File this under “Yes, please“: Over at the Beat, Torsten Adair asks comic publishers to improve their websites so that people can find information on their books more easily:

I spent the past three months doing something very foolish.  I tried to post Coming Attractions articles by publisher or distributor.  Normally, I would scan titles by month, pull out what was the most interesting, and do a post showing everyone in one list.  Instead, I tried to show titles which might not interest me, but which others might enjoy.

It was a lot of work.  I started with searches from Books In Print (run by Bowker, which manages ISBNs and EANs for the United States market).  Then I supplemented them with info from the Diamond Book Distributors monthly catalogs, as well as from Previews.  And then I had to format the page so it looked nice, and include links so people could click to get more information.

I try to link directly to the publisher’s website.  They deserve as much web traffic as possible, especially if they have a storefront.  As the paradigm shifts like a calving iceberg, they need as much help as possible.

I just wish it was easy to give them that help.

There are some great publisher websites out there that are easy to navigate, with lots of information (and images!) from past, present and future releases, and they’re great. And then there are the others, which are far less user-friendly, and in some cases, comically unfriendly when it comes to actually finding what you’re looking for without what could best be described as “too much trouble for its own good.” I can only wish that people pay attention to what Adair’s saying in his post.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has made a comic that teaches the importance of being prepared…for anything. Even back in May, the CDC posted advice on their blog about such a possible event. Now they are following up with a comic book demonstrating how one could be prepared against zombies and tornadoes and various hazardous situations.

“I think this has to do when one CDC worker said to prepare for anything…including zombies,” says former CDC associate Lisa McCarty, who has experience dealing and educating CDC standards on preparedness. “I think its fun and imaginative and helps people learn how important preparedness is for any occasion.”

I’ve heard the comic was passed around NYCC last week at the “Zombie Summit: How to Survive the Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse” panel,  but those who missed out on that, can read the comic (for free) online. It’s an interesting approach to teaching groups about such things and even if zombies aren’t your thing, I’m sure there’s something any reader can find educational in the pages.

Today’s SWTOR Friday update is a big one, a whole new feature on the website. Through the new Galaxy Map, fans can tour the Galaxy, checking out the location of many of the planets you’ll be adventuring to within the game, from core worlds to Hutta, from wretched hives of scum and villainy to the ancestral home of the Sith.

The real fun, though, comes in exploring the 3D mode with the help of a very quick install plug-in. Here, you can zoom in on planets, watch videos that give you brief fly-by tours of actual places on the planet you’ll be able to see in-game, read detailed descriptions of the planet, what happens there, their allegiance and other facts, and even see the starships that are found commonly in that system, complete with rotating 3D models and text detail there as well.

As a note, if you have the means to hook a computer up to a big screen television for this experience, do it. With the epic Star Wars music playing in the background, it becomes a different experience at full screen in the living room.

With the game recently announced as coming out December 20th in the US, it’s nice for new features like this to be added into the site so that die-hard fans can explore the worlds of Star Wars: The Old Republic early and prepare for their journey into a long (long, long, long – hey, this takes place 3,000 years before the movies, people) time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Click here to jump directly to the new Galaxy Map!

Get your fatalities ready folks, Mortal Kombat is making it’s way back to theaters.

The Hollywood Reporter says New Line cinema has tapped the creators of the Mortal Kombat digital series, made earlier this year.

“The movie deal marks the end of a journey for Kevin Tancharoen, who will direct the new movie,” says THR, “Tancharoen, a choreographer for Madonna and Britney Spears who directed the 2009 remake of Fame and more recently the Glee concert movie, directed a short film Mortal Kombat: Rebirth as a proof of concept for a Kombat movie he tried to pitch.”

Released by Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, Mortal Kombat: Legacy proved very popular in part to stars like Star Trek: Voyager’s Jeri Ryan as Sonya Blade and Spawn star Michael Jai White as Jax.

“The short was viewed more than 10 million times on YouTube, and although no movie deal materialized, he was asked to direct the 10-episode web series, which debuted in April, attracting more than 15 million unique visitors,” writes THR.

The original Mortal Kombat movie, based on the popular video game franchise, was directed in 1995 by the now well-known Paul W.S. Anderson. It did fairly well at the box office but its sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, directed by John R. Leonetti 1997, flopped.

