Comic Book Reader

This posting goes along with my "The Digital Movement" series of postings, but I wanted to pull this out separately for those looking specifically for a good digital comic books reader.

Before I get to revealing the comic book reader I use, I want to stand high on my PDF soapbox, again.  My call for a uniform format of PDF and a reader of Adobe's Acrobat was further reinforced yesterday when I attempted to access some comic books in CBZ format.  Yes, yes, I've heard all the zealous comments about the CBZ format.  Its a better format (although no one can specifically defend the claim), it offers a superior resolution (which doesn't make up for crappy scans), and its not as bloated as PDF documents.  Really?  Have you actually compared file sizes?  Please, please stop drinking the liquid drain cleaner - it impairs your judgement. 

After deciding on a digital comic viewer, and viewing said CBZ formatted comics, I can say with 100% complete confidence that I am clearly un-impressed with CBZ formatted comic books.  I can't say that PDF comic books are far superior, but the deciding factor between the formats is in the viewer.  For PDFs, there is Adobe's Acrobat.  Sure, if you're afraid of the big bad corporate giants, you can stay away from Adobe and install some small company's version.  But, the simple fact is that Adobe has, and will most likely, always keep the Acrobat viewer up-to-date.  There's no wondering like you do for the little companies.  Plus, its free.

Getting back to the CBZ format, I was faced with finding a viewer for my CBZ formatted comics.  This should be an easy task, right?  WRONG!!!  Take a look at this site (Comic Viewers)[1].  This is even worse than my initial searches for a viewer.  This site shows my complaint about the CBZ (and related formats).  There are way too damn many versions of software for viewing digital comics.  My first hurdle was finding a viewer for my Mac.  I do not own a Windows based machine any longer.  With the assault of Vista, and the unrelenting and aggressive attacks on my PCs I finally decided to leave that environment.  I've been happy with Mac ever since.

The choice in viewers for the Mac world are substantially less than the PC world.  I tried to install a couple and was severely disappointed.  Eventually I found "Comic Book Lover" [2], build for the Mac and compatible the current release of the Mac OS.  Considering my distaste for the Windows world I can not recommend a PC based comic viewer, nor would I care to.  Honestly, I do not care which viewer is the best.  If you believe comments on the internet, EVERY comic book viewer is the BEST.  Any idiot with an internet connect seems "qualified" to declare the viewer they are most comfortable using.  I don't give any weight to comments like "u shud use comic readre.  cuz".  

I will tell you that I like Comic Book Lover because it mimics the iTunes models very well.  If you like the iTunes model I don't have to say any more.  If you hate the iTunes model, I won't say any more.  Like it or hate it, it mimics the iTunes model.  That alone gives you a point of comparison in which to make your decision.  Admittedly, I haven't spent much time with the software, but my limited exposure has been very positive.  The fact that it loaded the first time without any hassles, and that it supports the current Mac OS is far and away a superior aspect.  It tells me they are producing a professional product with the end user in mind.  If you want to get your hands dirty, I suggest you use a nerdified application that allows you to play in an open sourced application.  I do enough software development for my day job, the last thing I want to do is more coding at night and on weekends.  There is a cost of $25 to get rid of the water mark which I will definitely pay because I want to support the companies efforts.  I want them to stay in business and keep this Comic Book Lover current and constantly add new features to it.

In summary, you should use the comic book viewer that best works for you.  Me, I'm using Comic Book Lover for CBZ formated and Acrobat for PDF formats.  'nuff said!

References:

[1] - http://www.zcultfm.com/~comic/wiki/index.php/Comic_Viewers

[2] - http://www.bitcartel.com/comicbooklover/

The Digital Movement - Part 3

Point 3 -

Time capsule.  Each of these issues of scanned comic books by GIT Corp [1] contained ads for products that were common for the time of the original comic was printed.  Its not a huge selling point, but its an fascinating aspect of looking at an old comic book and seeing hair and clothing styles reflected in the ads.  Its history.

