Comic book madness
I have to admit that I have more than a passing interest in comic books, but, on the other hand, I am hardly a real fan. I mean, I don't follow much comic news, I don't frequent comic book shops, I don't buy any comics to speak of.
That might beg the question, how can I even say that I am interested in comics? The answer is, of course, this man:
I have known ruckawriter for a long time, and I used to read his comic books when he just bought them and before he wrote them. Now, I am a fan of just about anything he writes. As with any artist, some of his work outstrips other things he has done, but his skill is really superior. So, I follow comics to the extent that I follow his work and how it intersects with other things going on in the industry (surprisingly a lot of things, of course).
So, I am mostly a comic book fan as an adult, and am focused mainly on one writer's work. However, I have a son, a wonderful son, and he is close to diving in as a comic book fan (actually FAN). Of course, he wants to know everything. He is that kind of kid. He reads voraciously, far above his grade level. Comics still are not the top of his obsessions, but they could move up. Currently, his hobby list is:
Heroscape
Heroscape (he really likes this game)
Reading anything and everything (including comics)
Age of Mythology/Age of Empires
Magic the Gathering
Pokemon
So, it is with some interest that I saw this article in the Washington Post this morning:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/13/AR2007111302003.html
Superheroes on Demand
Marvel Goes After New Fans With Subscription Site
By Mike Musgrove
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 14, 2007; D01
Comic book publisher Marvel said yesterday that it has made thousands of vintage comics accessible online for a subscription fee.
The service, called Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, is intended to attract new fans with online versions of the hard-to-find early adventures of such superheroes as Spider-Man and the X-Men. Though the publisher has occasionally posted issues of its classic comics online, this is the first time it has tried to make a business with Web content.
"We wanted to find a way to get more people to take a look at our comic books," said Dan Buckley, president of Marvel Publishing.
Recent movies and video games based on Spider-Man and the X-Men have been financially successful, Buckley said. But Marvel has suffered from a waning sales at newsstands, and it has thousands of other characters and properties that it hopes will find a larger audience with the Web's help.
"Comic-book fans are Web-savvy," Buckley said. "We feel like it's a good overlap with our core demographic."
Marvel isn't the only comic publisher working to find its way into the online world. Its traditional rival, D.C. Comics, has a Web division, Zuda Comics, that went online last month.
Marvel's comic-book content is available for $59.88 a year, or $9.99 a month, at Marvel.com. The company is initially putting about 2,500 titles of its back catalog on the service and intends to add 20 comics each week.
Subscribers will be able to view the vintage comics on their computer monitors, in the window of a software browser designed for the service. The software is designed to keep users from saving the pages to their hard drive or from making printouts.
To win an initial audience, Marvel is offering a free online sampler of 250 titles for an unspecified time. Because of heavy traffic at the site, the service was sluggish or unavailable for much of the day yesterday.
Brad Meltzer, who has written stories for comic books such as Justice League of America, said the comics industry has trouble bringing in new waves of young readers. Marvel's move sounds like a good idea, he said.
"They're building the next generation of readers; they're creating geeks as we speak," Meltzer said. "This is how you, potentially, save comics in a world where kids just want to sit in front of a glowing computer."
The new service isn't Marvel's first move into the digital world. It has also made much of its back catalog available on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM. Web-savvy comic fans have long been able to illegally download issues of vintage comics via file-trading services such as BitTorrent.
To guard against undermining sales of its latest comic books, which cost about $3 apiece, Marvel plans to post its latest comics -- the ones on sale in stores today -- six months after publication.
Joel Pollack, founder and primary owner of Big Planet Comics in Bethesda, said he was ambivalent about the new service.
"Some of my fellow retailers are kind of upset, but I think you can't turn back the hands of time and it's inevitable," he said. "If it hurts the sale of Marvel Comics, it's more self-destructive of Marvel . . . than anything else. . . . I don't know if it's going to have any impact on my business or not."
Matthew Klokel, who owns Fantom Comics in Tenleytown, was more enthusiastic.
"I think it's a great idea -- it'll get more people reading comics. Hopefully, it'll get people comfortable with some of the characters and they'll decide they want more," he said. "I think it will be a gateway drug to further comic book reading."
If that's true, it comes at a good time for Klokel. His new shop in Union Station is scheduled to open Friday.
.
.
.
.
Now this is an interesting article to me for several reasons. First, of course, is that Ian could gain access, for a fee, to all the Marvel comic books he hungers for. He is currently saving up for a laptop that my mother has told him she will match him dollar for dollar to buy. Once he has his own computer, he will be linked into the home wireless network and he could, conceivably, spend hours reading back issues of X-Men, Captain America, and lots of others. I know, from my past readings, that there are a lot of really good runs (X-me, Dare Devil, Thor and more) in the thousands of comics that would be available. Of course, he would probably, left to himself, just read everything.
He has mainly been a DC kid, to the extent he has anything to read, as my friend has passed on a batch of kids comics, including some great kids targeted Batman, Superman and Justice League, which my son keeps in a box and takes out an has all over his room from time to time. But he also bough a big collection of old (not very good) X-Men at a used book store, which he reads over an over. So, comics do seem to be for him in his huge menu of reading selections.
The other item of issue is that a comic book store is opening this Friday in Union Station, which is the transit center that I come through every day on the way to work. It also means that there is the bare possibility that Greg might show up and make a professional appearance at said comic book store some day, and I could catch him.
So, I don't know where my son will end up as far as a comic book fan, but I can appreciate the possibility of him being able to read so much of the historic comic books without having to buy everything up. It will be interesting to see the choices he makes, and which way he will go.
