comic

In 2005 the MPAA estimated that roughly $3 billion a year is lost to Internet movie piracy. Since 2005, there have been five films that have broken a previous opening weekend box office record. Most recently, of course, is this past weekend's $200.3 million blockbuster, "The Avengers." Not only did the film shatter the previous weekend opening record, but it do so with a pirated copy of the film in circulation an entire week before it hit theaters. What's even more impressive? The new record is also the biggest jump in revenue, dethroning 2011's "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" by more than $30 million.

All this has us wondering what exactly the MPAA is talking about when they say Internet piracy is destroying the film industry. It's tough to feel remorse with box office turnouts like this past weekend, and also when we read reports that claim there is no relationship between piracy and U.S. box office returns. So when the movie industry does complain about shoddy theater attendance perhaps they should be pointing the finger elsewhere.… Read more

How can you not love a world where once a year, comic book retailers across North America and the world open their doors and offer comics gratis to anyone who drops in?

That's exactly what's happening tomorrow -- on Free Comic Book Day. According to the official Web site, "Free Comic Book Day is a single day -- the first Saturday in May each year -- when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely free to anyone who comes into their stores."

To be sure, there are … Read more

We here at Low Latency are all for convenience, which is why we love Hulu. But requiring a cable or satellite TV subscription for the service seems like a step backward in practicality. Despite making nearly half a billion dollars in ad revenue last year, Hulu is now flirting with an authentication protocol. If we need to pay for cable TV to watch TV on the Internet, then what's the point? … Read more

Rex Velvet, a self-described "people's villain," emerged in a video that makes you think we live in an alternative universe where comic book-style villains take to the airwaves to taunt the protectors of a city. After a lengthy manifesto-style rant, Velvet challenges Phoenix Jones -- a real person who leads a group of citizens that wear superhero clothing and fight crime in Seattle -- to a showdown.

Velvet supposedly belongs to a group called the "Social Villains Alliance," and says that he wants to rid Seattle of the "silly gang of misfit Power Rangers disturbing the peace," says Velvet in his introduction video. "Now our city is protected not by the once respected police force, but by a tormented delusional freak in a mask." … Read more

Image Comic's "The Walking Dead" series has seen explosive success over the past few years even though the monthly comic book has been in production for nearly nine years with its 97th issue due out mid-May. It's been licensed out in almost every way imaginable, highlighted by an adapted television drama that just concluded its second season on AMC.

As a longtime fan and reader of "The Walking Dead," I've realized that what makes the franchise so good is that it focuses more on the human reaction to a worldwide outbreak rather than the carnage an apocalyptic zombie narrative could more easily weave. It's not without a fair share of gore, but its black-and-white pages force you to consider emotions first and bloodlust second.

So while it's no surprise then that "The Walking Dead" has now found its way into a video game, I was curious to see how developer Telltale Games would convert the character-driven series into a game, especially since Telltale's story focuses on a main character not yet discovered in the comic or TV show.… Read more

We here at Low Latency can barely walk and chew gum at the same time, so it should be no shock that we were a bit fearful for our immediate safety when Google's Project Glass video hit a few weeks ago.

The plan for Project Glass is to create a real-life head-up display for your face, allowing people to interact with the real world through the pervasive Google ecosystem. But it also got us thinking -- if we're so preoccupied with our texting, mapping, and other augmented reality antics, who's gonna make sure we're watching where we're going?

If you have an idea for another Project Glass test trial disaster, make sure to let us know in the comments section below.… Read more

q&a Mad Magazine has been running its back-page satire Fold-In since 1964. What many don't realize is that one man has been the driving artistic force behind every Fold-In since then: Al Jaffee.

Now 91, Jaffee is still painting the Fold-In monthly, and says he has no plans to give it up. It started as a parody of a regular feature called the fold-out in much higher-brow (and higher-profile) publications of the time, and caught the public's attention instantly.

He now has numerous collections and books out, including "Tall Tales," a collection of his syndicated comic strip from the New York Herald-Tribune that had a unique vertical orientation; "The Mad Fold-In Collection: 1964-2010"; and a biography by Mary-Lou Weisman called "Al Jaffee's Mad Life: A Biography."

Jaffee hasn't missed an issue since he started, and his work is widely appreciated. In 2006, Stephen Colbert celebrated Jaffee's 85th birthday with the birthday cake equivalent of a Fold-In.

Since the Fold-In in this month's Mad answers the question, "What's the only thing unavailable on the Internet?" we figured we'd turn the tables on Jaffee and ask him some far less humorous questions of our own. … Read more

The Batcave is located in Gotham and the Daily Planet in Metropolis, but when I was in New York City recently, I got a chance to see where Alfred E. Neuman, Bruce Wayne, Diana Prince, and other comics characters really come from.

Getting a camera inside DC Comics is no mean feat, since photos can potentially reveal sensitive storyline information, and in the comics business, there's often a direct connection between storyline and marketing plan. At times I felt like I was visiting NORAD. … Read more

Concertgoers who attended last week's Coachella music festival apparently had their minds blown by a "hologram" performance by the late rapper Tupac Shakur. The centuries-old illusion made it seem that Snoop Dogg and Tupac were sharing the same stage.

That got us thinking about what the future of concerts will look like. We've already seen some jokes about the next "all hologram Coachella lineup," but will the concert experience 50 years from now allow us to watch the show from the comfort of our homes? We can only hope to still be rocking out when we're that age -- minus the skull head-tattoo. … Read more