Check out the new trailer for Terra Nova, the upcoming FOX TV series produced by Steven Spielberg.
The show begins in the year 2149, a time when all life on planet Earth is threatened with extinction. In an effort to save the human race, scientists develop a portal allowing travel 85 million years back in time to prehistoric Earth. The Shannon family (father Jim, his wife Elisabeth, and their three children Josh, Maddy and Zoe) join the tenth pilgrimage of settlers to Terra Nova, the first human colony on the other side of the temporal doorway. However, they are unaware that the colony is in the middle of a group of carnivorous dinosaurs. [Source]
My daughter isn’t quite alphabet-ready yet, but when she is, I’d much rather eschew the boring old “A is for Apple” schtick for something clever and geeky like Fabian Gonzalez‘ graphic Simpsons alphabet. OK, so maybe it’s not as practical as your standard preschool fare, but it’s so much more fun. I love the lowercase “M” for Maggie. I’ll admit… there are a handful I don’t get (Üter isn’t one of them).
Here are some of the latest and greatest Twaggies cartoons. In case you missed our last post highlighting some of our favorites, that’s right over here. Enjoy!
While it’s true that not every geek has more than a passing interest in comics, fans of art and history (and art history?) will definitely enjoy the How To Read Comics series on the Best Damn Creative Writing Blog. Rob Vollmar is some kind of comics genius with the gift of ‘splain.
The first installment, simply titled “How to Read Comics“, explains among other things that the word comics is singular, a factoid I’ve been trying to work into daily conversation since. (“I just love this comics!” doesn’t impress at my local coffee shop, BTW.) Installment two, “How to Read Comic Strips“, offers up a nice history of the form with examples of early works. Those are followed up by “How to Read Comic Books” and “How to Read Graphic Novels” (wherein Vollmar explains the difference–or lack thereof–between the two), and today’s “How to Read Manga“, all full of clear explanations, visual examples, and wit.
Rob Vollmar’s first graphic novel (with artist Pablo G. Callejo) The Castaways (2002) was nominated for an Eisner award. His most recent, Inanna’s Tears (with artist mpMann) is a proto-historical fiction set in ancient Sumer. Rob began writing about comics online before contributing to the Comics Journal. Vollmar is now a contributing editor with World Literature Today and has joined the editorial staff of Crosstimbers, a liberal arts magazine published by the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma where he works as a media writer.
A “children’s” book has become a bestseller at Amazon, apparently as a result of it becoming popular via piracy. But there are questions about how strong the connection is and whether it could apply to other books or media.
(In case you’re wondering, the book is actually a spoof of a children’s book, aimed at frustrated parents. A sample page reads “The eagles who soar through the sky are at rest; And the creatures who crawl, run, and creep; I know you’re not thirsty. That’s bullshit. Stop lying; Lie the fuck down, my darling, and sleep.”)
The theory, which is reported at sites including Fastcompany.com, is that the sales boost came about because a PDF copy of the book, possibly leaked by a bookseller, “has gone absolutely viral.”
There are several reasons to question this idea. For example, I was unable to find a working source for illegally downloading a copy of the book, something you’d expect would be an easy task for something so popular. Of course, this may be that the types of place I was looking are not necessarily the target audience for a book aimed at parents of young children. But I certainly follow plenty of those people on social networking sites and am yet to see any mention of the book there.
It’s also possible that the nature of the Internet makes such circumstances self-perpetuating. Something certainly got the book high up on Amazon sales charts in the first place, but since then its sales seem to have been boosted both by media coverage and by the sheer visibility of being in the charts themselves. Remember that the Amazon ranking system heavily favors most recent sales, so it’s much easier for a book to shoot to number one than with more traditional bestseller lists (which are often based on shipments rather than sales.)
The other point to remember is that even if the piracy has helped out in this case, it’s hardly a typical book. People buying it will be getting it as much for the color illustrations as the words itself, meaning a pirated copy is much less attractive than it would be with a hefty novel or textbook. It’s only $8 in hardback, meaning there’s less incentive to steal. And it’s also the type of book where it’s likely a high proportion of buyers will be getting it as a novelty gift for a friend, a situation in which piracy is inherently ruled out.
