iPad Thoughts....

I've been excited about the potential of Apple's iPad, which went on sale (at least in the US) a few weeks ago, ever since it was announced back in January.

OK, the iPad is not the first ever device like this to be released (and no doubt we will see plenty more being announced over the next few months!), but as Apple usually do things in a way that opens up so many new options the iPad is likely to be the one device that defines the format. But while I'm sure that these things are going to realign the whole comic author/publisher/reader paradigm, I'm still not entirely convinced.

Something strange is going on. Why do I have the feeling that the iPad seems to want to look and feel like a computer, yet acts like a big iPod Touch. And I've never really been interested in having an iPod Touch.

But why, with all the potential we all know is already into the device, is it so damned hard to get stuff in (or out) of the thing? WiFi? Great, as long as I'm close enough to a wireless network. Bluetooth? Fine, if it finally works the way it is was designed to. 3G? Maybe, but do I really need yet another SIM card. Or more accurately, a 'micro' SIM card? But why can't I just connect the bloody thing with a USB cable (now that Firewire seems to have gone the way of SCSI and that other bloody plug Apple used to require.....) and sync the thing to stuff on any of my Macs without having to go through iTunes? And I like iTunes..... it's just that it is already frustrating enough using it with my iPhone.

Would it be too hard to actually have folders on this thing? Yeah, I know, Apple don't want us to work like that any more. No Finder, no file structure, everything has now got to be 'intuitive'. But why? After 15 years of using computers, I kinda like the Finder, instinctively know my way around the thing, and would be quite happy working on an iPad and moving files and folders or whatever around with my fingertips.....

Maybe some of this stuff is likely to change, but by third-party developers and not necessarily by Apple. And if Apple don't want something to happen, then it won't happen unless you jailbreak your iPad.

Do I still want an iPad? Hell yeah, but I'm not rushing out to buy one when they eventually go on sale here in Australia. The one thing that an iPad looks like doing very, very well - reading books - won't even be available to us here in Australia for the foreseeable future anyway....

But more on all that in my next post....

The Losers

The Forbidden Planet International blog sums this up pretty well:

Will the film be any good? Maybe, maybe not. But one thing’s for certain, there’s no way the film will be as good as the source, because the graphic novels are about as filmic as you’re going to get, just with perfect characterisation, great sets and an effects budget that’s as good as Diggle and Jock’s imagination.
(There’s a free pdf download of issue 1 at the DC Vertigo site here).

I was lucky enough to draw three issues of the comic series late in its 32-issue run (Vertigo are scheduled to republish all of the series this year), and I had a ball doing it. In fact it was the series that convinced me that maybe I could find work in US comics. And so I'm really looking forward to the film..... knowing Andy, this was exactly the way he wrote the comic series, and all the elements are in the comic series to make a great film.....

Fingers crossed!

Termination, Anyone?

"If trends in computer science and robotics engineering continue, it is conceivable that autonomous systems could soon be developed that are capable of making life and death decisions without direct human intervention," said John Edward Jackson, professor of unmanned systems at the U.S. Naval War College.

This paragraph is from a recent article Drone Wars, Without Any Rules by Dan Froomkin, and now I can't get a familiar movie soundtrack out of my head. Well, maybe not the whole soundtrack, just a few portentous chord sequences......

Dynamite!

Bullet to the Head (aka Du Plomb Dans La Tete, aka Headshot) will be published in English for the first time this June, by Dynamite. This is the series I worked on with writer Matz (The Killer) and originally published by Casterman in France. Coincidentally, Casterman will be re-publishing the story in France again this year, this time as an all-in-one large-format B&W edition similar to the limited-edition version published by Librairie Grangier in 2006.

No news yet on the possible film of the series, originally optioned by Warner Bros. in 2008.....

Con Time

With Melbourne Supanova almost upon us, the 2010 Comic Con season is about to begin. In addition to the Melbourne event, I have also been invited to both the Sydney and Perth events this year, which should get me up to speed for the big one in July, the 2010 San Diego Comic Con.

Yep, it's on again, and this year Tom Taylor I will have our own stand, in conjunction with long-time Star Wars contributor Dave Dorman, and our Australian publisher Gestalt Publishing.

If you are planning on attending any of these Cons, stop by and say hi. I'll be signing anything and everything, taking a limited number of commission to work on during each event, and (if everything goes according to plan), by mid-year I may also have a limited number of my first-ever sketchbook available......