Be warned: We talk about it like it’s 2 years old and everyone has already seen it so if you haven’t go listen to something else and come back when you have. Also, don’t click on any of the links below.

Here’s a list of some of the articles referenced in the show just in case you want to check them out yourself:

The Avengers Initiative Timeline

Joss Whedon talks about original script

The Avengers Success Make Justice League Film Inevitable?

Avengers First Ending Explained

Avengers Second Ending Explained

Avengers Leads to Increased Sales in Shawarma

Thing of the Week:

Dan – Captain America Live Wallpaper for Android

Greg – The Worlds End Announced

To kick off this new run we are starting with a “very special” issue recorded at Double Midnight Comics on Saturday, May 5; Free Comic Book Day!

In amongst the chaos of costumed characters and interviews Dan and Carlton do try to get in a regular show.

First up is all kinds of talk about Free Comic Book Day, including what it is and what was available.

Next up is Dan asking the question if, with The Avengers, Dark Knight Rises and Amazing Spider-Man, this isn’t the greatest summer in the history of comic book movies.

After that there’s a bit of talk about DCnU and how it’s been going for the last few months and they move on to talking about augmented reality coming to comics spurred by Dan’s new cellular telephone.

As if that wasn’t enough there are also interviews with Ben and Josh of Ben and Josh’s Near Mint Comic Show fame, Brett Parker who is one of the owners of Double Midnight Comics and interview and get interviewed by another podcast, Sci-Fi Saturday Night.

Enjoy and thanks for hanging in there.

Footnotes:

Carlton – Mouse Guard Hardcover

Dan – Avengers Movie Captain America Figure

Anyways, for our first new episode in a few months we thought we’d start off with something easy, to get us back on track. The Avengers opens in less than a week so Dan and Greg discuss the fact that it has opened in many places around the world before opening in the US, which is a bit weird. They also talk about the box office records it is breaking overseas, the positive reaction to the Hulk in the film and a hearty congratulations to Joss Whedon for pulling it all off.

Nextly, they talk about Fox’s newly announced Animation Domination HD programming block and the first show announced, Axe Cop. It’s about a cop… with an axe. Though the story behind the comic it’s based on is very unique.

Last up they talk about the internet uproar over the showing last week at CinemaCon of 10 minutes of footage from Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit”. At issue is that instead of shooting the film at 24 frames per second (as movies are normally shot) it was shot at 48 frames per second making everything move far more smoothly (sounds better, right?). The reaction has not been positive.

Thing of the Week:

Dan – Hot Toys Captain America

Greg – Fringe Season 5

Next we move on to a story that kind of blowed out over the past few weeks involving Gary Friedrich and his lawsuit involving Marvel Comics and specifically the court ruling that caused a bit of panic among the comic convention crowds and artists alike.

Lastly we talk about the premiere the previous Sunday of the “reality” series “Comic Book Men” on AMC. Dan didn’t like it (and he has his reasons) and Greg did like it (and he has his reasons).

Thing of the Week:

Dan – Rustic Overtones – New Way Out

Greg – Ready Player One

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR7VDerKuro

We talk about the plot of The Artist, the Cloons of The Descendants and the horror that is Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.

Next we move onto talk of the potential Office spin-off starring the Dwight Schrute character and leads to talk of other spin-offs like Joey, Frasier, Laverne & Shirley and Joanie Loves Chachi.

Lastly, Dan is looking to become a cord cutter and brings to the table a list of viewing requirements which actually make it impossible for him (or I for that matter) to cut the cord. Thanks Major League Baseball!

Thing of the Week:

Dan – Transformers Prime Season 2

Greg – Misfits on Hulu

It’s the first new episode of The Strange Ink Picture in 3 months!

This isn’t necessarily going to be a regular thing but everything lined up just right, so we recorded. Besides the triumphant return of Dan Larson also on the show is old friend and co-host of Eat Sleep Comics (currently on hiatus) Carlton Greene. Also of note, this episode is 2 and a half hours long. Sorry about that. We had a lot to talk about.

On the show this week we start with Spotify taking away their all you can eat for free option which leads to MegaUploads troubles, SOPA and piracy.

Then, because it’s never too early, we do a Summer movie preview which goes off the rails thanks to Nicholas Cage and The Rock.

Next, Carlton and Dan (together again and deeply in love) go over the last couple months in comics in a mini Eat Sleep Comics episode which then leads to a discussion of the new DC Comics logo.

Lastly, we tear apart an article on the 10 Golden Rules of Superhero Movies.

Thing of the Week:

Dan –  Pine Tree Air Fresheners (really!)

Carlton –  Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Greg –  Happy Endings

Outro – fun. – We Are Young

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIPlqEcfyhg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOrNdBpGMv8

P.S. I know the audio quality is a little suspect. It’s been awhile and this came together really quick. It’ll be better next time.

I remember where I was. It was Wednesday, October 5th and I was sitting at my desk, having just finished some research on the web (also known as Angry Birds) when my girlfriend Melissa called. I answered and she said she’d just gotten a notification on her phone that Steve Jobs had passed away. I immediately opened my browser back up and hit Twitter, which is where I last was not 10 minutes ago.