Point 4 -

Volume.  Comic books can take up a considerable about of space.  Go into any comic book store and look at the back issue section and marvel over the amount of floor space dedicated to them.  Most of us don't have that much extra floor to dedicate to making our comics accessible like this, so we stack them, and store them in closet, under beds and where ever we can find a spot.  This makes for looking at old favorites almost requires the services of Indiana Jones to find the missing issues.

Moving a vast collection, like I had to do, will make you question collecting comic books.  Surprisingly, these little things can reach considerable weight.  Anyone who has picked up a long box will know the weight these little things can get to.

With all that said, the idea of containing literally thousands and thousands of comic books onto DVDs and being able to consolidate rooms full of comic book boxes into a single box, or shelf in a closet is my definition of the perfect comic book collection.

Point 5 -

Paper - it degrades.  Many of the GIT Corp DVDs contains hundreds of comics books from the early 1960's.  These comics are 40+ years old.  Those old comics were printed on low quality paper.  They don't suffer the passage of time well.  I used to have some of the older comics.  Even with proper storage practices, the paper just doesn't hold up well to time.  They begin to smell, turn yellow and become brittle.  Having a 45 year comic for considerable money is worthless in terms of its entertainment value.  The condition of these older comics makes it almost undesirable and in some cases, impossible, to look at them.   With the GIT Corp collections, I can look at these older comics any time, and as many time as I want without any concern of damaging the comic book itself.

What's nice about having the GIT Corp collections is that I can sell my comic books to someone who wants the paper version.  As I noted before, I like to read comic books, not store them. 

In my next segment, I will finish with a fiery explosion and set the stage for the future of comic books.

References:

[1] - http://www.gitcorp.com/

The Digital Movement - Part 2

In part 1, I revealed my interest in comic books and how I came to have these realizations about my collecting of comic books.  In part 2 here, I will start on my crusade for comic books in a digital scanned format.

I like scanned comic books in digital formats for a variety of reason, which I will explore below:

Point 1 -

PDF format.  I've read all the arguments for and against concerning every format of viewing digital comic books.  The logical choice is PDF.  Yes, I  know there are arguably better quality formats for viewing, but they sacrifice in convenience in viewing.  Honestly, search the internet for digital comic book viewers.  There are more versions of viewers than there are candy bars, each written by some wannabe "programmer" in their basement.  In this world of viruses, trojan horses, malware and infections ad nauseam to your computer, who wants to adopt a yet another hacked piece of software that only gets updated once a decade.  Not me.  I want my comics in a PDF format that can be read by an widely accepted free software application - Adobe Acrobat Reader [1].

I've seem every previous attempt at digital comics in the past.  Scanned comic pages broken out by panel, enhanced with sounds, music, voice-overs, obnoxious animations.  Each ended in a flaming pile of debris.  Each a proprietary viewing software package with a proprietary format.  The publishers, in their zeal of digital right management could not see themselves within a cohesive universe of other publishers where everyone offered their products under one universal format.  They grossly misjudged the burden on the consumer of having to keep each of the viewers for each publishers, or style of digital comic book, up-to-date, just to view a comic book.  To say their judgement was terrible would be a compliment.

Point 2 -

Digital Rights Management.  This is a hot button for me, and most likely not in the way you think.  I like the model GIT Corp uses for the comic book collections they've offered in the past.  Essentially, when you buy the DVD with the comics, you buy the rights to have the comic book.  I like that.  Yes, this allows for piracy, but I wouldn't expect most people to do this.  I believe that fans of a product or company will, for the most part, purchase the products at the suggested retail price.  If you like the product, support the company and pay their asking price.  

I am a firm believer that in this digital age, people are more inclined to steal digital products.  As I noted above, most will not.  I used to run a vending machine business.  I know first-hand as a business owner that some people are inherently evil, cheap, pathetic criminally inclined scum.  I've seen people spend several agonizing minutes trying to rob a vending machine of a candy bar, or invent ways to cheat a cash changing machine.  Its not because they cannot afford it, its mostly on principle.  C'mon, its only a candy bar, right?