THR says writer of the digital series Oren Uziel will write the new movie but that there is no actor attached and the story will not be a continuation of the video game or series.

Okay, this is kind of hilarious. As Bleeding Cool points out, DC Comics appears to have bought “Marvel” as a keyword on Twitter, which means that anyone searching for “Marvel” will find… well, this:

Interestingly enough, it appears that DC only bought “Marvel” – Searches for “Image Comics,” “Image,” “IDW,” “Dark Horse,” “comic” and “comics” didn’t turn up any promoted DC tweets. In other words, this was kind of personal. How long before we see a Marvel retaliation?

The Avengers, Man of Steel and The Dark Knight Rises are three of the most highly anticipated movies of next year and with the advent of their filming, lots of pictures have surfaced online. Some feature the famous cast members in action, while others show them having fun in their downtime on set. Well, artist Noelle Stevenson has been following the leaks closely, specifically The Avengers, and finally shows us what it’s doing to her.

Stevenson, also known to her fans as Ginger Haze on Tumblr, has a penchant for highlighting the way fans (herself in particular, but I can totally relate) perceive our favorite film or literary characters. Here we have delightfully ridiculous depictions of Loki and Thor, Tony Stark and Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow and of course, the artist herself.

Stevenson also showed us what she saw in her mind after viewing video and shots of Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth filming this scene together recently.

Seriously though, the footage was almost exactly like that.

I love all of Stevenson’s work but I must also direct you to her recent series having fun with X-Men: First Class and, if you’re a Lord of the Rings fan you should also check out her Broship of the Rings. Keep them coming Noelle, you aren’t alone in your superhero world views.

It was the clash of the titans that no-one saw coming. While Ron Marz was responding to the outcry over Miles Morales being the new Spider-Man, as well as the Laurence Fishburne is Perry White news, on Twitter (“‘Worst. Week. Ever.’ — Racists.”), Scott Lobdell was busy responding to… Ron Marz:

Marz was understandably confused, retweeting the above and adding “Probably, since I have no idea what that means.” Lobdell’s reply was to the point (The following includes these two additional follow-ons):

[I]t means your daily Me Am Morally Superior To World rants are tedious and unoriginal. Let your work speak for itself. Wow! What a stand: “Racists am bad” Why not use your writing to change hearts and minds instead of shooting fish in a barrel. I find your pomposity fascinating. Take this as an Tweetervention: no1 stands up FOR Racism ‘cept morons. Ur impressing no one.

While Marz seemed confused in response (“Me Am Morally Superior To World’? Seriously? I was under the impression I’m allowed to think racists are bad people” and “Scott, please understand this is said with no malice: if my tweets somehow offend you, you don’t have to follow me“) before adding “It’s not my goal to impress anyone. I just say what’s on my mind. Sorry if that casts me as pompous in your eyes“, leading Lobdell to respond by suggesting “Hmmm. Maybe you just need to think deeper thoughts.”

I can’t be the only one wondering what is going on here, right? I mean, if you’re going to attack people for stating the obvious on Twitter, there are far more deserving targets that someone jokingly going after racists for being idiots. Clearly, there’s some backstory here that no-one else – including, potentially, Marz himself – knows about, but as ever, Kurt Busiek wins when it comes to commentary on the situation:

Want to get inside the head of Bone and RASL creator Jeff Smith? Of course you do – and Smith, ComiXology and Reddit.com are here to help. Tomorrow, from 4-6pm EST, Smith will be answering questions as part of a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) session to be held at comixology.com/reddit, so you have 24 hours to prepare questions on anything from what Fone Bone is up to these days to what sci-fi has inspired RASL (and, maybe, some behind-the-scenes info about Smith’s spectacular Shazam series from a few years ago, as well). Me, I’m already trying to work out how to best convince Smith to come up with some new Bone sometime…

I need a Doctor…Who t-shirt. Or five.

Today the internet has blessed us with some fantastic new Doctor Who inspired t-shirt designs. Hurry though, some of these are only up for one day.

From artist ZeroBriant comes “The Whos.” Or more appropriately, The (Doctor) Whos. Classic British show, classic British rock group. Makes sense to me. Via Teefury.

