The Third Time's A Charm (or so they say)

Everyone likes to stay abreast of the latest and greatest comic news so they can impress their peers by showing them the knowledge that they have acquired. DC designed something proprietary to help you do just that, and if you haven't guessed by now it's called Direct Currents Online. But it didn't just start; here's a little history lesson.

DIRECT CURRENTS THEN

Direct Currents used to be one page stuck in the books giving an advanced look at what else is out and what's coming out. All was well and dandy for a time. Then things got better, it went from one page to a whole comic sized book. That's right, this FREE, hard to find (at least in my locale) book, not only had a nice write up on each comic, but for most, pictures as well. The first cover of the book (yes, there were two covers), was for the regular DCU line while the flip-side showcased Vertigo. I lived by this book, again, when I could get it. It listed things in date order, so I marked my calendar in anticipation of the upcoming month's books (just the ones that appealed to me, knowing what to expect when I got to the comic shop). Yeah, I was a real fanboy, but then the book disappeared and my comic shopping experience turned to one of utter chaos. Until...

DIRECT CURRENTS NOW

Direct Currents information finds a new home in the information/technology age, online. How appropriate! Now I can mark my calendar way in advance again. No more missing key issues because I can't make it to the comic shop on time. With this early of an advanced look, I can have the shop owner hold a copy of whatever for me. That is, if I can put up with tunneling my way through this site.

The current setup has a cover story, weekly listings including last weeks, this week, next week, monthly listings looking back to April and as of this writing looking ahead to July. It also has a breakdown by titles; Batman and Superman each with their own section, of course, while the rest of the DCU gets lumped together. There is a section for Vertigo, Helix, Paradox, Beyond, and Mad Magazine. As soon as you go to Direct Currents (which I hope you already have, www.dccomics.com) it comes up with this week's listings. Picking a tab at random, in this case Batman, up comes a page with a listing of Bat-comics. Then I randomly click on Detective which then displays the ‘Tec comics listed in numerical order 722-726 (current as of this writing again). Still going at random, this time selecting ‘Tec 723 lying beyond this link is a preview picture and a brief synopsis, as well as a link to cross-over books that coincide with this storyline. Also on this page is a link to the feature story which gives a more in depth look and a date for release.

UNTANGLING THE WEB

The good here is that there is a lot of information. But the flip-side to that, the bad, is that when I went through the Bat-listings, I had to go through four pages just to get to the release date. So, if I wanted a date for every book...I don't know, you do the math. Although I like the idea of Direct Currents Online, more work needs to be done. There usage of frames, to be blunt, SUCKS! The whole time you’re tunneling your way through the site, the title Direct Currents and cover story take up half the page. Why do we need that to remain there? It's a royal pain in the A$$! That, plus the tabs at the bottom right corner take up too much space leaving the only space left for everything else crammed into the bottom left corner. You have to scroll down sentence by sentence. Then if you click on the picture to see it enlarged, forget about it, it still stays within that small frame.

Ending verdict: I miss the book version!

AND IN OTHER WORLDLY NEWS FOR THE INQUIRING MINDS WHO WANT TO KNOW

Shortly before this writing I watched a news report on buildings and trademarks; they are combining the two. These already independently wealthy building tycoons are putting trademarks on their buildings to make more money off of them. "How?" you ask. Well they figure if the building is on a motion picture, a book, a postcard, etc... then there's profit to be made. These buildings can still be photographed or drawn, but once someone tries to make a profit with them, they might wind up in court.

What does this mean to us? Well, for one thing, less movies are going to be filmed in big cities like New York because that would mean that the movie producers would have to pay off the building owners. But what I’m really trying to get at here is...this also applies to comics. DC doesn't have all that much to worry about though already having created their own cities like Gotham, Metropolis, and Keystone, but they will have to be careful. Now, that other MARVELous competitor bases a lot of the action out of NYC. This should be interesting to see what transpires from this, given their current financial crisis.

-Wallace "Wally" Frost
The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable."

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