Yes, for your over-simplified brain, its only a  candy bar, but for me its lost product, possible repairs to the vending machine, or in some cases a new machine depending on the damage done while trying to steal a .55 candy bar.  Stop drinking cleaning solvents, it impairs your judgement and makes you do stupid things.

That was a little off topic, but it illustrates my point, which is, I don't expect Digital Rights Management to be abused.   People who purchase digital media should be allowed to own it - not rent it or have its ownership restricted to the point where supposed ownership is more painful that its worth.  iTunes from Apple [2] bridges that gap between ownership and the rights of the creators very well.

I'll explore more points in part 3.

References:

[1] - http://get.adobe.com/reader/

[2] - http://www.apple.com/itunes/

The Digital Movement - Part 1

I've been a comic book fan for many years.  I read comics as a kid growing up, but it wasn't until the summer of 1977 that I became immersed in the collecting of comics.  I started with Spider-Man [1], but quickly expanded my interest to include many different characters, publishers, artists, writer and genres.

After many years of collecting, I found myself with a lot of comics.  A lot.  When a collection reaches a particular size, as mine had, it becomes a beast to manage.  The volume and unbelievable weight of that many comics quickly looses its appeal.    It was at this point that I discovered something about my comic book collecting.

I like to read comic books, not store them.

As I pondered my thoughts on this subject, I discovered a collection of 500 issues of the Amazing Spider-Man in electronic format on one DVD from the company GIT Corp [2].  Every page of every issue scanned into PDF documents.  All this for just $30.  I loaded the DVD into my computer and enjoyed the complete and un-modified scans of each comic book.  Excited about the content, format and price, I looked online to see what else GIT Corp offered.  To my surprise I found more; X-Men, Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man and more.

Each title collecting 500+ issues each in the same perfect format at the same perfect price.  I bought them all.  I had consolidated thousands of comics books with the equivalent of 25 boxes of comics to the size of load of bread.  My mind exploded with the thought of being able to convert my own personal collection into a digital format.

It was at this point that I discovered something yet again about my comic book collecting.  I liked comic books in a scanned digital format.

I was a fan again, for the very first time.  

References:

[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man

[2] - http://www.gitcorp.com/

Predator Tank - 345

Heavy Support -> Predator Tank

Here we have the first Space Marine tank.  This is part of my Spartans chapter. Standard paint scheme with very few accessories.  Next to the tank is a veteran trooper to show scale.

I went on a buying spree and purchased one of every type of Space Marine Heavy Support vehicle. After completing this tank I was totally annoyed by the complete lack of, well, style. The Space Marine Adapteus Mechanus loyally demonstrates their ability to produce quality armor without the slightest notion towards style. 

I notice this lack of style in the vehicles because the Imperial Guard army tanks have some much of it. With the later releases of the new Land Raider and any variations of it, it appears that Games Workshop is beginning to instill some sort of style to the Space Marine armor division. They won't nearly work fast enough for me, so I plan on converting Imperial Guard armor into this Space Marine chapter. 

Manufacturer:
Games Workshop (Warhammer 40K, gaming system) 

Model: 
Space Marine Predator Annihilator 

Conversions:
No conversions. I just wanted to complete a Space Marine tank. Now that I know how they fit together and am comfortable with all it's components, I can begin customizing on my next tanks.

Introduction to Model Making

Late in the summer of 1999 I purchased a box of 10 standard Space Marines, as they were the only race that interested me. I assembled and painted all 10 Space Marines and enjoyed the end result. After that, I was hooked. I had to have more. I purchased more troops. The more I built and painted, the more I enjoyed the vision of having an entire chapter painted. An unrealistic thought, so I scaled down my vision to that of a Battle Force of roughly 150 troops and supporting vehicles and equipment. 

