Use your PSP to read comics
DC Comics offers up 80 titles on the Playstation Portable (PSP) including more than 25 that are free in the Playstation Store. There is also exclusive content only available here.
To view you use the PSP’s Autoflow Viewer to scan the comic frame by frame, zooming in and out with the touch of a button. To use just download the latest firmware (6.20) and select the “Digital Comics” icon under the “Extras” column on PSP’s XMB menu.
TechSavvyMama points out that it could be a way to sneak in some reading for those who are reluctant.
Found via TechSavvyMama
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Use your PSP to read comics is a post on Digital Landing.
Light Cycle
In honor of this week’s comic con festivities in California, here’s a fun little story about one of the movies being showcased. Tron Legacy, the sequel to the Jeff Bridges light cycle original, will be coming out in the next year. To get ready for the comeback merchandise is already hitting the market. Best so far? A working light cycle.
That’s right, for $35,000 you can own a working street legal light cycle with Tron helmet. Awesome! There will only be five (obviously very limited edition) but that just heightens the cool factor.
Comics not in Books
Digital comics are even more accessible today than they were mere weeks ago. The PSP (Playstation Portable) has recently opened its comic store. The store contains comics from Marvel, IDW, Rebellion, and Disney.
At the playstation site you can download a reader for the PSP so comics will be easily accessible once downloaded. Comics themselves are pretty travel friendly to begin with, but traveling with 100 different titles will still be much easier on a digital screen, taking up only one pocket.
Animating the Universe
In anticipation of the 2010 release of the DC universe online game (a multiplayer online game based around the DC comic book characters) DC universe has launched an online animation contest on facebook.
To encourage interest, as well as computer creativity, DC, Facebook, and Mass animation have asked users to download digital models and animate them with Autodesk’s Maya 3D software and then upload their animated footage back to the site. The footage with the most votes will actually be included in the 90 second trailer for the game.
It’s great to see the integration of comics and games, computers and art, and greater industries with social networking sites. The contest will begin Dec 7 and end in early February.
Marvel-ous
The evolution of comic books continues. iTunes has boasted a handful of comic reading applications for its ipod touch and the iphone, but now Marvel comics has officially jumped on board.
Through the comiXology, Fanelfly, iVerse, and Scrollmotion official Marvel comics can be downloaded and read for anywhere from .99 cents to $1.99. Current releases aren’t as extensive as they could be, but everyone starts somewhere, and it certainly is another step forward in comic’s accessibility.
Geeks Unite
Comic Con officially begins today in San Diego California. Comic Con is the largest comic book (and geeked out) convention in the world. Comic books are the focus (thus “Comic” Con) but no longer the rule. The convention has grown to an all out geek bonanza of comics, movies, television, and culture aimed at the “geek” demographic.
Geek, like Comic Con, isn’t the same term it used to be. It’s a badge of honor of sorts and one that many, including myself, wear with honor. With gadgets, computers, and a superhero take over of Hollywood geeks are no longer outsiders but true money making (and promoting) insiders. Comic Con’s explosive popularity is the ultimate evidence to this cultural takeover.
I for one wish I could be at Comic Con this week. Aside from the excitement of visiting California the more specific draws of the convention this year include the continuation of Comic Con Film School (a hands on series of classes on how to make a movie on the cheap) Masters of the Web (genre and movie websites come together to talk about the effect of new media on the film industry) talks by the likes of Stan Lee, parts of the team behind Battlestar Galactica, and Keanu Reeves (for his movie The Day the Earth Stood Still) and, my personal favorite, a presentation of the first hour of the two hour season premiere of Heroes.
There’s a lot going on, both at the convention and in life itself. Gadgets and comics are a cultural staple and those of us who appreciate them and promote them are more popular than ever. Who’d have thought that would ever happen? Though presented with the idea that our popularity may wane and fade in time, just as before, we geeks are proud and will go on with or without the blessing of the rest of society.
