Marvel's Digital Comics Unlimited (pre post)

While I work up a full review of Marvel's new Digital Comics site, please enjoy this great review from Phil Looney's Poptown blog!:)

RIP for the DCP?

Last week saw a bit of turmoil in the DCP newsgroup as one of the more well known posters (Ourobouros) found himself served with an e-mail from the DMCA (Digital Milleneum Copyright Act)

This resulted in quite a number of back and forth posts in alt.binaries.comics.dcp devoted to how the newsgroup, and all downloadable comics in general, would soon be disappearing.

Yet, that didn't seem to happen. Wednesday came, and the 0-day scans still appeared in the group, as well as the associated torrent trackers, so I suspect that just like Hydra, if you serve one comic book scanner with a cease and desist from their ISP, 2 more will rise up in their place.

The New World Record for Comic Book Downloads

Anyway, in checking out exactly how the various torrent sites were doing in the wake of the DCP furor, I ran across this little statistic on one of the member only torrent sites:

UK Edition: Transformers (UK) [ DL ] 07-10 19:35 2.31 GB 362 74 21 264,170
fyi, the 7-10 is when the torrent was originally posted and the 74/21 numbers are the number of leechers/seeders on the torrent today.

So, over 250,000 people have downloaded that run of digital comics. On an arcane site that requires a password to access. Sort of puts All Star Batman in it's place doesn't it?

FlashBack on your iPhone/iPod Touch

A secret about the origin of the Flashback Universe is that I originally decided to begin my time/money investment in the project after using one of the first 5th generation iPods (the ones that could playback movies...) While admiring how slick the videos looked and how easy it was to use, I knew it would be just a matter of time before someone (most likely Apple) developed a device that would function as an all purpose iTablet, where you could watch TV, surf the net, phone friends and listen to music. So, one of my goals for the Flashback Universe was to build comics for that day... and while that day is still just a little ways off, it got a LOT closer when Apple introduced the iPhone.

So since the the iPhone went live last Summer, I've been waiting to see who would develop a cbr (rar) reader for the iPhone (and likewise, the iPod Touch)

So, it brings me great pleasure to present jComix!




jComix is a CBR reader written in Ruby by a talented Australian named Jeremy. It has been specifically tailored to the browser in a iPhone/iTouch.

Features
Support for CBR/RAR archives (requires the unrar command line tool)
Detects JPEG, PNG and GIF images
Portable code (does not write to anything outside of its own folder)
Cross Platform

Now, I suspect not a lot of you reading this blog actually own an iPhone or iPod Touch because currently, they cost quite a bit for what they deliver. However I also suspect that within another year or two, they will be much cheaper and pretty much all the rage amongst the kids in the know. :)

And when that happens, the phrase, "Hey, Kids! Comics!" might just become popular again! :D

Creature/WildCard Preview pages +LOSH homage

Note: Sorry this post is late. I'm involved in a rather complicated Sharepoint site Deployment for Microsoft, so feel free to blame Microsoft. :)

Following up on Monday's Paladin pages preview, I thought I'd show a couple of new pages Jerry Hind's has turned in for the upcoming Creature/WildCard story that will soon be appearing in Flashback Team-Up.

This first image is the splash page where UltraxThe Unconquered makes his grand appearance...notice the excellent details Jerry put into the crowd behind Ultrax. Also, check out the Counselor coming out of the space ship. Notice how the colors of both aliens uniforms seem to match. Really nice touch by Jerry on that! Jerry thinks of all these details I (and Chris) just don't think about. He's really quite brilliant!



This page shows two recent battles between Ultrax and the champions of other planets he's invaded...



Now, if you look carefully at the bottom half of the page, AND you are a fan of the old Bronze Era Legion of Super-heroes, I think you'll see a couple of familiar *faces.* It sort of looks like Ultrax is giving the Mon-El of that world a huge beatdown!

That single panel is pretty much an allegory for how the legion has been treated since Crisis On Infinite Earths. :(

start RANT tag...
What we can learn from the Legion of Super Heroes' decline in popularity and how it relates to comics in general...

It's funny because in many ways, what has happened to the LOSH over the years is really representative on a grander scale to comic books in general.

In the 60's, with innovative story telling and the introduction of a wide cast of characters, Jim Shooter managed to give readers a long run of stories that to this day cast a huge shadow on all writers who take a turn on the title. But as the Silver Age began to wain, so did the popularity of the title.

That was until Dave Cockrum and Mike Grell stepped up as artists on the title, reenvisioning the costumes of the classic characters, and bringing a slick look to the comic. This inspired the writers to bring their A game to the title as well. So in the 70's the book started to climb again in popularity (up until Grell left, then it sort of wandered a bit...)