From New York City’s Anna-Marie Jung comes this spacial bending image called “Who Needs Gravity?” I believe if the Doctor ever goes back in time to visit M.C. Escher, this is what it would look like. Bonus points for adorable Doctors. Via Woot.

From the birthplace of Doctor Who, the U.K.’s Billy Allison gives us “Crack,” the opposite view of what we saw all through Season 5. And there’s a discount on this one thanks to Doctor Who News! Via Qwertee.

TheOneTrueBix has late night talk show host Craig Ferguson to thank for inspiring this one. As shown in this lost cold-open from the show, this is what makes the Doctor, the Doctor. Via MySoti.

Perhaps this one wasn’t meant to include a Doctor Who reference but I’m taking the liberty of crossing the fandom streams here and calling it an overt Star Wars joke with a subtle nod to “bowties are cool.” From D4N13L comes “Imperial Bowtie Fighter.” Via Ript Apparel.

Image Comics is sponsoring a fun contest with Threadless (you know, the t-shirt company that steals all your money with their awesome products).

“The challenge is to create an amazing comic based off of Threadless designs,” says Lance Curran, the warehouse director and founder of Threadless Comics-On Tees. Their last contest winner, Ben Foot, created the comic above from the t-shirt design, “What Did I Ever Do to You?” by David Schwen.

“I’m obsessed with comics and I’ve always felt that designs on Threadless could make great comic characters,” Curran told Newsarama. “Lucky for us, Image Comics thought so too!” Contestants have 30 days to submit their entry at which time Image will choose the winner.

Besides recognition on the website, the winner will this prize pack of books:

Orc Stain Vol 1
The Fantastic Worlds of Frank Frazetta
Morning Glories Vol 1
Popgun Vol 4 (anthology)
Liquid City Vol 2 (anthology)
Phonogram Vol 1
The Nightly News
San Diego ComicCon 2010 Yearbook (art book)

The winner will also receive a $25 Threadless gift certificate. “Threadless has such a talented and inspiring community I knew this challenge would be full of win,” said Curran. “I’m always looking for ways to combine my love of comics with my love of Threadless.” You can enter now at Threadless.com.

ComiXology, with their own app plus individual apps for companies like Marvel, DC, and BOOM!, has emerged as a leader in the digital comics game. They’ve been making strides on a regular basis in their approximate year and a half in this growing market, adding apps for the iPad, a web-based reader, and recently announcing Android readers as well.

Now the company, who has always pledged loyalty to direct market comic book specialty stores, is helping them get into the digital market as well. Announced today via press release, comiXology’s Digital Storefront Affiliate program lets retailers set up an online store for digital comics. It’s an interesting step to help move retailers forward as more companies begin to offer same-day digital releases and discounted prices. The full press release is after the jump, and stay tuned to the homepage for an interview with comiXology CEO David Steinberger later this afternoon.

(more…)

Update, 9:51pm EST: Bluewater’s Darren G. Davis contacted us earlier this evening in order to make the following statement:

Hey Troy –

Thanks,
Darren

So, y’know, maybe it is Boom! And if it is, big ups to them for using the Vancouver, WA P.O. Box as a clever fake-out (unless of course that was just some happy internet weirdness).

As it stands, sometimes when you speculate, you speculate wrong. Our own Tom McLean got a load of, uh, guff when he posited the likes of Jim Lee and Geoff Johns alongside Dan Didio as DC leadership candidates, and look how that turned out. I’d say that as wrong guesses go, it’s still got a ways to go before it touches “People will love New Coke!” or “People will love Leno at 10pm!”

And with that, I admit that “I Was Wrong” with a little help from Mr. Ness and Friends.

Original Story: As reported on Bleeding Cool and others, an ad campaign has launched in print and across the web using Stan Lee’s signature declaring “STAN’S BACK!”

There’s even a website aptly titled stansback.com that again shows Stan’s signature in white on black.

Rich Johnston (and his commenters) noted that this campaign is somewhat similar to the BOOM! Studios “Mark Waid is Evil” viral campaign for Irredeemable, leading to speculation that BOOM! may be working with Stan the Man in the near future.

This didn’t feel quite like BOOM! to me, though, so I did a little looking via WhoIS. WhoIS, for those not in the ‘net know, is a site that tells you who domain names are registered to.

