Xenophobic Chill Descends on Moscow (NYT)
'From the moment that Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea cast a new, bitter chill over relations with the West, a sinister jingoistic vibe has pervaded this unsettled capital — stirred up by state-controlled television and Mr. Putin himself.
“Some Western politicians are already threatening us not just with sanctions but also the prospect of increasingly serious problems on the domestic front,” the president said in his speech announcing plans to absorb Crimea into the Russian Federation. “I would like to know what they have in mind exactly: action by a fifth column, this disparate bunch of ‘national traitors,’ or are they hoping to put us in a worsening social and economic situation so as to provoke public discontent?”'
North Carolina Shows Strains Within G.O.P. (NYT)
"There is a Tea Party candidate who talks about the Constitution and has the backing of Senator Rand Paul. There is a Baptist pastor, endorsed by Mike Huckabee, who wears a “Jesus First” lapel pin and has led the fight against same-sex marriage. And there is a Republican state lawmaker — supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and $1 million from Karl Rove’s American Crossroads group — standing up for the party establishment."
It's way past time that this fight broke out into the open. If the GOP is gonna have a real chance in this year's elections, it needs to settle its differences and figure out exactly who and what it wants to be. Otherwise, the party in opposition is gonna be roadkill--again.
The weapon of choice for #ParisRoubaix today. @Pinarello_com @modcyclingphoto http://t.co/R6qBITLWdL pic.twitter.com/f6BBQqVKVI
— Team Sky (@TeamSky) April 13, 2014
I didn't even know that the race was today. *sigh*
I totally want one of those, BTW. They have them at the local Zane's Cycles where I took our bikes for tune-ups yesterday. Unfortunately, they were mobbed. My bike's liable to be in the shop for two weeks!
Athletes who sleep 8+hrs r 68% less likely 2b injured than athletes who sleep less pic.twitter.com/2J47IV4Tur #gotobed pic.twitter.com/NzhqVLDPd6"
— Josh Ford (@jdcford) April 12, 2014
Obvious yet entirely useful research there. One of my friends was complaining of over-training this week, but she's a single-mom with a full-time job, and she's training for a half-Ironman. There's nothing easy about that.Executive Pay: Invasion of the Supersalaries (NYT)
You don't have to read the article, but check out that 3/4-page splash panel fronting today's business section. I just saw it in print, and the thing is impressive.
This is the world we live in. Captain America is the biggest movie in the world, Amazon just bought Comixology, and the New York Times is trying to goose readership by running a comic book-style splash page to front its Business Section. If comic book sales don't rally big-time against a backdrop like that, then the industry has seriously lost its way.
Next up, our athletes will complete Run as One at our @TeamRWB tri camp united w/ @missioncontinue and @TeamRubicon pic.twitter.com/ArqJieZdMj
— Team RWB Triathlon (@TeamRWBTri) April 12, 2014
Sally and I ran the local Run as One yesterday at Short Beach in Stratford. It was a beautiful day, and we had a blast. The event was even covered by the Connecticut Post.
If you click through, Sally's on the front right, and I'm directly behind her.
***
That's it. Happy Sunday!
In a lot of ways the comic book industry has out priced the market.
ReplyDeleteIt's all about scale.
ReplyDeleteThe barriers to entry in the Direct Market are really low, but then once you get a book on the stands, you're left trying to make it worth your--and more to the point, your artists'--time. Lots of writers are happy to do what they do just to get their work out there, but for an artist, drawing pages of sequential art is too time-consuming. You can either find a way to make it pay your bills, or you can spend so much time doing each issue that it's hard to keep issues coming out regularly--even quarterly. Decent circulation for an indie book is maybe 3,000 copies. So, bottom line, you have to charge what we might think of as a premium price for indie books, and that's for relatively cheap artists from overseas. Even for the big publishers, smaller books might do 10,000 copies/month, and they're paying more per page. That, again, demands a premium.
Granted, on the bigger circulation books, they could charge less and probably increase readership, but if the market is clearing at $3.99, they don't need to. There are some few $2.99 books out there, and I expect that those are the real money-makers, but for the most part, comics are a loss leader, and that's even with the high prices on the stands.