Archive for May, 2006
Raids at Motor City Con
(sorry for the delay of the regular Monday Morning Guess the Artist feature, due to a screw up on my part it’ll have to wait till this evening)
So at this past weekend’s Motor City Con, Michigan State Police and investigators for the MPAA and RIAA raided the show and hauled off a ton of bootleg recordings.
“As a result, more than 30,000 suspected fraudulent items were obtained and 14 dealers were taken to the police station — some in handcuffs — for police reports to be filed. The dealers were not arrested, but the state police are seeking warrants for their arrest from prosecutors, White said. Pending that decision, the dealers were released and given the opportunity to return to open their locations at the con again. However, vendors indicated they had noticed RIAA and MPAA detectives on the premises again on Saturday.”
Now, if you’ve ever been to a comic book convention, your first thought will probably be “I can’t believe this didn’t happen sooner.” At every show I’ve been to, in the past 15 years or so, there have always been tables upon tables of obviously bootlegged movies for sale, quite openly. Which makes this next statement from Motor City Con organizer Gary Bishop especially funny:
“It was an unfortunate situation involving the sale of bootleg merchandise, but it is Motor City Comics Convention policy that dealers have agreed that they will not be selling bootleg merchandise at our convention or at any of our venues.”
Gee, really? Can you say legal CYA? If show organizers really cared about enforcing that particular policy, it would be a piece of cake. Any 10 year old could point out all the illegal and bootleg movies, shirts, etc. at a show. But that would be turning down hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in table fees from dealers, not to mention a decrease in con attendance once word got out amongst the nerdinista that they won’t be able to pick up that bootleg collection of The Wuzzles they’ve been after.
Along with a swell write-up, the Alive put together a fancy short on SPACE. Kinda cool. Above is the mysterious Rollergirl from the show. The doc wraps up with an interview by…
Rocket Science, launch
So today is the official street date of Rocket Science, the monthly one-panel comic strip Tim Fischer and I are doing for Melt magazine. For you Columbus folks, you can pick up a free copy at most of the businesses along the High Street corridor. The Laughing Ogre has them too, as do some other retailers like Hot Topic and the like. It’s the glossy, full color little 4″ x 5.5″ mag with lots of bar and club ads, movie reviews, music interviews, and the like.
(this is the old issue)
They also post the entire issue online at their website, though as of right now they don’t have the new issue up yet (I believe it supposed to be vol. 2, issue #10.)
For you Columbus cats: free tacos and beer
C-bus residents, every third Thursday of the month, Fresh, Due Amici, C Magazine and Resource Real Estate host Fresh Taco Night at 65 East Gay Street. So tonight’s your night to grab some free tacos and beer.
More info and pics at Taco+Beer.
The Ferret at Comfest
Got the official papers in the mail yesterday. Ferret Press (and Panel) will have a booth at Comfest, the country’s largest all-volunteer run community festival. Make your planes for June 23-25.
Hundreds of bands. Hundreds of exhibitors. All outdoors. All free.
Don’t say we never gave you nothin’
Have a go at these sweepstakes, maybe you’ll end up with some sweet new swag:
Enter for a chance to win a “limited edition” Dell XPS X-Men: The Last Stand Collector’s Edition super massive gaming PC.
Or try your hand at winning an iPod from Honda and their new Fit car.
Or if comics is your thing, go for the set of 6 graphic novels from First Second Publishing, featuring the work of Lewis Trondheim, Eddie Campbell, and more. Courtesy of the Comic Book Galaxy blog.
And finally, for you artists out there, use your mad skillz to win a Philips 7″ Widescreen TFT-LCD Portable DVD Player with all 5 volumes of the Samurai 7 anime series on DVD. Courtesy of the Independent Film Channel and Columbus’ own WorldFamousComics.com
Your cynical, sobbering thought for the day
“Everything you love, everything meaningful with depth and history, all passionate authentic experiences will be appropriated, mishandled, watered down, cheapened, repackaged, marketed and sold to the people you hate.” –Hooptyrides
(via boingboing)
For all you Lost fans
Last week, USA Today ran a nice little article about Lost, the interactive appeal of the show, and the nature of theorizing by fans. It also covers a new book of essays, edited by Orson Scott Card, titled Getting Lost: Survival, Baggage and Starting Over in J.J. Abrams’ Lost, due in August. A couple of items of note, which I was happy to hear:
“The season’s final episodes also will offer a resolution to the situation of Michael and Walt, who was seen at times as an apparition, and the survivors will prepare to take on The Others, a mysterious group who kidnapped Walt. Desmond, the man discovered in the hatch at the start of the season, will return as well, and viewers will learn why the plane crashed.…
Dissatisfaction with the number of answers in last season’s finale has led to more of them in this season’s final, two-hour episode May 24.”
Also, if you haven’t been out there yet, the Hanso Foundation website has undergone a huge facelift and now contains a ton of content, and presumably, some clues.
Byrne, Kaluta, and Bat Boy
Michael W. Kaluta, John Byrne contribute to Weekly World News!
Greatest. Press release. Ever.
“Comic book legend John Byrne (X-MEN, FANTASTIC FOUR, SUPERMAN, NEXT MEN, THE ATOM) contributes illustrations to accompany a story that “They” (you know who you are!) don’t want you to know: the stunning secret of The List of the Anti-Saints.Then comics super-star and famed illustrator Michael W. Kaluta (THE SHADOW, STARSTRUCK, THE BOOKS OF MAGIC) lends his considerable talents to a story that has shaken the art world to its very foundations (although, fortunately, “They” don’t care if you know about this one or not). Weekly World News staff writer Dick Siegel reports on the discovery of Michelangelo’s Comic Book.”
Monday Morning “Guess the Artist”
Welcome to all our new readers who heard about our blog at this past weekend’s SPACE. This is a little game we play every Monday, where I put up a page of art from the early career of some of today’s well known artists. Use the comments section to make your guess.
(click image to get yer motor runnin’)
(previous weeks: 9/12/2005, 9/19/2005, 9/26/2005, 10/3/2005, 10/10/2005, 10/17/2005, 10/24/2005, 10/31/2005, 11/1/2005, 11/2/2005, 11/3/2005, 11/4/2005, 11/5/2005, 11/6/2005, 11/7/2005, 11/14/2005, 11/21/2005, 11/28/2005, 12/5/2005, 12/12/2005, 12/19/2005, 12/26/2005, 1/2/2006, 1/9/2006, 1/16/2006, 1/23/2006, 1/30/2006, 2/06/2006, 2/13/2006, 2/20/2006, 2/27/2006, 3/6/2006, 3/13/2006, 3/20/2006, 3/27/2006, 4/3/2006, 4/4/2006, 4/5/2006, 4/6/2006, 4/7/2006, 4/8/2006, 4/9/2006, 4/10/2006, 4/17/2006, 4/23/2006, 5/1/2006, 5/8/2006)