I saw Hellboy II and Journey to the Center of the Earth since the last time I blogged movies. Here’s my updated rating for the summer:
1) Wall-E
2) Kung-Fu Panda
3) Speed Racer
4) Iron Man
5) Hellboy II
6) Get Smart
7) Wanted
8) Hulk
9) Indiana Jones
10) Hancock
11) Prince Caspian
12) Journey to the Center of the Earth
Your comic for the day will follow shortly ... but first! I did a little interview with Wizard Magazine (yes, that Wizard Magazine. I know, I'm as surprised as you are) about, of all things, Demonology 101. They have a webcomic column, and they've posted it here. So click the link to read me yammering on about webcomics and villains and a bit about my upcoming stuff.
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Boom Studios is putting up more of its comics as webcomics on its site.
BUSINESS
Neil Gaiman has a writeup of the positive results of his recent free experiment putting his novel American Gods (quite good btw!) online for awhile -- sales of his books at independent bookseller were up considerably. Techdirt also has a post on the wider trend of publishers trying out the free ebooks strategy. Some of this is validation for the free model of webcomics but there are also wrinkles to be learned from the experiments of text publishers. In part, I'm interested myself in seeing how publishers, as opposed to creators navigate free and for-sale.
POLITICS
I know there's some hubbub about a swing and a miss cover to the New Yorker (speaking of which Reuben Bolling did a much better take on that satirical idea); forget that, the real story is the New Yorker's interview with Chris Onstad of Achewood.
TOOLS
You can read comics on the iphone. In Japan, software company Celsys is pushing the iphone for reading manga.
Good story (with some holes) on Platinum's possibly shaky finances. We get to learn a lot about Platinum because it's a public company. Other publishers and larger quasi-publisher like companies like Keenspot that are private - we don't learn anything other than what the owners tell us, which isn't usually much.
Key facts? Platinum is clearly spending money -- but is it making any regular income? Platinum lost MORE than 5 million in 2007 and had less than $5000 dollars in cash on hand at the beginning of this year.
Platinum also points to a library of 5600 characters in its IP portfolio as having been recently valued at "about $150 million:" by a firm called Sanli Pastore & Hill, Inc. However, only two Platinum properties are currently under option for films: Unique at Disney and Cowboys & Aliens at Dreamworks. I'm really curious about this 150 million number -- what is it based on (and how many of the 5600 characters are recognizable to the public in any meaningful manner?) and how much of it is actually realized versus theoretical.
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