The End of a Comic Book Store and What It Meant to the Community – BigKatts
Founded in 1980, Bigkatts was a comic book store located in Naples, FL. Sadly, one of the co-owners, Robert (Bob) Kobzina, recently passed away. This loss has lead to his family (who constitute the remaining co-owners) to shut down Bigkatts. Wanting to memorialize a local icon and the comic book store of which I have fond memories, I decided to write this article about its history. In addition to exploring the store’s creation, this piece analyzes how the store survived multiple economic downturns (such as how the state of Florida experienced the bankruptcy of several thousand businesses from 2006 – 2008), how the affluent Naples-area could be without any bookstores in a few years, and how Bigkatts lasted by building a loyal community of comic book fans and gamers. Overall, this is an economically insightful examination and farewell letter to this comic book store.
The Increasing Cost of Being a Comic Book Fan: Comic Book Prices vs. Inflation
This article examines the increase in the standard costs of comic books from the early 1990s to 2010, and contrasts these increases in cost against the rate of inflation. The article finds that comic books have increased in cost at a rate far higher than inflation.
Marvel’s The Avengers: A Breakdown of this Film’s Box Office Earnings
Few things are more complicated to understand than Hollywood accounting, so I wanted to explain how a film’s box office earnings are divided between theaters, studios, and everyone else involved in the creation and distribution of a film. This article uses The Avengers to discuss how box office revenue is dispersed and shows that movie studios typically only see a small portion of a film’s box office earnings.
Strange Court Case: Marvel Defines Mutants As Nonhumans For US Tariff Codes
The only thing more fantastical than the adventures of Marvel Comics’ superheroes is this real world court case that redefined the humanity of Marvel’s characters. This article discusses how some of Marvel’s lawyers once discovered that imported toys deemed to be “non-human” were taxed at a lower rate than toys that represented human beings, Marvel sued to have all of the characters legally declared non-humans.
INTERVIEWS
Sarah Bruni – Author of the novel, The Night Gwen Stacy Died
Tony Trov & Johnny Zito discuss producing their indie film, Alpha Girls
Robert Venditti – Comic Book Writer discusses Valiant Comics’ relaunch and Entering the Industry
Aron Warner – Producer and Voice actor of the Shrek franchise and comic book creator
Larry Tye – Author of Superman: The High Flying History of America’s Most Enduring Hero
Tom Hutchinson – Comic Book writer and Founder of Big Dog Ink and Legacy Arts & Entertainment
Warren Simons – Executive Editor at Valiant Comics, former Editor at Marvel Comics
Mark Andrew Smith – Creator of Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors
Dr. Jeremy Short – Co-Creator and writer for Atlas Black: Managing to Succeed
David Liss – Novelist and Comic Book writer of Black Panther and Mystery Men
Randy Queen – Creator of Darkchylde and Starfall discusses his comic book influences
Randy Queen – On Darkchylde’s crossover with Top Cow’s The Darkness
Seth Kushner – creator of Leaping Tall Buildings: The Origins of American Comics
Scott Rosenberg – CEO of Platinum Studios, Creator of Cowboys & Aliens
Daryl Edelman – comic book creator and authorDarren Davis – President of Bluewater Productions
Matthew Coleshill – Visual Effects Assistant for X-Men: First Class
Mike Carey – Author of Vertigo’s Lucifer, The Unwritten, and Marvel’s X-Men: Legacy
Phil Hester - Artist for The Crow: Waking Nightmares, The Coffin, and DC’s Green Arrow
Fred Van Lente – creator of Action Philosophers and writer of X-Men Noir
· The Untold Truth of Stargate SG-1
· The Untold Truth of The DC Animated Universe
· All of Spider-Man’s Love Interests Explained
· The Untold Truth of the Mortal Kombat Franchise
· The Legacy of 1932’s The Mummy Explained
· Luke Cage: The Untold Truth of the Marvel Hero
· Grant Morrison Revolutionized the X-Men. This is How They Did It
· How George Pérez Changed Comic Books Forever
· What Star Wars Fans Might Not Know About Skywalker Ranch
· “CGC Grading: A Guide for Beginners”
· “The Pound-for-Pound Greatest Video Games”
· “Comic Book Stores Every Collector Should Visit”
· “Comic Book Value: Understanding the Factors that Move the Comic Market”
· “Street Fighter’s Gaming Legacy: From Chun-Li to ‘Hadouken!’”
