Tag Archives: Comics

Liliy is a Fangirl #12

…I did other things this week like movies and tv shows, but they were all kinda’ drowned out by DC’s comics this week. XD So without further ado~

(and you know this by now but — spoilers may appear!)

Comics

Batman #3 : Some dude really likes owls. XD I’d say more, but that’s really the gist of what I got from this issue…heh.

Mr. Tycho from Supergirl

Let him be a full time villain. Let him be a full time villain.

Supergirl #3 :  Let Mr. Tycho be a full time villain. Please, please, please, please DC don’t let him be a one shot intro villain. I’m begging.

I love him already.

I don’t know why, but he’s handsome, suave, has a secretary and I really hope he turns out to be Supergirl’s personal Lex Luthor.

Speaking, Supergirl is still rocking. I’m not usually for the slow burn, but with such gorgeous artwork, it happens to work for this series better than you’d expect. Loving it.

And let Mr. Tycho be a full time villain, please.

Catwoman Issue 3

She's awesome.

Catwoman #3 : Man this was a good issue. It had it all: powerful action, a great bad guy and some really moving scenes on Selina’s part.

I’ve noticed people complaining Selina’s been really reckless lately, and not as well planned out as more modern versions–but wasn’t that the point of the reboot? To take her back to a younger, less experienced Catwoman?

She’s still learning, and she’s finally realizing her behavior has consequences. That’s the part of the story that’s engaging and I’m really glad we get to see it here with the Lola storyline.

Also, Batman & Catwoman’s relationship is getting more defined and I love that all over the place.

Nightwing #3 :  This might honestly be the first series I drop from the DC line. XD I am really having a hard time caring about Dick Grayson and his problems. It’s not that it’s poorly written or anything, I just don’t think I’m a huge Grayson fan. I didn’t really start liking the Robins until Tim got to the scene (The Jason/Tim hybrid on B:TAS), and then fell in love with Comic Tim Drake & Jason Todd in Under The Red Hood. I don’t think I started liking Dick until he was Batman and teamed up with Damian…so. Yeah. Having trouble with this one. XD

Wonder Woman in Justice League #3

She won me over with 'Harpy'

Justice League #3 : Wow. XD I might actually like Wonder Woman for a change.  She was awesome.

I’m not even joking. There was something so great about her wandering around, not having a clue about anything, while Steve tried to track her down.

It’s fun and adds to the humor that Justice League has had building through this entire ‘here comes Darkseid’ thing. Plus, Green Lantern called ‘Dibs’ and that’s hilarious all by itself. Loving Justice League. It’s almost worth that extra dollar they’re charging. (But it still hurts.)

And for the record – I like the bloomers. I hope Diana never gets pants. *sits strongly in the short-shorts camp*

Red Hood and the Outlaws #3 : All the haters of Red Hood and the Outlaws? Read this issue. Now. I’ll sum up my thoughts by this:

Kori: Girl, you scary. o_O

Roy: You sweet, idiotic lug head…stop making Killer Croc weird…heh.

Jason: I’m going to beat you over the head. YOU GO GET THAT MEMORY BACK RIGHT NOW! *fumes*

Sorry. XD My favorite part about Jason Todd has always been his daddy issues. No question.

Still, the last scene of Red Hood and the Outlaws is as moving as the last scene in Under the Red Hood.

Look at it:

Jason and Bruce

Perfect Family Moment

Nothing more needs to be said.

Liliy is a Fangirl #2

And we’re back for another fun fangirl Friday rambling session. Oh, yeah~

Games

Minecraft. Good lord that game is addictive. I now know why I avoided it for so long. But seriously: Legos for adults. I’m currently building my castle and loving it. XD

And because I’m a loser I play on Peaceful mode. Stupid Creepers. *_*

“SHEEP.”

(I’ll update this post with screenshots once I have them. XD)

Books/Comics

The New 52 of DC continues~ After looking at the full list I had about 13-14 series I wanted to pick up. This week had 3 of my definite must haves!

Action Comics #1: New cocky, rebellious Superman. Let’s do a little back story – Superman had never been my cup of tea. He was the perfect Boy Scout and a little boring, so I never really grabbed any of his solo titles. Now, make him dorky Clark Kent or stick him in a room with Batman & I’m all over that. So I definitely never hated the big guy, it just wasn’t my first choice. That said, the new attitude on Superman is almost…weird. I kinda’ miss the boy scout, but I’m willing to give him a shot.

