Amazon’s Comixology Merger: Why It’s Ruining Digital Comics

Hey, this is Josh Keaton and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. You've just jumped

inside the pull bag. Join TFG1 Mike and the rest

of the comic crew here at the GCRN as they make

their great escape into comics. From DC, Marvel

and Image to IDW, Bloom Studios and Xenoscope,

we have everything right here. We cover things

like Transformers, He -Man, Super Heroes, TMNT

and Radiant Black. Yeah, we have all that and

so much more. It's all inside the pull bag here

on the Geekcast Radio Network. So, without further

ado, it's time to talk about the comics we're

reading right now, here inside the pull bag.

Hello and welcome to The Pullback. This is an

episode of this show, folks. As you've heard

in a couple of the other episodes, if there's

an intro at the beginning of this where I say

something about don't worry about the numbering

for now, I fucked it up. Anyway, I'm, of course,

TF Joe and Mike. Joining me for the first time

in a while is Ryan the Uneven Flowmarkly. Hello,

sir. You are back. And today we're talking about

the Shield video game for PlayStation 2. Oh,

right, Shield Comics. Okay, so that's about the...

I should shield the comics industry from our

rage. That's about the WWE team. No? Okay, hang

on. I wish. We can't even read Shield Comics

anymore, digitally. Well, we can, but it's in

a really stupid way. All right, folks, this episode

first came up from who's going to be my next

guest. this episode Nicholas Finch he wrote a

whole thread on Twitter which I will hopefully

embed or do something in the post so you find

folks can see it on geekcastradio .com but Amazon

and comics ology have Amazon is finally you know

forced comics ology into itself or unto itself

that sounds dirty hang on let me put the I didn't

know we were doing the after dark version of

this After dark it comes back and Amazon bought

comics ology and this is sort of the end result

and Yeah, it's What oh so long story short people

who don't know comics ology probably the largest

I would say since they are did pretty much from

the beginning it was the largest comics site

to purchase digital comics and Potentially read

them now. There is an app as well. I have used

the app. I've bought comics digitally, et cetera,

et cetera. So this is Amazon's relaunch of it.

And there's going to be a whole lot of people

saying, holy cow, what the hell is this? So OK,

this weird. So holy cow, what the hell is this?

Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. This is February 2022.

It took Amazon eight years. Eight years. and

insert Comixology into itself. I have been praising

Comixology since... Yeah, the deal went down

April 10th, 2014. Yeah. But Comixology, to my

knowledge, had been around since at least 2013,

and they sold more than four billion pages of

comics in 2013 alone, digitally. So Amazon has

been sleeping on this for eight years, and now...

They are finally merging. Look, folks, on the

pullback, I have praised Comixology, I think,

since episode 11 or 12, which was nine years

ago, when we started this podcast. It was the

whole reason that the podcast even continued

past year one, and I've told this story before.

I was sitting in my living room at the time.

I had Welcome Back, Frank, the big, hefty version

of Welcome Back, Frank, in my hand. Not because

of the content but because of the weight of the

book. I fell asleep. It fell out of my hand and

hit the floor The very next day I went on to

comixology .com and signed up and I have been

buying comics on comixology .com Ever since then

now Amazon is ruining our comics So I'm sure

Nicholas is gonna have a whole bunch of things

to say on this. I wanted to get your reaction

really quick Mr. I don't care. I just buy physical

now again. No, I'm just kidding. So I admittedly

most of my stuff is purchased physically now

I used comics ology pretty much exclusively when

more than meets the eye was and then lost light

was out and the reason was So way Twitter and

my Twitter is set up if anything happened in

it I knew I was gonna hear about it and my delivery

guy doesn't come by until Sundays. I felt like

I didn't really have a choice and I had to quickly

read the books as soon as I could or else. Having

said all that, I used it a fair amount. I don't

blame Amazon for wanting to merge it all under

the same umbrella. I wonder why they did it now.

Yeah. And then B. Why did they do it the way

they did it? Yeah. Why did he? They pulled an

electronic arts, which is they do a big merger

years later or whatever. And then they immediately

remove all the features that people liked and

just dump it out. So the biggest one for me and

God, no, there's really two of you. All right.

Sorry. The two biggest ones for me. I can't find

shit. Yeah, that's, that's a pretty big problem.

I don't know how, how is their site worse than

trying to find comics and stuff like that on

Amazon? Yeah. So here's the thing folks. I'm

sure that, like I said, Nicholas and I will go

through this and actually it's him who I have

to thank for being able to even find this. So

we've known about this merger for years. We've

known about the implementation of Amazon getting

comics. They hadn't fully, you know, did the

whole transition yet, but we've known about it

for years that it was going to have. They basically

just, you know, held a Jack Kirby pen to our

neck saying, We're going to cut your throat.

We're going to cut you off. The Comixology website

was a dream to use. You had smart lists. You

had your library. You had wish lists. You had

a place where you could click on that said, my

books. I don't know that it was perfect. There

were some issues I had with the search functions

and stuff like that. But yes, you're right. It's

still way better than it was. I'm saying as far

as the original layout of the Comixology website.

They do still have the Comixology app. Well,

more on that in a second. That will be my second

point. I read my comics on my computer, folks.

So here in the US, you have to go to... Oh, this

is just stupid. OK. So I scroll over to my account,

Account and Lists. It says... you know, your

list, wish list, and then it says Comixology.

You think, oh, I'll click, don't click on that.

You have to go down to, what is it, it's not

browsing history, it's devices and something.

Anyway, it's, yeah. So, manage your content and

devices, that's what it is. So, like, I can see.

All the comics that I have I'm not even actually

buying any comics right now. I'm actually going

to cancel the subscriptions I currently have

but as far as digital goes but you can sort through

newest to oldest oldest to newest a to z z to

a and then author a to z and z to a and Nowhere

like I'm looking at right now just for our own

purposes because Steve and I've already done

this I am looking at Transformers Beast Wars

number 12 from IDW Publishing. In order to read

this book, the options, the two main options

on the Amazon website, deliver or remove from

device, mark as unread. You have to click more

actions and then it says, first thing it says,

delete, download and transfer via USB, clear

furthest page read, read now. Read now should

be the first thing that you shouldn't have to

click on more actions. Anyway, your second thing

was the Comixology app. Just to sort of finish

that too, in terms of the website, I don't understand

that Amazon's website is not perfect, period.

But at least I can find stuff. Part of it is

I've gotten used to it, etc. But the Comixology

thing is not great. You can see that you own

something and then that's about it. Yeah. If

you're lucky, you can see you own something,

whatever. The second part is obviously the reader,

the Comixology app and the Comixology reader

online. So if you're on a website, Sorry, if

you're on the comics ology website and you click

on a comic you own you want to read it It had

a lot of really neat features including it would

zoom into certain portions of the panels It was

called guided view. Yeah it would zoom into certain

portions of the panels before other parts and

The reason for that is it's kind of similar to

leafing through the comic not to mention it was

a good way to keep from Spoilers if there's something

big happens on the page to your right or something

like that Now Well, you can zoom in but it sure

as hell not controlled very well, there's no

options for Controlling it really no and your

two choices are either zoom in basically the

same way you would if you We're controlling the

magnifying glass feature in a lot of old programs

or Be try to read it in full screen Yeah, you'd

be it's terrible. The guided view was great long

by hitting the right arrow key or something like

that, you know if you wanted to and just Why

did you why did they take it away because the

Amazon readers terrible and it's bad for not

just this so the other part of part one and part

two are the same. This is the fact that they've

merged it into the Kindle portion of the Amazon

website. I have a Kindle. I've had one for years.

The reason for this is I just don't have the

room for physical books anymore. I read a lot

of books, like a lot, in addition to probably

well over 600 graphic novel trades. Actually,

I'm probably way over that. Anyway, I have a

lot and that's my kind of physical collection

is mostly the comic trades. So I have a Kindle

and the Kindle store sucks. Yes, it does. Kindle

store has always sucked. And the fact that they

merged Comixology into that. Yeah, dumb choice.

And in addition to that, the Kindle apps also

suck. Using an actual Kindle is great. It's fantastic

device. trying to use their reader and anything

else on anything else is awful. Yeah. So I, you

know, I have the Comixology app and it does still

do guided view the way guided view should be,

except even on my Google Pixel 6 Pro, I still

have to, and it's not that big of a deal to rotate

it and it's fine. So it does work. So I'm not

actively zooming. I am just doing guided view

the way it has always been meant to do it. The

thing is, I don't want to read comics on my damn

phone. I want to read them on the 32 -inch monitor

I have. That's the way I want to read it, and

I want to be able to do it simply with a UI that

actually works, that functions properly. And

especially as someone who's legally blind, this

is not easy to find on Amazon's website like

I was expecting Amazon to not put like again

Look, like you said they they felt they've folded

it into the Kindle store. So I have a whole bunch

of whatever Links and whatever at the top of

my my Amazon thing all buy again prime blah blah

blah all these links You mean to tell me that

in none of these places where gift cards are

or my Amazon or whatever None of these like departments

could say Oh, would you like to go directly to

Comixology? Sure, let's do that. And all this

they would have had to have done, they could

have left the Comixology website the way it is,

the way it was. They should have just merged

it into it. They could have just put amazon .com

slash Comixology, like kept it the way it was

and whatever. I don't know. What I find weird,

so again, you mentioned... the conversation on

Twitter about it, but there are other threads

on Twitter that have pointed out that the guided

view doesn't exist for everything. So when I'm

saying that the guided view is gone, that's what

I'm referring to, especially the older books.

Newer books, it actually works pretty well. But

if you have older Marvel and DC stuff, it's just

gone. Which makes no sense to me. No, it's whatsoever

It's so bad and it is it does seem to be like

per per comic and depending on the company and

everything else and it's Baffling to me. It should

just be everything should work. Yeah, everything

worked fairly well in Everything works fairly

well on the original website wasn't perfect but

Yeah, I mean, the Guided View worked well. There

was only a few books that maybe the panels were

a little bit off. But I had been hearing about

Guided View from our fellow geek at Lady Rack,

Lady Of Rack, Amy, for years before I even adopted

comicsology. And when I finally did, I'm like,

this is groundbreaking. This is everything I've

wanted in a comic book app. I never wanted to

go to Marvel and limited or DC whatever it has

and I even tried DC several times and it just

It's not the same as what their guide of you

was and it really sucks that the Amazon website

does not zooming ain't Shit folks like seriously,

that's just dumb. I don't want to zoom in on

the panel I want to hit a guided view button

that takes me panel by panel as it's a natural

thing to read through the book. That was the

whole point of Guided View. It's storyboarded

reading. And while I'm glad the Comixology app,

at least for now, still has it, I don't know

if I can continue to review comics on this podcast.

I'll be saying this multiple times in this episode.

I honestly do not know because I switched from

print to digital specifically because of my legal

blindness. I have optic atrophy with the stigmatism

and in order for me to even read Ryan's tweet

from two hours ago, my face has to literally

be two inches away from my monitor. Should talk

board games and stuff sometime. My tweets are

not worth that much work. Stop it. But I'm saying

like in order to read like I can see tweet deck

right now But I really have to like lean over

and get close to the screen in order to read

the rumor that new Transformers collaborative

project trooper releasing in 2023 question mark

You better put a question mark on that rumor

TFW anyway folks so as a reader as readers like

we we read comics because we enjoy them We are

not paid to read comics. I am. I can't pay myself

to do this podcast and nobody's going to pay

me to do this podcast. However, my next guest

coming up, Mr. Nicholas Finch. Technical difficulties.

Let's move on, shall we? Like, really? Seriously?

