Jim Zubkavich joined us for the hour and we covered a lot, from his series Skullkickers and Makeshift Miracle, to piracy to marketing as an indie comic creator. It’s a solid listen and there’s a little something for everyone. Thanks Jim for joining us and look for our review of Makeshift Miracle soon (hint, we liked it).
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Jim Zubkavich, one of the people behind the popular Skullkickers by Image Comics has turned to torrents to help promote his webcomic Makeshift Miracle. The goal is to get the first issue in front of as many people, as possible so the pioneering creator is offering the comic in PDF and CBZ format and encouraging people to torrent, post, take, share, just spread the word about the comic in hopes interest will grow and lead to sales of the physical item when it hits shelves in May/June 2012.
It’s rare to see a creator turn to this method to spread the word about their series but there’s evidence that this word of mouth pays off. Neil Gaiman has spoken about his use of torrents, equating it to the sharing that occurs at a library We’ve covered that as well as another instance where torrents and 4Chan has been used for promotion.
You can participate by help spreading the word. Bleeding Cool posted up this torrent which you can grab.
It’s the day before new comic book day, what’s every getting? While you deliberate, here’s the news you might have missed.
Around the Blogs:
Nerdage – OU professor writes business graphic novels – With this, maybe I’d of paid more attention in class?
Techcrunch – With Wikileaks Embargo, Payment Institutions Choose The Devil They Don’t Know – For those who call for the prosecution of comic book pirates, you’d do well to read this article.
Ahram Online – New wave of comic books flourishes in Egypt – Great to see the art and story telling form taking off in the liberated country.
Kotaku – Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3’s Changes, Through the Eyes of a Pro – Another comic book video game tie-in is on the horizon, find out the changes in this one.
Con Coverage:
CBR – NYCC: Vertigo Gets Scary
CBR – NYCC: Robert Kirkman Spotlight
CBR – EXCLUSIVE: Kapow! Con Returns For Year Two
The Beat – Retailer files complaint against Wizard AND posts dramatic video on YouTube
MTV Geek – From Batman To “The Fixer” – Frank Miller Talks “Holy Terror” And His Respect For Batman
Around the Tubes Reviews:
IGN – The Incredible Hulk #1
CBR – Supergirl #2
Entertainment Weekly – Comic Book Reviews: Latest issues of ‘Batman’ and ‘Uncanny X-Men’; the outstanding graphic novel ‘Daybreak’
FanExpo is just one of the conventions this weekend, along with PAX. And while we weren’t there, below is some of the news from other sites covering the convention.
Around the Blogs:
Bleeding Cool – Comix Kiss Comix Cancelled, Blamed On Piracy – Sad to see this, but I can’t help think there’s more to the story.
Con Coverage:
CBR – FanExpo: Spotlight on James Robinson
National Post – Fan Expo: Sights, sounds & spandex
CBR – FanExpo: The “Fear Itself” Panel
CBR – Brian Wood Returns to Marvel
MTV Geek – FanExpo Canada 2011: ‘Terra Nova’ – We’ve Seen The First Hour, Here’s The Recap (Spoilers!)
MTV Geek – FanExpo Canada 2011: DC’s LAST Flashpoint Panel Recap (Spoilers!)
Bleeding Cool – Fear Itself – Bullet Points From Fan Expo Canada
Congrats, X-Men: First Class, you’re the top pirated movie according to TorrentFreak. The website compiles the top downloads from BitTorent and the recently released movie topped the chart with copies of the movie recorded in theaters as opposed to rips from the DVD. That type of movie is refereed to as telesync, you might know it as a bootleg. Often that quality is pretty piss poor.
It’s an interesting list as it doesn’t necessarily coincide with what’s in the box office.
| 1 | (…) | X-Men: First Class (TS) | 8.2 / trailer |
| 2 | (2) | Unknown | 7.1 / trailer |
| 3 | (8) | Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (TS) | 7.2 / trailer |
| 4 | (3) | Hall Pass | 6.0 / trailer |
| 5 | (10) | Just Go With It | 6.3 / trailer |
| 6 | (1) | The Hangover II (TS) | 7.0 / trailer |
| 7 | (…) | The Adjustment Bureau | 7.1 / trailer |
| 8 | (6) | Priest (R5) | 5.7 / trailer |
| 9 | (…) | Paul | 7.3 / trailer |
| 10 | (7) | I Am Number Four | 6.5 / trailer |
It’s the latter part of the week and anticipation is building to see what Wondercon has as far as news. I’ll be at synDCon instead checking out what a Washington, DC game convention is like. We, of course will have coverage.