Then in the 80's Keith Giffen and Paul Levitz reignited the Legion with the Great Darkness Saga. What they did wasn't so much a total shakeup of the legion or their mise en scene, but a nudge forward into recognized DC Continuity. Really, examine the Great Darkness Saga and specify the one exact moment where it completely outstrips the previous 20 stories before it...I argue, it's ONLY the inclusion of Darksied that makes that story special

After that story, we have one where Karate Kid is killed, and then Princess Projecta kills to avenge him. Then the series sort of meanders its way into oblivion...

So, back to my original hypo, Levitz and Giffen *really* only ignited some fire in the Legion by realigning it with the DC Continuity. After that card was played, they had to resort to a round of deaths to keep readers excitement going.

DC Countdown analogies can begin now. ;)

- Jim

Paladin Preview Pages

I've gotten quite a number of e-mails asking me about my opinion of Zuda. And while I do have my thoughts on the project, I'm going to defer comments to Heidi MacDonald's The Beat Zuda Reax for the time being because she's doing an awesome job keeping tabs on the Zuda pulse.

So instead for today, I'm going to post some of the first couple of pages of Pierre's Paladin artwork. Enjoy!

Here's the cover (yes, it's a Steranko tribute.)



Here's Page 1 - The Vanguard returniong from a successful mission!



Pages 2, 3 and 4







And our tribute to Hulk 181!



Hope you enjoyed those! Maybe Wednesday I'll do a big Zuda write up. ;)

Submissions: Can I Write For You? part 2

Picking up from yesterday, here are a few more things to consider when submitting a story to Flashback Universe...

3) Be prepared for a lot of tweaking by me (or your editor) as you work on your story.
Now, this really isn't a rule that's exclusive to the Flashback Universe. Any professional company that pays for writing has this rule. And in actuality, many companies won't go through the trouble of suggesting story tweaks, but rather just say, "No, thanks." without ever telling you why. Which really doesn't help you as a writer I'm sad to say. So, when I'm tweaking your story, realize I'm trying to help you develop the best Flashback Universe story I think you are capable of. Any help from someone who's going to pay you for your story is something you should fully respect.

For instance, the second story I ever published professionally was a horror story I submitted to a small press magazine called DeathRealm. Well, on the first submission, Mark Rainey, the editor, passed on the story, but said it showed promise. He didn't say exactly what was good and what needed work, so I did the unthinkable...

...I called up Mark (this was before e-mail) and asked him what he liked and what he didn't like. He told me my dialogue was stilted and one action scene dragged a little. I thanked him for the criticism and then I did another unthinkable thing...

...I changed my dialogue and fixed the action scene exactly as he suggested. then I sent it back to him with a note saying, I made the changes you suggested, and I think it's a much better story now.

Mark agreed. My story got published and I got paid.

So, to circle back around to my point, when I am reading your submission, I am thinking about how much money it will cost me to publish your story, and will it add to the overall mise en scene of the Flashback Universe. So, if I ask for 2 or 12 story changes, be prepared to work with me on them. Some will be things I won't compromise on. Some will be things we can discuss and meet in the middle on.

For example, and I'm going to pick on Chad Bowers here for a second...Chad's currently working on a Prometheus story. And to be honest, I've just gotta think Chad must hate me at this point, because I've made about a zillion suggestions to his story so far. (NOTE: not because Chad's story is deficit in anyway, but because Chad comes up with these GREAT ideas, and I like to push him to flesh them out more in his story.)

So far Chad's been a true professional, and rolled with every suggestion I've given him (when I was adamant about them.) A lot of these suggestions are prefaced with the phrase: Here's an idea, but I'm not married to it... meaning just that - I'm suggesting something for the writer to consider, but I'll be okay if the writer decides to not use this suggestion.

Now, a lot of this may sound like common sense to most people who want to work as writers, but I'm sorry to say, it's not. A lot of people who want to submit stories get all freaked out when you, the guy *paying* for the story dare suggest that they make a change to their story.

To those writers I say, That's cool - you have an artistic vision and don't want to compromise it. I can respect that. However, you should really just publish your own story then because you'll may never be happy working for other people.
:)

Submissions: Can I Write For You? part 1

Okay, I get a lot of e-mails about Flashback Universe, but far and away the most popular one is Can I Write For You?

The simple answer is yes, but to be honest, unless you understand the core concepts behind Flashback Universe, you will probably not be able to send me a story I'll want to publish. Here are some simple guidelines:

1) The story must be self-contained.
Every FBU comic on the site might be a visitors first exposure to the Flashback Universe, so it's critical that the story is a done-in-one. People don't download things in sequential order. They just don't. They download based on what appeals to them. And that's how it should be. If you send me an idea for a 6 part Lady Nemo story, you will get a rejection.

2) The story must have that Bronze Age feel to it.
I'm sorry to say this concept is a little tougher for people who are not familiar with Bronze Age comics to grasp. Still, this doesn't mean you have to be born in the 60's to understand them. Chris Sims is one of my youngest writers, and he TOTALLY gets what the Bronze Age stories are all about.