Comic Books

Tweet Well my inbox this morning was stuffed with people telling me how big an announcement this is: Basically, Amazon has licensed Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries from WB’s Alloy division, and will allow people to write legal fan fiction based on these properties and sell the result on Kindles. The profits will be split between the writer, WB and Amazon, of course. Why is this such a game changer? Well, for the first time you’ll be able to make money legally and safely from your fanfic. I’ve reproduced the PR below, as it goes into detail on the royalty spilt and other business detail in a depth unusual for PR. It’s all part of a push for Kindle Worlds, which will sell short — 5000 to 10,000 words — pieces on the Kindle as cheaper “singles.” The service launches with 50 commissioned works, but soon will be open to anyone to submit. Of course, with WB involved you may be asking yourself if you’ll soon be able to write that Stephanie Brown/Cassandra Cain fanfic you only published on Dreamhost up to now. That’s a tough question. The problem of “brand dilution” is very important to WB and DC’s superhero characters. You’ll note the three properties that were licensed are female-centric and already had a very engaged and passionate fanbase — write your own adventure is perhaps less potentially damaging. Even more importantly, these three properties are owned and created by Alloy. They aren’t anyone’s special child, and thus no one is getting butt hurt by opening the doors to unvetted writers. OTOH, crowd sourcing and sharing and social mucking about is the future. As is self epublishing, Fifty Shades of Grey (which began as Twilight fanfic) changed everything. This is also a way for Amazon/Alloy to find hot new writers without even paying an editor. Speaking of 50 Shades, what about those slash/yaoi and other naughty pairings so prevalent in fanfic? Well, these will still be APPROVED works so…yeah still a gatekeeper. But if this is a hit, who knows. Maybe there will be licensed Wonder Woman/Birds of Prey/Stephanie Brown fanfic someday. These characters are also company owned corporate brands. It fits into the spirit of female-driven fandom and wouldn’t seem to tarnish brands that WB/DC isn’t really that interested in to begin with. Game changer? I agree. Today, Amazon Publishing announces Kindle Worlds, the first commercial publishing platform that will enable any writer to create fan fiction based on a range of original stories and characters and earn royalties for doing so. Amazon Publishing has secured licenses from Warner Bros. Television Group’s Alloy Entertainment division for its New York Times best-selling book series Gossip Girl, by Cecily von Ziegesar; Pretty Little Liars, by Sara Shepard; and Vampire Diaries, by L.J. Smith; and plans to announce more licenses soon. Through these licenses, Kindle Worlds will allow any writer to publish authorized stories inspired by these popular Worlds and make them available for readers to purchase in the Kindle Store. Amazon Publishing will pay royalties to both the rights holders of the Worlds and the author. The standard author’s royalty rate (for works of at least 10,000 words) will be 35% of net revenue. As with all titles from Amazon Publishing, Kindle Worlds will base net revenue off of sales price—rather than the lower, industry standard of wholesale price—and royalties will be paid monthly. In addition, with the launch of Kindle Worlds, Amazon Publishing will pilot an experimental new program for particularly short works—between 5,000 and 10,000 words. For these short stories—typically priced under one dollar—Amazon will pay the royalties for the World’s rights holder and pay authors a digital royalty of 20%. Beginning today, interested writers are encouraged to visit Kindle Worlds (www.amazon.com/kindleworlds) to learn more and

