Geek Virus is Spreading this Weekend!

It's time again for the yearly phenomenon known as the San Diego Comic-Con (July 22 - 25). For those of you non-comics fans, this is the largest comic con of the year. Each year the Con gets bigger and better, moving father away from its roots as a Comic Convention for Geeks, This year the Con boasts an impressive line-up of non-Comic related content, larger than any previous year.




Nikita

It's not just for comic fans anymore. The lucky attendees will get to screen the first episode of this falls CW show Nikita (a new show based off La Femme Nikita).


Geek Gods + The Avengers

Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse) and J.J. Abrams (Felicity, Alias, Fringe, Mission Impossible III, Cloverfield, Star Trek and the new fall series Undercovers) will also be there.

Joss will also have a panel of his own later in the con where it is expected that he'll be announced as the director of the Marvel Comics (huge) movie the Avengers, a follow-up to their Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor movies, bringing the characters together in a shared universe.


Anti-Hero Panel

Michael C. Hall will be there to discuss Dexter, and Mary Louise Parker will be there discussing Weeds.


Being Human

The 2nd season Premier of Being Human will be screened by the BBC as well. I just ordered the first season from Amazon - if you have a chance and this seems interesting to you, you should check it out. I caught a few of the episodes On Demand a few months ago, and it is an interesting show.


The Walking Dead

The starts and creators of AMC's new zombie show The Walking Dead (based on a comic book) will be there discussing the new show.


The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory is having a special screening, and a panel with Will Wheton (Star Trek: TNG), Johnny Galecki (Roseanne), Kaley Cuoco (Charmed), Simon Helberg (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story), and Kunal Nayyar (NCIS). Jim Parsons, another of the series stars will also be there. He has been recently nominated for an Emmy for his character on the show, Sheldon. I can't even begin to tell you how finny this show is. If you haven't already checked it out, you should do so. The first two seasons are out on DVD, and it's well worth watching. It's a funny show, and I don't think I've ever seen a geekier person nominated for an Emmy!


The Cape

There will be a sneak peek of NBC's new fall show The Cape, along with a panel including its cast. Two members of its cast are well-known to me, as Vinnie Jones was in X-Men 3 as Juggernaut and Summer Glau was River in Firefly and Cameron on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Reading the description of this new fall show, it doesn't seem very interesting.

Before judging it though, watch the trailer for the show. It looks like a really interesting show. I urge you to check it out here.


Other Panels

There will also be panels with Special Guests from the varios shows, and some will have sneak peaks of the fall season:

Chuck (I love this show)
V
Sanctuary
The Event
Eureka (Great show)
Haven
True Blood (I also love this show)
No Ordinary Family screening (Looking forward to this show)
Warehouse 13
Vampire Diaries
Smallville (Final season 10 airing this fall)
Supernatural
Merlin
Glee (Nominated for 19 Emmys and already renewed for a 2nd and 3rd Season)

As you can see the virus know as geek is spreading like wildfire, so join in before you miss the boat.

Fangtastic True Blood Issue 1 Review

TrueBlood # 1 Comic Review

For the last few years, there has been an invasion of vampires in popular culture. Vampires are now trendy and hip, from Blade to Buffy to Twilight to the Vampire Diaries to TrueBlood. Vampires have gone from horror antagonists to sympathetic anti-heroes in a matter of years.

I have always been a sucker for a good vampire story, so it's no surprise that one of my favorite shows is HBO's TrueBlood. The show is created by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) and based off of the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris.

When i saw that IDW had released issue # 1 of the new True Blood comic today, I only had to think for a second before picking it up. I don't often buy comic books (or books) adapted from TV shows or movies because the writers often don't get the already established voices of the characters right. Unless the writer of the show is the same as the books, it's tough to keep all the voices consistent, and that makes the writers job twice as hard. Not only does the writer have to tell a good story, but they have to stick to pre-established voices for each of the characters. Often times these stories take place in between seasons, so a sense of danger is often lost as well, since nothing can really happen to these characters (since they'll all be back to themselves for the season premier!).

True Blood # 1 is written by Mariah Huehner and David Tischman, neither of of whom I have ever heard of. Needless to say the voices of most of the characters are pitch perfect. The one gripe i had here was Eric Northman, the vampire sheriff of area 5 was far too passive. I take this to mean that he will not be the focus of this particular story, but it is a bit off-putting because if you've watched the show, he is anything but passive. The main cast is all here - Sookie, Bill, Eric, Jason, Lafayette, Sam, and Tara. Each of their voices is pitch-perfect.

The book is drawn by David Messina and Gaetano Carlucci, with colors by Giovanna Niro. A book like this relies a lot on the artistic interpretation of the character, and the artists often draw the characters to resemble the actors slightly, or it looks like they traced them directly from real life. The characters in this book look exactly like the real actors, and it's done well. The only exception to this is Sam Merlotte. When every character in the book looks just like the associated actor, except one, that one character stands out a fair amount. This is the case here. Sam is drawn well, and resembles actor Sam Trammell, but not in the same identical way that the other characters do. When you get past this, the art is beautiful, and for a dark comic, the colors pop.

