Random Crap May 2009

WotC "sticks" it to PDF Pirates

The week of April 6th had Wizards of the Coast (WotC) tell web sites Drive Thru RPG and RPG Now to stop selling PDF versions of anything that has the Dungeons and Dragons name attached to it. Wizards claims that it was because they were tired of seeing their latest book, Players Handbook II, being downloaded illegally ten times for every legal download. I personally think that this is a bad idea. Sure, it stems the flow of people downloading certain PDF versions of their new books, but this also hurt those players that might want to try out another version of Dungeons and Dragons that they cannot get without paying an obscene amount of money to someone on E-Bay for a half decent hard copy of the Players Handbook from another edition of the game. The PDF's offered at the sites mentioned in the first paragraph are of books from the original Dungeons and Dragons as well as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (both editions) were available through them, and as far as I know were pay for them once (generally around ~$20 average) and you got unlimited, watermarked, downloads of that book. I prefer the book versions of role playing games because it's a lot easier to sit down and look at them at the table rather than having a laptop to get out and then have to make sure you have enough battery life to go through the entire game session. Then there's the distraction factor of laptops. If you have wireless in your house and your buddies come for the game that week and they all have their laptops then they are going to be distracted by the ability to go to YouTube and look up stuff when they should be paying attention to the game.

 

Yo Joe! Transform and roll out.

This link (http://www.newsarama.com/tv/040911-Joe-Tformers-Shout.html) from Newsarama has the latest news about the GI Joe and Transformers cartoon releases on DVD. It looks like that the company Shout! Factory got the rights when Hasbro offered them up for grabs. The Transformers are out first with a three disk set of the first season due out June 16th. It will be much different from the Rhino versions because these are the broadcast editions, not the incomplete editions that the other version had. There are also other extras like Public Service Announcements (that are supposed to be rare), toy commercials and a printable script. As always, there's some gimmick pack in and this time it is a limited edition Autobot magnet. They are playing off of the success of the first Transformers movie and the growing hype machine of the second movie. I know I'm just waiting for them to release this first set so I can view it and decide whether or not if it's worth getting the full set. I hope that they do the same thing with the GI Joe sets as well, and I hope that Paramount's positioning of the GI Joe movie in August does not hurt its box office take. As most people know, August is where summer movies go to die.

 

Clone Wars Decoded

This link (http://www.newsarama.com/tv/040906-SWTCW-Decoded.html) at Newsarama tells about Clone Wars Decoded which they are using to fill their Friday nights from May 1 until the new season of Clone Wars starts some 22 weeks later. What makes Decoded different from the original showings of Clone Wars is that they are going to have pop-up information boxes on screen during each episode, kind of like that old series called Pop-Up Videos on VH1 back in the 90's. I hope that they keep doing this for future seasons because it is good to see some of the back story of what is going on in the episodes. I also hope that they include the episodes as an option when they release the series on DVD in the upcoming months.

 

Marvel & Walgreens Together for the First Time

This link at the Comic List web site (http://www.comiclist.com/index.php/news/marvel-entertainment-targets-walgreens#more6373) tells of a deal that was struck between Marvel Comics and the drug store chain Walgreens to sell all sorts of stuff. Walgreens will be selling items based on some of the Marvel Comics licenses like Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk as well as Spider-Man and "retro" heroes.

 

Help Rebuild Len Wein's Comic Collection

On April 6th Len Wein's house burned down. They lost their house as well as their beloved pet, but Len and his family were fine. Insurance will pay to rebuild the house and pay for the rental house they are living in until the new house is built. Unfortunately everything that Len had was burned and there was some really good stuff in there; there was some original art of the first appearance of Wolverine. Mark Evanier has put together a web site and made a list of all the issues that Len had some work in and wants comic fans that have a heart (and duplicates of some of those issues on the list in their collection) to donate them. The link to the site is http://www.povonline.com/weinproject.htm and has the list of issues that they want fans to donate. Also, if you have a convention in your town and you have a table at it; consider taking comic donations for Len Wein and then contacting Mark Evanier to let him know what you have so he can mark it on his list. There is an update on Mark's web site (http://www.newsfromme.com/) on what should be sent. I really hope that Mr. Evanier will consider taking money donations for Mr. Wein via Pay Pal so he can get some of the stuff that insurance will not cover, like furniture or a new pet when they feel the time is right.

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