92615_RAA_LooseCannon_Text_R1_PROOF

to be pretty clear which side of this question I come down on, but I’m not really rabid about it because I’m not really a big music guy. I don’t think any really good music has been done since about the time Howard Cosell stopped calling Monday Night Football, and the few things I really have enjoyed since then don’t exactly break the bank to go buy the CDs every couple of months or so. So, you know, steal from the record companies, screw the musicians, whatever. But as I started to follow the case more closely, it sure seemed that, anec dotally, people were admitting to having hundreds of MP3 files of every damn possible song on their hard drives, but also claimed to have spent much much more money on CDs than they used to because they were able to sample the tunes first and were exposed to that much more music. Seemed to me that Napster was certainly filling a need… So, right around the time that finished sloshing around in my brain… the ability to sample a bit of entertainment before you buy… and the on demand capabilities of the TiVo… a thought began to form about applying this to comics… And darn if the Joe Nozemack/Jamie Rich brain trust over at Oni Press did n’t come up with a kick-ass way to do it: Like our pals over at Savant , with their comic book analysis .pdf delivery system, the hard-working folks at Oni Press have posted first chapters of some of their most acclaimed graphic novels for readers to sample as .pdf files. This is an extremely good idea, and I suggest you head over there now. They’ve got Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber’s first chapter of Whiteout avail able for readers and retailers alike. I know sometimes I get a little carried away with the hyperbole, but I’m stone cold sober and as serious as a heart attack, here, when I say: This is the future of comic book marketing on the Internet.

Now, if Joe and Jamie could only figure out micropayments ..

An Observation, A Realization, and A Recommendation March 23, 2001

Four years ago, my Dad got the cancer.

A big ol’ mass right at Ground Zero of his plumbing: aorta, lung, heart wall, nerves to one of his vocal cords. Inoperable, and Not Looking Too Good. A

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