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A Possible Return to Common Sense?
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials, Television, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,
Most of the current media bemoans the fact that an increasing amount of movies and TV are based on the comic universe. We geeks and fanboys, of course, love this trend. But most of us are not mindless drones and still have the ability to separate quality from garbage. Spider-Man 1 - good. Spider-Man 2 - not so good. Spider-Man 3 - a waste of good sand. Batman Michael Keaton - good. Batman Val Kilmer - not so good. Batman George Clooney - a waste of good nipples. Heroes season one - good. Heroes season 2 - not so good. Heroes season 3 - a waste of good comic writers.
Recently, DC announced a prospective series entitled “The Flying Graysons”. Folks speculated that with an uncertain future for “Smallville”, we would need something for our superhero fix. But was Dick Grayson, before he became Robin, solving crimes traveling with the circus the best they could come up with?
So, I printed out the article from Variety and posted it at Phoenix Comics, your favorite neighborhood comic store. Now, remember, these are the same customers who wanted to lynch Marvel for the whole Brand New Day fiasco or put up a statue to Marvel for ending the Peter-Mary Jane marriage. And does anyone remember Birds of Prey? How could anyone mess up a TV show featuring three awesomely good looking girls in spandex. Couldn’t be done, could it?
Well, the polling is over and if the U.S. ran like this, we could have saved hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions. Nobody liked this idea. Not one customer. Nobody. And somehow DC must have gotten the message because they have canned the idea. Obviously I am only one store but still… maybe once in awhile they do listen to us.
Read More 
| Variety
I wonder if there will be comics in our future. The reason for this is that it seems that no one wants to write comics anymore. No, what they want to write is the Great American Comic Novel.
As the proud owner of Phoenix Comics in beautiful Eastchester, New York (shameless plug), I have the great fortune, or misfortune, of reading just about everything that DC and Marvel publish. Back in the day, going back as far as 10 cent comics, a huge percentage of books were what we would call today, stand alone stories. Batman caught the bank robber, jewelry store heister, or murderer in one issue. Superman battled the evil monster and/or fooled Lois about his secret identity in one book. A two-issue story was a major event. Even as a youngster, I realized Superman was fighting a never ending battle against evil and we all moved on to the next story.
Starting with “The Death of Captain Marvel,” the first mainstream graphic novel, everyone seems to be writing 120-page comic novels and slicing them into six parts. Before the ink is dry on part six, the whole thing is published in a trade paperback. At least you had a good read on an airplane. But even that doesn’t seem to be enough.
Now we have continuing sagas that seem to go on forever: Crisis on Infinite Earths to Infinite Crisis to Identity Crisis to 52 to Countdown to Final Crisis to….? And don’t even start with all the tie-ins. When they hit Final Bar Mitzvah I quit. Of course the X-Men books have been doing this for years. They even put numbers on the spine so you can keep reading, and reading, and reading and the story line goes on forever. At my age I have to keep reading the books because I would hate to miss a possible ending. Some of my customers have given up and just read the trades as they come out.
Is this progress?
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One of the subjects my comic shop customers love to discuss, besides “Heroes,” is “Smallville”. To survive nine seasons on TV is remarkable in itself, but one of the things I most enjoy is picking up the insider references that they toss in. My comic shop partner, Jason, hates every one of them. Here are a few of them.
Just this season, Clark had to change into a suit at the Daily Planet. The only available place was a telephone booth. Clark said that he wouldn’t change his clothes in a phone booth and Lois had to push him in. Clark’s dog, back at the farm, is named Krypto. When he first met Bart Allen AKA the Flash, Bart was fleeing from Clark when Clark ripped open his backpack. Out flew a bunch of phoney driver’s licenses in the names Jay Garrick, Wally West, and Barry Allen. Bart later suggests they form a club or a league. When Clark meets Arthur Curry AKA Aquaman, Arthur suggests to Clark that they fight crime on the land and sea. Clark responds that he isn’t ready for the Junior Lifeguards of America.
In the very first season Lois is reading a book and explains to Clark that Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus and asks him ” What planet are you from?” John Jones AKA the Martian Manhunter, drops Oreo cookies in his first appearance. Clark now works at a great metropolitan newspaper. Anyone remember others?