Why would you do this, Amazon? I don't blame

anybody at Comixology. They got bought out. And

even though it's still comixology, the comixology

support thing is still there and whatever else,

the website's gone and it sucks. And I want it

back the way that it was. And this isn't just

me trying to live in the past. It's like Steve

Megatron said when he first saw Nicholas's thread.

He actually, that's how I saw the thread and

how I reached out to the guy. Steve quote tweeted

the first tweet in Nicholas's thread. If it ain't

broke, don't fix it. And while I'm sure plenty

of people with search options and things like

that, in order to actually purchase, subscribe,

and read comics, comixology at the time had been

the gold standard in my personal opinion for

over nine years. And Amazon and Bezos just come

in and just fuck it all up. I don't normally

do and this is why I'm glad you said at the beginning

of this. This is a pull bag after dark folks

Because normally I don't get this riled up on

this podcast, but I don't know where this podcast

is gonna go because I'm sorry comics ology was

An everything platform you had image you had

idw you had top shelf you had dc marvel vertigo

uh valiant What's the Dark Horse? You had all

of the publishers. I am not. I have never said

that the pullback was going to be specifically

DC or Marvel Comics specific reviews. We have

reviewed everything from multiple publishers.

For me, comics is all about my personal favorite

franchises and characters. I follow Iron Man,

even though I haven't read a lot of his comics

lately, but I follow Iron Man, I follow Nightwing,

I follow Batgirl, I follow Batman, whatever.

Like, it isn't about the companies. So me, having

to try to get a subscription to Marvel and DC

and blah, no. That was why Comixology was great.

It was because you could have, it was, it was

the best golden, uh, best golden corral Buffet

of Comics! We'll be back after this, unless you

have anything else you want to top this off with.

This is Kevin Conway, and I am the goddamn Batman.

Holy rusted metal, Batman! Hello, hello, hello.

So my name is Nicholas Finch. I am a, well, I'm

a writer for Batman News primarily, but I've

also written stuff for websites such as Greenlight

Comics, as well as comic book Harold, which had

an article I was particularly proud of. I've

been working in the field for a little over two

years now, and I've done a fair few things. I've

Obviously I'm a huge comic book fan and I primarily

work in like Batman related stuff But I've I've

done stuff based on you know creators like Junji

Ito Brian Cain Vaughan when he wrote Barrier

as well as the occasional manga like My Lesbian

Experience with Loneliness I like to review a

lot of stuff and I usually use Comixology to

get my content. When it comes to something like

trades especially stuff like My Lesbian Experience

with Loneliness or a few stuff I've gotten recently

like Animus I like to get those physically but

for the most part I get comics digitally and

the big place I get them through is Comixology

so the recent announcement well I shouldn't say

announcement I suppose the recent change to the

Comixology website has had a huge impact I made

a Twitter thread about it that kind of covers

it from a browser perspective but there are a

lot of other different things that have happened

to it on phone and tablet Generally speaking,

to my understanding, it is not as bad on phone

and tablet. There are some issues, like I think

the format is a little different. You have to

re -download your stuff. Sometimes there are

sync issues. But for the most part, the major

change is to the desktop. Because on your desktop,

where a lot of people do like to read comics,

Amazon has essentially completely destroyed the

Comixology website. Amazon bought Comixology

several years ago and for the most part they

didn't really do anything with it. They kind

of let it operate independently. It was not really

put under too much scrutiny until recently and

I think the the logic was that they believed

Kindle audiences in the comic space would be

able to give comics a higher reach, to which

it's an interesting point, but I would probably

counter in that one, comic books and regular

books are just a different field altogether,

in terms of how they are consumed, how they are

bought, how they are perceived. There is some

overlap, especially in the graphic novel scene,

but you should treat them as separate entities

for the most part. And more than that, I think

I would argue maybe it would go down a little

bit better if your website wasn't fucking shit.

I don't know, I mean I've never had huge fondness

for the Amazon website in general. I think the

Amazon website is a little unseemly, like it's

fine, it gets the job done, but to me it's always

felt a little clunky. Felt like the remnants

of something you'd find in, like, 2009 internet.

And so to see that comixology, a website which

kept very updated, very, uh, it was very catered

to, to see that has been cannibalized into a

website that I already find outdated is really

frustrating. And I, I, I think their priority

here is Kindle, tablet, uh, to some extent phone

readers. And, and to those people, you know,

only so much will happen, but for, for online

readers, of which I know many, personally, this

has kinda screwed us over. From a work perspective,

I need the website Comixology, and the reader

in particular, to cover a lot of things. The

first one being... I have an article called Upcoming

Comics, and I publish that every week. And the

thing about Upcoming Comics is that what I try

to do is I don't just say, oh, here's every Batman

book coming this week. I also try to say, okay,

here are the other books in DC coming this week,

and in terms of the Batman books, here is the

description, here is the creative team. And the

thing about that is that it's quite easy to get

that information from Comixology, where it is

regularly updated. It's not as updated regularly

on even the DC ma - site but wherever you go

to find that information it is not going to be

as accurate as it is going to be on Comixology

where that stuff is updated regularly and consistently

because it needs to be and The information is

still technically there on the Amazon website,

but it is muddied under so much gunk. Like I'm

looking at the store page for Detective Comics

1053 right now, and this is one of the things

that I screen capped in my Twitter thread, kind

of breaking down how specifically this all works.

And for example, when it comes to the people

who made it, you have Mariko Tamaki and Matthew

Rosenberg as the authors. Which... I'll get back

to that in a second. And then you get to Irvin

Rodriguez for the cover art, and then it says,

and four more. So for starters, you're immediately

burying the people who work on this book. The

people who are responsible for making this, you're

fucking hiding it. Whereas in comixology this

was a this was something you could clearly see

this was something that was on display all the

time very accessible and I have to imagine from

a creator's perspective It is very upsetting

to see your name what was once front and center

now kind of shoved into the and more section

because in case you didn't notice the interior

artists are not here you have to open it up to

get to them. And then we get to the subject of

the word author. I kind of take issue with it

with comics. I know generally speaking it means

writer, but like in terms of a book an author

kind of is a very all -encompassing time. It's,

oh, this is the person who made this book, who

constructed it. Which is not the case for comics,

because comics are more akin to films where,

you know, you have the writer and you have the

artist who is essentially the director. So you're

putting the writer far and away above the artist

who, to be honest, more often than not spends

way more time on a book. You know, even if the

book looks awful an artist will probably spend

more time working on it than a writer will spend

writing it and that sometimes translates to pay

but clearly it doesn't translate to publicity

and that that's one thing that's that's very

annoying but honestly the whole thing is it's

super fucking frustrating and it the reader is

completely broken here and the reader is what

I use to essentially grab screencaps for my reviews

and you'll notice if you go on essentially can

only view two pages at a time and what's even

more annoying is if there's a two page advertisement

they condense that down to one page so you are

looking at this two page ad on one page with

a really heavy border and then One page of a

comic so zoomed out. You probably can't see it.

Would you like to zoom in? Sure You have to double

click on the image and then it will zoom into

that panel only which is I guess they're equivalent

of a guided view now, but it's on desktop It's

terrible. It's it's baffling to me because they

had this sorted out. They had this figured out

on You know in the original comics ology, but

they had a guided reader. They were updating

it they were they were learning how to make the

reading experience better and I honestly don't

really understand why they've butchered it completely

and this isn't me being like I'm not trying to

be hyperbolic here when I say butchered I mean

in the literal sense that the functionality of

the website has been taken away it has been almost

literally ripped you know and and and on a personal

level it's frustrating because this is my job

you know this is I don't make much on this job,

but every week I upload an upcoming comic, almost

every week I upload a review. I'm usually making

something for this website and putting it out

into the world. And I'm quite passionate about

that, but the problem arises is when they make

it really difficult for you. And getting rid

of Comixology, because that's essentially what

they've done, it redirects the Amazon website

now, is really harming my work. Pretty much just

my enjoyment. I mean I put God how many dollars

into? Comixology over the years it's got to be

hundreds probably thousands to be honest I spent

You know I found out how much I may spend in

my physical store, and I you know my heart fucking

skipped a beat so you know seeing that digitally

must be horrifying and and and now honestly I

don't want to read a single one of the things

in my library this is kind of ruined the experience

for me and and maybe I'll get to a point where

I'll have a tablet and I'll feel comfortable

reading on that again but uh one this this website

has lost a lot of good faith uh from me not that

it matters they're fucking amazon um but two

you know like how am I gonna it's gonna take

so long for me to build up that trust again or

alternatively It's gonna take a fuckton of time

for them to rebuild the site's functionality

if they want to keep it under the Amazon banner,

which what a stupid idea. Just keep Comixology.

No one likes this decision. And I'm sure it's

not about likes, but I mean, I feel bad for the

poor Comixology social media rep who must be

tacking on the worst kind of hate now. Because,

I mean, how can you not hate? this decision and

I am genuinely asking I want to know who this

worked out well for surely there were people

in the room and were like this is a bad idea

this is a bad idea and I bet there were I bet

there are a lot of comicsology staffers who were

like oh we've worked on this site for fucking

years and you're gonna take that this away from

us and not only that you're going to put it on

your main website a website which I mean frankly

speaking is just shit and you're going to ruin

the experience for everyone. Maybe give it some

second thought. Maybe sleep on it. Maybe have

a macchiato and just kind of ponder it. But no,

they just kind of went full steam ahead. I mean,

I'm sure they took a while, you know? That we

were warned in advance. I remember freaking out

about it at the time But then nothing happened

and I kind of thought it was over But it's come

up now and I almost feel guilty for ranting about

this compared to some of the other shit that's

going on because it makes me wonder where my

priorities lie, but the the the severity of which

this impacts my work, which is you know a passion

is is is really severe and it's crazy that that

I mean everywhere goes to Comixology to get published,

but let's narrow it down to Marble and DC specifically.

It's shocking that they're not keenly aware of

how this screws them. In fact, I hope they are

more aware than they seem, because it would honestly

be a good incentive for them to start making

their own digital comics readers completely independent

from comixology, which they kind of played at

once before, but it was always inherently linked

to comixology. And I guess now we get to the

conversation about digital media in general.

For a long while, and kind of still to this day,

comixology is like steam. in that it was kind

of the only place you could go for digital content

with a few exceptions, and it was kind of hard

to topple. Epic Games has kind of changed that,

I'm kind of expecting something to come in for

comixology, but the thing is, at the end of the

day, this kind of proves how fallible the system

of digital ownership is. And everyone's been

talking about digital ownership these days for

very obvious reasons, but in terms of... comic

books and games and movies and content we want

to consume and can and maybe should own physically,

the fact that it is stored on this digital space

shows how fragile that is because you could easily

get merged with Amazon and your website could

become unfunctional and then suddenly how much

of your money has been wasted? You know, like,

how much of your money has gone down the drain

because you can't read the things you wanna read,

watch the things you wanna watch, play the things

you wanna play in the same way anymore. Is there

a time limit on how much we should be allowed

to own things in the digital landscape? Is that

fair? I don't think it's fair. But then you get

to physical stuff and with shipping all over

the place with COVID, you know, that's made stuff

extra difficult and I think we're just in kind

of a bad situation in general. which is very

frustrating on every possible level. But I mean,

I don't need to tell you guys that this is, you

know, we've all been living it. And, you know,

I wonder in a world where, you know, COVID didn't

happen, what were these changes look like? How

much of the entire comic landscape was impacted

by COVID? I mean, you could you could write a

lot on that. And I would want to, but I'm lazy.

