gwdMaine's Comments

Doesn't matter the issue; you yell "Wolf!" enough times and it will eventually be ignored. Y2K was "Wolf!" on steroids. Most of us in IT knew it would be a non-event. Here's the two things I remember:

1. Being asked to store 55 gallon drums of diesel fuel in my garage in case we needed it for our generator. No. (My polite business response.)

2. Being forced to sit on the sidelines at the advent of a new millennium; because, you know, we were headed back to the dark ages.

Thanks for the memories.
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One of the greatest sci-fi scores ever - The Day the Earth Stood Still used the theremin. And it was pretty good in the original Thing From Another World too.
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There is only one comic book distribution company: Diamond Comic Distributors has a monopoly on the market (the bloody reference above). They don't accept returns. If a store orders too much, then they have to find a buyer of back issues at a substantial discount. That and the whole monopoly thing drives retailers nuts. Diamond was investigated by the Justice Dept several years back for antitrust practices. Diamond won.

Back in the 80s, Marvel comics that were non-returnable had their issue number within a diamond on the cover. That's how Diamond got its name.

Steve Geppi, Diamond's founder, created Gemstone Publishing. Gemstone bought Russ Cochran Publishing. Cochran had control over much of Bill Gaines' EC Comics - Haunt of Fear, Weird Science, etc., and the reprint rights for EC's stuff went to Gemstone.
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It's a really long, convoluted, and (business) bloody story around the death of comics being sold at drugstores and such. Back to the 80's, you could not return unsold comics. This led to creation of the Direct Market - comic companies shipping product from the printer directly to a comics specialty store (the bloody part). Back then the Direct Market was said to have saved comics. Today it's being accused of holding back smaller independent creators. So I guess that means digital/e-reading of comics is not quite all it's cracked up to be?

It might surprise you that the standard cost of 'regular' mainstream comic is now $3.99. Some independents along with other stuff can be up to $7.00.
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With 2017 sales over $1 Billion, the comic industry is far from dying. My personal spending per month would seem to confirm that and it's almost exclusively on independent stuff (non-DC / Marvel) - lot's of great reading out there.

Marvel canceled FF due to Fox owning the rights and its inability to make a decent FF movie. Disney acquired Fox and the FF is back. Nothing in the world of comics dies permanently.

During the 80/90s glut most of the EC Library was re-released. I have a lot of those - Haunt of Fear, Weird Science, etc. It was a great way to pick-up some cool reading that was previously inaccessible.
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As for the cat’s new name, bestowed by the Center for Biological Diversity: Carver said the cat at the Kanarraville chicken coop appeared to be male, but Murderbritches resisted closer examination. “He’s a mean little cuss, so every time I tried to check, he’d tear into me,” Carver said. “So I never really verified.”

The Backstory­ on Mr. Murderbritches.
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God: (creates cheesecake)
God: (While stuffing his face in front of the angels) Oh wow! This is so great!
Angel: Don’t you think you should be sharing that?
—pause—
God: (creates lactose intolerance)
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No turning back the trajectory? As in you can't change human nature? Hmmm. They did it in Star Trek. I prefer to think we'll come up with something (other than the Big One). Although with Climate Change becoming irreversible in 2030 and The Singularity hitting in 2045, the trajectory is indeed short. Assuming nothing's done and I live that long, I suspect I'll go out with the first wave - Soylent Green or some other dystopian nonsense.
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Profile for gwdMaine

  • Member Since 2012/08/04


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