Hey, So We've Got This Thing

[Kelly Sue]

Hey guys and gals. This is a bit of an experiment--I haven't been an active member of a public forum in a number of years, so I'm out of practice. Bear with me while I figure this out? Cool.

All right. Let's get started!

I'm pretty open to whatever topics you want to discuss (within the limits of common sense) but here's a list of topics that are of particular interest to me right now:

- comics (particularly analysis without snark)
- screenwriting
- productivity practices for creatives
- women's issues, in and out of comics
- women's history, particularly the suffrage movement and the early history of women in aviation
- Japanese pinky violence/all things Meiko Kaji
- parenting/parenting hacks
- healthy eating
- spaghetti westerns/westerns
- nerd culture
- magic realism
- thrift shopping
- apps/sites/web apps

...You're really psyched by that healthy eating thing, huh?

[Kelly Sue]

Oh! And comics formats--particularly thoughts on digital comics.

[Lineofdeath2]

Does tokusatsu get included in the "nerd culture" category?

[Jew Mafia]

Welcome to jungle, glad to have you here finally!

[Kelly Sue]

Does tokusatsu get included in the "nerd culture" category?

Sure, though, I don't know too much about it, beyond my son being a big fan of POWER RANGERS SAMURAI and my remembering watching (I think) Ultraman when I lived in Japan as a kid.

[dasNdanger]

Wot?! NO albinos?




das

[dEnny!]

Oh! And comics formats--particularly thoughts on digital comics.

I have to be honest, digital comics sort of make me sad.

Only because I have such fond memories of physical comic books. Going to flea markets and comic shops and buying old comics, that smell and feel.

Plus I fear it will result in the demise of most, if not all, local comic shops. Bookstores are taking a pounding right now.

And since digital comics doesn't seem to mean cheaper, more affordable comics then...what's the point? One reason why many people don't buy comics is because they are not one of the cheaper hobbies, forms of reading out there. It potentially brings in a new, larger audience, but weren't movies going to do that? I think Marvel and DC should have come up with a way that they could provide the product themselves, not using any "distributor" or "vendor" so that they can reduce price to the consumers, while maintaining or increasing their own cut, but if you are having to pay a distributor similar to Diamond and a vendor similar to local comic shops and have to keep digital comics at $2.99-$3.99...I always thought it was printing costs that were driving up the costs of comics?!?!

I also don't have an iPad or reader that I feel is adequate to read digital comics. I think you can also say goodbye to the double page spread, doesn't seem like it really would make sense cause it would obviously come in smaller and require zooming in by the reader.

But it's a new era, technology and all that and maybe this will bring in a larger consumer base for the comic industry, but when I go to a convention, with so many artists no longer wanting to do sketches or charging large sums for commissions/quick sketches...what am I going to bring for them to sign? I really don't see the point getting them to sign my digital comic in my iPad. I think this move will only further isolate comic readers removing the relationship/community aspect LCS' bring into their lives, but they get some of that from comic message boards, but there is something different about face to face.

I think there is a lot more going on and issues to think about.

P.S. DCnU relaunching their Universe to make it more accessible...what happens in one year when all their comics are at #12? Are they still accessible to new readers? What about 2...5 years. Are we just going to constantly reboot and relaunch with new #1's? If you are going to just restart the whole shebang, why not then age them take them from the origin to the end and then restart the whole thing?

[dasNdanger]

Spoiler:

I have to be honest, digital comics sort of make me sad.

Only because I have such fond memories of physical comic books. Going to flea markets and comic shops and buying old comics, that smell and feel.

Plus I fear it will result in the demise of most, if not all, local comic shops. Bookstores are taking a pounding right now.

And since digital comics doesn't seem to mean cheaper, more affordable comics then...what's the point? One reason why many people don't buy comics is because they are not one of the cheaper hobbies, forms of reading out there. It potentially brings in a new, larger audience, but weren't movies going to do that? I think Marvel and DC should have come up with a way that they could provide the product themselves, not using any "distributor" or "vendor" so that they can reduce price to the consumers, while maintaining or increasing their own cut, but if you are having to pay a distributor similar to Diamond and a vendor similar to local comic shops and have to keep digital comics at $2.99-$3.99...I always thought it was printing costs that were driving up the costs of comics?!?!

I also don't have an iPad or reader that I feel is adequate to read digital comics. I think you can also say goodbye to the double page spread, doesn't seem like it really would make sense cause it would obviously come in smaller and require zooming in by the reader.

