agents series could just stockpile the issues and pick up their monthly schedule down the road with a healthy pile of issues ready fore the printers – something that might actually benefit someone like David Finch who has already been called out by some for being a prime candidate for falling behind on a book that he was writing and doing the art duties for. This would also give Grant Morrison and co time to stockpile some issues of Batman Incorporated (now there’s a long-running title in need of a reboot!) while he has also taken up the writing chores for the upcoming Action Comics series. (and there’s another bee in my bonnet, what with the relaunch just wiping out the consecutive numbering of Action like that. Yeesh!)
* Day and Date digital.
WTF?!? I am not even referring to the concept itself with such incredulity – although hearing that for at least the first month DC will be charging as much for a digital download copy as a print one has me scratching my head. No, instead I am referring to the decision to call this planned practice, “day and date digital”. Isn’t that sort of redundant? It’s kind of like that time years ago when I called someone out for being a bad poker player and they freaked out on me and told me something to the effect that there were two types of people that they could not stand, idiots and morons, and that I was both: just after this (after this portly, aggrieved individual had got up and stormed out of the room – mustard stained business shirt and all) another member of the group pointed out that an idiot and a moron were the same thing and not two separate groups, which kind of turned around the idea of who the actual idiot was that night. Anyway, I have to say that the term day and date sounds kind of lame and a better alternative would be what I heard mentioned by the boys on their podcast over at chronic insomnia: “same day digital”. At least this term is clear and concise and gets to the heart of what you are trying to get across without sounding too stuck up or elitist for its own good in a marketplace that could sell eBooks on how to eat your young. Geez, and to think that I’m not even in a bad mood or anything as I write this, eh?
* The Secret Speculator.
The other day I was browsing on my guilty pleasure website – or to be precise, the guilty pleasure section of a site I frequent (the Speculator Corner section of BleedingCool.com) and I noticed a link someone had put up to their own newly launched youtube video effort: the Secret Speculator. It made me chuckle while watching it just because of the over the top approach it took to hiding the host’s identity – picture a guy in a bad wig and shades talking about comics by candle light and you start to get the picture. Sure the idea of talking about potential future hot comics is nothing new but the idea of playing up the notoriety of doing it could make for some future chuckles and I especially like the fact that he seems to make an effort to include one book each time out that has no speculator value – a book that he has included just because he thinks it is a good read. So far books like Paul Chadwick’s Concrete and Larry Marder’s Bean World have both made the ‘good reads’ list.
Until next time.
-Stephen