Detective Comics #1: I love Batman. The reboot gives me a chance to get in on the comic action (I was so far behind it didn’t seem worth it XD) so this was a no brainer. Comic was creepy. Seriously. The last page *shiver.*

Static Shock #1: I loved the Static Shock cartoon. Virgil & Richie were fun and had that smart-alec Spiderman thing going on & we all know that super heros deserve proper witty banter. I found out much later it was based off a comic series, but like most didn’t have the money or time to ‘catch up’ to the current issue. Reboot? Yes, please. I loved issue #1. It was funny & entertaining. Can’t wait for issue #2.

And thanks to Comixology Sales, I have a few Marvel comics as well!

The Ultimates 2: I…read this for the Thor storyline. I’ll be honest. I love how differently Thor & Loki were handled and how everyone thought he was crazy. I’m crossing my fingers for Ulitmates (the first part) to go on Sale so I can see him join the team instead of just the ending.

Ultimate Thor: Tie in to the Ultimates universe. Loved it as well. Lots of fun Loki action and gave all the backstory for Thor in The Ultimates.

…I think I just like Thor. A lot. Speaking….that dvd came out this week. *ponders*

Anime

No. 6: Episode. No. 10. *twitch* Much, much fangirl squealing commenced after that episode. Words don’t describe my love for Sion and Rat and I refuse to say anything more because I don’t want to spoil it. XD

And now for the real meat of today’s fangirling:

I drew this back in 2001 (or 2003...I don't remember.)

DIGIMON: 

Let’s go back in time shall we? It’s 2001, Liliy hasn’t started her comics yet and she drew constant fanart. Oh yeah, she also had fan-digi characters.

Yes. I had an FDD. Fun stuff that. I even wrote the bad (really, really) bad fanfiction that went with it.

Oh, and I had the biggest crush on Ken Ichijouji EVER. It was bad…sooo bad.

Back to today!

Browsin’ around CrunchyRoll for something to watch inbetween No. 6 updates, and went ‘Oh hai! They’ve got Digimon!” Specifically, Digimon Adventures 02 & Digimon Tamers. I figured – why the heck not? Series 2 was my favorite & I hadn’t seen it in forever (I still wish they had the first series…) so I was on-board the nostalgia train!

Well, once I got past the ‘….this is in Japanese’ weirdness. Having only seen the dub it took some getting used to, but I adjusted quickly.

And I officially fell in love with Wormmon & the Digimon Kaiser (Emperor) all over again. Ken was so much more fun when he was running around being evil. He had better hair, cool glasses and he was a royal little tyrant. I love him so much. Hee hee.

Wormmon won me over though with a single line (that I’ve paraphrased) : “You’re staying here? That means we can always be together! I’m so happy. *nuzzles Ken-chan’s leg*”

I. Melted. Sooo, so cute. Squee. Squee I say. I love that little guy & Stingmon is awesome.

And Davis & V-Mon are also love. And TK. And Angemon.

You get the gist.

Business Costs

Edit: To Clarify: No research was done, this was just my way of mostly trying to point out money went to a lot of places other than printing. >.> Sorry for the confusion…it’s been a long week.

Thoughts on Business Costs

The following are thoughts based on my personal experiences & through my own understanding. I’m not completely discounting current outcries over how much digital comics cost right now, but I’m also against cutting the price so much that the people distributing the comics can no longer function.

The Issue

There’s been a lot of discussion lately on the cost of digital comics & their distribution services like Comixology.

The argument that has me at ends for the moment, is the one that comics should cost significantly less digitally since there should be significantly less distribution/print costs involved. At first, this sounds accurate, but the more I think about it, the less true that seems. There are still plenty of costs involved with the distribution – probably more so.

Overhead?

I think part of the problem is this mindset that the money from the comic should be split between royalties/the artists & printing/distribution costs.

It gives me this feeling that people forget mainstream comics are businesses that have overhead costs in addition to the Team of people putting the comic together. We’ll cover overhead in just a little bit…

Distribution

Back to that argument about lowering digital prices because there is supposedly no distribution (printing & mailing it to stores) costs. For starters, I’m not sure where people get the idea distribution is a large part of the costs of comic production – but it’s apparently there. Printing & Shipping seem to me like they’d be on the lower end of the cost scale well after salaries & creator pay.

How does this apply to a Digital Distribution service like Comixology?

Businesses, as a whole, cost money to run & maintain – I’m sure folks understand that. What I don’t think they realize is that Digital Distribution platforms are businesses, too, with the same costs and overhead they have to pay to distribute and maintain your product as any other business. Comics distribution is just a tiny part of that process.