Around the Blogs:
The Back Room – Indy Comic Book Fail Lesson 46:The Crushing Defeat Of Moderate Success – How’d I miss this great series of articles about indy comics? I have a lot of reading to do to catch up I guess.
Evil Twin Comics – Talking to Comics “Pirates” – Writer Fred Van Lente wants to hear why you pirate comics.
The Beat – Comics retailers talk about business in 2011 – Unlike what Rebecca Black thinks, it’s not all “Fun, fun, fun, fun.” The Beat has the view of the comic book industry from various retailers at the front lines.
The Economist – In graphic detail – More and more journalists are turning to cartooning to report the news and The Economist covers this new trend.
The Sydney Morning Herald – Here’s hoping for a superhero every girl can aspire to – It’s not just a costume that Adrianne Palicki will be stepping into, it’s also a hell of a role model.
Bleeding Cool – Kyle Chandler Sought For Starring Role In Powers – I’m a huge fan of Friday Night Lights, so I’m first on board to say hells yes.
Around the Tubes Reviews:
Bleeding Cool – Action Comics #899
Multiversity Comics – Chew #18
Cosmic Book News – Cyclops #1
Bleeding Cool – Cyclops #1 and Wolverine #7
Comicvine – Savage Dragon #170
Complex – The Best Comic Books This Week: Captain America, Batman, Lex Luthor and More!
Kotaku – Week in Comics
Around the Tweets:
An interesting discussion broke out on Twitter this afternoon concerning comic books and piracy. We’ve done our best to show the narrative as it unfolded, but there were a lot of Tweets, Replys, etc. and I’m sure some were missed.
It’s the weekend! I also have a headache, it’s not due to a crazy night out, it’s from the incessant playing of Rebecca Black’s damn Friday song. Seriously, it needs to be outlawed and it’s now officially the new Rick Roll. Here’s all the comic news that I found interesting in the last 24 hours.
Around the Blogs:
Lifehacker – A Comic Book Lover’s Guide to Going Digital – A good introduction. It’d be nice to see more debates about consumer’s rights and ownership when it comes to digital comics.
Comic Book Resources – Wowio relaunches Spacedog as digital graphic novel imprint – Um, k.
Arts Beat – Graphic Books Best Sellers: Dead (Again) Robin? – Always interesting to see what the general public buys.
Bleeding Cool – Fundraising For Japan All Over The World – Go and give now.
ICv2 – Can Anti-Piracy Enforcement Work? – The shorter answer is no.
The Beat – Dude spends his free time making beautiful images of Kandor – I want, I want, I want.
Around the Tubes Reviews:
Graphic Novel News – Astro City Vol. 1: Life in the Big City
Neil Gaiman is a comic book icon and well respected author. So, it came as a shock when he equated online piracy with lending of books. Gaimain conducted an interview with the Open Rights Group where he expressed his evolving view on copyright.
Piracy has proven lately to be not all bad. The Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber comic book Underground was posted to the online board 4chan. The posting was by an enthusiastic fan who hoped to spike interest in the series. They even offered to take it down when contacted by Lieber. Lieber noticed that this actually lead to increased sales. Lieber went so far to post the books himself (which we took advantage in downloading, though haven’t had a chance to read).
Gaiman noticed to same trend. He himself experimented with releasing his books for free after noticing where his books were being pirated that sales increased, especially where it was being translated like Russia. Gaiman saw sales increases of 300%. This lead Gaiman to feel he wasn’t losing sales when he puts these materials out there.
Gaiman equates this with the idea discovering offers by being lent books. Through asking his audiences he found so many more discovered new authors after being lent books, not walking into stores. To Gaiman this is raising awareness, this is advertising in the new century.
A Japanese man who illegally distributed images of the popular cartoon series One Piece online has been arrested for copyright violations, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) announced on Nov. 4. Koichi Okumura, 35, a resident of Asahikawa, Hokkaido is accused of copyright violations, a crime he has allegedly admitted to.
Okumura shared 4 comic books in August using the service Share. He is also suspected of illegally distributing a total of about 550 other pieces of data including movies and adult-oriented videos over the past year.
MPD said the arrest was the nation’s second of its kind following a similar case in which copyright violation using the Share.
