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Stan Lee's Stolen Blood Was Used To Sign Marvel Comic Books (tmz.com)
ISoldat53 writes: Someone stole a sample of Stan Lee's blood and stamped comic books with it to increase their value. TMZ reports: "We've learned several 'Black Panther' comic books are currently available at the Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. store on the Las Vegas Strip. Each edition comes with a certificate of authentication that details the item as a 'Hand-Stamped Signature of STAN LEE using Stan Lee's Solvent DNA Ink.' Stan's friend and partner Keya Morgan discovered the 95-year-old's blood was allegedly stolen back in October after a former business associate presented Lee's nurse with fake docs that authorized that a sample be drawn. Our sources say the nurse pulled enough blood from Stan for him to feel lightheaded and dizzy. We're told the 'Black Panther' comic with Stan's Hancock in blue is selling for $250. The one in gold is twice that at $500. Stan's legal team is currently weighing its options to go after the former business associate who allegedly lifted Lee's blood." Evan Michailidis, a legal rep for the Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. tells TMZ, "We're a retail store which purchased product from Hands of Respect LLC and DLK Brand Consulting LLC that appeared certified and obtained with authorization. The books were removed from our shelves immediately."
I don't give a fuck about comics, but had I known they exist, I would have bought as many as I could have gotten my hands on.
1) Signed with the writer's blood. I have no idea what kind of comic it is but if it's some sort of vampire story, all the better. The geeks will go nuts about this.
2) This will be considered illegal soon, and the books will no longer be available. Even if the blood had been drawn legally, we're looking at a health hazard. There are VERY strict standards about what you can do with blood. Mostly because there are SO many diseases associated with blood that we know, and we don't even have a clue about what we do NOT know yet. In labs, you'll notice that blood is usually handled in ways that already assume it's somehow hazardous.
3) Now combine the demand that results from 1) and the very limited supply that results from 2).
4) Profit.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If history teaches anything at all, the rather morbid and malevolent withdrawal of blood from a 95 yr old will be punished by ever skyrocketing values these collectibles.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
It could be anyone's blood. Who has the money to check?
How much is needed to give me spider powers?
No, they're not "graphic novels", a novel implies a substantial, long and complex storyline, not small amounts of simplistic text in speech bubbles in something 20 pages long about characters in silly custumes with their underpants on the outside.
If you think that's what they all are, you're pretty damn ignorant. Many graphic novels definitely contain long and complex storylines - often moreso than many mainstream novels on the bestseller lists. Compare V for Vendetta's depth to that of Twilight. Or Sandman to 50 Shades of Grey.
There are many, many very good, very complex and substantial works consisting of "text in speech bubbles". Some of them even are about "characters in silly costumes with their underpants on the outside" and still manage to say a lot (such as Watchmen or Kingdom Come).
"Many graphic novels definitely contain long and complex storylines - often moreso than many mainstream novels on the bestseller lists"
Yeah, right, and oddly they manage to get it done in about 1/20th the amount of prose. I suppose you could be kind and called them abridged.
Once again, showing your ignorance of the medium. A very large amount of a prose novel is tied up in descriptions of visuals, or elements that are redundant to the pictures in the medium (such as the words "said", "shouting", etc.), as well as white space around shorter paragraphs. A more realistic estimate taking this into account is that comics are only getting about 1/4 the information across in the same space. Couple this with the average graphic novel page being twice the size, but with the same average font size, and you'll realistically only be talking about 1/2 the amount of information per page. If you want to make some kind of asinine argument about information contained in the work, it'd be more realistic to say it's more akin to a novella than a novel.
Of course, that ends up with you basically saying the longer a book is, the more important it is, and content be damned. (But, considering your "arguments" up to this point, I wouldn't be surprised if that was truly a criteria you believed mattered.)
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In japan manga comics almost always display borderline pre-teen girls in sexy outfits. Hardly the sign of a heathly hobby.
Just because those are the only ones you read, doesn't mean they're the only ones that exist.
"You made KISS use their blood for their book! Now how do ya like it, Mr. Bigshot!"
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
"underpants on the outside" is impossible, by definition those would be overpants
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I've bought books on my favourite web-comic series but at no point would I consider buying a blood-stained comic-book even appealing. The only way it would make sense would be if it was horror or something nasty in subject but for regular comics an artist or writer's signature with a good pen is good enough. I mean really what's next Stan Lee's half eaten sandwich wedged in there or something?
This story is proof that Capitalists are literally blood-sucking vampires!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
A very large amount of a prose novel is tied up in descriptions of visuals, or elements that are redundant to the pictures in the medium...
You took a roundabout path to "A picture is worth a thousand words."
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Get off your fucking high horse already and stop being a cultural snob. No one died and made you king.
Logicomix: An epic search for truth is 352 pages.
Watchman is 448 pages
No one gives a fuck how long a graphic novel is -- only if they were entertained.
Let me guess, you were probably one of those snobs who thought "talkies" (talking movies) were ruining movies via a focus on dialogue would subvert the unique aesthetic virtues of soundless cinema.
You condemn yourself with your ignorance.
I counter with Charles 'paid by the word' Dickens and a page describing a lawyer's door. =P
On a comic page, the illustrator could embellish those seven words with whatever context strikes him as appropriate. One great aspect of a graphic novel is the marriage of prose and illustration.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
You talk as if their something wrong in reading comic books? as if a non comic book were different only in theirs no pictures?lol im 60 and still read them. the shame of it all..
Jack of all trades,master of none