basically, looking at one of my online comics of the day (I look at www.toothpastefordinner.com and www.marriedtothesea.com) I saw this online comic that I felt should be shared with you all. Definitely explore more of the married to the sea comics if you have a chance. some are priceless and definitely tie together things we are constantly discussing in class, such as myspace, video games, the internet, etc. and Understanding Comics, cause... well, it's an online comic. Anyway, here is the comic I wanted to share:

http://www.marriedtothesea.com/041806/tub-wheels.gif

Okay, this is the last thing I’m going to post about comics, I promise. So anyway, over the past 5 years or so, we’ve seen a rash of comic book film adaptation being produced by major Hollywood studios. Most of them have been superhero related (i.e. Superman Returns, Batman Begins, and the X-men series), but other comics have been adapted as well (i.e. Ghost World, V for Vendetta). So I was thinking about why in this historical moment are comic book adaptations all the rage, and also, what makes a good adaptation?

As for the first question, I’m not really sure. In the case of more superhero oriented movies, perhaps it’s like a relatively safe way to capitalize on the action movie market. Characters like Batman and Spiderman have been around for a long time and have established a strong fanbase. Most fans will go see the movies at least once, whether the adaptation is good or not, and the name recognition and hype may be enough to get non-fans into the theaters.

I was reading about the comics industry online when I came across an interesting story. Diamond Comics is the largest comics distributor in North America. They have exclusive distribution deals with the four major U.S. comics companies (Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and Image), and as a result, most comic book stores are forced to deal with Diamond whether they want to or not. Basically, they have a monopoly on North American comics distribution.

In 1997, the Department of Justice started an antitrust investigation against them. The investigation ended in 2000 and Diamond suffered no consequences because although the investigation found that they do have a monopoly on comics distribution, they don’t have a monopoly on the distribution of all books.

well this is cool, behind ridiculously behind schedule on the blog front... but if kfitz says i can catch up, then so be it.

my thoughts on understanding comics? well, let's just see. i enjoyed this book immensely, but i did not see some clear definite ties with authorship. ?? i really dug how the content format matched what mccloud was talking about - we talked about that in 147 with reinventing comics - but the bigger question of why doesn't that happen more frequently has piqued my curiosity a bit. (not to mention that entire "what IS art?" that we started on last night, but that's a whole other can of worms)

This book was tremendous fun. Over the summer I had an internship at G4's ATTACK OF THE SHOW, a Nerdfest of geeky proportions. I loved it. One of the many menial tasks I had to perform was scanning comics into the system for "Fresh Ink", a segment that features comic books. Although it would often take me more than an hour to scan in the damndirty pages, I really enjoyed reading the comics. Most were in color and very detailed--lots of action lines, blurs, blood, angry faces, etc. I read a great one where these evil guys kill Santa Clause's reindeer...so Santa Clause takes BLOODY REVENGE!!