Background Archives - Page 6 of 8

Category Archives: Background

Jon Stewart Tramples on Free Speech and Comes Out in Favor of Censorship

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Brett

On last night’s The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart took up the recently decided Supreme Court case Brown v. EMA which dealt with the restriction of sales of “violent video games” to children. The court decided in a 7 to 2 decision that it violates free speech to limit the sales, but also that it’s a parent’s responsibility to make these decisions.

Justice Scalia put it succinctly and eloquently in the decision where he wrote:

Video games qualify for First Amendment protection. Like protected books, plays, and movies, they communicate ideas through familiar literary devices and features distinctive to the medium. And “the basic principles of freedom of speech . . . do not vary” with a new and different communication medium.

Those same protections that apply to Stewart’s nightly show apply to video games, and by not defending free speech in every form, that makes him a hypocrite.

Here’s the Stewart clip.

[vodpod id=Video.12045952&w=425&h=350&fv=]

Ironically, Stewart’s guest was Bill Kristol, the editor of the Weekly Standard and one of the loudest proponents of the war in Iraq. So, to sum up his view, real war and death = good, fake violence = bad.

[vodpod id=Video.12039735&w=425&h=350&fv=autoPlay%3Dfalse]

Stewart is a known video game fan too.

The Art of Organizing in a #Comicmarket – Big Brother Knows What You Want

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Brett

Image via Wikipedia

In the first entry to this series I talked about the power of data and how to think of your customers by grouping them by their purchasing habits and frequency of shopping, but, how do you organize all of that? In politics, campaigns are run by database systems that combine CRM and CMS capabilities. A CRM is a Customer Relationship Management system and CMS is a Content Management system. One holds the data and the other is a website. Many packages combine the two.

Examples of a CMS are Drupal, Zoomla, WordPress, Blogger (and so many more) while CRMs are everything from your POS system that Diamond might provide you to Salesforce, Parature, Zoho and the one I’m going to talk about Salsa. Salsa is used by politically oriented progressive organizations to manage their supporters as well as an easy way to create website pages to create a point of entry for new supporters.

A typical Salsa setup might include items such as the following:

Supporter Management – basic supporter fields, ways to group supporters, ability to create custom fields
Email blast – send supporters emails and track open rates, click rates and conversions
Donation management – these are charity based organizations, but you can accept money through the system, also stores, people can raise money for you too
Action center – have supporters write their elected officials, letters to the editors or sign petitions
Website features – functions for quick sign up pages, tell-a-friend pages and more
Event Management – create events yourself and manage them and allow others to create events for you
Reporting – all of the data is tied together and is reportable

This “action center” is typical in the political world and integrates with your website (think an email sign up box). I’m not only able to organize my supporters, but also see how they’re interacting with the “actions” I create. It’s possible to know who my strongest supporters are, who the most active are and on top of that, the ability for those supporters to spread the message exists.

But, how is this useful for a store or a publisher? As I explained in the first article, you should be gathering data on your customers. Not only is their name important (you should get to know as many customers as possible) but their email is key. Your goal is to get the following:

Name (first and last)
Email address
Phone Number
Address (zip, city/town, street in that order of importance)
What are they interested in? – what comics, characters, toys, games, movies, television shows

That last question is key and combined with email it’s a powerful tool. Email is cheap and when it comes to organizing your customers and raising awareness as to what’s new and going on, it’s your most powerful tool along with word of mouth. Each week an email should be sent to customers letting them know what new releases are out and what events are going on. But, here’s where things get amazing if you’re doing your job and organizing the data well, you can micro-target.

There’s no reason two customers need to receive the same email. While you might do a weekly email, through dynamic content, you’re able to change parts of the email to suit the tastes of the customer. If you have that the customer really likes Batman books or X-Men books, they can receive similar emails with just a few sections changed that highlight their interests. If you buy a collection off of someone, why would you send an email to your entire list letting them know what came in? Instead target the individuals that might be interested.

This is powerful, as it allows you to tailor emails to meet the interests of the individual which increases the likelihood they’ll act on the email, open the email, read the email, and less likely they’ll unsubscribe. It increases interest and decreases burn rate of your list. You should also see more foot traffic because of this.

This is the basics of interacting with your supporters/customers/fans. Using data to better interact with them and make them aware of what exists that meets their interests. Up next is how to get them to pitch for you.