But ultimately, I think What it boils down to

is the decision is fucking stupid. The Twitter

thread I have breaks down exactly the details

I found that make this thing so stupid. Please

check it out if you feel so inclined. I think

overall it spells a very concerning future for

digital content, as well as the concept of owning

things on the web. And I think it, you know,

makes you realize how important physical media

is and how important it is to, you know, value

the things that you buy. But this shouldn't be

a lesson we have to learn. You know, you bought

something online. This is not... it is not your

fault for wanting to value something in a way

that isn't physical. This is... this should be

an incentive for us to keep the people in power.

Check which is a good rule in general and it's

kind of a shame I'm applying it to fucking comics

of all things but the the the the idea that these

people can do what they want with the you know

with the World Wide Web is Ridiculous, and I

think we need to start taking more drastic action

to say hey We need to show you that just because

you're rich doesn't mean you can fuck around

the internet fuck around with our stuff and get

away with it. And again, I should be having this

rant about some cause that's way more important,

but you know what? Comics, you know, they are

the thing I've invested most of my money into.

And so I feel like I have a level of justification

for being frustrated about it and upset and mad.

And I guess, ultimately, the moral of the story

is fuck Amazon. And finally, I've tried not to

talk about this because because I have a job

working in a professional comic book landscape,

but piracy is certainly encouraged if you make

the official means of accessing this content

either inaccessible or ridiculously hard to access.

Piracy is not something people should necessarily

approve of, but this kind of situation would

definitely make it inevitable, and I really wish

they would consider that. I think more often

than not, people are willing to pay. It's just

what kind of experience you want to give them

in return, and how much they're willing to stand

for. So thank you for having me on the podcast.

My Twitter, for those who don't know, is at obnoxiousfinch.

I work for Batman News, primarily, and you can

actually find a short comic. that I'll be making

on my timeline soon, and hopefully that should

be up before the end of February. That'll be

a little horror, I'm very excited to make it.

Thank you very much for having me on the podcast,

and I hope you guys are having a great day! I'm

the best there is at what I do. And what I do

can't be imitated, copied, cloned, or used without

the express written permission of the Superhero

Squad and Marvel Entertainment LLC. Batteries

not included. All rights reserved. Terms, conditions,

or restrictions apply. We clear, bub. Yes, sir.

Thank you so much, Nicholas. And folks, I have

already said this in this next clip with myself

and Lady Rek. Nicholas will be back on the podcast.

I just wanted to put something here to let everyone

know that I apologize for anything that has been

repeated. in this podcast, or that will be repeated

in this episode of The Pull Bag. But coming up

next, myself and Lady Rek talk about the comixology

thing, or the non -existence of comixology, the

nothingness that comixology... Comixology is

essentially Brody Bruce, not Brody Bruce, um,

Asriel from Dogma at this point. It's in nothingness

now, it's... Completely gone. But anyway, listen

to what Lady Rick has to say after this. So let's

say you're looking for a podcast of your favorite

80s comic books, G .I. Joe, Transformers, Ninja

Turtles, He -Man, etc. Where are you going to

go to find this? Welcome to Star Joe's Podcast.

I'm your host Ryan. And I'm Chuck. That's right

everybody, we're the Star Joe's. We host a podcast

called Star Joe's Podcast, where we talk about

your favorite comic books, your favorite toys

of all the 80s properties. Star Wars, G .I. Joe,

Transformers, M .A .S .K., Thundercats, Voltron,

you name it, we cover it. If it's in the 80s,

we will cover it at some point. Yes. So what

you want to do to find us, you can go to iTunes,

you can go to www .starjoes .com. And remember,

the Force will be with you. Because knowing us

is half the battle. Toycast is back. We are talking

toys once more here on the GeekCast Radio Network's

Toy and Action Figure podcast. From breaking

into the display case to our toy topic talk and

the brand new origins in toy collections where

we get guests to tell us their toy story of how

they got into toy collecting. Toycast is the

only toy podcast you will ever need. Find us

on geekcastradio .com and any podcatching client

you choose to use. Now go forth, transform and

transcend your toy collecting today while listening

to toy. Hi, I'm Terry Smith, the host of Music

Talks, the podcast where I ask guests a simple

but beguiling question. Choose a song from each

decade of your life and tell me why these songs

mean so much to you. Guests and listeners love

this format. If you want to find out why, then

take a listen at musictalkspod .buzzsprout .com

or use your favourite podcast app. Just search

on Music Talks Terry Smith. If you'd like to

be a guest on the show and talk to me until the

night is over, then send me a tweet at Music

Talks Pod. I look forward to doing some music

talking soon. Because the world needs another

movie podcast. The Geekcast Radio Network presents

for your listening pleasure, the Cinemaggie.

Hosted by Amanda, Kevin, Matt, and Dan. Each

week we dive head first in the landscape of movies

as we discuss movie news, play movie games. Go

in -depth on reviews. And even have a top 10

countdown or two. Also, don't miss our director

retrospective series, where we review noted director's

movies film by film. Bottom line is, if you love

movies and love podcasts, you need to experience

the Cinema Geeks. You can find us on iTunes,

Blog Talk Radio, or GeekCastRadio .com. On the

Simplistic Reviews podcast, we talk movies. We

talk TV. We talk. Oh Julie, what the heck are

you doing trying to make our spot sound more

exciting by adding explosions? Yeah, I'm pretty

sure you could have got the point across with

sound effects. Not the real thing Download this

show on iTunes or if simplistic reviews dot blog

spot dot com I'm sure your insurance company

will cover that. No, they won't. No, they probably

won't Thank you so much Nicholas Finch I will

have to have you back on the podcast here inside

the pull bag to do your comic reading origins

episode. Originally, folks, Nicholas and I were

going to do that segment together, but timing

and time zones and things, it just didn't align

right or left or it was kind of upside down,

actually. So, as you know, I am TFT1 Mike. I've

been here this entire time in this pull bag after

dark. So it's going to get a little bit more

toxic in here because Amazon done fucked up.

Like I said earlier I have with me now. Well,

let's just say besides Michael booth ninja powers

giving me the title for this podcast and Steve

Megatron, you know having me read Batman 13 from

the new 52 the other reason why the pullback

is where it is at almost 500 episodes is because

of miss lady wreck and her always giving the

Cybertronian comic reviews on Radio Free Cybertron

and the underbase and all of that. And every

time she would do this, folks, she would go gaga

all over Comixology's guided view. And once I

found it, I could not go back to print comics.

Hello, you are here. Hi, I'm here. But I've been

kicked in the teeth. Down the flight of stairs

and I've been given the middle finger by Amazon

just saying yeah We're gonna try our best not

to repeat things that Ryan and I have already

said in the first half of this episode folks

and I kind of wanted to go through a chronology

of comics ology First of all, I did not know

that in the beginning in 2007 when they first

started they were You know doing You know physical

books that you could pick up at your car I only

know comics ology as far as the digital aspect

and buying and Saving and reading and archiving

and oh, that's the other thing Now with the Amazon

switch, you know as as of right now as of this

recording until Amazon tries to fix it or whatever

You have no archive anymore So all of the comics

I've archived that I've already read that I didn't

want in my library anymore, that I just wanted

to archive them with Comixology, they are now

in the library, whatever. It's not organized

at all. No. I mean, they have ways to organize

it, and I refuse now. I refuse to use the Amazon

website. I will not. It is a jumbled mess, as

we've already said. And I will I'd like to talk

about that because I've I actually well I merged

mine obviously because yeah What was I gonna

do the comex ology site is no no no more. It's

it's literally just the Amazon website. Yeah,

and oh my gosh Can we say the most? chat on Merge

I have ever seen in my life Yeah, because like

as soon as the comex ology website goes down

you can't go to Amazon Just say oh comics and

start looking you know we have to type in Comics

ology and it's like you have to click on that

and then you have to click on something else

that says comics ology It's like they are the

bad merge of the century It's like okay. Yeah,

we're together, but we're not really that together

Okay, so Amazon on a whole all right and again

Folks, if you're listening to this, like I said,

I'm trying not to repeat myself. Ryan and I kind

of already went through the whole where to find

how to get to the comixology thing. However,

what I will say is - Did you talk about how much

of a crap job it is? Oh, yeah. Yes, we have.

OK. I didn't hear any of that, so I apologize

to folks. No, no, no. It's fine. I just want

to reiterate, because I'm on the main page of

the Amazon website. The very top is the search

bar. Fine. Search bar should be at the top of

every website. You have all departments, you

have this, you have that, you have buy again,

whatever. You have all these like, you know,

sections, okay? How hard is it to put? Especially

like next to prime or next to, let's see, what

would be the best place, not pet supplies? In

between pharmacy and live streams, you could

put a Comixology tab. And we've already said

this, Ryan. Oh, you mean for every department

that they have, like Amazon devices. Yeah, they

don't even have that on the drop -down menu.

When you go in there to click on which department

you want to browse through, it's not even there

either. And it's like, really? Of course, I take

that, and I say that, and I'm like, OK, let's

see. Do they have books? Oh, yeah, they do have

books. But if you browse through the books, You're

not going to find any comics. You're going to

find legit text books, like books that you would

get that have no illustrations in those, or little

kids books, just books that you can, physical

books that you're going to buy that you plan

on getting that have no illustrations in them,

or maybe kids, maybe it's a child's book or whatever.

But that's the thing, is that you click on books

and you're not going to get. There's there's

no options to go find comic books It's just they're

all books and let me tell you that's the other

thing that really bothers me about this Is that

how it's how you bring it up on and you guys

already described how you go and find it They're

literally throw it throw in comic books that

you got from Comixology that have merged over

to your Amazon account is literally just a shit

show unorganized thrown all in with your digital

book Purchases if you have any and I have a few

but not a lot and I really don't want all of

those mixing together Even though I don't read

them. I mean like I have a couple of I put on

here because I have a I had a Kindle app on my

iPad I had a you know other apps somewhere else

that I was oh, yeah if I feel like you know downloading

that when I'm on a flight somewhere and honestly

it was just Maybe a book I've already read and

I just wanted to you know, read something while

I'm on a flight somewhere Yeah, so, you know

once you find the digital content tab I have

49 pages like I can go through page 49 and the

oldest thing I have in here is For comixology

is batman beyond 2 .0. Number one from 2013 Okay.

And again, you have, and this is so stupid. So

as I've already mentioned, I am legally blind.

I have optic atrophy with nystigmatism. So if

I'm not two inches away from a screen, I won't

be able to read shit. So when you go to hello

Michael, account and lists, okay. I see your

lists, I see your account. Under your lists,

you have your wish list, and then you have Comixology.

If you click that, it goes to, oh, it goes to

my Comixology wish list that I originally had

on Comixology. Oh, so you do have a wish list,

because mine's been deleted. I guess. I don't

know. So my point here is, because we've already

covered this, my point here is, on the Amazon

website, if you scroll over, hello, your name

is, account in the lists, I show wish list and

I show Comixology. And my first thought was,

oh, this is going to take me to the Amazon version

of the Comixology website, because what they

should have done was just put like comixology

.com slash Amazon or comixology .amazon .com.

and just had it whatever. But no, you have to

go this, go that, whatever. So anyway, you know,

the thing is, I wanna go back to 2013, 2014.

