A custom-made MODOK hat by this awesome dude.

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As KFR reported back at the end of August, Virgin Comics went tits up with no further comics being published out of NYC. But when I was looking up The Psycho by Dan Brereton at the old Amazon, I noticed one of their cross-selling internal links offering Virgin Comics’ Dan Dare for $0.49. After doing some minor clicking around, I came upon eleven Virgin titles (all #1s) under the exclusive Amazon Shorts program ready to purchase for the aforementioned price of $0.49 available in HTML format and PDF download.

Could this be a viable business model for the electronic version of print comics like the mess that is Platinum Studios’ Wowio and Marvel’s current Digital Comics Unlimited sub service? Or could it just be a means of getting as much money out of a deceased comic book line as possible? Until there are more titles from different publishers offered, I would have to subscribe to the latter theory.

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No matter what your political leanings, you have to get a kick out of this commentary during ThinkProgress.org’s coverage of last night’s Presidential Debate.

9:48: McCain said we had to fight the first Gulf War to prevent Saddam Hussein from threatening our “world supply.” Presumably he meant “oil supply.” Alternatively, perhaps McCain is Galactus and needs to devour worlds to survive.

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Fans of the process should get a kick and some insight out of this video which shows Alex Ross creating his Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe box art. I still think that his pencils are far more full of life than his final paintings, but it’s hard to deny the man’s skills, and this hi-speed video is pretty cool.

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Sure comic book flicks are all the rage these days, but somewhat surprisingly, the publishing side of things is also doing quite well…

But here’s a secret about comics that has been hiding in plain view amid all the cinematic hoopla: At Marvel Entertainment (MVL), the industry’s largest player, revenues for its print wares have been growing in double digits for the past three years and profit margins have been running at close to 40%.

Wow, this is the first time anyone’s said comic book publishing was thriving in, I dunno, 20 years or so?

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I’m pretty sure that this ad ran on and off for years in Marvel’s titles, but I never noticed until now just how borderline racist it is. Did the dude Jim meets on a street corner have to be a black guy with an afro with the greeting of “What’s happenin?” To top that off, Jim’s talking about being unable to “score” proper employment. I’m probably reading far too much into an ad that was produced in simpler times, but it’s kind of hard not to view it at least a little bit through modern eyes.

That said, it’s also important to note that it’s probably a good thing Electroman wasn’t in the Marvel or DC universes. Dude is so powerful, he’s able to break the dotted line of the sign up form!

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At the corner of Houston and Allen. Probably just rescued a little girl’s kitten from a tree.

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