Personally, I love watching “Smallville” with my son and every time one of these inside references show up, I have to explain them to him. Father and son bonding - who knew Smallville could help.
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Zynga Texas Hold’Em Live Poker for iPhone
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Apple, Handhelds, Hot Deals, Video Games, Wireless / WiFi,
Online game site Zynga is offering their Texas Hold’Em Poker for iPhones. Play with others on Hi5 Live, Facebook, MySpace or Bebo. Play casual games or try getting into a tournament with the Live Poker game that runs on Wifi and the 3G Network. Download the basic version for free from the iTunes Store or pay $9.99 and get more chips. Zynga claims that 1.4 million gamers are already playing (undoubtedly when they should be working or studying.)
Read More | Zynga
Sharp has two new AQUOS devices, the HN-PP100 and HN-PP150. Each is a cross between a 300 x 300 dpi photo printer and memory card reader. Display your images on your TV in one of their slideshow options or print them. The Photo Player also has an IR receiver for sending those photos to the player as well as an HDMI output. Unfortunately, the player does not have HD capability and can only store the photos if you have a NAS and the HN-PP150 model.
Read More | Akihabara News
Star Wars fans should be thrilled with the new Darth Vader Toaster every time they sit down to breakfast. The Dark Lord’s image will burn itself onto every waffle, PopTart or piece of bread you place into the small black appliance. Perhaps you can fashion your pancakes to look like little Yoda heads to go with them and use your sausage links to have a go at the Light Side. Pre-order for $54.99 for a January 29 delivery.
Read More | Star Wars Shop
TiVo Your Domino’s Pizza
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Smartphones, Home Entertainment, Smart Home, Internet,
You can already order Domino’s Pizza online or from your cell phone, and now TiVo has added the service to its menu. Ask for delivery or pick-up, then track the delivery from your TV. Although there is no charge for the service, you will have to look for the take-out restaurant’s advertising entry points and click on “I Want It.” Set up a user name and password on Domino’s site or enter your address on TiVo, then build your own. You have to pay by cash when it comes, which they say should be within 30 minutes.
Read More | TiVo
Once again, the OLPC project is offering its Give One Get One deal. This time it will be on Amazon. For $399.00, your child and one in another country will receive one of the colorful XO laptops. The company is still hoping to lower the price to $100.00, but so far increasing product costs have prevented it. About 473,000 units have been placed in 31 countries thus far. Order now in the U.S. and UK and get your XO this year. We are thinking that if you want to give your kids a great present for the upcoming holidays, he/she would love to know that they helped another child somewhere else.
Read More | OLPC
Nokia Recalls 5610 XpressMusic Handsets
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Smartphones, Music, Rumors,
Rumor has it Nokia has announced that they are no longer offering their 5610 XpressMusic handset and will recall all of its existing inventory from stores and warehouses. This was prompted when a manufacturing problem affecting the phone’s display was detected. If you have one of the models, you can get a replacement of a 5310 or 6301 at any T-Mobile phone store plus a $25.00 or $50.00 credit from the company as a way of apologizing. While we are not completely convinced that this has gone past the rumor stage, we did notice that T-Mobile lists them as “temporarily out of stock.”
Read More | Ubergizmo
Zune 3.1 update: More games, better Social, more
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Handhelds, Microsoft, Music, Portable Audio / Video, Video Games,
Just two months after the Zune 3.0 release, Microsoft is now deploying the next incremental update to their Zune platform with Zune 3.1. Available for download today, the Zune 3.1 update brings quite a few welcome feature changes and updates:
- New Games: Checkers, Sudoku, and Space Battle
- New multiplayer mode, and single-player difficulty levels, for Texas Hold’em
- Visual changes to the Zune Social, making it prettier and easier to navigate
- Like-Minder Listeners feature added to social, allowing you to compare your music tastes to others
- Improved play count reporting, content synchronization, and other bug fixes in both the hardware and software
You can grab the update now by launching your Zune software, going into Settings, and hitting Check for Updates.
Read More | Zune Insider
