House to Astonish Episode 125
Happy Free Comic Book Day! Paul and I have got over an hour and a half of discussion for you, talking about FCBD itself, the sad passing of Al Feldstein, the changes to the Comixology app, the news from C2E2 (including the death of Wolverine, the Tenth Realm storyline, the new Storm and Star-Lord ongoing series, the 100th Anniversary issues from Marvel, the revival of Dark Horse Presents and the Young Guns 2 initiative) and the Chew animated movie. We’ve also got reviews of Southern Bastards, Batgirl Annual and Amazing Spider-Man, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe learns what you should say if someone asks you if you are a god. All this plus the Soule Pole, the digital trees of Luxembourg and Big Paddy’s Corporate Tax Shack.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available through the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
Don’t forget to pick up your tickets for the House to Astonish Live show in Edinburgh on May 31 (more information on which can be found here), and remember that we have super-chic shirts available at our Redbubble store.
I believe France wouldn’t have a problem to buy comics from Comixology with their currency as the site is set up just fine for the Euro – anything else would be crazy and very strange indeed.
But when I looked it up a few weeks ago, the exchange rate their applying was a lot worse that the real one, even when you count in VAT, so… meh.
Not 100% sure, but I think the Android Comixology app never purchased comics THROUGH Google Play, it just used a user’s Google account to provide a payment.
The “sheriff with a big stick” trope is best known for the Walking Tall series in the 70s, based on the real life Buford Pusser.
The franchise was revived in the /00s with Dwayne Johnson as the star.
I had forgotten about “The Other”. Thanks. Thanks a lot.
So, the live show is REALLY just a scheme by Al and Paul to do some housecleaning. 🙂
I’m in Ireland, and Comixology has been asking me to shop from Comixology.eu for the last week. I think the .com site is still working for me though.
I believe there’s only going to be one Action Philosophers strip in the new Dark Horse Presents. It’s one they did for the new HC collection, but I guess they’re giving people a chance to read it without paying out for the full book.
Dark Horse Digital had a big sale last weekend for their 3rd anniversary, so I bought a load of stuff cheap. I don’t find their app too bad for actually reading the issues, but downloading them to the tablet is a pain – there’s no “Select All” so you need to click each issue several times to save it.
About comixology. If your going to force people to fart around on their computer to buy comics. They might decide just to open their torrent program instead, for a no cost option.
About comixology. If your going to force people to fart around on their computer to buy comics. They might decide just to open their no cost comic program instead.
On Marvel Unlimited: That program actually predates Comixology as it currently exists by a couple of years, since it started in 07. (It’s just that nobody cared until they finally made an iOS app, since it was all Flash-based and thus not iOS compatible and not friendly to some versions of Android.) The six-months-or-more delay has a lot more to do with not freaking out retailers and not causing their most devoted fans to stop spending $4 an issue. We’ve still come a long way since the launch, when there was nothing on there that wasn’t currently available in TPB and lots of stories had one issue missing (presumably to get you to go buy said trade).
Al losing it over Big Paddy’s Corporate Tax Shack was awesome.
I’m going to have to be the one to say it.
In reference to Poison Ivy.
“It’s been grow bags and fun bags.” that’s what you wanted to say isn’t it Al?
In regards to the Comixology/iOS sales transition: I experienced something like this when the iOS Kindle app had its in-app purchase feature removed. But I’ve experienced very little difficulty transitioning to using Amazon via Safari to make purchases. Amazon recognizes my iOS device, and I can make kindle purchases easily and directly from the Amazon site. I’ve only used the Comixology app a couple of times, (I’m drawn to comics that don’t seem to get on Comixology…) but I can’t imagine that integration to Amazon proper would be difficult. Also, it’s possible to place a bookmark “button” on your the home page of the iOS device to quickly access any given site, instead of relying on bookmarks in Safari. Set it up, then just push a button on the home page and you’re there.
Admittedly, using Kindle on my Galaxy Tab is easier in this respect–one step versus several–but it’s really not that tough or time-consuming to do this on iOS.
And Al, what’s so difficult about Safari? I don’t have problems with it, and I’m not a young man …;)
I don’t remember if I’ve posted here before, but I’d like to take the opportunity to say that I’ve followed you guys for a long time and I’ve enjoyed your podcasts! Good luck with the live show!
