Kwz000

We got mad psyched a few weeks ago when Marvel tried to offer free digital downloads of 700 titles from their current and past runs. Well, the giveaway didn’t quite work. The servers were overwhelmed by the surge and everything slogged to a halt because, hey, free stuff. Now it’s take two: Marvel’s trying again to hook you with the offer of up to 700 first-issue downloads, but rather than making it a crazy free-for-all, fans need to sign up on ComiXology’s special promotions page — assuming they can keep that page working. Oh, and you’ve got less than two days to get in on this.

The giveaway known as Marvel #1, aims to turn turn casual comic fans into a weekly reading, box at the comic shop (or y’know Coimxology subscription-having) Marvel Universe fanatics. It’s a fine idea, of course, but you can be forgiven if you’re only in it to score some free digital swag. that you can read on most tablets, smart phones, and e-readers.

Now, the ComiXology site says the promotion is “available for free for a limited time,” and while they technically mean “between now and midnight tomorrow night” (11:59pm ET April 9), it has the unintentional double meaning of “if you can get the page to load.” Because it’s still not loading every time. Turns out the Venn diagram of “Internet users” and “comic book nerds” still has a pretty major overlap. Go figure.

Still, that deadline is just for the sign-up, not the actual downloads. Once you’re signed up, they’ll start sending out invites on Thursday for the payoff. So be patient and keep trying. I know I did, because hey, free stuff!

(Comics.comicbooknews.com, image courtesy of Helgi Halldórsson/Freddi on Flickr)

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I’m a serious Middle-earth apologist, but I’m not even close to being a purist. Big difference. I could list off a bunch of things that Peter Jackson’s movies “get wrong” about the world and stories of J.R.R. Tolkien except that they’re a movie, and the changes are deliberate. I’m generally okay with that, and I love the movies. Which is why I, too, enjoy CinemaSin’s latest video, “Everything Wrong With The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey In 4 Minutes Or Less.”

But I do have to say, some of these are kind of reaching…because maybe there aren’t as many “everythings” as the CinemaSins people say there are. Still, they’re funny. I mean, that’s an excellent use of the Benny Hill theme.

Watch it already!

Though I’m a little tired of the same old why-can’t-the-Eagles-just-fly-them-there argument. Sheesh, guys. Mordor wasn’t safe even for the Eagles before the One Ring’s destruction — nor would their flight have gone unnoticed — and the Lonely Mountain sure is farther away than the movie makes it appear.

Not to mention the Eagles aren’t beholden to their quest at this stage, just to Gandalf. Then there’s the fact that –

Er, I digress.

(via Laughing Squid, Images courtesy of YouTube)

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via http://bentkneesgappyteeth.tumblr.com/

addelburgh:

yes, hello?

Calvin and Hobbes was one of those great comics — like The Far Side — that at its dullest was still far, far more entertaining than the best installment of Family Circus. Cartoonist Bill Watterson had a great thing going with his strip, because it was as humorous as it was deep. Calvin’s imagination and occasional philosophical musings are rightly admired still. Calvin and Hobbes never launched into a bigger franchise or animated series — but only because Watterson didn’t care for all that. “My strip is a low-tech, one-man operation, and I like it that way,” he said in The Calvin and Hobbes: Tenth Anniversary book. That said, animator Adam Brown (Ugly Americans) went and made a short little animation of the comic, and it somehow manages to encapsulate its charm.

Watterson particularly worried about what Calvin would sound like if given an actor’s voice. I can appreciate that. But Adam Brown’s animation does no harm. It’s just one moment in time. Enjoy!

Yeah, that’s Calvin and Hobbes done right.

And this totally isn’t, but it’s still worth crossing the streams sometimes:

(via Uproxx, images courtesy of Amazon, and CoolJohnny)

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