There was an article on wired .com. Amazon buys

digital comics company Comixology, the leading

digital comics platform responsible for the sale

of more than four billion pages of comics in

2013 alone. Okay, they sold. four billion pages

of comics in 2013 alone. I don't know what Amazon

was, I don't know what Comixology was doing to

get into trouble for Amazon to go in and buy

them or whatever, but if you're selling four

billion pages of comics digitally, I wouldn't

think you're in that much trouble. Anyway, it

says in this original article, which I will link

in the show notes on the Get Cast Radio website,

it, you know, gives us a thing of, you know,

buyout for an undisclosed amount, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah. CEO David Steinberger wrote

that the sale makes Comixology's crazy goal of

turning everyone on the planet into a comic reader

more possible than ever before. He also goes

on to say Comixology will retain its identity

as an Amazon subsidiary. And we're not anywhere

near done taking comics further the letter continued

So this is from his letter from the original

sale and i'm like i'm i'm sorry, but here we

are Here we are, you know eight years eight nine

years later nine years later and we have like

Rolled like within two weeks completely tanked

the company to be honest in my opinion. It's

completely rolled it back to the point where

Maybe we were when we started out back in 2014,

maybe even further back than that. You've taken

digital comics that have moved forward in a decade

and you've rolled it back. This is not acceptable.

No. I started the pullback March 5th, March 6th,

2013. I did not actually go digital until maybe

24. Whenever it was that we did Marvelous March,

and I know I've told the story before, so listeners,

I'm sorry. But I was in the middle of reading

Welcome Back, Frank from Marvel, the physical

omnibus, which is basically 20 bricks put, this

book in hardcover is fucking huge. So I'm holding

it and I'm reading it and I'm loving it and I'm

understanding it and whatever. All of a sudden

my hand goes limp, my eyes shut, next thing I

know I hear a crash because I've fallen asleep

holding this book because the book is so damn

heavy. And I had kept hearing you talk about

comixology and how great it was. The next day,

the next morning, I went on comixology and Signed

up and got a library and got a wish list and

did whatever and I've been doing that with the

pull bag For the lat we've been on the line for

nine flipping years folks. Yeah, and now I don't

It's nice that the comics ology app on my Google

pixel 6 Pro Still works the way comics ology's

website used to work who knows if they're ever

going to change it. I hope they fucking don't

because honestly, I am at the point now with

these changes and I'm sure they're gonna say,

oh, but we're gonna make improved. Look, the

only thing you had to change, the only improvement

you had to make to make this more a part of Amazon

and Kindle and what the hell ever is to just

put an Amazon tag web, like I already said, amazon

.com slash comixology or Amazon .comicsology

.com, whatever, like that's all you had to do.

You didn't have to change. Like it was so simple.

Like I remember a couple months ago, I knew it

was the end times, a couple of months ago, how

I used to do my comics and like the monthly,

like when Transformers would come out once a

month or whatever, I would buy myself a Comixology

gift card. You went on there. you filled out

the information, you selected your amount, you

whatever, you emailed it to yourself and it was

done and fine and whatever. And I think it was

right before Karen passed away in November, September,

October of 2021. Sorry, the gift card program

is shut down. And I'm like, okay, well then.

These are the start to the end times. I know.

And you've been saying for a while that, hey,

Things are not good on the Amazon side because

you merged way before I did. I didn't merge my

account until like yesterday. We'll see the thing

with me like I went into like, OK, so you have

sometimes like Chrome or whatever when you like

you clear your cookies or you clear your browsing

history or you clear whatever. Yeah, sometimes

it will log you out of every website you've ever

logged into kind of thing and you have to re

log into it. I went to log into Comixology .com,

it would not let me log in with my Comixology

account. It told me the only way I could gain

access to my account is if I merged with Amazon.

This was years ago. if they targeted like specific

accounts for that because I have logged in and

out of Comixology so many times in the last decade

and I've never been prompted like that before.

I forget it was I'm gonna say somewhere between

2015 and 2017. I don't remember which month.

I don't remember whatever. All I remember is

I even messaged them and said blah blah blah

blah blah, you know, hey, what's going on here?

And they're like no, it's okay. Just merge your

account and then you'll gain access and like,

okay You know, so I merged my account because

it was the only like it was the option it stopped

me from signing in and Once you merged your account

your comics ology account that you signed up

for which was separate from Amazon once you merged

it with your Amazon account, your Comixology

account side, your login for that separate account,

gone. Oh, God. So I had already been merged and

that was fine, whatever. It is what it is. I

didn't care about that. The only thing I cared

about and the only thing I still care about to

this day is them rolling it back and restoring

the Comixology website. even though I know they

most likely won't and they say it's gone it's

toast yeah and and they say oh well you know

I've read several other tweets and several things

from the people from Comixology and from Amazon

oh well we're in the process of making improvements

and we're gonna fix things and I'm like you're

gonna fix things all right why did you fix it

when it wasn't fucking broken. Yeah, exactly.

It was not broken. It didn't need to reimagine

the wheel. And that's true. But here's here.

I have. So I have a Kindle. I had a Kindle. Kindle

like the device. Yeah. Yeah. So back in 2017,

when they said they would eventually merge with

Amazon, I went on that Kindle and I bought a

comic there. And I know what it was because I

went back and checked my all my receipts. This

was five years ago. Yeah, my youngest was two

Mm -hmm, and I went and bought a comic and Tried

using like the Kindle and I put it on the Kindle

and I looked at it and it was terrible I couldn't

even read the comic I could see it I could see

the art but this there was The zoom function

was really crap. It was like, okay, so I bought

this and it's not, it's not viewable. It's not

viewable. It has not changed in five years. So

when they say, they say, oh yeah, we're gonna

improve this. We're gonna make it look great.

I do not believe them because they haven't even

made it viewable on the Kindle as of five years

ago. They haven't fixed it. You think they're

gonna fix it now? I was like, I don't know who

was. thinking in Comixology that this was going

to be a good idea, but you've been lied to. You've

been lied to and you've been given the middle

finger and now you're acquired and now you've

shut down your site and you've merged effectively

and yeah, this is not good. I just do not believe

that they have the ability to really improve

this because they have already had the chance

to improve it for the last five years because

they knew it was coming and they still haven't

done anything even the stuff that they already

have that was already on the site that you could

already buy for the Kindle app yeah it's not

been fixed and again you didn't have to fit like

so They for the Amazon side, I actually want

to look at this while we're talking about this

because I'm very curious now Okay So on the Amazon

side, I am just going to find God I have Seriously,

I can't scroll Stupid content Oh, that's why

it's my list. It's not my content. See, that's

the other. The page was still on my wish list.

I don't even want any of this crap. This is like

the first time since I actually logged into my

account since I merged it, because I knew that

they said when you merged it was going to take

a couple hours to make everything show up. And

they did put my wish list on a list in your lists.

Which I have a lot of those because I have you

know, three kids and they constantly make lists

and I have lists So it's literally just transferred

over in a called comixology So I'm at least happy

that that I know what it was that I wanted to

get now I can at least go. Okay, all of those

are the things that I do remember having on my

wish list and Now it's gonna still be crap to

find them because that's the other problem with

with having these on on amazon now is that the

It's just so clunky to find, is it a collection?

Is it a single issue? And then when you find

the single issues, it's like you have to do all,

you have to go to different page and you have

to do, it doesn't connect with the, it's like,

oh. And then when like if you, for us, like we

look up transformers. um you get Transformers

but it's like it's like everything and they don't

even have the the recent stuff up at the top

where Comixology used to be really good about

that said here's the series that are ongoing

right now and you can find each one of them and

even if you type in the names like say you wanted

to say Transformers galaxies it's going to take

you to an actual book rather than to the comic

and then you have to so it's like you have to

jump through hoop after hoop after hoop after

hoop and reverify when you've got the right thing

that you're actually buying what you think that

you're buying. Because if you click the wrong

thing, you're going to have something approach

your doorstep rather than an actual on the digital

side. So I'm hoping I can remove all those clicks

I just did while you were talking. I'm sorry

for clicking while you're talking. No, it's fine.

Go right ahead. Welcome to Digital Comics as

we know it. It's a click after a click after

a click. I'm trying to see like, okay, there

is no cover table of contents for getting page

location. So what I'm trying to see is, and this

is just ugly. So you can, so on the Amazon website,

you know how when we had guided view, we open

the book. I'm looking at Transformers Beast Wars

number 12. The book would open... This is set

to two -page mode, so I have the Transformers

Beast Wars Maximal Strike Back Part 3 and all

the things on one side, and then the story so

far, so it's like a full two -page spread. Yes,

Comixology had that option for you to do it that

way, but Kindle doesn't seem to want to do that.

And when you zoom in, zooming is not guided view

because I can look at this exact same book or

any other book. Well, let's just say Radiant

Black number six, because that's the one I have

most downloaded. The only problem I have ever

had with the Comixology app. from the beginning

is when you're in Guided View and you have to

rotate your phone to actually be able to see

the full panel and actually read the text on

the panel because that's how Guided View is on

mobile. And that's a small... Small gripe of

on my part as far like oh, I have to while I'm

reading this comic I have to turn my phone like

ten times that's much better than having to Zoom

on a website that I don't want to be zooming

on Well, I just you know, I went and looked at

one of my comics, too I'm just gonna pick a single

issue because I do not even want to try Oh trade

one. No trade just a single issue. So just like

When we had the Comixology app, you just click

on it and it would automatically open into whatever

default that you had either. Comic view, guided

view, whatever it was that you had. You don't

have a click like that. If you click on it, it's

going to think that you're going to want to buy

it. You actually have to go all the way over

to the menu. Three options. It's deliver or remove

from device. Yep, Mark has read or more actions.

Well, guess what? You click more actions. Read

now. You have delete. You have download and transfer

us via USB clear for this page. Read read now

add or remove from collection gift now manage

family library so you it's like and read now

is not at the top. Yeah, it should be at the

top. That's where it should be at the top. I

mean like. It's not even an alphabet. I thought,

well, maybe it's an alphabetical order. No, because

clear furthest page would be at the top. No,

add or remove would be at the top. So it's like,

so when I click into the read now, because I'm

trying to look at it on my computer, I do not

have a Kindle anymore. The Kindle that I had

got destroyed because I have three kids. So even

if I did, it's an old Kindle. The one that we

thought was like really old and I also have an

old iPad but up until a week Was it a week two

weeks ago when comics ology they hadn't like

they they had updated versions But I could still

listen or I just I could still read a comic on

my old iPad 2 That was a I think it's still iOS

9. Okay, it was fine. Like it was slow obviously,

but I could yeah like easily still use that,

but now I can't use that anymore. I have to use

my phone screen, which is tiny in comparison

to my computer screen or even my laptop. Yeah,

I mean, like I said, I have a Google Pixel 6

Pro, which is like 6 .7 or 6 .8, you know, whatever

the diagonal thing is on the Pixel 6 Pro. And

that's fine, you know, when I have to rotate

it and whatever and it goes large and I can still

see the stuff to read the the story, but the

point is, I don't want to have to read it on

my phone. I want to be able to see the giantness

of Guided View on my computer. And I even asked

them, and I never got a reply to this, but I

said, okay, you have the Comixology app on Google

Play and the Apple App Store and whatever else,

so you have it there. What about the Microsoft

Store so I can get the Comixology app on my computer?

Nope, the Microsoft Store on Windows computers

does not have the Comixology app. It grinds your

gears. Yeah, and like I said, and I know I'm

turning into a broken record, I don't know how

I'm going to continue this podcast unless I just

shut up. and accept the fact that I can still

read them on my phone for now until that eventually

may go away. So the other half of this, I mean,

even if you can, like even if you could read

it on the computer, it doesn't zoom. There's

no zoom function. I mean, I'm looking at it right

now. Even if you go from panel to panel, it keeps

it. And here's the problem is that it's formatted

it specifically for a Kindle. Yeah. And that

was the other thing I wanted to brought. So it

basically is. It's formatted for a Kindle. You

can view it on a computer, but you have to have

the biggest computer screen ever because it will

not allow you to zoom in. So once you've done

that. All you're going to get is what they call

and if you download it onto device, you have

to take that file. And put it on a Kindle. It's

like where it said the app options were to download

to USB Well, it's downloading it into what they

call an azw3 file, which is just another little

fancy thing for Literally Kindle now you can

take that and convert it. I haven't done it yet.