Commando Editor Calum Laird is scheduled to give a talk at the Chalke Valley History Festival at Ebbesbourne Wake near Salisbury in Wiltshire. The talk entitled “Achtung! Commando Comics” will take place at 1130 on Saturday 29 June 2013. Calum will be discussing the history of the comic, the studio in Milan that provided many of the artists in the early years, and the quest for ensuring historical accuracy in all weapons, uniforms, aircraft and machinery. In addition he will be explaining how the comics are put together, discussing plots and artwork and also revealing exciting plans for the future. Chalke Valley History Festival describes the talk with, “For anyone who loves their war stories told with gritty plots and tough-talking square-jawed heroes and with fabulous drawings to boot, this is an unmissable event.” Tickets to the talk also include access to the Daily Mail Chalke Valley History Festival Airshow which takes place at 1430 at the same location on the same day and includes flying displays by various World War II military aircraft that Commando has featured over the years including the Supermarine Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane, North American P-51D Mustang, Fairey Swordfish and Messerschmitt Bf108 Taifun. There are more details of the Festival and how to purchase tickets on the Chalke Valley History Festival website: www.cvhf.org.uk/programme/event/event-40-achtung-commando-comics In the meantime the latest batch of Commandos are now in the shops... Commando No 4603 - Scarecrow Squadron Story: Norman Adams Art: Keith Page Cover: Keith Page The de Havilland Tiger Moth was a reliable, if rather old-fashioned, aircraft used as a basic trainer for RAF pilots. Pilots like Charlie Chard who was only recently qualified when he and his comrades found themselves in the thick of the action against the German Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe. He and his fellow fliers were known as "Scarecrow Squadron" - given the nickname because they were meant to chase away enemies flying over England's coast. A dicey job that, given that their planes were unarmed! Sitting in his open cockpit, Charlie wondered if any of them would survive… • Preview: www.commandocomics.com/latest-issues/23rd-may-2013-collection?issue=4603 Commando No 4604 - Bernie's Buccaneers Story: Bill Styles Art: Vila Cover: Janek Matysiak With four 1400-horsepower Packard-built Merlin engines powering them forward at close to 40 knots, the crew of MTB 989 felt like the raiders of old when they fired a broadside of torpedoes at enemy shipping. Privately they called themselves "Bernie's Buccaneers" after their fearless, swash-buckling skipper. They always said would have followed him into the jaws of death…and one day they did just that! • Preview: www.commandocomics.com/latest-issues/23rd-may-2013-collection?issue=4604 Commando No 4605 - Target For Tonight Originally Commando No 57 (February 1963) Story: Eric Hebden Art: Roca Cover: Ken Barr When crack British Commandos were ordered to fight alongside ace American Rangers in a double strike against an important target, it sparked off the bitter, blistering feud between them that made the "other" war look like a petty quarrel. Here is the story of this war within a war; of Mike Travers and Red Dooley, who were tough enough to lead and control the best bunch of men that two great nations ever produced. "The names of Eric Hebden and Ken Barr are well known to Commando fans - for their gripping stories and dynamic cover art respectively," notes Calum Laird of this represented tale. "Once again, they don't disappoint. "This story of bitter, fist-fired rivalry is beautifully set up on the cover where the two main characters are pitched against one another… at daggers drawn, figuratively and literally. "It's different with illustrator who provided the black-and-whites for the inside pages for Roca drew only one Commando book. 50 years on it's difficult to s

Jonathan Hickman is having a banner year. East Of West is a massive hit from Image and Secret is back, Avengers and New Avengers at Marvel are leading nicely into his big Infinity event… And now Bleeding Cool’s owners Avatar Press are to announce at Phoenix Comic Con the news of a big new book from Jonathan Hickman and Di Amorim, with the entertainingly provocative title, God Is Dead. Six issues, starting in September, covers by Hickman, variant covers by Jacen Burrows. God Is Dead tells the story of gods returning to modern day Earth and dealing with what’s been happening in their absence. And dividing the place into their respective dominions. And naturally man fights back… This is the second debut series to launch from Avatar this year by a writer more familiar for higher profile work, after Kieron Gillen and Canaan White‘s Uber. And you saw what happened with that. Speculators, start your engines, you know there’s no chance retailers will order enough of these – or that Avatar will print enough either. Jonathan Hickman’s God Is Dead For Avatar

They always used to say that women can relate better to men than men can to women, which is why so many of those coming-of-age films used to focused on boys’ lives. I have no idea if it’s true or not, but I never paid much attention to the gender of the people I liked [...]

