Tagged: Michael Davis

When San Diego is too far away…

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  • July 29, 2007

Yeah, I guess I’m missing San Diego, in more ways than one.  But then again, they’re missing the Del Close improv marathon here in NYC, so that makes us even.  Not.  Ah well, on to this past week’s ComicMix columns:

I haven’t even begun to keep track of all Mellifluous Mike Raub‘s Big ComicMix Broadcasts, so why don’t you do it for me?:

Tomorrow’s probably going to be a slow day while my colleagues travel and sleep, so it’s a good time to get all caught up!

Once you’ve finished That Book…

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  • July 22, 2007

Nerds, geeks and thinking people everywhere are settling down to read J.K. Rowling’s latest and last adventure of Harry Potter prior to packing for sunny southern California.  At least that’s what they tell me; I’ll wait for the easier-to-heft paperback, thanks.  But there are no queues at all to read ComicMix columnist contributions from this past week:

If you see Mellifluous Mike Raub at San Diego, speak loudly and clearly into the mic!  Here are his contributions as he hits the Big Seven-Oh:

Have a safe flight of fancy, everyone!

A midsummer’s weekly reading

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  • July 15, 2007

Another glorious summery weekend here in the New York metro area, so with the necessary errands all done (why is it that most of them seem to involve spending money?), it’s time to catch you up on what ComicMix columnists have written this past week:

Hey, Mellifluous Mike Raub has reached a milestone with his big ComicMix Broadcast #65 and beyond; does that make him eligible for senior citizen privileges?

Lastly on a personal note, a huge thanks once again to Andrew Wheeler for all his comics link posts during my extended day-job swampitude! I hope to be back here full time before y’all know it (but not before Sandy Eggo)…

ComicMix columns declare independence

Between the final episode of this season’s Dr. Who airing on the Beeb last night, and this afternoon’s "live" (read: an hour delayed) VH1 running of the Concert for Diana (sure, I could have seen the actual live stream online, but then I wouldn’t be able to do anything else with my computer), it seems this weekend as though England must have won that war a couple hundred years ago, at least the cultural end of it.  Nonetheless, our ComicMix columnists have been doing our all-American best to keep you entertained this past week, and here’s your weekly wrap-up of our latest:

Did you catch Mellifluous Mike Raub‘s "Words and Pictures" below?  If you want to relisten to the Big ComicMix Broadcasts to which he’s referring, here they are again:

Lastly, we extend a laurel and hardy handshake welcoming Andrew Wheeler to our happy little gang!

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MICHAEL DAVIS: Not What You Think

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  • June 29, 2007

michael-davis100-5274434Years ago I wrote a column for Comics Buyers Guide (CBG) called Picture This. I actually started writing that column even before Peter David started writing his. Being the professional he is, Peter has been able to sustain his column But I Digress for well over a decade. I lasted a few months before I simply stopped writing it. Demands on my time and personal life caused me to abandon what truly was a great gig for an even greater magazine.

Now I’m writing this column and have managed to keep my deadlines (except for one little itsy bitsy time when I got my column in late and it had to run on Saturday instead of Friday) for twenty weeks and I am having a great time.

There are some people who still remember my Picture This column. If you think I am a raving manic now you should have seen me then. I pissed off more people than Katharine Harris did during the 2000 election. In my career I have also written guest columns in a few magazines as well as a few editorials over the years in various outlets. Those people who know me know that I am a shameless self-promoter. That said, in all of the hundreds of articles I have written I have never plugged a current deal that I was involved in. I may have mentioned what I was working on but never with any eye towards getting people to go out and watch what I was doing on TV or buy what I was publishing in the comic stores. In fact in all my ranting over the years I have only written about one subject more than once.

That subject was rumors.

I just heard a recent rumor that has compelled me to write about a current project I’m involved in, The Guardian Line (TGL)

I was recently talking to Lovern Kindzierski on the phone. Lovern is one of my best friends and we are working together on TGL. I have a book open and I’m looking for an artist and asked Lovern if he knew of anyone. He then mentioned that there is a creator in a comic book chat room saying that UMI (TGL’s parent company) does not pay their creators.

At this point I would usually launch into a tirade and make a few cleaver attacks on the unnamed creator.

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Overloaded on cons?