But it's a new era, technology and all that and maybe this will bring in a larger consumer base for the comic industry, but when I go to a convention, with so many artists no longer wanting to do sketches or charging large sums for commissions/quick sketches...what am I going to bring for them to sign? I really don't see the point getting them to sign my digital comic in my iPad. I think this move will only further isolate comic readers removing the relationship/community aspect LCS' bring into their lives, but they get some of that from comic message boards, but there is something different about face to face.

I think there is a lot more going on and issues to think about.

P.S. DCnU relaunching their Universe to make it more accessible...what happens in one year when all their comics are at #12? Are they still accessible to new readers? What about 2...5 years. Are we just going to constantly reboot and relaunch with new #1's? If you are going to just restart the whole shebang, why not then age them take them from the origin to the end and then restart the whole thing?

I'm right here with you, Denny. The idea of digital comics (and books) is just not cutting it for me. For one, I have ADD and find the internet really distracting with all the ads and click heres and stuff. 10 years ago when I first went on line webpages were simple and I had no problem, but now there's adverts everywhere, bells and whistles everywhere, options and links to this and that everywhere...and I find myself running away from the internet instead of being drawn to it. I will still use it to buy stuff, or to find a forum like this were I can talk about something I'm interested in, but to take the time to search for digital media for my own entertainment? I'm finding it's not worth my energy...it's actually harder and more time consuming than before. For one, there are too many choices, too many sites to find indy digital comics and the like, and it's all starting to give me information overload.

Imagine it this way - what if there were 10 comic book shops in your area, each offering one type of comic? One shop only has DC, another only Marvel, and another only Boom or Image or Dark Horse. Then the others only have a handful each of different indy books. You have to drive to each one, searching for what you want, juggling your budget in your head. By the time you get to the last shop, you're out of money and out of patience. The digital comic book thing is like that - no more one-stop shopping. It's site after site to visit, to learn how to navigate, to wait on your computer to load a page if it's being temperamental. You don't get page freezes with a paper comic book.

The digital movement just makes everything seem so unimportant anymore. Easy come, easy go. Nothing to save, nothing to cherish, and pretty soon something will come along to distract you and you'll soon forget what you were reading, just like here on a forum when one hot topic quickly dies once a new hot topic thread pops up. I figure that as soon as the world makes the switch from hard copy to digital where everything in the realm of entertainment is provided through some hand-held device, I will stop reading new stories, stop watching new shows, stop listening to new music. Not because I don't have the time or intelligence to learn how to use these things, but because their cyber-existence just makes them seem...unnecessary and unimportant.

However, I realize this might be because of my age. I grew up in a world that treasured hard copy, and the shared experience. Libraries played an important role in the community, going to the record shop to buy the latest album was an event, and everyone in the country gathered round the tv to watch All in the Family. It's not like that anymore - the digital world we live in has turned people into isolationists. There's so many choices at one's fingertips that few people are even reading or watching the same things anymore. Younger people growing up with this are adapting fine because it's all they know, and I guess that's what the industry has to look toward - the future. But I think there will come a time when there is so much out there that there will no longer be iconic Superheroes like Superman, or Spider-Man, but everyone will have their own hero based on some little digital story that no one will really care about because it only exists in some intagible world visited by the handful of people who go there. That is how I view the future and digital comics, and it depresses me.

das

[JohnBehling]

And since digital comics doesn't seem to mean cheaper, more affordable comics then...what's the point?

Honestly, space. I live in NYC (which I adore) and don't have a lot of storage space so switching to a Kindle for novels made a big difference. (I also donated a good number of hardbacks I had already read to a school library project.)

It sounds silly, but as a practical concern, not having to store lots of comics is a real consideration.

[costello]

Denny, it's interesting that old school comic strips are finding their way back to people via webcomics. I discovered this last week when I was putting together classroom lessons and rather than exhaust resources and time by photocopying examples of strips, I searched for compilations online. www.gocomics.com is wonderful.

A favorite of mine is Nancy, which isn't a reprint of Ernie Bushmiller's strip, but is by Guy Gilchrist and Brad Gilchrist. They use the characters and the gag devices in new ways, and they also use characters like Aunt Fritzi, whom I've never seen before. And it's neat because these new, adult characters are drawn in a different style but use the similar gag approaches.

Check out the website.