I did download one to try it out I have to find

another app to put on my computer to do that

and I'm like, oh my gosh I'm having flashbacks

of the days at the very beginning before I even

started running my own podcast, The Underbase,

where I pirated a comic book. And I have to caveat

this and say I have bought the comics that I

pirated several times over since then. Oh, absolutely.

I bought the physical version, then I bought

the digital version. I have multiple copies of

it. I say I pirated, I did fix that problem as

soon as I knew better. Yeah, obviously, because

that's the thing. The whole other thing with

Comixology was if you were someone that just

wanted a PDF and not have to deal with the awesomeness

that is Guided View or that is reading through

the old Comixology website, which no longer exists,

The other cool thing was they let you back up

your comics in PDF form or CBZ form or some sort

of downloadable form. Yeah, that was if the comics

when they put them on the website had worked

out a DMZ free. Right. work around with Comixology.

So they made it available. Not all comics did

this, but a vast majority did, which made it

really, really great to be able to download it

to your own computers and stuff like that. But

that brings up another problem, though, is because

let's just say this. Comixology was bought in

2014. It is now 2022. And for the last six months,

actually, maybe it's the last eight months, They

have to keep on saying how, oh, we're going to

merge. We're going to merge. But we can't tell

you when. But it'll be soon. And they've been

saying that for over eight months until two weeks

ago when they just randomly did it. They didn't

say anything. They didn't announce. They never

set a date. They never said, oh, guess what?

This is our final date. We have chosen a date.

It's like they couldn't do that. It's like, I

don't understand why you can't do that. Yeah,

I don't understand why you can't have a launch

date and just say hey guess what in two days

This is gonna go down. So whatever you're gonna

do with comics ology better do it because then

you're gonna be with Amazon Yeah, yeah, that

was really frustrating Yeah, I mean it just doesn't

It's very frustrating and I know most people

that listen to this episode are gonna be like

oh Hashtag first world problem But but but look

at it this way we just heard a clip from Nicholas

Finch who? relied on the comics ology website

in a way and I'm us that do this like I don't

get paid to do my own goddamn podcast not that

I ever would but like I never did either it was

all just because I don't like doing it for me

exactly But the thing of it is, is we still need

to be able to consume the content we're going

to discuss the way that we had become accustomed

to doing it. And it's not, and I've said this

already in this episode, it's not just me with

my whole anti, oh my God, change is bad, blah,

blah, blah. It's not just that. It's just that

they've changed this to the point where it is

unusable. All as they had to do. Oh, unless you

have a Kindle. But even then, understand that

you cannot zoom. That is not available. These

are being treated as if they are just like every

other Kindle book. And there is a big difference

between a Kindle book with just a book that's

full of text and a comic book that is literally

a merge of the visual with The dialogue, it's

not gonna be full text, but it's not gonna be

full artwork either. You're looking at something

that's made to be viewed where you can zoom in

and appreciate the work that the artists have

put into it. Which, unless you buy it hard copy,

in some ways, digital is a little bit better

in that sense because when Comixology was running,

their real website, you could pinch and you could

move in and you can actually look at all of these

comics at a huge site, whatever, you can really

zoom in and see the detail of the work that's

been put in. It's an artwork, it's an art form.

And this literally dumbs it down to I can't even

read some of the speech bubbles on most of the

stuff that I'm reading on my laptop. And I now

no longer have a digital device that will that

I can view a comic in. So I'm going to have to

think about, OK, now that I've got this big investment

on comexology that was very usable with all of

the devices, even at different, you know, ages.

Now all of that is unusable. And now I have to

consider upgrading to another iPad if I want

to get that. And that's if Amazon creates an

app that actually lets me zoom in because I can

buy an iPad tomorrow. And it still wouldn't fix

that problem. Yeah. As far as I know, I'm going

to look this up right now. But as far as I know,

Comixology app. What are they? Is it the? What

do they call the Apple Store now? That's a good

question. It's the App Store. So apps .apple

.com. This is the exact same as far as I know.

I'm going to send this link to you in a separate

window. Sorry, folks. This is live podcasting,

don't you know? This is the magic gone wrong.

Exactly. So as far as I know, yes, it is on the

app store for the iOS devices, and it's on Google

Play, because that's how I have it with the Google

Pixel 6 Pro. All I did was I just waited for

the update to happen. Oh man. So the first, this

is it. The first review on the app, because they

also have an Android phone, the upgrade is a

serious downgrade. Oh, here's just some random

person that just decided to put what they're

frustrated about, obviously. One of the best

functions of the old app was that when you clicked

on a graphic or issue, you could easily flip.

Through sample pages now you have to download

a sample worse the old app used to link issues

that were in it and Issues linked to the graphics

that they were in which made it easy to prevent

double purchasing That's completely gone. No

wonder they forced us to download the new app.

Nobody would use by this choice by choice Amazon

you should be ashamed Thank You Vicky you said

exactly what we were thinking Yes, and like I

said folks as long for me personally as long

and the other thing that I don't know that if

they still have is You know the Amazon like I

know they have the option Oh send to USB device.

Well, what is it? Like you said, it's some sort

of Amazon file or something What it will do when

you have when you send to USB it's basically

putting that download onto your computer, then

you put a USB device in to connect to your Kindle,

because it's only for Kindles. This is the download

options. The way that you can get it, how they

have it set up on your computer, if you're doing

that through your computer, it's specific. You're

only going to be able to download it for a Kindle.

So that file that gets transferred to your computer

is the AZW3 file. and you have to convert that

before you can basically hijack that file that

you put on your computer. You have to change

it so that it is an actual, you know, that you

can use with maybe a third -party app. Which

which is that's basically what I'm going to be

reduced to doing now I cannot vouch yet for the

quality if the quality is downgraded But here's

another thing. So when I put all this on Twitter

I did have somebody reach out to me and say actually

there is a way that you can Download PDFs of

the things that you have on Amazon now. She sent

me a link It is not in a very obvious area obviously

scroll back through my twitter while we're talking

here to find it and to find out how do i you

know because apparently it's not in a very easy

place she said that she was looking around for

hours before she found this link so. Um, yeah,

it's definitely not in a place where you think

that it's in the I think the comics ology settings

Under your account and I'm not even sure how

to get to it other than the fact that I wouldn't

copy her link that she sent me out over Twitter

and Popped it into a new screen. So I haven't

even looked at that either. So I'm not quite

sure but literally is only gonna go for their

app or their device and which is the kindle which

is stupid shit it's shit it's great for it's

great for books i'll say that it's great for

books if you're just going to read text if you're

just going to read a normal book like a novel

no great expectations or you know 2000 leagues

under the sea okay you can find that you can

read it but it is not a comic friendly And it

hasn't been a comic friendly app since way back

in 2017 probably further But that's the last

time I actually bought a comic on a Kindle to

look at it on a Kindle mind And it was still

pretty crap. So That being said if you want to

go through the process of downloading the AZW3

file There are ways to do it. You have to Google

it. You'll have to, you know, I don't know what

computer everybody else is using. I did this

within five, 10 minutes. I had an option. I cannot

vouch for the quality. I don't know what it's

going to do to that or this other option, which

I'm going to provide you the link so that it

can go with this. And that way people go, oh,

OK, so I can get a PDF. And that being said,

I did a little bit of research a couple of months

ago and these were the apps that I found that

I think would work with my device. You'll have

to look in. Give me just a second. I'm going

to pull them up real quick. So there were about

a list of four or five, maybe more. But I probably

decided on like two or three just because, OK,

this is close enough to what I've gotten with

comixology. It is not comixology. These are third

-party apps that are not the same as Comixology,

at least what they used to be. But maybe now

that we've got the ripped off Amazon version

that's a total shattered glass nightmare, maybe

these apps would actually be better. But I picked

an app called Chunky, an app called Comic Flow,

and a comic app called iComics with a little

i. And the comic, instead of having a C, it's

doing the comixology thing where it has an X

on the end. They all have different, you know,

good things and bad things to them. I think there

were like three or four other ones and these

were the three that I picked. And I put those

on my iPad and I think that they can... They

probably had something to do with either a PDF

or something similar to it because I personally

would rather have a PDF that I can view on my

computer, pinch and do whatever I want with it

or put on my iPad. It's an old iPad so it probably

would take a while. I would probably just do

single issues on that one. Yeah, so like I said,

folks, all the links for all the stories that

we're talking about, all the stuff I'm about

to reveal to you, not that anyone has already

seen this, but from Screen Rant, Patton Oswalt

slams comixology changes as fans call out Amazon.

And the writer of the article here on Screen

Rant goes into the history of Comixology, which

we've already kind of done. And then they link

the tweets that Patton tweeted out, oh, Comixology,

what have you done? What's a better digital comics

app than Comixology? Is CBR good? I need to switch

now because holy shit. Yeah. Guys, just switch

it back. You can do it. Come on, switch it back.

So what I guess the best thing that we can hope

for is that potentially now that they have merged

that comics ology pushes and pushes and eventually

as Amazon drags its feet like it did over the

last five years and did absolutely nothing that

Eventually, we may get to a point where we can

zoom and we may get a point to where we can actually

read some of the comics. But I just like I said,

I have I have a lack of confidence after they

had they've been they've known about this for

five years and they have done nothing to change

what they already had. Like I said, since 2017,

when I picked up that one comic. Yeah, I just

I'm sorry. I do not trust that these people are

actually going to do anything and I'm sorry to

say that You know, I was ranting about this online

and it's like I I wish I could curse Amazon But

honestly that curse is just going to get transferred

to all of those people out there that were using

Comixology as their ability to go direct to the

consumer and not have to go to one of the big

three publishing companies. And they could keep

their own copyright and publish their stuff on

comixology. Those are the creators that are going

to hurt through all of this. So I know people

are also going to tell us, oh, well, just go

buy the print comics. I haven't read an actual

other than. My buddy Ryan Stealthhammer number

one. I have not read a print comic in over nine.

I haven't bought a print comic in over nine years.

And it's not that I don't want to support my

local comic shops or anything like that. I'll

go in there and buy toys or buy a Funko popper.

I'll find something that I've already read that

I may want a print copy to frame or something

like that to support the shop. Patton Oswalt,

in one of his other tweets as he's going through

the strut of his, said the same thing I said

earlier in this episode. Well, I love going into

the comic shop and picking up specifically a

DC or a Marvel book, and on that book it has,

hey, would you like to read this digitally? Add

it to your Marvel Now or add it to your DC Unlimited

app or whatever, and that's great. You have the

physical comic, you have a free, quote unquote,

digital copy of it. on the actual publisher's

website from whichever, you know, like I said,

Marvel, DC, whatever. The thing about Comixology,

again, said it a few hours ago, or half of how

long this episode's gonna be, I don't know. I

said it earlier with Ryan. Comicsology was this

amazing one -stop shop. You could get Marvel,

DC, Dynamite, Dark Horse, Image, IDW, you know,

Top Shelf. You could get all these publishers

in all one place. And that's the other thing

is it was easy to flip through the books and

find old ones. as well as new ones and all the

sales were right up on the front page. Everything

was very functional and it took them not that

long to figure out some of the functionality

of this. It's always been really functional,

Comixology has been. But here's the other problem

with this. Not everybody has a comic shop near

them. Not everybody has a car or the ability

to like, oh yeah, I know some people that have

said, hey, I don't even have a Comixology nearby

me. I don't even have a comic store. I don't

have a comic store, the one that they had closed

a long time ago because whatever. The industry

has been going through a flux and let's be honest,

comic shops, they carry a huge, huge collection

that they buy outright and turn around and sell

to the consumer. Push out what they have You

know, it's it's an investment. Yes But it's comics

is a dying industry and being digital was the

one thing that was kind of helping bridge that

gap between those that have The comics for sale

and those that want to buy them And this is going

to have a huge effect on that digital ability

and it will have a huge dent on whether or not

this industry is gonna keep going for the next

20 years. And that's the sad part. It would be

great. I used to have a comic shop nearby me.