The story itself starts off with a mysterious narrator, and ends with a bit of blood and a creature that seems to be more powerful then even the combined might of two vampires. It is still the first issue, but I want to see what comes next. I'll definitely be there for issue number two.

And at least these vampires don't sparkle.

3 out of 5 stars

X-Men # 1 Comic Review

1991's X-Men # 1 sold over eight million copies, partially fueled by the speculator's market at the time, becoming the best selling comic book of all time. This is the first time since 1991 that Marvel Comics has released an X-Men # 1.

While the first X-Men # 1 was written by X-Men and Comic legend Chris Claremont, this time Marvel took a different approach. This issue was written by crime novelist turned comic book writer Victor Gischler.

The artist here is Paco Medina. The art here is good - perfect for an X-Men comic. The figures are recognizable, and not all the same. The coloring is bright and colorful. The art is not too photo-realistic for this type of comic, and it doesn't look like all the faces are traced like many comics these days.

22 pages is the length of a standard comic, and usually that is enough to tell an issue's worth of story. Unfortunately, as this is the beginning of not just a new story, but also a new series, I found it lacking. Marvel should have gone for a double sized issue (or at least 32 pages) because not too much happened in this issue. I expected some setup, but this issue was all set up. I have faith that given a few more issues, the action and characterization will be ramped up, but for a # 1, this issue is not likely to create any new X-Men fans.

The issue starts off with former fan-favorite kid X-Man Jubilee (she lost her powers a year or so ago) and current fan-favorite kid X-Men (taking the place of Jubilee) Pixie sitting at a table talking somewhere in San Francisco (where the X-Men are now based), while this big guy wearing a mask and full trench coat starts walking towards them. Pixie conveniently goes to get nachos just as big black Trench coat guy reaches his destination.

He opens his trench coat and "BWOOOOOM" he explodes, getting big black trench coat guy goo all over Jubilee.

Keeping in mind that the storyline is called "Curse of the Mutants" and it was advertised as an X-Men Vs. Vampires storyline, guest starring Blade, the vampire hunter, the characters proceed for the next twenty or so pages to dance around the word vampire, avoiding it at all costs.

I'm not sure if the writer wasn't aware that it would be advertised this way, or if he thought it would be a neat thing to do, but it wasn't. Especially with the previous weeks tie-in issue "Death of Dracula" also written by Gischler. This just seemed forced and to that effect, the characters wasted an awful lot of words dancing around the word "Vampire" when they could have just said it and been done with it.

Back to the story, we see Jubilee being tested by the X-Club (a group of X-Men scientists) and it appears she has a virus, caused by the vampire bomb. So next issue..Vampire Jubilee anyone?

That aside, characterization is solid throughout the issue. We learn that the Vampire Bomb target was in fact Jubilee, which right now seems pretty random, but i imagine this will be explained later.

The main X-Men we see in this issue are Wolverine, Pixie, and Angel. They have a good action scene later in the issue, doing some scouting work where they get attacked by a few vampires.

There are a couple more gripes i have with the issue, such as why send a kid (Pixie) to fight what you think are Vampires? In the X-Men universe, they are a pretty big threat. Also, it was frustrating that Angel didn't turn into Archangel once in the issue (something that likely wouldn't be known if a new reader were to pick this up).

My final problem with the issue is its accessibility. We see Cyclops Jubilee, Pixie, Storm, Angel, Dr. Nemesis, Dr. Kavita Rao, and Wolverine. If a new reader were to pick this up, besides Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, and possibly Angel, they would have no idea who these characters are. At the very least, text boxes introducing the characters should have been used here, like they are in many other comics, including Matt Fractions Uncanny X-Men.

I give the issue 2 1/2 out of 5 stars. I see potential for this series, but a lot of rookie mistakes were made in this issue. Hopefully things will get ironed out in the issues moving forward.

Response to A Marvel Writer's Plea to stop downloading his comics April 1 2007

My response to "A Marvel writer’s plea to stop downloading his comics" April 1st, 2007

“If the person downloading had no intention to buy before downloading, then no money is really involved either. Revenue can only be considered to have been forgone by the publisher if the download is of an item which would otherwise have been purchased by the downloader had the download not been available.”

If the person downloading had no intention of buying then they shouldn’t be allowed to read the comic.

So you’re saying I don’t have the right to let my brother/uncle/whatever borrow it and read it? Because they’re not willing to pay for it?

If they can’t afford it or it’s out of reach then they should wait for the trade. Yeah the system sucks and somebody should create an ITunes system for it or whatever Chris Hunter is describing but that hasn’t happened yet so you should just deal with it. It’s not the big events that are being affected here, it’s the smaller books that are always on the razor’s edge of being cancelled.