CASUAL GAMES ASSOCIATION'S Casual Connect Magazine
Casual Connect (Summer 2015)
o“Not Such a Harebrained Scheme After All: The Unusual Case of Mitch Gitelman” (6–9)
o “On the Level: Talking Pac-Man with Ben Acevedo” (10-13)
o “Two Indie Success Stories: Beating the Odds in St. Petersburg and Grenoble” (14-16)
o “Exclusive Interview: The Write Stuff – Lee Sheldon on Game Writing” (18-20)
o “The Author is in Dan Jolley: Video Game Writer” (32-33)
o “Eye on Africa: Understanding Africa’s Growing Video Game Industry” (34-37
o “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: LittleBigPlanet 3” (20-27)
o “What’s Your Story: An Interview with Ichiro Lambe of Dejobaan Games” (34–39)
o “Playing (Somewhat) by the Book: The Real-time Narrative of Inkle” (48 - 52)
o “Just Your Basic Suburban Octopus: Kevin Geisler, Young Horses, and the Curious Case of Octodad” (54 – 56)
o “Games as Therapy: Stroke Survivors Get Help from Recovery Rapids” (58 - 59)
o “Frozenbyte talks about Shadowgrounds and Trine” (60 – 64)
Casual Connect (Fall 2014)
o “How to Build a Dungeon: From Dungeon Defenders to Dungeon Defenders II” (14 - 19)
o “Exclusive Interview: Family-centric Fun and Development – An Interview with Josef Hall” (24 - 29)
o “Studio Spotlight: FlowPlay” (30 – 32)
o “Game Changers: Four Game Development Entrepreneurs Who Are Helping to Shape the Industry” (34 - 38)
o “Giving 800 Percent: The Rise of Glitchsoft” (40 – 45)
o “Gaming Through Decades: The History of Wayforward Technologies” (56 – 59)
o “Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft” (60 – 64)
Casual Connect (Summer 2014)
o “A Game of Architecture and Feeling: A Journey into Monument Valley” (6 - 10)
o “From the Toy Box to the War Room: A Toy Defense Postmortem” (15 - 18)
o “A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words: Tengami” (20 – 24)
o “An Interview with Ian Dallas about The Unfinished Swan” (26 – 30)
o “An Amazing Journey and a Ton of Fun: An Interview with Keith Shepherd of Imangi Studios” (32 - 38)
o “Studio Spotlight: Aerie Games/PlayNext” (40 – 44)
o “Bigger Than Real: Enhancing Traditional Media through Augmented Reality” (50 – 58)
o “A Conversation with Double Fine’s Greg Rice” (72 – 76)
· Casual Connect (Winter 2014)
o “Indie Corner: Laura Shigihara on Rakuen and Music in Video Games” (15 – 18)
o “Exclusive Interview: Make Better Games, Not Bigger Games – An Interview with Rami Ismail of Vlambeer” (20 – 22)
o “Studio Spotlight: Toca Boca” (24 – 30)
o “Health Care Games: Help and Awareness for Those Suffering from Disease” (32 – 36)
o “Now We Are Talking: Abbey Games and Reus” (60 – 64)
o “No Limitations: Interview with Jon Hales of Venabyte” (16 - 19)
o “Studio Spotlight: Supergiant Games” (20 - 25)
o “Exclusive Interview: Gameloft’s Samir El Agili” (26 - 30)
o “Here’s to Your Health: New Games Designed for Fitness and Well-being” (32 - 35)
o “The Happy Marriage of Art and Science: The Curious Case of Robots & Pencils” (50 - 52)
o “Now We Are Talking: The Making of VEGA Conflict” (58 - 60)
o “New & Notable: Storm8” (8 – 10)
o “The Videogame Professor: An Interview with Ian Bogost” (36 – 46)
o “Indie Incubator: How Execution Labs is helping New Developers Succeed” (70 - 74)
o “Now We Are Talking: Matthew Davis talks about Faster Than Light” (90 - 93)
o “Spotlight: Funtactix” (26 – 29)
o “My Epic Life Making Video Games - An Interview with Warren Spector” (30 – 36)
o “DotEmu Takes on the Retro-gaming Market” (48 – 49)
o “Books Meet Videogames: A Conversation about Infinity Ring with Gavin Brown & Nick Eliopulos” (56 – 58)
o “Stephen Griffin talks about Eyes Wide Games and The Walking Dead Franchise” (64 – 68)
o “From Making Movies to Making Games: An Interview with Brian Kindregan” (28 – 32)
o “Alex Ness talks about Skylanders Giants” (56 – 60)
CASUAL GAMES ASSOCIATION'S GameSauce
ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS
· From Painter to Videogame Leader: A look at the life and career of Glen Schofield
· Jon Radoff’s career, establishing Disruptor Beam, and Game of Thrones Ascent
· Sana Choudary discusses Get-in-the-Game Competition Winner, RunWilder
· FlippFly: An Indie Studio by Two Brothers with a Passion for Game Development
· Robert Hill of Trion World on Defiance and Bridging the Gap Between TV and Games
· Rich “Disasterpeace” Vreeland on Fez, His Love of Music, and Videogame Soundtracks
· Wargaming’s Sergey Burkatovskiy on World of Tanks and working in the F2P MMO Market
· Tyler Fermelis on his Love of Art, Freelancing, and Gazillion Entertainment’s Marvel Heroes
· Paul Loynd Discusses Meteor Entertainment and its latest game, Hawken
· A Q&A with Assassin’s Creed III Creative Director Alex Hutchinson