My feed was flooded. I confirmed it for her.

I remember saying “Woah” and genuinely meaning it. I remember thinking it was all going to be different from now on.

A little tech background on me, if you’ll permit. I’ve never owned a Mac, nor have I wanted to. I have friends that swear by Apple’s ecosystem but I cannot abide. I have an iPod Touch and I use it for music and Angry Birds because I don’t care if I run the battery down to nothing. When it came time for me to get my first smartphone, I went Android and never even considered an iPhone. I just don’t care for the closed nature of everything. That’s me. That’s the way I am. It’s okay that others have a different view and opinion.

Despite being alive for the entire history of Apple (yes, I’m that old) I only really became aware of Steve Jobs upon his return to Apple in 1996 and the subsequent release of the iPod in 2001. What a marvel of modern technology it was. The first time I saw one in person was at a Comp USA (remember them?) in Massachusetts right around the middle of 2002 and being fairly jealous that it didn’t work on Windows computers. I just couldn’t stop clicking that damn wheel. It was so white and looked like nothing else on the market and it held so much music (back then, 5GB was a lot).

It was shortly after that, of course, that iTunes and the iPod were made compatible with Windows machines, thus changing both the PC and music industries forever.

I admit it, I have a bizarre relationship with Apple and, by extension, Steve Jobs. As I said above, I don’t care for the closed system the company operates in. Having said that, ask anyone I’ve know for any amount of time and they’ll tell you my personal design asthetic is clean and modern. Minimalist. Clean lines, as little color as possible. Lots of white space. Minimalist. Very Apple-like.

I look at the hardware and can appreciate the beauty, the singular vision that went into the creation of it.

I even check out all the live blogs during any of the keynotes. I won’t be buying anything Apple is showing off but I know it’s almost always important and could shift the course of the tech industry as we know it.

Beyond that, the fact that Steve Jobs had made himself the man he was based on the stories that have floated around about his management style and that he’d built it all on the basic tenets of minimalism just make him someone that I had to admire. I may not like care for what he built, but I admire the man for doing it.

I remember hitting the tech blogs the next day and reading that one of them had had to turn off comments on the Steve Jobs story because of the vitriol. This made me sad, though it was not unexpected. It made me sad that there were people who used this as a time to fight with other people about which platform was best, and to do it with such hatred that steps had to be taken. Luckily, Google+ and Twitter were awash in civility and caring and humanity.

Believe what you want, I know I do, but Steve Jobs passing is a time to look back on his career at Apple and remember the many successes and failures (hello, Lisa) that shape the world we live in. If you’re reading this, your life is probably different because of Apple and Steve Jobs. We probably wouldn’t be putting out our shows every week if it wasn’t for iTunes making it so simple to subscribe and bringing podcasts to the masses.

A lot of people are wondering about the future of Apple without Jobs. I feel like saying “Apple without Jobs is like U2 without Bono” doesn’t go far enough. I think it’s more like attending a Prince concert without Prince. There’s the stage and there’s musicians playing the songs and dancers dancing and all that and it will all sound familiar but something isn’t quite right. There’s something missing.

Next up is news that came out the day after our last show and that is the introduction of Amazon’s iPad competitor, the Kindle Fire. It’s 7″ screen makes it smaller than the iPad but it’s $200 price tag makes it significantly cheaper.

Lastly, with Halloween approaching, we start a month long series focusing on Horror films. Fist up are smaller films you may have overlooked which include, among others, Timecrimes, Ravenous and Waxwork.

Thing of the Week:

Melissa – Starbucks Pumpkin Latte

Greg – The League Tuesday at 10:30pm on FX

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MPgPKQX7K0

First up are the guys thoughts on the pictures that leaked earlier this week of Anne Hathaway in a more complete version of the Catwoman suit from the set of The Dark Knight Rises (including the ears?).

Next up is Netflixtravaganza with news about Qwikster, Facebook integration (here’s the law we talk about on the show) and a new content deal with Dreamworks. Also among the Netflix talk is Amazon’s 20th Century Fox deal and Dish Networks Blockbuster branded streaming service.

All of that segue’s nicely into a talk about Facebook’s new Timeline redesign, the sense that Facebook is now trying to push its users to be more public, their tracking practices and how younger people use Facebook as opposed to older people.

Lastly is  an article that popped up on Engadget about word that YouTube is getting deals in place to launch scheduled channels (like a traditional TV network) sometime in the next few months.

Thing of the Week:

Dan – Aquaman #1

Greg – Fringe Season 4

Next up is a discussion of this article over at Slashfilm about the historically dismal box office performance of Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star and Creature.

Then, they move onto talking about the possible forthcoming Blu-Ray release of E.T. in which Steven Spielberg has stated it may contain only the original 1982 version and not the 2002 altered special edition, which he has expressed regret about.

Lastly, as a result of the slow news week, Melissa steps in to save our butts with the first “Strange Ink Slow News Week New Release Preview” in which we talk about some of the DVD and CD releases for the current week.

Thing of the Week:

Dan – Hot Wheels Back to the Future DeLorean

Melissa – St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

Greg – TV 74 (a preview, in book form, of the 1974 TV season)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpckODBA6no