News
- A new Witcher game is in development, writes ComicBook.com. This game won’t be a follow-on to Witcher 3. Instead, it will be the beginning of a whole new saga. Developers CD Projekt Red have not announced a release date. Expect to wait for your surly neighborhood Witcher for at least two years.
- The first Marvel comic ever printed has sold at auction to an unidentified buyer for $2.4 million, according to Gizmodo. But…although the name of the October 1939 comic is Marvel Comics #1, the publisher was Timely Comics. (Timely evolved in time to the Marvel Comics we know today.)
The book was graded at 9.2 and sold via the auction site ComicConnect. - Fans of long-running British comic book 2000AD, a.k.a. home to the famed Judge Dredd, will want to attend the online 45-year anniversary event on March 26 and March 27. Tripwire Magazine notes you can find it on the publisher Rebellion’s Twitch stream.
If you care about comics, this will be a must-attend virtual event.
Small business can lead to big branding
The EmpireFlippers newsletter has noticed a trend toward “small-brand merch.” It points to Liquid Death, which uses the trappings of Death Metal to sell canned water and has earned $3 million from merchandise alone.
Empire Flippers has the following branding advice:
- Know your audience: do customer research to identify what your buyers care about most
- Create a brand strategy: build your own Liquid Death for your audience based on what problem your product/service solves or need it satisfies
- Expand: create merch based on your brand’s image and what type of audience you have
Alan Moore offers writing advice from the tarot
Learn to tell a story from the master himself, Alan Moore. For $90, you get thirty-three storytelling lessons over the span of six hours. BoingBoing writes the lessons include “‘Writing as Enchantment,’ ‘Language as Technology,’ and a section on the Four Weapons of coins, sword, cup and wand.”
Coins, sword, cup, and wand? People, we’ve achieved peak Moore.
Not-geeky yet fascinating way to make money in NYC…as a trucker bounty hunter
If you’ve ever wanted to live the Boba Fett/Mandolorian bounty hunter lifestyle, but with fewer blasters and more actual money, read on:
Did you know that NYC has a standing bounty against idling trucks? If you film a truck idling for three minutes, the city fines the driver $350; of that, you receive $87.50 per video. The New York Times reports that one man, Paul Slapikas, earned $64,000 last year, just by filming carbon dioxide-spewing trucks on his daily walks.
In 2021, the city of New York paid $724,000 in bounties. There are three catches:
- The truck’s engine must be audible.
- You must capture the company name on the truck.
- Irate truck drivers will try to beat you up if they catch you filming them.
Methinks the last one is the most important.
Quiz of the day
In which classic movie can you find the quote, “To a new world of gods and monsters.”