Here’s some news for ya:

“Action Comics #900 Is A Fox News Story Waiting To Happen As Superman Rejects God And America”

Good little article there at bleeding cool. Sorry for the spoiler, but as Rich notes, I’m sure this will be all over the place very soon, even if it’s taken back next issue – which it might not be. I’m seeing something in this and how DC’s line as a whole is headed.

We’ve got Batman International (Inc – mirroring the globalization of commerce) going, and Justice League is trending towards a new JLI (mirroring our ever increasingly tightly knit global community), and this pretty much cinches it.

There are already teams of intergalactic guardians (Green Lantern), foreign ambassadors (Wonder Woman) and entities that are representative of the whole earth by their very nature (Swamp Thing.) There’s no reason DC shouldn’t have more stories based outside the USA.

If DC can pull it off, it’s actually ridiculously smart. Ideally, they’re setting their brand up for the global market in story. More comics in other countries (Knight + Squire, a new DCU Hellblazer related title) and maybe even more comics by international creators. Perhaps more comics that are non-english first.

Superheroes became popular during an era of extreme nationalism. We think of WWII’s fascist baddies that way, but at the time the war solution included putting ourselves in a similar fervor. That kind of “Us or Them” mentality just doesn’t solve problems anymore. And perhaps it never did. Even the mighty USA doesn’t invade somewhere without an ally or two.

In any case, interested to see where this one goes. What are your thoughts?

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Kind of sounds like one of those terrible scam advertisements, doesn’t it?

But no, it turns out that SmarterComics is running a promotion for Amazon purchases on 6 books. One lucky customer will (in addition to their new comics!) get a brand new 32 GB iPad2 with Wi-Fi + 3G!

There are six books included in the contest and the only downside is that you have to make your purchase before midnight tonight (April 14th.) So impulse buyers, this one is for you.

If you’d like a little more info before making any moves, we’ve previously reviewed two SmarterComics releases here, Mi Barrio and Overachievement.

Here are links to all six books:

Those links are also TRO affiliate links, so if you do decide to buy a book you’re supporting us too.

Here are the official contest details from the email I got:

3 Easy Steps to Win:

If the title you wish to purchase on April 14th says “out of stock,” make sure you still place your order to be eligible to win. Stock will be replaced immediately by our distributor!

The Winner will be chosen and announced on our site by 3pm CST on April 15th.*

*Winner will be able to select the black or white model, and order will be placed on April 15th, subject to Apple’s 2-3 week shipping time estimate.

Best of luck! I certainly wouldn’t mind a free iPad.

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According to some news sources and twitter explosion, Dwayne McDuffie has passed.

I’ve only interacted with him a little bit but this was way before his time. In fact, I just had a tiny twitter exchange with him an extremely short time ago, talking about hopes on future comic projects. We had just celebrated Milestone Comics earlier this month.

I’m actually really torn up about this and.. well, I have no words past this point. I’m sure there will be plenty of news reports and an outpouring of heartfelt response on twitter.

Allow me a few more hours of denial. Celebrate his life and work.

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In two weeks, I’ll no longer be at my day job.

Kind of crazy, huh? Definitely crazy.

I’ll be working with an ex-day job co-worker now freelance/our-own-thing coworker to hit up some local market creative endeavors.

But I’m also hoping to get some serious stuff done on TRO.

This site doesn’t really bring in anything, but it could, and I think it could without requiring any sort of paid access (ridiculous) or intrusive advertising. I’m interested in partnerships with targeted retailers, but that’s not my primary focus.

The main thing is affiliate links. Without directly selling anything, TRO performs the service of directing people to the books they want/need next.

Ideally with the minimum amount of pain and ideally easy to find low prices. Right now, only about 600 books on the site have affiliate links.

Those 600-ish books bring in about 80-100 bucks a month.

Up until this point, that money has gone right back out in hosting fees and the little excess contributing to the weekly giveaway costs.

But if I get affiliate links up on everything, finish making the lists look nice and increasing the site’s usefulness, it could theoretically bring in enough to make TRO actually worth my time.

Time to be investing in editing/writing reviews, archiving scan examples, and continuing sorting lists. The stuff that I’m really passionate about, for some odd reason.