Full Disclosure – I work as Salsa’s email deliverability guru and have been a client for over 3 years

Kickstarter the #3 U.S. Indie Graphic Novel Publisher?

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Brett

Todd Allen at Publishers Weekly has a great article looking at the volume of comics that the funding tool Kickstarter is helping get to market. According to Allen, in May, Kickstarter funded ten graphic novels and five single issue comics. In comparison, DC imprint Vertigo produced 7 graphic novels and 10 single issues.

Kickstarter averages $81,000 per month in funding for comic book related projects and in May the highest sum so far of $102,110 was split over 15 projects.

Allen makes his case further by comparing Kickstarter’s output versus other publishers:

Dark Horse: 15 Books
IDW: 15 Books
Kickstarter: 10 Books
Image: 6 Books
Boom: 5 Books
Dynamite: 5 Books

Allen has a lot more to say on the subject, and it’s well worth the read. Kickstarter is something we’ll be covering more and more as I firmly believe it holds a key to a new publishing model that’s not being tapped yet by major publishers.

X-Men: First Class Opens Good, But Not Great

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Brett

X-Men: First Class opened this weekend to first place and an estimated $56 million domestically. The movie opened strong Thursday night even besting Thor‘s opening by opening with $3.4 million from the midnight showings, but fell short of that movies $65.7 million debut. Even with positive reviews, the movie trailed badly compared to the other X-Men movies.

X2: X-Men United and X-Men: Origins: Wolverine both debuted to around $85 million, while X-Men: The Last Stand brought in $102 million. The movie did beat the original X-Men film which debuted with $54.4 million in 2000, but if that were adjusted for inflation the movie would be $70 million today.

It’s projected the movie will end with between $140 million to $160 million but it depends how well word of mouth pushes the film. A good sign is the movie only fell 5% from Friday to Saturday, which is a good sign. So far the new X-Men film has attracted an audience that was predominantly male (58%) and older (54% over 25). With both positive reviews from fans and critics it’s baffling as to exactly why the movie fell short.

TinTin Trailer

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Brett

TinTin hits theaters this December. Coming from Steven Spielberg as director and Peter Jackson as producer, you know it’s going to be something spectacular.

Transformers: Beast Wars Season One DVD and Transformers: Beast Wars The Complete Series Collector’s Edition DVD set coming this June from Shout! Factory.

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Brett

Official Press Release

TRANSFORMERS: BEAST WARS – SEASON ONE

Featuring All 26 Episodes and Exciting Bonus Content in a 4-DVD Set

IN STORES NATIONWIDE ON JUNE 7, 2011

PASSIONATE FANS REJOICE! PRE-ORDER NOW TO OWN

TRANSFORMERS: BEAST WARS

THE COMPLETE SERIES COLLECTOR’S EDITION DVD BOX SET

Featuring 8-DVDs, All 52 Action-Packed Episodes, New Bonus Content,

Collectible 24-Page Comic Book and Much More!

FROM SHOUT! FACTORY AT SHOUTFACTORYSTORE.COM

Brace yourself to relive some of the most epic TRANSFORMERS battles and non-stop action adventures through the 15^th Anniversary release of BEAST WARS. In 1996, TRANSFORMERS fans were introduced to this stunning saga between the heroic MAXIMALS and the evil PREDACONS where these powerful TRANSFORMERS disguised themselves as some of the fiercest and most ferocious animals on Earth. In a flash of an instant, these beasts turned into battle-tested robot warriors ready for combat. Created by Hasbro and produced by Mainframe Entertainment, the hugely successful animated series TRANSFORMERS: BEAST WARS ran for three successful television seasons and garnered an Emmy® Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation.

On June 7, 2011, Shout! Factory, in collaboration with Hasbro, Inc., will unleash the TRANSFORMERS: BEAST WARS Season One 4-DVD set, featuring all 26 visually stunning episodes and exciting bonus features. A must-have for fans and families, this DVD set promises to keep you on the edge of your seat with exciting adventures and is priced to own at $29.93 SRP.