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  • June 24, 2007

The older some of us get, the more tendency to burn out.  Transportation troubles and physical limitations may conspire to prevent us from getting the full con experience, but when you can keep up with everything from the comfort of your own computer, things don’t seem so bad.  Here’s your weekly wrap-up of ComicMix columns:

It was great seeing Mellifluous Mike Raub and Kai and Matt yesterday; as usual, they’ve been busy as well with their podcasts:

And don’t forget this week’s special bonus:

Remember, summer’s just started — pace yourself!

ComicMix comes to Poppa

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  • June 17, 2007

While my ComicMix colleagues are having the time of their lives in Charlotte or Philly, I’m moping here in NY with a bad case of the sufferin’ sciaticas.  It breaks my heart, I love Heroes Con and really wanted to be a part of its big silver anniversary celebration.  Oh well, at least I can catch up on comics reading while hearing about all the cool stuff to come (PAD on She-Hulk!  Dwayne on JLA!  MWaid back on Flash!  Oh yes, I’m a happy fangirl) and, of course, bring you the weekly columnist wrap-up:

Meanwhile, Mellifluous Mike Raub marches on with his Big ComicMix Broadcasts:

Hope my fellow ‘Mixers bring me back some goodies from down south!

A June tune to make you swoon

  • News
  • June 10, 2007

Sooner or later our ComicMix columns will be on automatic front-page accessibility.  Until then, I’ll be here just about every Sunday to round ’em up for you:

And congrats to Mellifluous Mike Raub on reaching his Big ComicMix Broadcast #50 and beyond!:

Now back to my own never-ending catchup…

Game Over: The Follow-up

playstation_3_220605-8522544Last Friday, our Michael Davis opined the inherent suckiness of the Playstation 3. Reuters provides us with an amusing follow-up. They inform us that Nintendo Co.’s Wii game console outsold Sony PlayStation 3 by more than five to one in Japan last month: 251,794 units of the Wii to 46,321 of the PS3. The ratio the previous month (April) was four to one.

Sony’s game division posted an operating loss of $1.91 billion in the year that ended March 31. And you thought the PS3 was expensive!

Sony’s going to be spending a half billion dollars upgrading its censor chips – so if you just bought a PS3, you lose. The consensus in the gaming community is that said half billion would be better spent developing cool new games.

There’s no reason to count Sony out, but I’ll bet its CEO and chairman, Sir Howard Stringer, had stayed at CBS.

 

MICHAEL DAVIS: Game Over

super_mario_64_01-9409709michael-davis200-5541101I have the greatest respect for the Sony company, but I have major issues with the way they handled the PS3 launch. So, to my friends at Sony: I still feel you are one of the greatest companies on the planet and it’s because of that I write this.

You should have known better…

Not so long ago in a galaxy real real close there was a giant named Nintendo. They were the undisputed champions of the video game world. They ruled the gaming world with their Mario Brothers Franchise and related games. So successful was Nintendo that the words Super Nintendo and Mario Brothers became part of the American lexicon.

So, there they sat secure in the knowledge that most of the market share for video games was theirs. One day a little guy named Sony showed up. Sony was known for televisions and stereos, not video games. So when they showed up with a new platform – the disc format – Nintendo, as they say in the hood, could give a (insert bad word).

No, Nintendo just sat idle while this “Play Station” chipped away at the big giant’s castle. Years before Sony had learned a bit about under estimating the competition. Back in the 70s they developed a video device called Betamax. It was the first affordable home video recorder. Well a year later other companies developed a VHS format and said to Sony,  “Hey Sony, share your Beta format with us and we will hook you up with our VHS format.” Sony, as they say in the hood said “You can kiss our (insert bad word here).

Well, the rest of the industry went about their business and developed VHS leaving Sony holding the video format that America did not want. So you would think they would have learned their lesson.

You would think.

Anyway, as I was saying, Nintendo was so secure in their complete dominion of the video game market that they paid no mind to the little disc driven Play Station. Nintendo could have paid a little more attention to the disc format, but no!! They figured that the entire world would stay with them. They could have met the challenge head on developing a disc system of their own, but NOOOOO the world would stay with them they were *NINTENDO!

* Note: Please feel free to add your own ominous sound track whenever you see NINTENDO!

They were the leaders were they not?  No one could catch them they were NINTENDO! They were so sure that their brand was so strong that they ignored the up start Play Station. Well it was soon evident that Play Station was the coolest thing on the planet.

And Nintendo heard what they thought they never would.

Game Over.

You would have thought that Nintendo would have quickly learned their lesson and converted to a disc system at the moment when Play Station kicked their ass.

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