First things first, guys. I have a bit of site business to attend to.
Whether or not you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook and the myriad of updates I’ve posted pertaining to the matter, there has been a long-standing drama unfolding over the last few months. Specifically, I’m talking about the development of… A NEW T-SHIRT DESIGN!
Check it!
The design of this shirt has been going on for so long, I don’t even remember when I first came up with the idea for it. I want to say last Christmas. That may or may not be true.
What IS true is that I need to give a big shout-out to Joel Watson from Hijinks Ensue and Gordon McAlpin from Multiplex for helping me refine the idea. This shirt would not look at all good without their influence. If you guys know Joel at all, he is like a t-shirt making machine. He’s knows his stuff and he provided me with a lot of great art tips as well. So thanks, guys! I’ll be pestering you again real soon!
Anyway, I’m running a pre-sale on this shirt now through Friday to help me raise the funds to print up the first batch. The goal is to take this new design to Wizard World Chicago – which I will be attending – August 11 – 14.
Shirts are $12.00 and I would really appreciate it if you bought one now rather than later. Plus, don’t you want to be the first on your block to have one? Thanks, guys. You’re the coolest!
Now, onto the comic!
Despite taking all kinds of box office records and breaking them over it’s knee like dry kindling, I’m not doing a comic about Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2. I just… don’t care. Sorry, Gryffindor. I stuck it out through six moves, but totally gave up after The Half-Blood Prince. While I applaud the continuity that director David Yates brought to the series (it was sorely lacking), there’s just something about his murky style that flattened the franchise for me and made the last few movies completely unmemorable.
And for the record, no, I never read the books (please consult recent t-shirt design above). I don’t have the knowledge of the characters and events that help fill in the gaps within the movies. So, sorry. Just not my bag, baby.
I have a Harry Potter in mind for another comic, but I’m worried it won’t be timely for next week. So we’ll see what can be done about a bonus comic this week. After all, I have to keep that pre-sale up in the air, don’t I?
As for today’s comic, lots of people were steamed about Netflix’s price increase last week. I was actually sent more than one e-mail asking me to sign a petition against the company or to add my name to the disgruntled customers who are walking out on them.
I don’t begrudge these individuals their right to be mad about this situation. Certainly I am just as easily offended in other matters. But this time around?… I’m coo’ with it.
Look, even before I read the reports about how the studios were putting the squeeze on Netflix for licensing right (an estimated $2 Billion with a “B” projected for next fiscal year), I was already pretty much on Netflix’s side anyway.
Netflix is a monster of the first order. It clogs up the USPS and it sucks down bandwidth from servers like mad. Why shouldn’t they be allowed to adjust their pricing to compensate.
Yeah, nearly doubling their prices is pretty severe – and I was one of the DVD + streaming combo customers affected – but when you look at the big picture, a movie like this is necessary to keep the company afloat.
Frankly, I hope this pushes Netflix further into the realm of streaming. That’s where it’s all going anyway. Typically I’m the kind of guy that says companies should provide content in every conceivable format people expect to find it. But Netflix opened the bottle when it made streaming available. They can’t stuff it back in now and go back to mailing out discs. Not gonna happen.
So, yeah. I’m not signing any petitions. But I did drop my service package from streaming + 1 DVD to strictly streaming. And I’m okay with that.
Don’t work, folks. It’s ALLLLLL going to be okay.
SIDEBAR: Today’s comic was inspired by a Twitter conversation I had with Dustin Rowles over at Pajiba. He originally made the comment about download movies directly to one’s brain. Immediately, my thoughts turned to Johnny Mnemonic – a “cyberpunk” movie about a mnemonic courier played by (who else) Keanu Reeves with an 80 gig hard drive implanted in his head.
Man, remember the days when 80 gigs was considered to be a lot of storage? Like, an inconceivable amount of storage? Oh, 1995. You were adorable.
Fair warning, Johnny Mnemonic is horrible. Probably the worst of the mid-90’s “internet” movies that got the technology all wrong. Granted, at least Johnny Mnemonic is set in the future so they have a little wiggle room when it comes to depicting an internet built completely in Virtual Reality. It’s not like Sandra Bullock in The Net, y’know. But still… pretty bad.
Wanna taste? Here you go…
Johnny Mnemonic gets a pass from me thanks to a cameo from Henry Rollins – one of his first movie roles, I believe. And he’s as hammy and over-the-top as you would expect him to be. But I love it anyway.
I remember making a bunch of my friends watch Johnny Mnemonic when we were in high school. Not just a bunch of guys, but guys and girls together watching this awful, awful movie. BEGGING for it to be over. I’m shocked I wasn’t thrown out of the group when it was over. I’m pretty sure they all hated me at that moment.
Anyway, lots of fun for all.
Don’t forget to pre-order the new shirt and be on the lookout for another comic this week. Fingers crossed!
Several of our customers are upset about our recent price restructuring and I want to let you know that we understand.
But we also need customers to understand that Netflix is constantly caught between the demands of the studios and consumer expectations for more easily accessible content!
That's why I'm pleased to announce Netflix will offer content that can be downloaded directly to the brain by 2019.
Customers will be given one free upload.
(That movie will be Johnny Mnemonic.)
Did you ever see Circuitry Man? that was AWESOME! Dude had multiple inputs into his head.
So I’ve got a question, when HAS the movie been better? Which occasions has the pacing of a film improved the book upon it was based? Or the changes to the plot or portrayal of a character?
