There’s been a collective pants shitting in the comic book industry this week as DC Comics announced that they would relaunch nearly every series this September as a #1 issue, making the content available for download on the same day as print versions hit stores.
Shop owners are crying the death of the industry, and other publishers are trying to play catch-up. Meanwhile, DC Comics is taking a huge gamble on its latest venture. It’s no secret that the company has been playing second-fiddle to Marvel Comics, now backed by the giant Disney corporation, and cleaned house to make room for new executives from a more traditional background that owners Warner Bros. found necessary.
As harsh as it may sound, DC Comics can’t be supported by serialized issues that are sold to only a few hundred thousand costumers, at best, every month. The real money made by Batman, Superman, and all the other beloved characters, is in stupid shit, like T-shirts, movies, action figures, cartoons, and anything else you can slap a logo on to make it appeal to children and nerds.
If you haven’t heard of the comic book series Morning Glories from Image, then you might want to rush to your local comic store and start snatching up issues. A whirlwind success, it’s sold out multiple printings of several issues, and the first trade paperback sold out at comic stores across the country. Moving beyond paper, the series has drawn comparisons to other comic juggernauts like The Walking Dead and Y: The Last Man. Co-creators Nick Spencer (who writes) and Joe Eisma (who draws) only just released Issue 9, but since its release, Morning Glories has been called the next great comic that will make its way to television.
I recently sat down with Joe Eisma to discuss the future of the comic, which is one of the most popular books in recent history.
The release of X-Men: First Class is just days away, marking the second of four major super hero movie releases to come this summer. In a recent YouTube viral video, A Toast To Green Lantern, all the super heroes with their own movies harassed Hawkman as he tries to get his own film. As it turns out, the joke was on the makers of the video as Warner Bros. has a Hawkman movie in the works. The current logline listed on It’sOnTheGrid is:
I didn’t ask to be born. None of us did. But there are still some really good things in life. Think about it! Rain drops on roses and whiskers on kittens . . . and boobs. Anyway, it’s my birthday, so I think about these things, and dying. Out of all forms of entertainment, music makes me feel the most of alive. We should all go to a concert soon, together, and make-out. Until then, here are some songs that get the blood pumping.
The weekend came and went with no signs of raptors or the rapture (except this). In fact, no apocalypse of any kind occurred, much to the disappointment of Harold Camping’s followers, and the delight and derision of most of the nerd population. That’s not to say that the CDC didn’t already have it – and you – covered, as they explained with the release of America’s official Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness 101 outline this last week. While there was no immediate need to put it to use, it’s very existence grants a bit of extra hope for the American citizen (except for those of us who can make out that massive gaping holes in the plan).
The other day I came across a picture which had the caption: “OMG, I love macaroni so much. I’m such a nerd.” This irked me to the very core of my being. Your quaint quirks don’t make you a nerd. Going to see a comic-based movie doesn’t make you a nerd.
Jeff Foxworthy has his famous You Might Be A Redneck If… sketch, and with the rising mainstream popularity of geek culture, there comes a necessity to distinguish true nerds from recent converts, so I thought I’d come up with a similarly styled list of rules to help separate the fo’ realz from the wannabes.
Now, many other lists say that nerds must wear glasses (preferably with tape around the bridge), speak Klingon (binary, C++, or some other geeky language), and have all the social graces of an ostrich with its head in the sand, but these should not be the required defining hallmarks of a great, eclectic group of hardcore fans of all things geek: video games, science, science fiction, comics, etc.
We are more than the negative stereotypes that have often been levied against us. So without further ado, I present my homage to Foxworthy and true geekdom, You Might be a Nerd if…
So, last week’s post sucked. You know it, I know it. Let’s move on. This week’s isn’t much better, but it’s still better. A simple list of some cool stuff you should check out.