I don't. Now I have to go and find where the

next one is. I have three kids. Sometimes I can't

even get, if I'm lucky to get dressed and get

things done in one given day, and now I have

to make a trek. to the middle of the city to

go get comics. And I'm like, yeah, the path of

least resistance was it was so easy for me to

just go on and do it digitally. Then on the top

of that is that yeah, there are a lot of books

that I really like. And I'll be honest, I do

have audio audible. I listen to audio books,

I go to my public library, I You know, rent books,

a lot of them happen to be audiobooks because

I can listen to stuff while I'm going between

picking kids up and dropping them off and taking

them to therapy and dropping them off and waiting

and dropping them off. I can listen to, you know,

two hours in the car when actually that's what

I did today. I listened to two hours while I

was dropping kids off and picking them up from

school and then taking to therapy. I listened

to two hours of an audiobook. So that's while

I'm commuting and doing other things. But when

it comes to comics, it's easier for me to have

that. And it also doesn't make me have to have

a specific room in my house set aside for all

the literature that I want to read or all the

comics books that I have. And I've got bins full

of comics, let me tell you. I've got bins of

that. And if it makes it easier to like, hey,

I don't have to buy a physical one, but I can

give my money to an artist by buying a creator

owned comics, creator own comic on comixology

or whatever other digital domain that I can pick

up stuff that really works for me. And that really

helps me. be able to like, hey, it's digital.

So it's like, hey, you remember back when we

were kids and everybody had the hugest VHS collection

because they liked movies and they wanted to

collect that. It's like now we don't need that

anymore. But this makes it so that now we do

actually need to go backwards. So anybody that

says, oh, well, you just have to physically get

the physical ones. OK, how many of you actually

out there have a VHS? collection that you still

have. That still functions, yeah. It still functions.

Hey, how would you like it if they just said,

no more VCRs, we're not making those anymore?

No, go back to Betamax. Go back to one earlier

before that, or you know what, hey, you've got

all of these VHS tapes and now you can't play

it on anything because now you can't get a new

copy. you know, because it's been like they found

that they press the the nuclear button that made

every single VHS and the whole United States

and everywhere in the world just stop working.

I think you'd be pretty pissed. I think you'd

be really pissed. And that's exactly that that

that is the equivalent of what's going on right

now. Yes, we do have streaming now. Yes, you

don't have to worry about that. And yes, everybody

now you can equate the VHS now to DVDs or Blu

-rays or streaming. Yeah, it's the same thing.

Yeah, and so like I have those too I don't have

a lot of them I had a whole lot more VHS than

I do for for DVDs because now it's so easy It's

it's streaming but this is the equivalent of

that Comixology was the equivalent of a comic

stream Yeah, but get things and not only that

is that they had it so that it was on Server

online it was out in the cloud somewhere you

paid for an account you bought comics It was

easily accessible on comics ology now. We have

to download all of that content if we can the

link that I they gave you that it'll give PDF

links and who knows if too many people start

like abusing that maybe At all at any given moment

exactly. So the thing of it is folks is that

Yes in the grand scheme of life and the universe

and everything. You know, this is a small small

problem, but it is a small running a For me running

a comic for a lot of people. Well, let's know

what I'm saying like in the grand scheme of things

Yes, this is the world was if the world was melting

down It isn't because Amazon fucked comics ology

up. It's because something else happened My point

is is that I have spent and in you you A lot

longer than me doing your your under base show

at the time when you were doing it But the pull

bag just celebrated night or actually is just

about to because by the time this episode releases

It'll be our nine year anniversary on March 6th.

You have officially outgrown the under base just

Nine years, in nine years, can you imagine how

much money I have put into buying comics on the

old Comixology website? That's why I brought

up the archiving thing, the fact that the archiving

is not a thing anymore. And I'm like, wait, what?

Oh my God, I've read all of this. It would be

nice to read it again, but I read the comics

to discuss them and review them on the podcast.

you know i'll read a comic like an hour before

we're supposed to record so it's fresh in my

mind and you know i'll go we'll go through again

it's all your fault we'll go through the comic

as we're discussing it so we can go through that

guided view and see that amazing zoomed in image

of beast wars megatron punishing waspinator or

something like you know you know your pain because

i also You know, I do have a pretty good collection

of comics online, too, now that I don't have

access to them because, you know, it's gone to

shit. Somebody gave me the big middle finger

and stole it all because they had to go to Amazon.

I am not going to sit here and reveal Lady Rex

location, folks, but she has said plenty of times

online that she is in Arizona. Yeah, I am going

to list several named shops, which I assume are

in your area. Samurai Comics on East Indian School

Road. A good 30 minute, 40 minute drive if I'm

lucky. Collector's Marketplace. Same, same. Oh

Lord. Ash Avenue. Oh, Collector's Marketplace.

Yeah, they don't really have a comic collection

that I remember. I know who runs it and I'm friends

with the owner. I haven't been there for a while,

but it's mostly for toys. I mean, they do have

comics there, but it's a toy collector. They

might have really old -school comics. They're

collector's editions or collectibles, but they're

not a dedicated comic place. Yeah, so the only

other thing that I think we haven't gone over

yet is the alternatives, and we've kind of mentioned

them a little bit, but there is a link that will

be in the show notes from the Comics Beat or

The Beat or whatever the website's called. They

list four different things that you can do. Publisher

specific digital sites, which we've talked about

like DC Comics and Dark Horse and IDW and image

and all that publisher specific subscriptions

like the The Marvel one or the DC infinite universe,

whatever the DC comic app is now Humble Bundle

actually does a lot of cool things with with

with comics and things so there's that and as

you've already mentioned and as our good buddy

the comic concierge Dan Clark will say your local

library. That's great for those people that can

read comics that way. I can't read comics that

way anymore. Yeah. I mean, I'm looking at like

doing exactly what you did. I'm looking to see

and there's just some things that are like, okay,

I know that some of these are just literal bookstores

that I know will maybe have a small little section

of comics. But literally the closest one to me

is about 40 minutes away in the middle of like

downtown Deep in the the heart of Phoenix and

I'm not close enough to any of these to say I

mean, let's just say this when I when I first

started out collecting I went to a local place

that was literally right down next to Walgreens

And the guy, I got to know him pretty quick because

I happened to be one of the few chicks that were

going into his store that were going to get Transformer

comics. And he's like, is this for your boyfriend?

And I said, no, it's for me. I run a podcast.

And he was like, you run a podcast? You're a

chick in your comics? OK, so I got to know the

guy. I went to a couple of conventions here in

Phoenix. come by his booth and I'd buy stuff

from him. And then he closed after about a year

because the industry was just how it is and people,

comic shops come and they go. And after that,

I still got comics from him. I went to him direct.

He didn't have a location. He was buying comics

and we did drop -offs. And let me tell ya, I

it was really reminiscent of I felt like I would

like he was dealing comics. He's literally like

he would we would meet at a designated time and

he would. drop off comics and I would send them

money. And I thought, you know, this is so much

like a drug drop. It's funny. And we did that

for quite a while until he stopped doing that,

too. And that was my close fix. And then another

store opened, I think, a year after that. And

I got to know them, too. And they had a pull

list and all of that fun stuff. And it wasn't

too far. And I got a chance to go down and get

those. But that place is closed now, too. And.

Like I said 40 minutes away to go and get stuff

and when you walk in and people are like Oh,

you don't look like the comic person that we

expect, you know You look like a mom and you're

driving a minivan because I saw you drive up

and you're like Oh, you must be here for something

for your son or for your husband or blah blah

blah and you're like no, it's actually for me

and they're like Okay, and they're like is this

person legit? It's like it gets a little frustrating

But I mean going and getting granted I can actually

get some of these when they are collected and

that's another problem because right now IDW

is losing the license for the. For the comics

that I want to read and if they don't push it

out they don't publish it in the next year. Which

they usually don't I'm not going to have an opportunity

to get these collected and I'm not really happy

about that either so. Could be a couple years

before I actually be able to complete my my collection

and that really bothers me because I just I want

to stay up on it, but I'm like The path of least

resistance and it comes down to psychology a

person that buys if they find out That it's been

great and easy for years and they stop Having

that ease and they have to roll it back like

a decade to where how they were buying things

a decade ago To get what they want. It's just

gonna make it that much harder and the industry

is going to take a hit and that's what really

really bothers me because this is a good industry

there are some really really good books out there

and for mom that has ADHD kids and I've read

all these experiences of parents that are like

hey my kid doesn't read. and then somebody puts

a comic in their hands and all of a sudden they

become this avid reader and now here we are years

later and they're actually reading textbooks,

books that have like novels. It's worth it to

keep this around and it's really, really scary

that this is happening right now. So there's

somebody else on Twitter, Steve Morris. He's

He's worked for Comics Alliance and other places,

and the tweet that is in the article that I will

link in the show notes, he says, in addition

to everything else, the Comixology downgrade

is going to mean nobody gets credited apart from

an quote unquote author. Now, colorists, inkers,

letters, all excised from the online. shop, which

is stupid because you wouldn't have an actual

visual comic without the letterers, the colorists,

the inkers, the line drawers, all of that. Yes.

You're going to have just the writer and maybe

I don't even think in some of these instances

that even the publishing company is even credited.

No, not at all. I've got a tweet here from Gail

Simone. writer extraordinaire, she wrote Bad

Girls, she's wrote other things. And she's fantastic.

You have to follow her if you have her on social.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I've been following her

for years. I've been wanting to interview her.

on this podcast for years. So this is from February

17th. She says, I have spent a small fortune,

haven't we all, on comixology. The changes sound

really poorly considered at best. They sent an

email today that updates will be forthcoming.

I hope so. This is not at all what I purchased.

And she's right. And like you've said, and like

I've said, and like everybody else that's, you

know, me and Ryan and Nicholas Finch and everybody

else in this podcast so far, you know, how much

money we have chosen because we wanted to read

the comics in the way that comics are, like,

I've been trying to sell people on the guided

view technology for years, you know. And you

say guided view technology because it was really

great to be able to, like, literally, you have

your iPad or your phone. You just barely tap

on the screen, it gives you the next panel, you

can pinch, you can blow it up, do all of those

things, and when you're ready for the next one,

you can click the next one. It's an idea of basically

finding, you know, going from panel to panel

without having the whole page revealed. Great

because sometimes I'll even like the next They'll

focus like if you have a panel that's got two

or three things going on in it It'll focus on

one part of the panel then to the next then to

the next so you can literally not be spoiled

in one panel or Flipping the page like sometimes

some people have in the past and it's made it

so that it's sequential and It's a great technology

and it's kind of more of an idea that makes it

so that you can like experience comics in a new

way. And yeah, it was very great. And that's

now been ripped away. We don't have that anymore.

I mean, the only place you have it is in the

Comixology app for phones and tablets. That's

really the only place you have guided view anymore.

Now I have to think about getting an upgrade

because mine have been outdated already. I mean,

and I don't want to use it on my phone, I'll

be honest, because it's a small screen. Right.