In early 2000, I began the process of building a website for my Space Marines, who by then I had labelled "The Spartans". I wrote an origin and history based on the ancient nation of Sparta. I found many similarities between the the Sparta culture and that of the Imperium and the military might of Space Marines from the Warhammer 40K game. I conducted lots of research and began to formulate the beginings of a website for the Spartans.  The website has never been available on the internet, but it was a great source of information for me personally to collect notes about Space Marines, the Spartans and all the photos I took.

My interest in Space Marines was not my only obsession.  There, buried deep within my soul, was a dark portal to the gods of Chaos.  Games Workshop offered two wonderful armies in their fantasy version of Warhammer.  The first of these armies was the Bretonians.  Think King Arthur.  An army of mounted knights.  With the movie "Excalibur" ranking as one of my favorites, the Bretonians were a must-have army for me.  The second army that called to me in a very inappropriate way was the forces of Chaos.  The range of models was staggering.  I had visions of a vast horde bent on destruction and domination of everything.

I had nearly as much fun building a back story for my armies as I did building the models.  I tried playing the games with the models, but was quickly bored by the never-ending torrent of rules and dice.  I never got into it.  Admittedly, it always looked fun, but the actual game play when I was personally involved was, at best, boring, and at worse, obnoxious.  I found that my love for the games was restricted to the crafting of the models.  I enjoyed building, converting, painting and writing stories about them.

A few years ago moved to a new house.  All my models were securely packed away.  It wasn't until just this year that I finally began to expose all the great models I worked on.  I found my tools, paints and boxes of models ready to be built and painted.  Finding my models prompted me to see what others were doing on YouTube.  There I found many people with incredible skills in building, converting and painting models.  I was amazed and energized again to pursue model building.

In future posts I will talk about past models I have done and what models I'd like to build in the future.

[1] - http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/home.jsp

Starting Again

Since moving into our current house, we have been engaging in repeated home remodel tasks.  We knew this would be the case.  The house was built in 1980 and almost has a mobile home layout.  We'll take breaks in between projects, but the overall theme of home remodel persists.  At times, I fear that it will never end.  At what point does one say the remodel efforts are done?  That's a question to ponder another time.

For now, let's get up to speed on my current situation.  In early 2008, we embarked are a massive home remodel project.  And messy.  Did I mention massive.  Huge.  I should be cautious.  What's massive to me may be minor to someone else.   Let's just say that the entire upper floor of a two floor home was having new hardwood floors installed, and a new kitchen as well.  This was a pain because the kitchen, family room and master bedroom were al upstairs.  We lived in remodel dust for nearly a year.

I won't get into all the details.  There will be plenty of time to explore the various tasks involved and discuss what I learned in future posts.  For now, just know that I have acquired many new tools and skills in 2008.  As winter and the holidays approached, the spark of remodel faded and the bliss of being separated from the trials of home remodel were embraced.

Yesterday, 05/15/2009, I geared up and got back into the home remodel mode so that I could finish the 2008 remodel.  As I sat in a pile of drywall debris, grumbling and cursing at a stubborn nail unwilling to yield it placement in the universe, I felt this rush of frustration sweep over me like a child getting jackked up on sugar.  

You see, I grew in a world of perpetual home remodel, and I worked on construction sites during the summer of my college years.  I am painfully familiar with the large scale commercial construction, home building and now home remodel.

If there's one thing I have learned through all my tours of duty in the field of construction is that its not easy.  I believe if its easy - you're doing it wrong.  Certainly proper tools and knowledge will help, but those will not replace the need to get dirty.  There are times you need dig, claw and scratch your way to an end.

Now, before the mood of this posting begins to smell like crap, let me state that while I'm not a home remodel fan, the rewards are worth it.  Not only did I get a new and wonderful kitchen that we designed and installed, but I gained for valuable skills and got into good shape.  Digging up an old floor and installing 3/4 inch hardwood hickory flooring in 90+ degree weather will increase your stamina, develop more strength and shed a few pounds.  

I'll end this post here saying that 2009 will see the completion of the 2008 remodel.  In future posts, I will revisit the tasks of 2008  and explore why I chose certain tools and why we made the choices we did.