Webcomic Beacon #340: Comic News & Discussion for April 28th, 2013

Ren Rieskamp and Kittyhawk join Ben CarverTerence,  and Fes Works for another edition of the newscast! Comic News & Discussion this week: Amazon releasing a comic guided-view creator tool for Kindle, another digital comic store shutting down, WordPress security concerns, and more!

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Cartoonists demand action to end gun violence
Most people have probably seen the video that did the rounds of Twitter, YouTube, and the rest of the internet (did it get on TV in the US?) that brought together 23 cartoonists from all over America to call for action against gun violence (Lalo Alcaraz, Bill Amend, Ruben Bolling, Jim Borgman, Steve Brodner, Roz Chast, Jeff Keane, Rick Kirkman, Peter Kuper, Mike Luckovich, David Mazzucchelli, Stephan Pastis, Mike Peters, Lincoln Pierce, Dan Piraro, Ted Rall, Dave Roman, Jerry Scott, Art Spiegelman, Raina Telgemeier, Tom Tomorrow, Garry Trudeau, and Mo Willems.). As reported at The Daily Cartoonist, the short (2:05) video.

Kindle releases a “Comic Creator” Tool
Basically a tool meant for creators to put together comics for distribution through their color Kindle tablets. This is meant for constructing the “Guided Panel View” experience that Comixology also employs.

We would like to hear back from people that have had experience with this. Good to mention this, and try a follow-up on a future episode.

Square Enix closing Digital Manga Sites
Square Enix has only been selling digital manga since 2010, but after a first quarter full of losses, is already shutting it down. The site has not yet been updated to announce the the shutdown, but it does have a post regarding maintenance for May 23. Reported by Robot 6 and Crunchy Roll.

Relevant ReDigi vs Capital Records court decision, from Reuters.

WordPress Security Concern
Likely will be ancient news by the time of this newscast, but perhaps there’s scope for a post-mortem on how people fared with regards the WordPress hacking attacks – who got infected, or how people avoided it. (Ars Technica) … 
Additional security concerns of WordPress.

2013 Eisner Award Nominees now posted

Best Digital Comics Category:
Ant Comic, by Michael DeForge
Bandette, by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover
It Will All Hurt, by Farel Dalrymple
Our Bloodstained Roof, by Ryan Andrews
Oyster War, by Ben Towle

DC Women Kicking Ass (Tumblr) Celebrates Lois Lane’s 75th Anniversary
The popular Tumblr blog is focusing on interviewing a number of known creators and their work and memories of Lois Lane. This spawned out of the fact that DC was really just pushing Superman’s 75th, with not paying much attention to the woman that was there from the start, and had several of her own spin off comics.
Interviews include: Mindy Newell, Colleen Coover, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Bryan Q. Miller, Greg Rucka, and more!

Free Comic Book Day – May 4th
We could totally have a quick discussion about Free Comic Book Day. Pros, Cons, is it really worth it, etc. We can wrangle something, I’m sure. This is the last Webcomic Beacon Newscast episode before it recombines with the Webcomic Beacon proper. Also, the next Webcomic Beacon newscast episode will be recorded AFTER Free Comic Book Day, So we can come back with info on that afterwards, too.

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Comments

On the idea of reselling ‘used’ software and digital content: About a year ago there was a ruling that effected those in the EU. It allows for someone who has purchased software either physically (boxed, cd, dvd, etc) or digitally to resell it, just as they could a physical item. Of course, the seller must uninstall and delete all files off their own computer before selling. There is a sort of shift in thinking about the consumer, from “owner” to “license holder.”

There’s good amount of information about it, but here’s an article that outlines it quite simply:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228762/EU_court_rules_resale_of_used_software_licenses_is_legal_even_online

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