The Return of the Shadow

Digital Spy has picked up on a Hollywood Reporter item that Sam (Evil Dead, Spider-Man) Raimi is to produce a new big screen adaptation of The Shadow after Columbia Pictures bought the rights to the heroic character. He apparently won't direct this latest version featuring the adventures of the 1930s crimefighter, who has the power to cloud the minds of his adversaries.

Created by Walter B Gibson, the Shadow originated as a CBS radio show in 1931 and featured in over 300 pulp magazine stories, according to the Shadow in Review web site. I quite liked the 1994 film starring Alec Baldwin (it was directed by Russell Highlander Mulcahy and had plenty of visual panache) but I was in a minority - the film bombed at the US box office, taking just over $32 million, which didn't recoup the estimated $40 million budget.

I'm sure that after Peter Jackson's King Kong Hollywood execs will recognise it's possible to set a film in the era in which the source material was created and still provide a relevance for the modern audience (just as the BBC's underestimated Robin Hood series is doing).

Digging around, I've come across some great web sites devoted to the character, as well as the inevitable Wikipedia entry. The Shadow Sanctum (www.shadowsanctum.net) offers more information on the plans for the new movie and seems to offer a good range of background reference and new interpretations on the character from his many fans.

Roger Langridge does Marvel

On a roll with his latest strip for Doctor Who Magazine this month -- Rose Tyler's last appearance in the comic pages of the title -- ace cartoonist Roger Langridge has a new strip for Marvel, featured in its entirety on the Newsarama comics news site. “How Fin Fang Foom Saved Christmas” apears in Marvel Holiday Special #1 and is a gem of a story, as you'd expect from this UK-based New Zealander.

DRM free e-comics for sale

Couple of interesting links sourced via BoingBoing: Pullbox Online (www.pullboxonline.com) is a new site selling downloadable comics, like the print version of 'Family Guy'. Unusually, instead of offering a Digitally Rights Managed ebook format, they're supporting the CBR format, and PDF. $0.99 a pop.

The No Sheep blog offers some interesting but probably controversial points on CBR and how the comics industry shouldn't worry about it here and here, arguing comics should take the plunge and go digital, which some publishers are already doing.

Slave Labor Graphics, publisher of very cool indy comics for example, has made PDF and CBZ versions available on their site for several months now. Issues are $0.89 or less. On the site are the first three collections of Andi Watson's "Skeleton Key" (a total of 23 issues) for just $5. Also look for two series, 'Whistles' and 'Byron,' being published exclusively in digital downloadable format.

I like CBR -- I use Comic Book Lover for Mac to view the format, which is regularly being tweaked and improved. There's a review of it here on Mac360.

CBR is still in its infancy. Over at the Mutant Liberation Front there's some interesting techie stuff about extending the format to make it even more open source. And make CBRs more search-friendly. I don't pretend to understand it for a moment, but it's worth a look if you're so inclined.

Mobile Comics

I'm experimenting with formats for mobile comics again. Issues continue to be: size (480 x 480 is pretty much a good standard to start with, but it won't work on all models of phone), font sizes and the obvious issue -- is this comics or just simple animation?

One of the best things about reading a comic or book is that the reader controls the speed at which they read it. With the sample above (I think you may have to click on it to view the animation), they don't have that option. As the creator, I've set the timings, transitions etc.

One option is to deliver the comics via WAP, where readers would move from frame to frame at their own speed. I'm not convinced that the java route -- using a java program to run the comics -- is an option (although it has been used by others) simply because unless that is pre-installed on your mobile, users won't bother to download it (unless it's very easy to do).

Lots of questions and thoughts buzzing around but no hard answers!