Maybe the reason that some of the best titles are so close to being canceled is that the comic buying population is so inbred without newsstands that all the majority wants to read is the moderate titles – those that are not great but not bad, also those that are squarely in the center of their respective squared universes (aka receive the most publicity, etc)and any way of garnering new customers (accepting the cash cow that is civil war/cap 25) is almost impossible.

And every argument that’s being thrown around about Slott’s download record isn’t changing the fact that if She-Hulk get’s cancelled then everybody who downloaded it, liked it, and never paid for it should be punched in the face. We’re not talking about royalties so much as whether people have a JOB next month.

Just because you like something does NOT mean that you would be willing to spend 40 dollars a year buying issues of it.

This doesn’t make it right, but it also is a reality. People download music and movies illegally.

They’re having the same issue, except for unlike those other two, comic book collectors/readers are collectors, not just readers, so it’d be near impossible to get rid of the written comic book (but i do see a future without CDs and once internet technology catches up, without DVDs)
I’ve been collecting comics since i was a child, and i can tell you i HATE the comic book format. It is flimsy, easy to rip and crinkle, etc. the stories are never long enough, and the ads these days detract majorly from the content. Not to mention that there has been a lot of junk put out over the last ten years.

Would i spend more money on X-men if i got a novel sized story every month? Without a doubt. But that’s not going to happen and waiting for paperbacks is painful since by the time you read it, the team is on their next storyline, moving forward without you.

Comic Books are books. You can go to the library and read about your favorite novelised heroes there. Is this copyright infringement?

Would there be less people downloading comics if they were available at their local library? Perhaps, but why is this library any different from downloading? Didn’t the author only get the revenue from that book once (just like if it were a comic book). Should we close down all libraries?

Plus it’s insulting to the people who shell out our hard earned money each month for a comic to tell us it doesn’t matter whether somebody paid to read it or not. We’re the ones who have to decide whether to add something to our pull list or drop it. So to tell us that it’s fine for YOU to be able to download whatever you want as long as you pay for what you can when you feel like is just a shot bird in the face. If you can’t afford it then don’t read it. Buy what you can. Deal with the way things are until the inevitable change finally comes.

Without any easy access to comic books today (where i lived when i was a kid, the nearest comic book store was in a part of the city that my parents would never go to) many people can’t get to a shop. Is that their fault? They could order online, but in my opinion, this brings to light a falsity in thinking. This is no ones fault but the publishers. if they really longed for those sales, they’d be available at more than just your local comic book store, which may be 25 miles away.

The perfect places to sell these comic books would be at places like Toys R Us, Best Buy, Gamestop, Barnes and Noble.

Book Stores
Video Game Stores
Movie Stores
Toy Stores

all places where their future base readership is quietly fading away due to lack of availability and mainstream presence.

If everyone just “deals with the way things are until the change inevitable comes”, then guess what, that change will not inevitable come. Do you think if Marvel and DC could be promised thats they wouldn’t have to deal with people trying to illegally download comic books ever again, that they would ever get to the point where comic books are a digital medium? No…the thing pushing them to make it digital would be the illegal downloads. Just like for music and movies, the illegal downloading is the push the industry needs to grow into its digital form.

“Infringing copyright. Not stealing. Not even illegal in many countries. ”

Whether you like it or not, “infringing copyright” by definition is wrong. Morally, ethically, and most of the time LEGALLY wrong. When your argument comes down to whether or not something is stealing of just infringing on copyright then you’ve totally lost the moral high ground and the point.

I submit that copyright infringement is breaking a US law. Do not, however, say that breaking a copyright is by definition wrong. Many countries have no copyright laws.

In my opinion, the copyright code has to be rewritten for a downloading age, it is so archaic that it can’t even work any longer within its own established rules and regulations.

And to the argument about sharing with a group of friends being no different: Well there’s a difference between 3 or 4 friends and 3 or four HUNDRED “friends” now isn’t there?
Only if any of those 3 0r four HUNDRED friends would have bought it otherwise, which isn’t always the case.

Many people see free, and read it anyways, even if they otherwise wouldn’t. Some of these people who download are the people that skim the books in the shops or wait for spoilers online, etc. None of those are illegal, and yet they have exactly the same effect.

In all these cases, no one without half a brain would say “this is bad for the industry” because it isn’t. It is helping the industry grow to areas where it otherwise wouldn’t – including online, places without access to shops, and don’t forget – if you read something for free and then enjoy it, you might just pick it up at the store next time you see it or heaven forbid search out more from this character or more from the artist/writer. and this time you may be willing to PAY for it!

Must be bad business when companies scare away profits. That’s what the music industry ended up doing by suing college students. What is happeining now? Itunes is slowly removing DRM protection from it’s songs…

All things in time come full circle..