Episode 414: Use The Force, Don’t Use Force

hijinks-comic(Image above from Joel Watson’s Hijinks Ensue; it got a lot of replay this week as it super-accurately predicted the recent Apple news. Way to observe that crystal ball, Joel!)

APPLE NEWS! APPLE NEWS! SEO! Wait, what? New Apple products are on the horizon and everyone is in a tizzy! Well, everyone but Steve. Blissfully unaware Steve. He is, however, crazy stoked for the arrival of our Poke-overlords to arrive next year on all of our connected smart devices! Meanwhile, Jason got the chance to take in a Super Art Fight and his report should be enough to make you want to join him for the next one. WHEEL OF DEATH! WHEEL OF DEATH! WHEEL OF DEATH!

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JManga.com/Yen Press Brings Japanese Publishing To The Web, Mobile, Tablet Devices

JManga - Japanese ComicsBig news out of Comic-Con, shared via none other than our good friend and webcomicker extraordinaire, David Gallaher (you have to actually Google most of his work as it’s largely behind a Flash-based, link-hating site, but search it out you should).

It appears that Yen Press and several Japanese publishers are gearing up to bring manga to the U.S. in a big way, as big as, say, Comixology’s push to distribute digital comics for the big comic book publishers based in the U.S.

Yen Press brings with them a localized version of their iPhone app which features a great deal of manga, while the publishers have come together to form JManga.com, a destination for the hottest and most popular manga, coming straight from Japan. The Yen Press app is already available in the App Store and JManga.com should be launching in near future, but given the ridiculous popularity these works already enjoy here, it’s not hard to imagine something like this being a huge hit with the target audience.

Admittedly, I do not find myself in that group, but with mainstream American comics gaining increased traction in the digital arena (despite being largely derivative and exhaustingly recycled), a move like this is sure to do at least a few favors for a type of comic that has already permeated several forms of American entertainment.

SDCC 2011: Yen Announces 3 Licenses, Publishers Unveil JManga.com, Brigid Alverson (MTV Geek Blog)

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Tweet Thread of the Day ~FOR~ Wednesday, June 30, 2010

To welcome me back from my mini summer vacation (the first of many!), we have a delicious trifecta of tweets to start off the middle of the week. First up, my favorite embittered heroine, Wonderella, states her position on the whole Wonder Woman redesign kerfuffle that kicked off the week:

wonderella I don’t care what the other superheroes are doing. I will not be wearing a jean jacket. That is all. 23 minutes ago via Echofon

This is what happens when straight men design women’s attire

Next up, a tubular two-fer from Tycho, one half of the Penny Arcade machine. First, he gives a shout out to the fellas that ran the Mario Marathon over this past weekend, a noble effort to play as many Mario games in a short period of time, all for the purpose of raising money for PA’s Child’s Play charity. Judging from this tweet, it looks like they did a pretty good job:

TychoBrahe The Mario Marathon pulled in almost eighty-two thousand dolla? Nice work, fellas. http://bit.ly/9yOAF 2 minutes ago via TweetDeck

Finally, just a quick ponderance about the new iPhone 4 and its ability to let you see the person you’re calling. ChatRoulette may have just found a new competitor… :

TychoBrahe Apple has a service where you can call them and test out FaceTime on your new iPhone. I wonder how many peepees those people see in a day. 25 minutes ago via TweetDeck

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Pajama Forest ~PRESENTS~ Super Awesome Kite Flier Extreme! (To The Max) for iPhone/iPod Touch

These days, to make it in the digital funnies realm, you not only have to update your comic on time, with extra content and clever enough punchlines to inspire T-shirt after topical T-shirt, but you also have to worry about every other digital tie-in that you could possibly make with your work. Facebook, Twitter, forums, email blasts, and now, iPhone games.

These little suckers are easy to make, hard to master, and many webcomics already have their own game/app to carry around with you 24/7, permeating your brain stem and infecting your attention span. Now you can count Pajama Forest, the hilariously drawn strip from Evan Diaz, amongst those digital comic elites. The new PF game, Super Awesome Kite Flier Extreme! (To The Max), is now available in the iTunes store for the low, low, almost-free price of $0.99! Carry PF with you wherever you go with this amazingly named game today!

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