When you keep that in mind, the amount of money they charge makes more sense – most of the money isn’t going to the printing of the comic.

Just an Example

I work a 9-5 in a small business. As such, I see a lot of the finance side & do a lot of the supply orders (aka everything overhead covers). Plus, I have to keep track of what I work on because my pay comes out of jobs we complete (so if we’re not working on a specific contracted job, my pay comes out of overhead – which is usually a bad thing).

The following is just a basic run-through of costs minus the actually dollar amounts. Even without the figures, I’m sure you can picture how costs can add up quickly. Even more so when you consider the price of that one comic has to keep both the Comics Publisher & The Digital Distributer in business (they both have these same costs).

Businesses usually have the following costs to consider (yes, even digital distribution services) to run smoothly every month:

Overhead : This is the one I think people forget about the most. These are costs that aren’t directly related to the product but are essential for the business to stay running. Some of the most popular overhead items include:

  • Building Rent/Mortgage
  • Administrative Assistant(s) (The most underpaid person on the planet – I don’t think we appreciate them enough for the crap they put up with. *gets off soap box*)
  • Managers/Bosses
  • Copiers/Printers/Ink (Just a note on this one, I re-order ink for one of our laser printer upstairs – $100 a cartridge. And there are 4 cartridges, the black one needing replaced about once a month & the other three about once every six months. About 10 people use this machine. Just to give you a tiny idea of how this stuff ads up quick.)
  • Packing Tape
  • Mailing Supplies/Stamps
  • Paper
  • Pens/Pencils
  • All other office supplies.
  • Computers/Work Stations
  • Severs/Maintenance of said Servers
  • Software
  • Vacation & Sick Pay
  • Insurance (Health, Dental, Life, Etc.)
  • 401K Matching and/or Retirement (If you’re lucky.)
  • Taxes <–Yes, businesses have to pay these, too.

 

Employees : The bulk of any business cost usually goes to the employee’s paycheck. In the case of an online business you probably get to pay one or more of the following kind folks trying to earn a living (I’ll admit, these are guesses – I’m sure there’s a few I’m forgetting):

  • Customer Support
  • IT
  • Inventory/Product Management
  • Quality Control
  • Web Designer (This could be contracted out or on staff.)
  • Programmer
  • Development & Testing
  • Etc.

 

Conclusion

It costs a hell of a lot to run and maintain a business – even an online one. When you think about that (assuming Digital Distributers & the Comics Publisher split the cost of the comic 50/50) – that $0.49 per comic issue doesn’t go as far as you think it should and you start seeing why they want $1/comic.

Digital distribution is a service and a business – and that costs money.

Do I hope we find that happy medium where enough people buy digital comics to lower that price down? Yes. Is it there right now? No, I don’t think so.

So until then, I’ll pay my $1.99 per comic & help support the industry grow in the right direction.

 

Green Hornet

Go see the Green Hornet. Just go do it.

I’ve been on a total super hero/masked hero kick lately between getting back into the Watchmen and finally catching a few episodes of the new Young Justice. (ROBIN <3)

Saw the preview for the Green Hornet and went – this will be good. And it was. I rather wish I’d actually heard some of the radio shows or read the comic now. Or seen this super popular tv series staring Bruce Lee. Heh.

But, I saw the next best thing – the new movie with Seth Rogan & Jay Chou.

Kato needs no explanation – Jay Chou was all over this role and Kato was every bit the genius, hypercompetant sidekick he was supposed to be. I didn’t think it was possible to squeeze that much amazing into a single person and then make it better by sticking him in the freaking Black Beauty (I think the only car that could compare is Roger Smith’s from Big O).

What surprised me was how much I liked Britt/The Green Hornet. Sure he was a jerk through most of it, but you could tell that it was mostly from frustration. He was just trying so hard to succeed at something, anything, at all, and kept falling on his face that it was hard to hate or dislike him. And when you stick him next to someone like Kato well – it just sort of amplifies it by eleven.

The movie was fun, hilarious, had a great bad guy, and the action scenes and car chases were amazing (Did I mention I saw this in 3D? XD). I was laughing, smiling, and was on the edge of my seat the entire film.

It wasn’t the grit and realism and commentary of Watchmen – but it had all the fun and unrealistic stunts that make caped crusaders so much fun in the first place.

Britt & Kato. Brothers forever. XD Loved it.