Die-hard fans further rejoice! Shout! Factory, along with Hasbro, Inc., are set to release the TRANSFORMERS: BEAST WARS – The Complete Series Collector’s Edition 8–DVD box set. Jam packed with hours of entertaining content, this Complete Series Collector’s Edition contains the entire CG animated series of BEAST WARS and a bounty of stellar extras, including retrospective featurettes, a 12-page book, art galleries, plus a special collectible 24-page comic book TRANSFORMERS Timelines “Dawn of the Future’s Past.” Originally published by Fun Publications for BotCon, the official TRANSFORMERS convention, in 2006, the comic book is the official prequel story leading right up to the start of Beast Wars and offers valuable insight into all the events that led to OPTIMUS PRIMAL chasing after MEGATRON and PREDACONS! TRANSFORMERS: BEAST WARS – The Complete Series Collector’s Edition arrives exclusively to Shout! Factory’s official online store ShoutFactoryStore.com on June 7, 2011. Pre-order begins now!

As excitement builds for these home entertainment releases, Shout! Factory will announce additional activities for fans in the incoming months.

TRANSFORMERS: BEAST WARS Season One 4-DVD set

Synopsis:

When the descendants of the treacherous Decepticons — now known as PREDACONS — land on a mysterious planet in search of a powerful fuel known as Energon, it’s up to Optimus Primal and the heroic Maximals to stop them before they conquer the universe!

Bonus Features Include:

Maximize! Creating A New Breed of TRANSFORMER
Art gallery
Original character models

Technical Information

Street Date: June 7, 2011

Not Rated: For all audiences

Suggested Retail Price: $29.93

4-DVD

Aspect Ratio: 4:3

English, stereo

About HASBRO

Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) is a branded play company providing children and families around the world with a wide-range of immersive entertainment offerings based on the Company’s world class brand portfolio. From toys and games, to television programming, motion pictures, video games and a comprehensive licensing program, Hasbro strives to delight its customers through the strategic leveraging of well-known and beloved brands such as TRANSFORMERS, LITTLEST PET SHOP, NERF, PLAYSKOOL, MY LITTLE PONY, G.I. JOE, MAGIC: THE GATHERING and MONOPOLY. The Hub, Hasbro’s multi-platform joint venture with Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) launched on October 10, 2010. The online home of The Hub is www.hubworld.com. The Hub logo and name are trademarks of Hub Television Networks, LLC. All rights reserved.

About Shout! Factory

Shout! Factory is a diversified entertainment company devoted to producing, uncovering and revitalizing the very best of pop culture. Founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos have spent their careers sharing their music, television and film faves with discerning consumers the world over. Shout! Factory’s DVD offerings serve up classic, contemporary and cult TV series, riveting sports programs, live music, animation and documentaries in lavish packages crammed with extras. The company’s audio catalogue boasts GRAMMY^®-nominated box sets, new releases from storied artists, lovingly assembled album reissues and indispensable “best of” compilations. These riches are the result of a creative acquisitions mandate that has established the company as a hotbed of cultural preservation and commercial reinvention. Shout! Factory is based in Santa Monica, California. For more on Shout! Factory, visit shoutfactory.com.

Comic Book Weekly Reviews – 5/11/11

Posted on May 15, 2011 by Brett

It’s a relatively thick stack of books this week. There’s some big releases including Flashpoint and Mega Man. Were they worthy the wait? Find out in the reviews below!

Monthly Comics

Astonishing X-Men #37 – The team continues to fight monsters in Japan as Armor must decide if she wants to stand with her family or the X-Men. Meanwhile, Mentallo attempts to toy with Roxxon. It’s interesting to see Roxxon involved, but I can’t say this “X” series is really needed. It’s ok, but nothing special.

Story: 7.5 Art: 8 Overall: 7.5

Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #518 – The first story arc comes to a close as the Panther confronts Vlad with the usual fight The overall arc is pretty solid, but definitely slid a bit in quality over the issues. It’s still an entertaining read.

Story: 7.75 Art: 8 Overall: 7.75

Chew #27 – The series jumps ahead a few issues to focus on Agent Chu’s sister Toni. As usual, the series packs the entertainment and laughs. This series is consistently one of the best on the market. This should absolutely be on everyone’s pull list.

Story: 8.75 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.75

Cinderella: Fables are Forever #4 – Cinderella continues her pursuit of Dorothy Gale as she goes over their encounters over the years. The series is at the point it’s dragging just a bit, but it’s still a hell of a lot of fun.

Story: 7.75 Art: 8.25 Overall: 7.75

Daken: Dark Wolverine #9 – The Daken/X-23 crossover comes to an end as we see the potential of what the series could have been. Between the two a great discussion about potential and limits, it would have been great to see this sort of discussion throughout the mini-event. I keep saying this series has potential, and here we get a glimpse of it.