All of BOOM!’s sites are registered to CEO Ross Richie.

The StansBack site is registered (as of last November) to a P.O. Box in Vancouver, Washington. It would seem a pretty elaborate ruse for BOOM! to privately register to a P.O. Box for a simple marketing campaign. While MarkWaidIsEvil.com wasn’t registered to Richie, it was still registered in L.A.

So who IS in Vancouver, WA? Well, you saw the title of this blog post: Bluewater Productions. The company that gets by mostly on their biography comics could very well be simply running this little campaign to drum up promotion for: a Stan Lee Biography comic. It wouldn’t exactly be the biggest pay off, but it wouldn’t be so far-fetched, either. Bluewater has also published superhero books, so that’s not out of the question, but with Stan’s recent Archie deal, that would seem like a larger reach.

So is Stan Back, merely as the subject of a biography?

There’s an interesting paradox at the heart of the new Planet Hulk animated film. “Planet Hulk” the comic book arc was conceived as a diverting detour from the Hulk’s status quo, not to mention a lead in to a cros-over mega-event. In the comics, with hundreds of issues of prototypical Jekyll and hyde Hulk stories weighing writers and readers down, a riff like the Maximus-meets-John Carter vibe of “Planet Hulk” worked as a novel break, a bit of variety to spice up Hulky’s pulpy life. With “Planet Hulk” fans got a few months of something different knowing fully well that eventually the character would return to something close to his Jekyll/Hyde status quo. (more…)

You’d be surprised at how manga works — while it may be new to a lot of U.S. readers, it’s actually old news to Japan, who see the original printings long before we do. (Kind of like astrology and stars, no?)

Well, Viz Media is making a quantum shift with Rin-Ne, the first manga to come out in the U.S. through www.TheRumicWorld.com, at the same time as Japan, through Weekly Shonen Sunday. The book is due out October 20th.

The book, by Rumiko Takahashi, follows student Sakura, who has long had the ability to see ghosts. Her sixth sense takes her on an adventure, however, when a long-absent classmate is much more than they seem.

I love snark, I love comics, and I love online social networking programs. So basically this is the Fluffernutter sandwich of the Internet for me.

The Invincible Super-Blog’s very own Chris Simms has posted even more of these superhero Facebook statuses over on Comics Alliance. It’s almost impossible for me to pick a favorite — they’re all equally brilliant. (But Daredevil and Spider-Man might be a little more brilliant.)

I was wondering when this would finally happen.

It’sJustSomeRandomGuy, famous for I’m A Marvel/I’m A DC, has put in his two cents on the Marvel/Disney deal. And it’s a musical!

Ironic that it’s Batman giving the words of wisdom on this deal. Also, what Punisher does to Wolverine in the first part of the movie is hilarious and wrong.

How did I not know about this site already? Since the financial crisis blew up in my face, I’ve been giving myself a crash course in economics. I listen to NPR’s Planet Money podcast regularly, and wade through wonky articles by people far smarter than me about subjects that I used to avoid like the plague. Fiscal policy is no longer a phrase that makes me run for the hills, but instead makes me dig in and want to learn more. (Yes, I’m a nerd. Shut up.)

And so when the venerable Ana Marie Cox tweeted about Ecocomics, I was shocked that I hadn’t discovered this blog yet. Combining, yes, economics and comics blogging with a healthy dose of snark, Ecocomics may be my new favorite blog.

Sample post titles: What are the Recession Proof Industries in Comic Books?

1) Purple pants manufacturers. The Hulk will always need them. And for the Hulk, 1 pair equals 1 use. He is a market unto himself.

[snip]

Silk Cuts. John Constantine’s personal brand of tobacco will never go out of business.

There’s also a post about health care in the Marvel universe, and one about the economics of Incognito‘s flying car. You know you want to know. Come on. Join me in combining two forms of epic geekery…

(psst. they’re also on Twitter.)

The comics writing talents of Eric Trautmann (JSA vs Kobra: Engines of Faith) and Brandon Jerwa (Battlestar Galactica) have created a webcomic, Wide Awake, that is now on its way to becoming a movie. Wide Awake got its debut as a short story, “Behind The Wall of Sleep,” in Image Comics‘ Popgun Vol. 2 anthology.