Also, I just have to hope that someday that Matthew Klokel or some other shop owner and convention organizer gets Greg to the area. I'll be looking for him.
That might beg the question, how can I even say that I am interested in comics? The answer is, of course, this man:
I have known ruckawriter for a long time, and I used to read his comic books when he just bought them and before he wrote them. Now, I am a fan of just about anything he writes. As with any artist, some of his work outstrips other things he has done, but his skill is really superior. So, I follow comics to the extent that I follow his work and how it intersects with other things going on in the industry (surprisingly a lot of things, of course).
So, I am mostly a comic book fan as an adult, and am focused mainly on one writer's work. However, I have a son, a wonderful son, and he is close to diving in as a comic book fan (actually FAN). Of course, he wants to know everything. He is that kind of kid. He reads voraciously, far above his grade level. Comics still are not the top of his obsessions, but they could move up. Currently, his hobby list is:
Heroscape
Heroscape (he really likes this game)
Reading anything and everything (including comics)
Age of Mythology/Age of Empires
Magic the Gathering
Pokemon
So, it is with some interest that I saw this article in the Washington Post this morning:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/13/AR2007111302003.html
Superheroes on Demand
Marvel Goes After New Fans With Subscription Site
By Mike Musgrove
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 14, 2007; D01
Comic book publisher Marvel said yesterday that it has made thousands of vintage comics accessible online for a subscription fee.
The service, called Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, is intended to attract new fans with online versions of the hard-to-find early adventures of such superheroes as Spider-Man and the X-Men. Though the publisher has occasionally posted issues of its classic comics online, this is the first time it has tried to make a business with Web content.
"We wanted to find a way to get more people to take a look at our comic books," said Dan Buckley, president of Marvel Publishing.
Recent movies and video games based on Spider-Man and the X-Men have been financially successful, Buckley said. But Marvel has suffered from a waning sales at newsstands, and it has thousands of other characters and properties that it hopes will find a larger audience with the Web's help.
"Comic-book fans are Web-savvy," Buckley said. "We feel like it's a good overlap with our core demographic."
Marvel isn't the only comic publisher working to find its way into the online world. Its traditional rival, D.C. Comics, has a Web division, Zuda Comics, that went online last month.
Marvel's comic-book content is available for $59.88 a year, or $9.99 a month, at Marvel.com. The company is initially putting about 2,500 titles of its back catalog on the service and intends to add 20 comics each week.
Subscribers will be able to view the vintage comics on their computer monitors, in the window of a software browser designed for the service. The software is designed to keep users from saving the pages to their hard drive or from making printouts.
To win an initial audience, Marvel is offering a free online sampler of 250 titles for an unspecified time. Because of heavy traffic at the site, the service was sluggish or unavailable for much of the day yesterday.
Brad Meltzer, who has written stories for comic books such as Justice League of America, said the comics industry has trouble bringing in new waves of young readers. Marvel's move sounds like a good idea, he said.
"They're building the next generation of readers; they're creating geeks as we speak," Meltzer said. "This is how you, potentially, save comics in a world where kids just want to sit in front of a glowing computer."
The new service isn't Marvel's first move into the digital world. It has also made much of its back catalog available on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM. Web-savvy comic fans have long been able to illegally download issues of vintage comics via file-trading services such as BitTorrent.
To guard against undermining sales of its latest comic books, which cost about $3 apiece, Marvel plans to post its latest comics -- the ones on sale in stores today -- six months after publication.
Joel Pollack, founder and primary owner of Big Planet Comics in Bethesda, said he was ambivalent about the new service.
"Some of my fellow retailers are kind of upset, but I think you can't turn back the hands of time and it's inevitable," he said. "If it hurts the sale of Marvel Comics, it's more self-destructive of Marvel . . . than anything else. . . . I don't know if it's going to have any impact on my business or not."
Matthew Klokel, who owns Fantom Comics in Tenleytown, was more enthusiastic.
"I think it's a great idea -- it'll get more people reading comics. Hopefully, it'll get people comfortable with some of the characters and they'll decide they want more," he said. "I think it will be a gateway drug to further comic book reading."
If that's true, it comes at a good time for Klokel. His new shop in Union Station is scheduled to open Friday.
.
.
.
.
Now this is an interesting article to me for several reasons. First, of course, is that Ian could gain access, for a fee, to all the Marvel comic books he hungers for. He is currently saving up for a laptop that my mother has told him she will match him dollar for dollar to buy. Once he has his own computer, he will be linked into the home wireless network and he could, conceivably, spend hours reading back issues of X-Men, Captain America, and lots of others. I know, from my past readings, that there are a lot of really good runs (X-me, Dare Devil, Thor and more) in the thousands of comics that would be available. Of course, he would probably, left to himself, just read everything.
He has mainly been a DC kid, to the extent he has anything to read, as my friend has passed on a batch of kids comics, including some great kids targeted Batman, Superman and Justice League, which my son keeps in a box and takes out an has all over his room from time to time. But he also bough a big collection of old (not very good) X-Men at a used book store, which he reads over an over. So, comics do seem to be for him in his huge menu of reading selections.
The other item of issue is that a comic book store is opening this Friday in Union Station, which is the transit center that I come through every day on the way to work. It also means that there is the bare possibility that Greg might show up and make a professional appearance at said comic book store some day, and I could catch him.
So, I don't know where my son will end up as far as a comic book fan, but I can appreciate the possibility of him being able to read so much of the historic comic books without having to buy everything up. It will be interesting to see the choices he makes, and which way he will go.
Also, I just have to hope that someday that Matthew Klokel or some other shop owner and convention organizer gets Greg to the area. I'll be looking for him.