Comic Books
What if you could see Spider-Man swing around the very streets you’re walking in? As part of the ongoing attempts to promote this summer’s The Amazing Spider-Man movie, Sony has made sure that there’s an app for that.
The Amazing Spider-Man AR app (available on both iOS and Google Play) uses the same kind of augmented reality technology as Marvel Comics’ AR component of its ReEvolution digital program to allow fans to find Spider-Man all over the place, with special images unlocking animation of the web-crawler in action on the mobile device of your choice.
The official description of the app promises that users will be able to “see Spider-Man swing through buildings, crawl up walls, shoot his web at the screen, or engage with nefarious characters on the streets” with the new app, with the ability to “take photos of Spider-Man in action” and share them on Twitter or Facebook.
Additional images to activate the AR animations will be available in Sony Stores, as well as through Activision and Entertainment Weekly channels, ensuring Spidey’s virtual dominance as we get closer to his movie’s July 3 release date. Rumors about whether turning your phone upside down as soon as the wall-crawler appears will result in him taking his mask off and kissing you in the rain remain, so far, unconfirmed.
CLICK THRU TO WATCH VIDEO AND SEE MORE PICTURES on www.comicsalliance.com
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Tags: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, Spider-Man, SPIDERMAN | 
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On June 27, Papercutz restores the Power Rangers to comic book duty in Power Rangers Super Samurai VOn June 27, Papercutz restores the Power Rangers to comic book duty in Power Rangers Super Samurai Vol. 1: Memory Short, the first in a series of 64-page graphic novels (available in both softcover and hardcover formats) expanding on the Nickelodeon live action series with original stories by Stefan Petrucha and artist Paulo Henrique. In addition to the preview page at the official Papercutz site, the publisher has also provided us with a look at five action-oriented pages from the upcoming comic featuring a battle between the rangers’ Claw Armor Megazord and a very brainy monster. You can check out the five-page preview of Power Rangers Super Samurai Vol. 1 after the cut.
From PaperCutz’s official solicitation info:
On a rare day off, the Power Rangers attend a free rock concert dressed as civilians, blending in with the rest of the attendees. Unbeknownst to the Rangers, the evil Master Xandred has been watching them closely, and plans to trap them by turning the crowd of thousands against them. Can the Rangers stop Master Xandred’s plot without harming any of their fellow teens?
CLICK THRU to read the five-page preview on www.comicsalliance.com
Posted in Anime, Anime News, Comic Book News, Comic Books | Tags: power ranger, power rangers super samurai, saban, sentai | No Comments »
Well, nationwide-ish. Mostly in the South. Twenty states.
Bleeding Cool has been following the progress of Hastings, a multimedia entertainment superstore retailer, moving into comic book store territory. Increasing massively the stock and knowledge base of 138 stores, and creating the largest direct market comic book chain, and the largest single buyer of comic books in the USA.
They’ve sold exclusive variant covers, participated in retailer promotions and now they’re providing the common comic book store service of a pullbox. Comic books pre-ordered and set aside for regular customers, to avoid the Wednesday morning rush.
This will launch on Free Comic Book Day this Saturday. Attendees who pick up free comics from their local Hastings will get a coupon for 25% off their first pullbox order, if they pre-order three or more comics.
See on www.bleedingcool.com
DC Comics have commissioned a new TV advertising campaign, which will focus on the first hardcover and paperback collections of the DCU New 52, that have now started to be published, and will roll out over the summer.
And they are willing to pay 75% of the airtime costs for any store who runs the ads on local stations, with their details on the end.
Here’s the thirty second and two minute cuts, respectively. Next up… the Before Watchmen TV ads. CLICK THRU TO WATCH THE VIDEOS on www.bleedingcool.com
A while ago, when faced with a retailer telling me that Marvel were actively trying to recruit print customers to become digital customers. I joked that if Marvel were actually trying to do that, they’d be giving away tablets.
At Baltimore Comic Con in September, 215 Ink will be selling an branded Android 4.0 tablet, fully loaded with the company’s library of comics, for $99, all in.
With 63 titles currently in the library, with more on the way, that might work out at under $1.50 each.
With a free tablet.
However you look at it, this might be a way for all sorts of people to decide to try out digital comics…
See on www.bleedingcool.com
There was Watchmen. There was Dark Knight. And there was Faust.
Created by David Quinn and Tim Vigil, this disturbingly violent superhero thriller fit the times well. Published by Rebel Studios in 1987, it was published sporadically since in thirteen chapters, while inspiring a film adaptation in 2001.
Well, in October and November, the final fourteenth and fifteenth books will see publication, finishing the story, for the 25th anniversary of the book. Before then, the previous comics will be collected in four books entitled The Communion, putting the whole series back in print.
See on www.bleedingcool.com
If this is true, Green Arrow has succeeded where Wonder Woman failed and gone from pilot to a series commission.
