Books-A-Million expands, BoA may be in trouble, the e-manga are on the March, and the Potter ebook news is confusing. Time for the news!
Economics/Geekonomics:
Bank of America may be in trouble. This does not surprise me with the Countrywide acquisition, but still. So see if anything comes of this.
By the way, an important note – between all the bad economic news, the debt ceiling fight, and benefits running out for many in December, I'm putting it more than likely a double-dip recession will occur without government action.
Anime and Manga:
Get a glimpse of the 'Supernatural' anime. It's releasing next week, so let's see how this does – since a good showing (and 'Supernatural' fans are passionate) may lead to other interesting cross-ocean collaborations. As noted earlier, we've speculated east-west adaptions might go better in one direciton than the other.
Big news Jmanga.com launches August 17, 2011. This could be pretty big, seems to be leveraging its unique resources, and has strong alliances. Let's see how it goes, but I'd definitely pay attention as it sounds like it has worldwide focus on many levels.
Comics:
A fun article on superheroes who still need movies. Food for thought, perhaps?
And DC's Superman semi-reboot has the stench of Spiderman around it with Lois Lane's new boyfriend. Yeah, they're dropping the marriage and everything. I'm really becoming concerned some of the DC semi-reboot is a bad idea. Parts of it feel very pandering.
Media:
Looks like a "fan" advocacy group against scalpers is a front group for ticket companies. Lovely. A good reminder of the politics behind entertainment and culture.
Publishing:
Books-A-Million purchases some Borders stores. Not sure how it positions them – I haven't followed BaM much lately. I am curious as to how they'll adapt to their new position as #2 – but they are involved with the Nook, eBooks, and some diversity. Of course how they'll maintain is a question.
Looks like the 'Pottermore' books COULD be handled by Google in an intriguing bit of media involvement. Oh and there's other involvement such as Google Checkout. An interesting partnership, don't you think?
This gets more interesting as, apparently Amazon will also get the books on Kindle. So we've got competing rumors here, and even more repercussions (such as the possibility it means Amazon will support EPUB). Just read both articles.
Movies:
Samuel Jackson Producing Live-Action Afro Samurai – which is a glorious group of words. I'd be curious to see how this works out as the series' oddball sensibilities woud be interesting on the big screen, but also I'd see if it peaked interest in other odd properties.
Technology:
MUST SEE: How tech companies are inter-related. Print this out and put it by your desk or something.
Video Games:
Microsoft's Game Business has grown 30%. Wonder where they'll be investing their time – and yes, it's obvious. So remember where they may be putting their money – there are jobs.
QUESTION OF THE DAY: How well do you think the JManga portal will do?
– Steven Savage