Cheers!
“he six-months-or-more delay has a lot more to do with not freaking out retailers and not causing their most devoted fans to stop spending $4 an issue.”
Yeah, they sometimes put issues up on MCU ahead of the six-month window too, if it’s part of a promotion.
I am surprised nobody made a joke about “Better Call Soule”, given that he is a lawyer and all..
Paul F: Fair point, but it’s very recent and totally unpredictable. My point was really just more that the window is there to mollify someone other than Comixology (with whom Marvel didn’t have an agreement until well after MCU launched.)
Adam: You may choose to believe that, I couldn’t possibly comment…
I immediately thought of the new Serval X-Factor when you were talking about Tracer — not just because of the team members but because of the Google-esque Big Data company behind them. A lot of the weirdness of the character fits if you slot him into the Internet of Things and the data cross-talk of object sensors, with that data of all our wifi signaling being presented as the “language” of a machine culture. Although it DOES work particularly well then for a team with two artificial life forms and the one organic who can talk to that culture…
I feel obligated to point out, now that I’ve read the final issue, that the Tracer Holy War thing you suggest would have been a WAY better use of Vision, Victor, Jocasta and even Pym than the Avengers AI series that ran for the last ten months or so.
And of course, a robot god would also mean the existence of robot atheism.
“We believe he was built, and that he was a very well-programmed robot, but he wasn’t our Messiah.” (Which is actually a quotation from Jewish robots, rather than atheist robots, but you get the idea.)
All somebody needs to do is to set up an app that operates other, comics apps, be they Marvel, Dark Horse, Comixology or what have you. For, say, a $2 annual subscription, you have single-click access to everything.
As for the God of Machines, it’s best to turn to Red Dwarf, where all machines are programmed to be religious, the easier to scrap them once they’ve outlived their usefulness: “No Silicon Heaven? Then where would all of the calculators go?”
Haveva cross-over with Futurama’s fiddle-playing Robot Devil.
That Amazing Spider-Man #1 cover has problems. It looks like having Doc Ock in Peter’s brain gave him serious brain damage. It might be the glassy glazes-over eyes, the massive under bite, the liplessness, or the gradient-shiny skin, but that haunting grin suggests that he is still possessed.
Also he took is mask off as if to tell us “See! It’s me, Peter! I’m back!” and I just want to tell Peter that he has looked like that the whole time. That’s exactly how people continued to think he was Peter when he was actually Dock Ock.
I think it says something about how well-received Avengers AI was that it took 17 posts before someone mentioned it here. The plot of that book (at least the first few issues, which was as far as I read) was basically what Al was proposing in the OHOTOHOTMU but without the religion angle (an AI faction trying to consolidate all AIs into a common culture with another group of AIs (and Hank Pym) opposing them).
@Brendan – The dopey grin is why having his mask off lets us know it’s Peter back in charge. Personally, I’d have done an homage of the classic “Spider-Man no more” panel (you all know the one), but with Ock’s “Superior” suit hanging out of the trash can and Peter walking away with his head held high.
This discounted Batman book is forty-six pence more expensive through the UK shop than through the AmericOlogy: https://www.comixology.com/Batman-Batman-and-Son-Deluxe-Edition/digital-comic/68457 vs https://www.comixology.co.uk/Batman-Batman-and-Son-Deluxe-Edition/digital-comic/68457
And see how the American shop will charge you ÂŁ1.34 less for the full price book than the British shop?
Must be the international postage.
(would I recommend that book either way? Yeah, I guess. The Williams art might be a bit mentally taxing in digital format, but what’s a headache between pals?)
//\OO/\\
Avengers AI was fine. Doombot was a fun character and some of the concepts were good.
But it utterly failed to excite. It didn’t feel like it counted. It will be forgotten.
agh this font makes it impossible to tell the difference between AI Kennedy and Al robot brains. Very confusing.
Since this episode didn’t mention the Image books humble bundle (which launched after the recording of the podcast so it makes sence that you didn’t know about it) will there be any mention of it in the next episode?
Si, that’s because “Al Kennedy” is actually an artificial intelligence that Paul built to talk with about comics, then chose a sans serif font for the website so that no one would be the wiser…
@ZZZ Damn you’re right, they missed an opportunity there!
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