A few I’d put up, Forest Gump, The Thief Lord AND Inkheart, (cause Cornelia Funke is looooong winded) and perhaps some of the later Potter films actually cause I think they stopped trying to edit JK once she got so huge and she could’ve used a bit. And The World According to Garp gets an even split, both are brilliant.
Truthfully, I think its a question of what you were exposed to and when. If I read the book first, generally I don’t find the visuals of the movie can match my imagination. If I see the movie first, it kind of sets the mold in terms of what I expect from the book.
I would have to say that the Harry Potter films are definitely better than the books, especially Goblet of Fire.
Really? I thought that was one of the weakest movies. Huh, different strokes.
The best example I can think of is The Godfather. Mario Puzo’s book is good, but nowhere near the level of greatness achieved by the first two films.
I would like to vote Fight Club as being better than the book, mostly because of how it decides the lay out the story. The book spoiled things that the movie didn’t right off the bat.
I’d say the Princess Bride fits in that list.
While I totally get the joke here, just looking at the slim instant stream selection offered by Netflix in the beginning, I’m betting the flick would be some obscure 1940s flick that no one’s ever heard of.
Which is what most of their instant streaming menu consists of. Seriously.
I’ve been with Netflix from the beginning and I enjoy their service, but recognize one of the major drawbacks of Netflix has always been the US Postal System. I know few people who want to add a movie to their queue and receive it 2-3 business days later before they can watch it.
That said, the instant stream has significantly less movies and TV shows to select from. And with some stations, like HBO, launching competitive streaming products, it’s unlikely that TV shows and movies from those “competitors” will become available on Netflix streaming at any point in the near future.
The solution would be to discount people who wanted to utilize both services, but unfortunately that’s not what Netflix is doing. Instead, they’re completely separating them from each other.
In summary, I can totally see how people are feeling cheated about this – but the sad fact is that the change isn’t to benefit the subscribers. It’s to benefit the organization.
Yes, but if the benefit to the organization is to still remain in business long enough to provide content to subscribers… then it’s also a benefit to subscribers as well.
$2 billion in licensing fees. TWO *BILLION*. There’s no way Netflix is going to keep up with that unless the studios start playing fair.
I like Johnny Mnemonic. I feel dirty everytime I say that.
I liked it too. The rant ending with ‘I want my shirts starched …’ is still one of my favorite bits. I also -very- much liked the LowTechs.
… as for the question about what movies were better than the books? ‘Jaws’ -definitely-!
Same here. Johnny Mnemonic may be bad, but at least it’s not boring. With Keanu, Dina Meyer, Ice-T, and Udo Kier, it’s like the perfect storm of over-the-top. Plus how can you go wrong with a movie that features Henry Rollins running over Dolph Lundgren with a delivery truck?
As well you should! (though I’m right there with you…Grace Jones as a body guard?! priceless!)
I know you’re really just not into it at all.. but seriously. I saw the last movie last night and it was incredible. Finally, great action scenes.
It’s hard to reflect on the character changes if you’ve only seen the movies, but also happened in the book. Everyone started out so black and white and was a gigantic trope. The characters and the situations evolved so it was shades of grey and you could no longer designate most people as straight up good or evil. I think the way it was done is very clever and more likely to get people to question how they view people in the long run by such a transition as opposed to if everyone started fleshed out.
You’re really missing out by not seeing the last movie. It’s by far the best of the series.
I don’t mean to insinuate anything, but I find it interesting that Tom defends Netflix on this and at the bottom of the webpage is an ad for Netflix…
You know he has no control over what ads show up on the site, right?
Exactly.
Actually, probably just by mentioning Netflix, my ad servers populated that space with one of their ads.
But I do appreciate the insinuation that I am somehow in Netflix’s pocket. I assure you, they have no idea who the hell I am.
I have been compelled to see all the HP films, and found myself disliking them from the start- I can only cope with the aid of peanut M&MS and ignoring the dialogue, concentrating instead on the visuals.
On Netflix, here’s why I’m upset:
They already raised the prices this year. My plan went up already in January. Now it’s going up again. I solved it before by going down to a lower plan, and I’ll be doing that again. So I’m upset my plan is taking another 60% hike. I’m also upset that the CEO doesn’t give a shit. Basically, he doesn’t care if he alienates customers, because it’s his belief they’ll just be replaced by new customers (which may not be a false belief).
I get that they have licensing fees, bandwidth costs, etc. But this idea that it’s somehow a good move for the customers, which is how they’re pushing it, is absurd. Fine, some people want DVDs only or streaming only, so they’re offering that option now. Well, OK. But what about those of us who do want both? Why do we now have to pay for two separate plans with higher prices?
It would be very simple to make me feel better about this mess. Offer a combo plan for those of us who still want both DVDs and streaming, which discounts a plan including both. I bet that would ease a good deal of discontent.
I can agree with what you’ve said about Netflix pushing the rate hike as a good thing for customers. Obviously, it’s not.
But they’re kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. Because it’s the studios that have them over a barrel and if Netflix comes out and lays the blame at their feet, they’ll further alienate them.
I’m not trying to defend any of it. Just trying to rationalize things a little.
Idk what the big deal is about Netflix…my subscription (Streaming + 3DVDs) only went from $19.99 to $23.98. Not enough for me to get steamy about or enough to even really notice since I’d spend a lot more than that getting my movie/tv fix almost any other way…
My transit costs on the other hand…do you have a blog about the metro system?!