Part of the “superman workout,” apparently An Australian federal court has ruled a Melbourne fitness service cannot register the trademark “Superman Workout,” finding the company made the application in bad faith. DC Comics had appealed a July decision by the registrar of trademarks that Cheqout Pty’s use of “Superman Workout” was unlikely to deceive or confuse consumers, or lead a significant number of people to presume there’s a connection between the fitness classes and the publisher.However, an attorney for DC argued the registrar erred on several grounds, including finding that the dictionary definitions of Superman are “a muscularly powerful athletic superman” and “an ideal superior being conceived by (19th century German philosopher) Nietzsche as the product of human evolution.” The publisher insisted, however, that its comic-book superhero is so widely known that the Man of Steel has become the first connotation of “Superman.”According to Stuff.co.nz, Justice Annabelle Bennett agreed, ruling today that, “‘‘Indeed, the superhero  and his ‘get-up’ are so famous that they could be said to be  instantly recognizable, as is, by name, Superman’s alter ego, Clark  Kent.’’She determined that, while there was no real danger of confusion by the normal and fair use of the word Superman in relation to the fitness workout, Cheqout Pty went too far in using a shield logo similar to the Man of Steel’s ‘”in order to strengthen the allusion to Superman.”

Tweet It’s been a while since we looked at one of those motiony-comicky-giffy-dealies that take comics and extend them in a browsable movable way. Here’s one from the Netherlands. It’s actually an animated book trailer for De Vriend (Friend) by Dutch thriller author Charles den Tex. It was animated and illustrated by Aimee de Jongh and it was coded by Submarine, using a technique called “Skrollr” which unfolds as you scroll through it. (Pro tip: you can also use the down button.) As a trailer, this mostly sets up a mood of anxiety and paranoia, but it’s still striking looking and makes good use of sound loops as well. If you poke around on the Submarine website you’ll find some other animated trailer by young Dutch artists. #call_to_action h4{padding:0px 5px;} #social-essentials {margin: 0 0 10px 0;}

Posted On Today at 12:45:20 pm EDT by Iron Man Unit 007 [Reply] [Quote] [New] Quote:the comic just feels quite pedestrian and there is no grand scheme or big plot to keep you interested. Well put. All this desire to be a hero on Ock's part and all he had to do to get started down this path was to essentially "kill" the real hero. Here's hoping the Goblin makes mincemeat out of Ock.

TweetThe Glyph Awards, honoring the best in African American comics, were handed out over the weekend at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Creators convention, and here are the winners: Story of the Year MONSTERS 101; Muhammad Rasheed, writer and artist Best Writer Brandon Easton, writer,SHADOWLAW Best Artist Chris Samnee, artist, ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #6 Best Cover INDIGO: HIT LIST 1.0 ; Charlie Goubile and Mshindo Kuumba I, artists Best Male Character Mort; MONSTERS 101; Muhammad Rasheed, writer and artist Best Female Character Dyana; NIGHT STALKER; Orlando Harding, writer; David Miller, artist Rising Star Award for Best Self-Publisher Raymond Ayala, writer, H.O.P.E. Best Comic Strip or Webcomic MAMA’S BOYZ; Jerry Craft, writer and artist Fan Award for Best Work ASCENDED: THE OMEGA NEXUS; Roger Reece and Jerry Reece, writers #call_to_action h4{padding:0px 5px;} #social-essentials {margin: 0 0 10px 0;}

Today is the day, friends: Subatomic Party Girls #1 is now available for your reading pleasure, exclusively on Comixology! For a thin 99¢, you get the first sixteen-page saga of Beryllium Steel and their rock ‘n’ roll adventure into outer space! If you need to know more before you pick up the comic, CBR has the first few pages as a preview and an interview with me, Chad and Erica, and the three of us also guested on the Pop Culture Hound podcast! Plus, you can check out more at the Tumblr, where we’ve got some promo stuff. Go get it!

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