But honestly, if that's the only way that I can

read the comics and actually be able to do it,

I'm going to use it for as long as I can until

Amazon decides to kill that too. And you know

what, folks? Most podcasts don't last nine years.

I'm not saying I'm going to end this thing at

500 episodes. I'm not saying we may even, like

I've got a few episodes in the can that I've

recorded months ago now. that you're going to

hear my buddy Jesse and I talking about Comixology

and Guided View and Power Rangers and all that

stuff because we're coming up on Mighty Morphin

March for Power Rangers. But, you know, we recorded

those months ago before any of this happened.

So I have to put a disclaimer in front of those

saying, hey, this is this, this is this, this

is this. And then when I get to get to do a new

episode. I'm just gonna read it on my phone and

be fine and and just say hey folks We're you

know, I'm going off my phone from the comics

ology app Which is the way that it should be

with the guided view technology and again, like

you've already said with guided view technology

It was storyboard reading and it made the comic

more exciting because you didn't like look you

go into a comic shop you get I I don't know Long

Halloween I'll throw that out there because Batman

the long Halloween a lot of people do throw that

out there But most people when they throw out,

you know Industry leading, you know, you know,

you know break through comics They'll go to Frank

Miller and Dart and I return but let's talk about

the long Halloween Okay, you go out you go get

the the physical trade whatever you can open

it. You can read it page by page But your eyes

aren't going to focus on a single panel, on a

single discussion. Your eyes are going to focus

on the whole of page one, the whole of page two,

the whole point. Now that's all you have. Now

that's all you have. You can't just go from panel

to panel. You have the whole page and you can't

make it bigger. You might as well just... By

physical comics like I don't want to sit here

and say digital comics are dead because like

I said the comics ology app itself Still seems

to retain Guided view for now and I have been

asking that I would tweet at least once or twice

a month Over the last three and a half four years

to the comics support on Twitter. Hey, what's

gonna happen to guided view? I don't want guided

view to go away Don't I didn't sit there and

tell I didn't I didn't add them and say don't

fuck this up But seriously don't fuck this up.

Well, look at what they did with the website

like yeah I don't know and I know this is a lot

of us more me than anything else bitching about

things but folks like I said if I can't do it

the way that works for me in the way that I am

Enjoying like I enjoy reading the comics the

way I've been reading them the last nine years

with the Guided View with, again, it adds tension,

it adds this, you never know what, it's, Guided

View technology from Comixology, from the Comixology

company, it's like a box of chocolates, you never

know what you're gonna get. You know, because

every panel is a surprise and it's a story driven

thing with, along with the amazing, like in what

is it i want to say 80 90 years of comics however

the hell you know 1939 1938 superman batman whatever

hell even before then but you know 70 80 years

90 years of comics up until i want to say 2013

it might have been earlier than this because

i know you had already been doing it so let's

say somewhere between 2011 and 2013 yeah Fine

guys started in 2010. So, okay. Well, it's all

right. Let's 2010 Fine guided view, you know

in so 2010 1940 whatever that math adds up, you

know 50 60 70 years whatever it is. Yeah. Oh

My god, we can do something for the first time

that we could never have done before Yeah, we

can read a comic where the art is magnificently

Placed And it's not just on top of that. It was

viewable on lots of multiple platforms. We had

the app. You could also put it on your phone.

You could put it on any digital device. Any digital

device. If you have an iPad, great. If you had

something that was by Microsoft, great. You could

also go through a computer. and have a computer

platform to see. And all of the same functions

that you had on a device were also on a computer

screen. And all of those things have been taken

away. It's gone from being incredibly versatile

and basically download and get what you want

to hard to find, hard to see. Hard to look at

it's only really visible the best is on the Kindle

because that's what it's all been downgraded

to you can't even find places not obvious places

to go find your collection and download it onto

your own computer and You know, it's just it's

going to be a problem. It's gonna be a problem

for a while and Look at the track record and

it's like wow. Okay, so Amazon what's holding

you back? Because right now we already know that

you've had the ability to change this for a while

and all you wanted to do is push the Kindle Yeah,

think outside the box and they innovate Yeah,

the innovative because the Kindle is still a

small Single platform that has limitations and

you've not tried to push the limitations of that

and the goal has always been to me It is an e

-reader for books. If you don't want to go out,

which I don't know why anyone... Comics are not

e -readers. I'm sorry. They are not the same.

It's not the same at all. Again, that's why I'm

glad at least on mobile and maybe even on tablets

you have the iOS or the Google Play Comixology

app, which... It's got a new look. It's got some

different features in it But you still have the

option to do guided view and things like that.

Oh, that's good to hear You just don't check

it out on my phone. Yeah You just don't have

the option to do that on a damn computer anymore

The way it should be done So I think we're gonna

Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Uh -oh. That sounds bad.

I went to... Damn it. I was gonna get you the

Google Play link to... And it said in the Google

Play Store update, I'm scared now because I thought

my app was already updated. Okay, good. No, I

still have guided view. Okay. Okay, good. That

was scary folks. It's sad when you're like you

dread every little update now because if it takes

something away Then you're like sweating bullets

one. Please don't do that. Please. Oh, no, no,

no, no, no. No, yeah Don't push install. Please

don't push install Yeah, and I don't have that

old of a phone. It's only a year old Yeah Just

just on the course of you you talking to me talking

I have found there is an area again I will provide

this link because it's not an obvious link and

even when you get to the page It doesn't say

hey click here to download your your comic books

it's like you got to click on a couple links

before you find it and then you can get the a

CB a CB Z or a PDF and again, I I don't know

how the quality of these are because I can tell

you right now when I When i downloaded comics

ology pdfs they were really good quality so i'm

hoping that these are just. Literally transferred

over and have not been touched and that i can

still download these things and that will really

help me so that i don't have to take an a. A

z w three because conversion is not equal on

all things oh no not at all it's just. And I

and I know a little bit of functionality with

the Kindle is quite literally they wanted to

make it so easy so that you could put Loads of

books like say you're going on vacation for a

month And you love to read books everywhere.

You want to put like over 60 books on your Kindle

you know with a tablet with just text You don't

need to have really good quality. It just needs

to be quality enough for you to be able to read

the text. Yeah, you just need to be able to read

the text. No, not the same for comic books. You

have to have bigger versions because it's not

about just the text. It's about the complete

artwork. Like you are looking at different panels

on a specific piece of paper. And it's not like.

You can't make it smaller and think, oh, yeah,

I'll be able to read that. It's like, no, you'll

be able to see it from a distance and not get

any part of the story at all. And that's the

problem that we've been having with the Kindle

right now. If you can't zoom, you can't read

it because it's too tiny. And even with a regular

laptop screen, I still can't see it. And even

if I take my glasses off and look really close

at the screen, I can't see it. So I can't read

these comic books anymore. So until they change

this. That's the other problem is that it's completely

unreadable. You have a book that you can access,

but it's unreadable any other way except through

pinching and going through, you know, I guess

the Comixology app. Now, if you have a cell phone

and their cell phone screen. You can pinch in

there and look at it, I guess. Well, like the

comic with the Comixology app that is still on

iOS and Google Play stores. It's the same. There's

a few things, but it still has a few double tap.

It still takes you to guided view. OK, well,

that's so guided view is still there on the Comixology

app. Fuck Kindle. Forget Kindle. Kindle ain't

shit. Don't even talk to me about Kindle. But

you know that Amazon is going to push the Kindle

because that's all that matters to Amazon. Because

they're Kindle. Yes, but they don't understand

that they haven't made a Kindle water or a Kindle

ice or a Kindle Aurora, whatever the Kindle fight.

A Kindle toilet is what I want to see. Exactly.

And on that shitty note, folks, I think we can

do it. What was that shit all the way? And on

that shitty note, folks, I think it's time to

wrap this up. Like I said, all these links will

be in the show notes if you go to geekcastradio

.com and go to our website link. I will try my

best to continue doing reviews inside the pullback,

like I said. My buddy Jesse and I recorded a

bunch of Power Rangers things from March of 2022

before all of this happened. So you'll hear us,

you know, going, ooh, ooh, ga ga, all over the

Comixology website. When the cognitive dissonance

is it really? Yeah. It's aged badly. Two weeks

and it's aged badly. It took like. It only feels

like it's been two days. It doesn't feel like

it's been two weeks. It feels like it's been

two days, and I have nothing but rage towards

Amazon. I keep seeing the ads and whatever for

the new season of the Amazon Prime show upload,

which I absolutely loved the first season. I'll

explain, if you don't know what Upload is, I'll

explain it to you later. But anyway, it's one

of the Amazon Prime originals. So you can only

watch it if you have, yeah. It's cute. You can

only watch it if you have Amazon Prime, yada,

yada, yada. I don't even want to resubscribe

to Amazon Prime to watch the new season of that

show, because I don't want to give Amazon a goddamn

dime at all. And I just don't. It's just. So

frustrating and it. Well, I'm going to say yes,

I'll say this. I'm sure that somebody now that

the hole has been created. There's an opening

now for some other app, some other place to come

up and say, hey, coxology used to be the bomb.

Now we're going to be the bomb and they'll come

in and fill that hole. And you know what? better

power to them. The minute I see that happen,

I'm gonna be 100 % behind that and I'm gonna

check them out. I'll be like, oh yeah, you bet.

I would really, really love to be able to say

that the next best thing, and hopefully they

won't be as blind and naive as comixology was

to think that this was ever going to go any other

way. It just, it doesn't feel, it feels wrong,

man. It just feels wrong. I even went to the

IDW website to see if the app, and I know that

each publishing platform has their own, like

DC, Marvel, all those places. It was the convenience

of having a one -stop shop, one -stop buy, everything

was in one app. The stuff that I liked on Marvel,

the stuff that I liked on IDW, the stuff that

I liked over here was all integrated into one

place and it made it easy and they worked out

their copyrights and you know, CBZ and PDF and

all of that stuff and it was just easy. It made

it easy to integrate. And again, like I said,

that's the problem with all of this is that.

You get in a good habit. We were very spoiled

as comic fans to be able to have everything one

-stop shop. Yeah Now that's been taken away and

it's gonna make it harder It's like I said, it's

like we've rewound a decade of our lives. So

back to where it was the decade ago and I Some

people yeah, I know I hadn't even had my third

son yet. Yeah When all this went down, I wasn't

even expecting him. I hadn't even gotten pregnant

yet. So yeah, I mean that that's how long we've

taken To have this merge happen is the fact that

this deal had already been made You know eight

years ago. It's just it's crazy to me that they

couldn't decide on a date You couldn't give us

the decency after Having bought them and saying

oh the merge is going to happen for years Now

it's down to weeks months, and you can't decide

on a date the hell yeah, I It's like they're

on some sort of drug or something. I don't know

and here's the thing folks if so at the point

Time that this all started Zane wasn't even an

apple in your Zane's my third kid just in case

Yeah, you know he wasn't yeah The murder happened

in April. I didn't get pregnant for another month

after that. Yeah So it's been you know, the nine

year. Yeah eight years nine years, whatever it

is and here's the thing you as a mother And I'm

sure you would want to do this with your middle

and your oldest child as well. You want them

to be able to experience comics in a way that

is going to engage. Even if I wanted to bring

it up, because the only thing I have at this

point is going to be a computer screen. I don't

have a Kindle. I have an iPad that's too old.

I have a phone that's... tiny. I mean, comparatively

to my computer screen and my iPad screen. Yeah,

phone is tiny. And now, yeah, okay, so I have

merged all my comics, they're available, they

can access the Amazon website and watch Amazon

Prime, they can look at comics. But here's the

problem with that. Again, the only thing I'm

limited now to is just the computer interface.