Story: 7.5 Art: 8.25 Overall: 7.5

Daredevil: Reborn #4 – Daredevil needed to go through something to get back to basics and this series was an attempt to do it. The first issue was solid and the next three just slipped from there in quality. By the end, it was ok, but really not enough to get Daredevil back to where he should be or to wipe out the past year.

Story: 6.75 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7

Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt #1 – While the heavy hitters take on the hammers that have fallen the “B” and “C” listers are gathered to take care of the domestic issues. There’s some good moments, like discussion of past events, but there’s not enough of them to make this not a disappointment like the main series.

Story: 7 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7

FF #3 – One Reed Richards is trouble enough, but what will multiple Reeds do on Earth? Hickman continues his epic weave of a tail. Villains are brought together to take on the Reeds. It’s an interesting concept, and I definitely want to see where he goes with it.

Story: 8.25 Art: 8.25 Overall: 8.25

The Flash #12 – This has all been a build up to Flashpoint, and that series will determine if it was worth it. This final issue didn’t quite hype it enough to get me excited.

Story: 7.5 Art: 8.5 Overall: 7.5

Flashpoint #1 – DC and The Flash has been building up to this for months and it pays off quite well. This is definitely DC’s version of the Age of Apocalypse. However, we’ve seen lately first issues that are amazing and the follow up that quickly derails. I have my fingers crossed and hopes up.

Story: 9 Art: 9 Overall: 9

G.I. Joe #1 – I haven’t picked up a G.I. Joe comic in a while and it looks like I’ve been missing something solid. Cobra Commander is dead and the race is on for his replacement. It’s the first entry in the Cobra Civil War storyline and its’ solid enough I need to go back and see what I’ve been missing.

Story: 8.75 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.75

Jennifer Blood #3 – We get a better idea as to what this vendetta is all about as Jennifer must balance a domestic life with her after hour activities. There’s something so subversive about this series that makes it fun.

Story: 8 Art: 8 Overall: 8

Journey Into Mystery #623 – The series is a mystery so far, fitting for it’s name. Loki continues to unravel exactly what Odin is up to and decides to act. But, since it’s Loki, the readers are left to wonder if what he plans on doing is actually for the better. The series is interesting so far and out of all of the Fear Itself tie-ins, it’s the best of the bunch.

Story: 8.25 Art: 8.25 Overall: 8.25

Mega Man #1 – I’ve been waiting for this first issue and it’s everything I’d hoped for. This is the original video game series in comic book form. The memories rushed back and I can’t wait to pick up the second issue. So much fun for all ages.

Story: 8.75 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.75

The New Avengers #12 – Two stories weave through this issue. One is solid and the other has a lot left to be desired. In the modern day Bobbi hangs on after being shot and Clint Barton is pissed. As H.A.M.M.E.R. begins to reorganize, we get a taste of more than we’ve been let on. In the past Fury and his team go after the Red Skull in the story that’s missing bits to make it totally coherent and some art that’s not quite up to snuff. Why the past stuff, I just don’t know yet, but it definitely dropped the quality of the issue.

Story: 7.25 Art: 7.75 Overall: 7.25

New Mutants #25 – When a series must claim “new direction” that’s a sign the past wasn’t so solid. The issue seems like a scolding and apology for what’s come before. A lead up to this I wasn’t too keen on. This new direction doesn’t seem that bold either. Instead we get an “X-Men” junior team picking up the scraps. Sadly, it has so much more potential that’s hopefully seen under this creative team.

Story: 7 Art: 7 Overall: 7

the Unwritten #25 – Tom Taylor is back after his journey through books. The source of all of the magic is somewhat revealed and there’s a heist. The issue isn’t quite as good as the recent ones, but it’s much more straightforward.

Story: 7.5 Art: 8.25 Overall: 7.75

X-Men #11 – And this is what’s known as filler. A flashback story of Xavier meeting a vampire. The story isn’t particularly good and the art takes a dip. I doubt it’ll have any long term impact or significance.

Story: 6.75 Art: 6.75 Overall: 6.75

X-Men: Legacy #248 – It’s post Age of X and the residents of Utopia are dealing with the ramifications. It’s an interesting way to set up a whole lot of new plot possibilities and there’s some foreshadowing here that looks like it’ll lead to the return of some space faring mutants we haven’t seen in a while.