Worth my time at minimum wage, or half that, perhaps, but enough to finance the project, at least. It’s an exciting prospect.

Pretty crazy, but within the realm of possibility.

It wasn’t my original goal – which was just to sort my collection and share the results – but the ideas have gotten a lot bigger a lot quicker.

Even if the material we are interested in archiving and discussing is only a small niche of our massive modern culture, I believe it’s truly important.

We’re focusing on the life’s work of thousands of amazingly talented individuals in an archival, enjoyably readable format. The collected edition is a big deal.

TRO has the potential to be a really amazing resource. I like to think it already is.

And I want to be open about how the site operates every step of the way. So that’s why I’m sharing all this with you guys.

TRO has started to be come a real community, with forum discussions and a steady stream of review submissions. Not to mention much needed advice. Some of you have also asked me about a donation button (and I guess I should probably figure out how that works very soon.)

I appreciate your friendship and help. It’s amazing to see this little dream take shape. The participation keeps me going.

The next few months might be a little bumpy as I do whatever I have to to survive – taking odd jobs, selling stuff I don’t really need, getting serious about selling my own art, trying to launch a separate local business – but TRO is a priority for me.

I’ll put whatever I can into it and maybe it will support me a little back. It’s worth a shot.

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Now that everyone has gotten back to me and confirmed, I’m excited to announce the winners for our three holiday giveaways!

First up is our grand prize:

Winning Batman: No Man’s Land Vol. 1-5 is:

Mike from Queensbury, NY (TRO user MikePhantom)

Our four runners up for the first holiday giveaway each get a copy of Ghost Rider / Wolverine / Punisher: Hearts Of Darkness:

Chris from Chatsworth, CA (TRO user CaptainHammer)

Jason from Henderson, CO (TRO user zoomfactor32)

Andrew from Riverside, CA (TRO user andybmcd)

Daniel from Circle Woodstock, GA (TRO user yudansha)

Next up, we have our first set of ten Batman Adventures winners, who each snagged a copy of the book with their speedy commenting on Christmas morning:

Ryan from Glastonbury, CT (TRO user WallyEast)

Dan from New York, NY (TRO user xxexplosivoxx)

Chris from Port Orchard, WA (TRO user Dirt55)

John from Annville, PA (TRO user jw634200)

Johannes from Rödelsee, Germany (TRO user jonah_X)

Brian from Middletown, NJ (TRO user -b)

Marc from Milwaukee, WI (TRO user Marc)

Joseph from Foothill Ranch, CA (TRO user AnsumRiku)

Tristan from Leicestershire, England (TRO user VoodooDoctor)

Steve from Cinnaminson, NJ (TRO user Steve M.)

The next set of ten Batman Adventures winners snagged a copy of the book by chance, selected from the remaining comments on the post:

Henry from Las Vegas, NV (TRO user henraldo)

Nate from Franklin, WI (TRO user natohendo)

Cailey from Toronto, ON, Canada (TRO user kikilouise)

Justin from Marietta, GA (TRO user bigjust)

Bill from Acworth, GA (TRO user van.meeks)

Dan from Richmond, VA (TRO user duncanpr)

Timothy from Burbank, CA (TRO user JusticeOrigins)

Daniel from San Diego, CA (TRO user Daniel [oeconomist.com])

Drew from North Caldwell, NJ (TRO user defenestr8)

Sam from Annapolis, MD (TRO user rellimsam)

Finally, we’ve got our new years giveaway giveaway winner, recieiving a hardcover copy of Newuniversal: Everything Went White:

Jesse from Medford, OR (TRO user Body62)

Congratulations to everyone!

Thanks to all of you for being with us over the holiday, commenting and supporting Trade Reading Order.

The books will go out soon! Due to the volume and shipping costs, not as quick as the normal one week turnaround that we had running most of last year, but you’ll get them – I promise!

And if you weren’t on the winners list this time around, we’ll have plenty of opportunities going forward. Right now, we’ve got a copy of Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance up.

After that, check back each week for a new giveaway. You may also want to subscribe to our feed or email list for updates – as sometimes quickness will be a factor, like with the Batman Adventures books.

I hope the new year is treating everyone well and you’re enjoying the parade of reviews as we catch up to our one-review-a-day goal.

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