It’s just a rumour, but CW are said to have given the show the thumbs up for a premiere in this year’s fall TV season. According to The Daily Blam, multiple sources have given them word of the commission.
So while there’s been no official word on this, it sounds pretty likely that we can expect to see Arrow on the CW’s roster when they unveil it later this month.
See on www.bleedingcool.com
Remember that part at the end of Batman Begins, where Commissioner Gordon talks to Batman about escalation, and warns him that simply by existing as a super-hero, he’s opening the door to an equal response from the world of villainy? Well, it turns out those same rules apply here in the real world. This week, real-life super-hero Phoenix Jones has gained an arch-nemesis in the form of a Real-Life Super-Villain operating under the name “Rex Velvet.” And seriously? He is quite possibly my new favorite person.
Velvet, a villain so evil that he has a scar, an eyepatch, a moustache and an affected Mid-Atlantic accent, issued a challenge to Phoenix Jones and “his gang of misfit Power Rangers” through a YouTube video with criminally high production values that’s likely to be the best thing you see all day. Check it out after the cut!
It’s hard to pin down one thing great thing about this video — even his name is fantastic — but I’ll say this: Velvet appears to be following the rules laid out in Matt Wilson’s Supervillain Handbook pretty religiously. He’s got the art of villainous theatricality down to a science.
Seriously, this video was made in what appears to be an honest to God lair in an abandoned warehouse. There are literally skulls hanging on the walls and a portrait of his arch-enemy that he throws things at!
As for Rex’s motivation, he seems to be taking a page from the Joker in The Dark Knight: He wants Phoenix Jones to unmask and retire from crime-fighting. Now, far be it from me to get in the way of good old-fashioned villainy, and believe me when I say that I hate to be the one to break this to him, but he’s a little late on at least half of that.
To be fair, though, his video didn’t involve stabbing a dude in hockey pads, so hopefully, Rex Velvet will stick to making videos and avoid getting into, you know, actual crime. If I was in Seattle, though, I’d probably still avoid taking the ferry for a while. With a mastermind like this on the loose, you never know when you’re going to be faced with a moral quandary that can only be solved by Tiny Lister.
CLICK THRU TO WATCH VIDEO on www.comicsalliance.com
Marvel’s Chairman Emeritus Stan Lee has been making the promotional rounds in support of the company’s latest motion picture, The Avengers, based on the classic superheroes he created with Jack Kirby. By this point in his life, the 89-year-old publishing icon has seen a lot of Marvel movies come and go (and has appeared in at least 15 of them), and with that experience comes a lot of great stories. Among them, that time that noted comic book fan Michael Jackson was so keen to play Spider-Man that he attempted to buy Marvel just to make it happen.
Lee was asked about the Michael Jackson experience in an interview with Eric Larnick for our sister site Moviefone:
Moviefone: The most interesting bit of almost-casting that I’ve ever heard came from a Producers Guild conference last summer: the “X-Men” producers revealed that Michael Jackson seriously lobbied for the part of Professor X.
Stan Lee: I wasn’t aware that Michael Jackson wanted to be Professor X. I knew Michael Jackson. And with the things he discussed with me, I felt he wanted to be Spider-Man. That was the character that interested him. He never discussed the X-Men with me.
MF: How do you think he would have fared as Spider-Man?
SL: I think he’d have been good. I think he’d have been very good. But I must say that Tobey Maguire was wonderful.
MF: I’m fascinated by the fact that Jackson worked with Stan Lee Media and attempted to buy Marvel, in the 90s.
SL: Yes, he wanted to. He felt that would be the only way that he could play Spider-Man. [Laughs]
MF: What do you think the company would have looked like now if that partnership came to fruition?
SL: I can’t imagine it would have been totally different of course, but maybe not as successful. Michael was not a great businessman.
For more on Stan Lee, including his favorite Marvel film cameos, click over to Moviefone for the full interview. For a little more on the Michael Jackson anecdote, check out this 2009 video from the Associated Press on www.comicsalliance.com
The shorts in this weekend’s DC Nation on Cartoon Network are all about the education: When Aquaman is out of town, who better to deal with the dangers of the aquatic Black Manta than a hero who swims with the fishes (literally)? And just what kind of sports does Superman like?
Alongside another installment of the Aardman Animation vox populi series DC’s World’s Funnest — Although, judging from this clip, isn’t this a re-run of the first episode? — this Saturday will see a second episode of the ridiculously fun Animal Man shorts, this time seeing him face-off against Aquaman’s arch-nemesis in a showdown to reveal who the true hero of the beach really is:
As well as these two shorts, there’ll also be full length episodes of Green Lantern: The Animated Series (including the origin of a new Red Lantern) and Young Justice, with the latter seeing the one thing standing between the Earth and an alien invasion being Beast Boy. Yeah, we’re probably all going to be in trouble come Sunday…
DC Nation airs at 10am every Saturday on Cartoon Network.
CLICK THRU TO WATCH VIDEOS on www.comicsalliance.com