comic

iPhone 4S pre-orders top 1 million units, Yahoo pulls out of its bid for Hulu, and Netflix announces the cancellation of Qwikster in a brief blog post.

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Superhero fans, we give you Herbert Chavez of the Philippines.

Chavez obviously read a comic book or two during his 35 years of life on Earth because he turned to extensive surgery to transform himself into everyone's famous Son of Krypton.

According to a ABS-CBN Filipino news report, Chavez has been undergoing Superman-ish procedures for 16 years now, including chin augmentation, rhinoplasty, silicone injections to his lips, and (my favorite) thigh implants. … Read more

What does Barnes & Noble think of the Kindle Fire? While it may not have released a statement about the device, the company's actions speak louder than its words, at least regarding an exclusive digital graphic-novel deal that freezes out the maker of the Nook.

Just after announcing its Kindle Fire tablet last week, Amazon also announced a partnership with DC Comics to sell digital copies of 100 of DC's graphic novels exclusively on the Fire.

"We're thrilled to work with the leader in digital books to bring many of the world's most beloved and best-selling graphic novels to Kindle readers," said Jim Lee, co-publisher of DC Entertainment, DC Comics' parent company, in a statement. These included superhero books starring Batman and Green Lantern, the entirety of Neil Gaiman's fantasy/horror series "The Sandman," and Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta," which has recently seen its Guy Fawkes masks revived by members of the hacktivist group Anonymous.

Barnes & Noble responded to the deal in a statement today by revealing that it has tied its physical copies to its digital ones.… Read more

DC Universe Online is destined to be free to play for PC and PS3 starting in late October, Sony Online Entertainment announced today. An FAQ is available for those curious about the change.

Three tiers of gameplay are coming to the MMORPG--free, premium, and legendary. Existing subscribers will automatically become premium users, and a special $9.99 per month for three months of legendary access is available (have a look at the graphic to the right for more details on access and features in each level).

Reaction to the announcement is a mixed bag on the official DCUO Facebook page, where some are a bit upset about the shift.

"What a joke. No voice chat for F2P, a mere $1,500-$2,000 cash limit for anyone not on the Legendary plan, can't form leagues if you aren't on the Legendary plan, can't even send items or cash in mail if you are F2P! Can't even TRADE items with other players! Come on, SOE, just let this game die if you are going to do this," Caio Rodrigues said.

Others more optimistic. "I'm pleased with you guys for making efforts to keep the game alive, please update the level cap and keep good content coming," Ajay Pollarine wrote in response to the announcement. … Read more

Comic books--or at least, the superhero comics that have been a mainstay of American youth culture for 70 years--have been in a crisis. Comics sales were plummeting, direct market brick-and-mortar comic book shops that are essentially the only outlet to purchase the monthly issues of said comics were closing under the recessive economy, and the industry was in desperate need of new readers. With its new day-and-date digital initiative and line-wide reboot, DC Comics might've provided just that.

Or they might've killed it outright. It's hard to tell, on the first full day of their relaunch. Thirteen … Read more

Halftone turns your photographs into captioned comics with a distinctive worn-paper style. Start by snapping a new photo with your iPhone camera or by selecting an image from your photo library. From there, you can use the buttons on the bottom of the interface to select from 27 different paper styles to give your final product that heavily dogeared comic look. You also can add customizable speech balloons and choose from a few different layouts, but we think there should be more layout options--especially multipane formats. For a little more excitement, you can pick from 24 exclamation balloons (Arrrgh! BLAM!) … Read more

It's amazing to think how many comic book characters--some from decades ago--are still relevant to pop and geek culture today.

Lately, it feels like there's no end in sight to the surge in superhero-movie releases. In our gallery below, we look at the original comic depiction of several larger-than-life beings compared with their most recent movie equivalents. The differences are astounding, and truly indicate how far animation and artistic quality has evolved over the years.

While we didn't feature every comic book character who's had a makeover recently, we think you'll still enjoy our selections consisting of mostly Marvel (Stan Lee) and DC comic stars. The gallery includes Captain America, Thor, Superman, Green Lantern, Iron Man, Tin-Tin, Spider-Man, X-Men, and Batman. Think there's someone we missed that should be on the list? Leave a comment with your suggestions and we may revise the gallery down the line.

On a related note, it's worth sharing that DC Comics plans to reboot all of its franchises beginning this September.

… Read more

Even on the first day the iTunes App Store launched there were photo apps that let you manipulate and edit images on iPhone. The App Store has come a long way since then and, with new iPhones with faster processors and better cameras, the apps have gotten significantly better as well.… Read more

As a kid, we couldn't wait to get our hands on the comic section of the Sunday paper. These days, we get our comic fix by perusing comics on the Web. Comic Reader supposedly offers a one-stop shop for keeping up with all of your favorite comic strips, and while it did offer an impressive list to choose from, it failed to launch any of the comics we selected.

The program's user interface is pretty bland. A gray box appears with buttons for each comic, which are alphabetized. Using the Next and Previous buttons at the bottom of … Read more