Story: 8 Art: 7.5 Overall:8

Review – Priest

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Brett

Going into a movie like Priest, I expect a couple of things, bad acting, sub-par special fx, lots of action and bad dialogue. Priest gave me all of that in an enjoyable, but short movie. The story is pretty simple, it’s vampires versus humans in a dystopian future run by a church that uses priests to do battle. It’s been years since the major wars with the vampires and the priests are retired and vampires set up in reservations. It’s cowboys versus indians but replace indians with vampires. A priest played by Paul Bettany must get back into ass kicking mode to save his brother’s family.

The story is thin, focusing on events more than character build up (which is almost non-existent). This is a “B” movie in all it’s glory with some great visuals. And that’s what’s so frustrating about the movie. There’s amazing build up and some great building blocks that aren’t used. The scenes in these massive walled cities is amazing and sets a mood and world that’s fantastic. The “western” parts of the movie work well as well. You have an overreaching church that controls the populace, something that’s not fleshed out. There’s great stuff here, but none of it’s used to it’s potential.

Paul Bettany plays the main priest and does his best Christian Bale/Batman impersonation, very little emotion, lots of grumbling. It’s ok for the character but something is missing that makes us care about him. Karl Urban has the most fun of the bunch playing the villain. Maggie Q is as pretty as ever (and as usual kicks ass) as another priest and Christopher Plummer hams it up as a head of the church. None of the acting is particularly good, but are you expecting that?

You go see this movie for the action. All of it’s ok, but none of it’s amazing and all of it I’ve seen before. These priests are supposed to be amazing warriors that can take on hundreds, but at no time is this really shown off. Instead they generally fight one on one as if their enemies are taking turns to attack them. I was hoping for some of the great action fights of Blade, but instead I get a poorer version of it. That’s not to say there’s not some cool stuff here, there’s just not enough of it.

And that’s the problem of the movie, there’s not enough. The film is just under an hour and thirty minutes. You could have added another thirty minutes and fleshed out characters, added more action or explored the world more. Instead, we’ve got great concepts, great visuals, potentially great characters, in a movie that just barely skims the surface of the potential.

Minnesota Politician Apologizes to Gaiman – Mom Made Him

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Brett

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday news spread quickly that Minnesota House Majority Leader Matt Dean had placed Neil Gaiman on his “hate list” and accused Gaiman of stealing $45,000 from the people of Minnesota after giving a speech. Dean also called Gaiman a “pencil-necked weasel” (sticks and stones people).

Gaiman went to his blog to explain the situation further, after first giving his non-political credentials. Gaiman also showed the humor of it all listing four thoughts he has of them. Gaiman generally thinks that “it’s funny,” he actually likes being on someone’s “hate list” as it reminds him of Nixon and tacks a jab back about the “pencil-necked weasel” part. Gaiman also sets the record straight saying he received $33,600. That’s a bit less than the $45,000 (25% less) than Dean claimed, showing that Dean is not only into hyperbole but also a liar. Gaiman also points out that Dean’s complaining also is a bit hypocritical. If the man believes in market principles, Gaiman is just taking advantage of that. Nothing like hypocrisy in politicians.

It also looks like Dean has apologized for the “pencil-neck weasel” comment. Not because he actually feels bad, but because his mom made him. From the Minnesota public radio:

“My mom is staying with us right now because my wife’s out of town,” Dean said. “She was very angry this morning and always taught me not to be a name caller. And I shouldn’t have done it, and I apologize.”

Now, can Dean explain the exaggeration (outright lie actually) as to the fee itself?

Background

Around the Tubes

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Brett

The weekend is up and it seems like last week was all about politics in comic books, whether it was Superman’s citizenship or Captain America and Wikileaks. Even Age of X had a political message. We’ll have a few articles dissecting each of these in the coming days. Here’s the rest of the news you might have missed.

Around the Blogs:

Kotaku – Sunday Comics – Kotaku each week brings various webcomics for you to check out.

RTT News – Jeff Bridges In Talks To Join Ryan Reynolds In ‘R.I.P.D.’ – How many comic book franchises can you collect? Got to get them all.

Around the Tubes Reviews:

Freethunk – Evolution: The Story of Life on Earth

Blogomatic 3000 – Fighting American

Bleeding Cool – The Sky Over The Louvre

« Older Entries Recent Entries »