Here is the official press release:

Do-Over Productions has just announced that they have optioned the film rights to Wide Awake, the extraordinary webcomic written by Eric Trautmann and Brandon Jerwa, with art by Mirco Pierfederici and art direction by David Messina. As described in the press release from Do-Over, Wide Awake is the story of Amanda Carter, a young woman whose dreams of terrifying monsters are much more than just figments of her unconscious mind. If she doesn’t defeat them before she wakes up, the horrors from her dreams get loose in the physical world and she must deal with them there.

Trautmann and Jerwa co-created the series which premiered a sample chapter on Free Comic Book Day and was originally scheduled to commence weekly chapters later this summer. This new deal may possibly alter that schedule some. Jarrod Feliciano and Mirjana Novkovic will produce and write the film adaptation. They are repped by attorney Bianca Bezdek-Goodloe. Do-Over Productions is currently in production of the crime drama Fallen Moon, directed by Peter Medak and produced by Feliciano, Novkovic, Valerie McCaffrey, and co-produced by Roger Pugliese. Eric Trautmann can be found at his web site: www.eric-trautmann.com. Brandon Jerwa can be found online at www.brandonjerwa.com.

Having read the first chapter, I have to say this webcomic packs a sly punch. The lead character, Amanda Carter, is someone who could grow on us. The idea here that your worst nightmares would like to stay for coffee is pretty cool.

Those attending the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con would serve themselves well to check out a party happening over that weekend. Fresh off a website overhaul, pop culture headmistress (and longtime Newsarama supporter) Whitney Matheson is hosting her Pop Candy Comic-Con Meetup. Held poolside at the Hilton San Diego Bayside (next to the convention center), most anything Ms. Matheson arranges promises to be a fun, sexy time.

Go to this link for details on this gathering Saturday, July 25th!

If you ever have the pleasure of hanging out with me for more than about an hour at a time, chances are I’ll play you some of my favorite “nerdcore” rappers (though that may be a misnomer for some of them). I usually start off easy with MC Lars, a guy who skates between nerdcore, parody, and sometimes just plain old fun songs, whom I’m happy to call my friend. After that I might drop some of the original nerdcore rapper on you with some MC Frontalot, then try to branch you out a bit into other realms of underground hiphop (that sometimes happens to have nerdy lyrics) like Schaffer the Darklord, K. Flay, Optimus Rhyme, and many others.

The aforementioned MC Lars put up a blog post tonight saying nerdcore as it was originally conceived is dead or dying, and it’s up to new musicians (and those currently making songs out of life) to come up with the next big thing.

As with any genre, if you want to last, you have write songs that affect people in an emotional way and have an interesting live show and be very savvy with your business. What came up were hundreds of Myspace sites with kids rapping over Nintendo samples about Star Wars and how they couldn’t get laid. Nerdcore has been declining in popularity and notoriety because, to be quiet honest, its appeal as a genre outside of a select few people is ultimately finite. The Ramones and the Sex Pistols had an aesthetic that changed music forever, Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash perfected the art of the breakbeat and changed the party vibe by creating a context for funky beats to be played for hours with no gaps. It wasn’t until punk evolved into the post-punk of bands like Joy Division and Public Image Limited that it became interesting again and it wasn’t until the of the breakbeat and production were reinvented by guys like Dre that hip-hop began to evolve musically. Not to oversimplify things, but music evolves when people realize that it’s time for something new, and that time for nerdcore hip-hop is now.

It’s a really cool essay on music and musicians and a lot of what he says can be applied to the evolution of creative works in general. He also lets you know who else you should be listening to that’s pushing music forward right now, and who you should go to for a little hip-hop education.

Since initially being introduced to the genre and its close siblings wow, 5 or 6 years ago now, I’ve seen it change quite a bit. Lars isn’t wrong, there are a lot of pretenders and copiers, but there are also people taking the Do-It-Yourself ethics and nerdy storytelling that nerdcore was built on and doing it in fresh new ways; some are even taking it back outside the realm of hiphop, from Jonathan Coulton to Kirby Krackle, there are people out there putting out great, new music in great, new ways, that happens to appeal largely to us of the nerdy persuasion.

So go give MC Lars’ post a read, then give a listen to some of these guys, then if you’re so inclined, go out and make some tunes yourself (and feel free to post them here).