And they're not going to be able to read this.

they're not going to be able to so I do have

hard copies thank heavens and my sons are actually

reading through quite a few of those and they've

got at least another well let's just say I think

they're volume four of uh 20 volume thing of

comics that I have so I mean I'm not I'm not

saying I'm saying I've got comics. They got plenty

to read. Yeah. But again, it's the experience

that that's what you was. It was an experience

because they wanted to do it on the computer

screen. I could quite literally do that now.

Now I'm like, you know, it would be really great.

And this is throwing out three ideas. Hey, Amazon,

if you want to fix this and you want to fix it

so the computer interface works a little bit

better, that would be great. That would be the

first place to start. Because then anybody has

a computer screen, they can they can view it

and they can they can zoom in and they can use

everything. If you can do that, I'll be much

happier. But you know, be really cool is if on

our like TV screens you can access your comics

and you can literally flip through on a huge

screen like that where you can read it. because

I have a huge TV downstairs and you can literally

sit there and talk to your kids about it while

you're reading it. I was like, I can think of

some really good ideas that they have not, that

Comixology never explored, that now Amazon can't.

It's just, again, they have not proven themselves

because they've had this thing sitting in there

since 2014 and has anything improved since then,

no. So I'm kind of hoping that you know, they're

gonna prove us wrong They're going to be like,

oh, yeah now that we have all of this now we

have to change our Kindle app so that it'll start

giving the options for comic book readers not

just book readers and we won't put them like

listed as bastard, you know media In the book

section as if they're the same exact damn thing,

which they're not Feels like you know the 1940s

the 1950s. What are you? What do you got in your

hand kids? Is that a comic book? No, that's a

dirty thing You shouldn't be you're too good

for those comic books Yeah, it just It has taken

Like, yes, could I continue the pullback? Yes,

we could figure out discussions. I can continue

doing the origins and getting various peoples.

I guess I can download these PDFs and send them

your way. Yeah, it's fine. Like I said, as a

PDF, you could at least look at it on a computer

screen. That's OK. But the point is that The

future of this podcast now relies on the fact

that as long as the Comixology app in the Google

Play Store does not update and take away Guided

View, I will continue to do comic reviews. As

far as the future of the show, if I continue

to find guests to do the 30 questions about how

they get into or out of reading comics, I could

do that, but the podcast would probably end up

going monthly instead of weekly. Which is fine,

that's not a problem, I don't mind doing that.

It's funny that you said how they got into or

out of comics. Exactly. Yeah, well this is probably

one of the biggest outs right now. Like before

2013, before Steve showed me New 52 Batman issue

number 13, it was Death of the Family part 1.

Before he showed that to me, I respected comics.

I liked comics. I hadn't had a physical comic

in my hand since like 1995 at that point. So

this was like 2012, 2013. So again, for the past

nine years, you know, all this time and effort

into recording and having fun with people like

Liddy Rick, with people like Ryan and Flo Merkley,

with... Getting you know sort of introduced or

throwing myself into the hat to Nicholas Finch

to say hey Would you like to come on the show

and talk about this kind of thing? And like I

said, we are gonna have Nicholas back on for

a full episode kind of thing, but it just I Hate

change when change is not improving like if they

were going to just direct like I've already said

directly copy paste Take what the Comixology

website was and paste it into Amazon. Fine. Fuck

Kindle. I don't care about your fucking Kindles.

Well, like you said, Kindle is not comics. Kindle

is books. Kindle is books, and books and comic

books are not the same thing. They are not equal.

They're not equal. I am and I love to read. I

love books. I that I didn't I was introduced

comic books as an adult because again for the

same reasons were we just kind of illustrated

a few minutes ago where it oh you did those comic

books are for you and I didn't get into that

until I was an adult and like so there's a lot

about comics that I I've interviewed people that

have been in the industry their whole lives that

are so much more understanding of where it came

from, where it's been and where it's going. There's

some really, really good stuff with this. It's

definitely an art form and there are some really,

really amazing people out there that are working

in the industry today. the introduction of digital

just made it so much more accessible to people

like me, to people that just didn't think that

comics was for them until they tried it. And

so it's just, you're right. If you're going to

get an upgrade forward, because when digital

came out, I slowly went to it. I didn't just

all this pick up and say, hey, digital is the

best thing ever. I was like, because I had also

picked up issues and it just it got to the point

where it worked better for me. And that's why

I switched completely wholly over to it. And

it's been I've literally been on that digital

wagon for a good three years. And I've I've invested.

because I figured hey, Comixology and Amazon,

they're not gonna screw this up. Why would you

do that? All of this money that we're investing

in, why would they do the yeah, yeah, yeah, famous

last words? But the point that I'm getting at

is that if you're gonna move forward, if you're

gonna change forward, great, but if you go back,

that's a completely different ball game. You're

gonna have people lose in the industry. You're

going to have readers just say, I guess this

is it. This is the end. And that's kind of where

I am. Because like I said, yes, I still have

the Comixology app. And as long as it stays the

way that it is, as long as I can access Guided

View and actually be able to read the comic,

that's fine. I will continue doing reviews. But

if that ever goes away or if that ever changes

or whatever, then I will end this podcast and

move on to something else in my comics journey.

Has come to an end because I don't have a way

To and again how and people who have listened

to this this podcast and all of our episodes

and whatever over the years know I Read through

the comic like three times to do an episode of

this show First I read through and I pay attention

to the story and I get the text and the story

and whatever and it's in my head and I can hear

you know Frank Welker, Galvatron in my head,

or whatever, whatever. And then I go back through

and I appreciate the art because that was the

other great thing with Guided View. Yes, you

have these artists drawing these amazing images

on a full page, but what Guided View did was

gave you an explosion of a visual experience

that you cannot get by holding a physical book.

because it puts you in a place of, holy shit,

I'm on Cybertron sitting next to Optimus Prime.

It's one step down, I'd say, from motion comics,

which is kind of a little bit of a kitschy thing

that happened, and I say kitschy. You're not

wrong. No, it was a little niche thing that happened,

like 2017, no, no, 2012 to 2015, something like

that. Because I mean, I still have that, but

like Made Fire doing their their motion comics

and having sound effects. And I hope eventually

someday they go back to that. That was a really

fun little thing that they did. And honestly,

I know that the comics that I bought there also

another second, third, fourth dip to have it

as a motion comic. How they did with autocracy

was was fantastic. And they had like you had.

Audio and it just it was really well done I hope

that's that's not off the you know The moving

forward plate because it would be really great

if they could do stuff like that, too It's definitely

an investment But again, I mean that's stuff

that I did get back I invested pretty a couple

at least $100 on that to have that and it was

great. Well, I had well I had it And now it's

gone. So don't I'm not gonna say that like I'm

super bent out of shape I knew that that was

gonna eventually happen that I could you know,

hey I'm gonna buy these motion comics and they're

not gonna be around for long So enjoy them while

you have them and I did but This is this is different.

This is this is game changing. Yeah, this is

game changing industry of like, oh, if they can't

fix this, there will be people all over the world

that for whatever reason, they can't have physical

copies that if it makes it, if it's too hard

to go find, too hard to navigate, too hard to

look at, too hard to it, just it's going to it's

a it's an industry killer how this is going to

I mean. The industry will have a hard time bouncing

back from this, which will affect the livelihoods

of many artists, many colorists, many letterers,

many people that are out doing the thing that

they love right now and these little hits like

this. An industry can only take so much. And

a podcast too, obviously. It is what it is. What

can I do to change this? I can't do anything

to change this because the deal has already been

made. But again, they could have looked at it

and said, okay, people like this way, so let's,

as I already said, let's just copy and paste

so what they like and what worked will work.

Like, yes, we want to eat. In theory, that makes

sense. Yeah, in theory, that makes sense. Sadly,

no damn sense. Yeah, it just... We're going in

circles here. Yes, we are. And we need to, you

know... It's about my bedtime. It's about...

It's past, Ma. Like, it's freaking... Oh, God,

it's 10 o 'clock. Well, I'm an hour later than

you, so... Ten o 'clock is when the monsters

come out, folks. See you in your dreams. And

Amazon will see you in the nightmares. Oh, geez.

Amazon's going to light the fires. Welcome to

L. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. You think you want

comics? We're burning all your comics today.

Mm hmm. Yep. Yeah. It's like I've gone from rage

to numbness to now just outright You know what

shit is real man. It's gonna come for you. Yes.

Yes it is You know, it's like the the band AJR

song burn the house down You know used to keep

it cool used to be a fool. Yeah, I mean it's

it's yeah, so it just We got to get out of here

folks Like I said, you're gonna hear some content

that has been recorded in the past before all

this mess throughout March I don't know what's

gonna happen with the pull bag after that pre

-recorded content because I Even though as I've

been saying Have the comics ology app on my phone.

I can read them the way that I used to read them

on the computer It's just on my phone. That's

fine. However With this news and this change

in this all this shit. It makes me not want to

read comics It makes me like I'm not gonna go

back to physical comics. I just can't I just

can't I would rather just stop and be fine not

doing it And I'm not going to sit here and record

a podcast that, oh, I have to read through this

half -zoomed page of Amazon's Kindle bullshit.

I'm not going to do that because that makes for

bad podcasting. And all good things come to an

end. How can you adequately profess how awesome

this comic is? Yeah, exactly. See what the artwork

is because or or even what it's being what's

being said I mean the quality needs to be up

there to be able to do that because it is a visual

media not just uh, you know It's just text you

just read it and you know, no, it's not that

either. So I 100 I I hope that it doesn't come

to that in a perfect world You know, I I wish

I could fast forward two years and say oh, yeah,

they're gonna fix all of this but I can't and

I hope for the best. I hope that it doesn't work

like that, but you know, it's not looking very

positive. We'll just say that, you know, past

behavior predicts future behavior. We already

know. I already said several times, Amazon's

really been kind of just going their own pace.

They don't need to go any pace more than that

because, you know, they've already, you know,

Kindle is what they're going to. They've already

fucked it up. I've said it multiple times in

this episode now they they they done fucked it

up And I don't like that at all because that

Yeah, we're going in circles now So where can

the people find where can the people find you

online so they can you know agree or disagree

with you? Okay, so you can find me on the Twitter

and we're not all angry there honestly Some of

us are but I you know granted all of the stuff

that's going on. I'm not as angry about it I'm

like, okay, it is what it is. I've got a couple

options I'm gonna be jumping ship. It comes to

the app if I can download stuff We'll see how

it goes, but you can find me on the Twitter.

It's lady of rack at Twitter and How about you

Mike how working good people find you? This is

why I do podcast folks so I don't go on multiple,

you know, you know One slash question mark threads

of Twitter posts so I could just do it in a two

three however that along this podcast gonna be

I don't even know now I am at TFG when Mike you

can also follow Ryan AZ is that nightbeat and

Nicholas Finch is that at obnoxious Finch on

Twitter. So that's where we all can be found

to discuss with us. Things that relate to the

comics industry and what's going on with with

our precious guided view I swear to God So make

your grace cave into comics if you want to and

we will catch you next time here inside the bull

bag Spike look at you. Just turn around and walk

away. You're a spike. You're a bloody puppet

You're a wee little puppet man. Hey, that's enough.

Angel, what the hell happened to you? You look

ridiculous. Get out of here, Spike. Oh my god,

Angel, you're a - Shut up! What are you people

looking at? Well? They're looking at the wee

little puppet man. You're fired. You've just

heard the latest episode of The Pullback, the

GCRN's first comic review and discussion podcast.

There are several ways to get in touch with us

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and unleash the geek in you who's afraid of the

big black no more tricks edward very well then

let's get real