The Rise of Links

DC Restructures Vertigo, Fires Shelly Bond, Internet Explodes. DC's Vertigo line of comics is an adult imprint that back in the day had some of the hottest comics on the market Books like Sandman, Preacher, Fables, V for Vendetta, Hellblazzer, many of which have seen movie or TV adaptions. Over the last couple years though the line hasn't done as well as in the past, so it's not a huge surprise that the editor in charge of the line, Shelly Bond, was recently let go under the guise of restructuring.

The big surprise though was the absolute shit storm this caused on-line. A lot of creators with bridges to burn immediately labeled the move as terrible and started lobbing scathing accusations to the remaining DC management, at one point a very prominent editor was called out for being a serial sexual harasser.

For a number of years DC has had a bit of a dark rumor cloud hanging over it when it comes to their management and editorial staff. Sexual harassment allegations have been around for years. It's even been rumored that an artist was taken off a very prominent project a few years back because the co-publisher was sleeping with his wife. It looks like Shelly Bond's firing was the straw that broke the camels back as far as creators actually naming names and pointing direct fingers. It's going to be very interesting to see what DC's response is. Hopefully if anything comes out of this it will be a safer work environment for people who just want to make good comics.

5 Movie And TV Plots That Mean The Writer's Out Of Ideas. I'll eat my hat if this article wasn't a direct reaction to the season finale of The Walking Dead. Still, it's written by David Wong so it's worth the read.

I really think what makes most people upset about the cliffhanger on the Walking Dead finale is that it was completely unnecessary. It's the most poplar show on cable, they don't need to resort to storytelling tricks to keep the audience engaged. I 100% guarantee that if they had just showed who Negan had killed they would have had just as much buzz going into the next season as they do now AND they wouldn't have pissed off so many fans. It was just a terrible terrible idea.

The rise of the $400 smartphone. Man, when did $400 for a phone become the cheap alternative? I'm still wrapping my head around buying a phone off contract. The last phone I bought was a Nokia under a two year deal and it cost me all of $100 out of pocket. I guess when you're talking about something you use every day and in theory will for a year or two, $400 isn't that much money but I'm not the kind of person that just has that sort of cash laying around. For me that's a big purchase that requires a bit of planning. Ugh, I hate it when I have to think about things like this, it takes all the fun out of buying something new. Where do I get one of those Obama phones?