Toujours aussi frais et instructif, le deuxième tome du Kaboul Disco de Nicolas Wild se dote de nombreux bonus à découvrir gratuitement sur le web. Illustrations, story-boards, pages coupées, tout un tas de petites histoires et de dessins sont à reluquer pour pas un clou ! De petites friandises en attendant le troisième tome de la série, attendu l’an prochain chez la Boîte à bulles.

Véritable franchise cross-média, Blue Dragon a bénéficié des services d’Akira Toriyama, le créateur de Dragon Ball Z, lors de la conception du jeu vidéo sorti sur Xbox 360. En février 2009, Kana sort le premier tome de l’adaptation en manga signée Tsuneo Takano et mise en image par Takeshi Obata, le dessinateur de Death Note. Cerise sur le gâteau, la série ne compte que 4 tomes, vendus chacun 6,25 euros.

Depuis son départ de la direction de Série B chez Delcourt, le dessinateur Olivier Vatine n’a eu de cesse de tisser des liens avec la Chine en multipliant les voyages sur place et en signant la préface du collectif Chroniques de Pékin chez l’éditeur de manhua Xiao Pan. Mieux, toute l’iconographie de sa nouvelle structure Comix Buro, proposant différentes affiches et sketchbooks d’auteurs, tourne autour de la révolution communiste chinoise.

Pour le début d’année 2009, le créateur d’Aquablue revient avec deux nouveautés pour le compte de la maison d’édition au triangle rouge. 9 Tigres, du nom d’une mystérieuse société secrète, propose de découvrir les aventures d’une tueuse à gages chinoise intraitable. Scénariste sur l’album, Vatine collabore sur ce titre avec le dessinateur pékinois Jian Yi, déjà vu dans le fameux collectif sur la capitale de l’empire du Milieu.

Nommé Le Petit livre rouge (du story-board), le second titre réunira les différents story-boards réalisé pour plusieurs séries du label Série B. Réputé pour ses découpages dynamiques, ce livre complété par un entretien avec Olivier Vatine devrait faire des heureux contre 25 euros. Les amateurs de cuisines internes ou les apprentis auteurs pourront ainsi découvrir les secrets de fabrication, décortiquer le travail du board et voir les différences avec les pages définitives sur les titres Arcanes, Tao Bang, Golden Cup, Angela et celui de 9 Tigres. À l’heure de la globalisation et des collaborations entre auteurs issus de différents continents ne parlant pas la même langue, le story-board s’avère être une étape idéale pour se faire comprendre… Une idée (presque) révolutionnaire !




Les images sont © Guy Delcourt Productions - Vatine - Jian Yi.

Two years ago, when social networking was all the rage, a lot of dedicated community websites for specific (and often very small) groups of people were launched by entrepreneurs trying to cash in on the hype by carving out a certain niche. The strategy proved successful for some, but for others … not so much. And now that the economic crisis is weighing down on the entire industry, with advertisers cutting their overall budgets and the online spend decreasing rapidly, the wheat is getting separated from the chaff faster than expected.

One niche social network shutting down is Sneakerplay, an online community targeted at people who love their sneakers so much they need their own special place on the net to talk about them and share pictures of their favorite shoes with each other. That was the idea. But guess what? People don’t love their sneakers enough to bond with other people over them on an ongoing basis. At least not enough people to build an actual business around it.

To be perfectly fair, the founders never expected all that much from it either, at least not for long. In the blog post announcing the demise of the service, the founders are quite open about the fact that they lost their focus along the way.

Over time, we’ve realized that we weren’t committing the same amount of energy as we did in the beginning. Our focus has been diverted by other projects that we’re currently working on. We think it’s not fair to you guys to not support Sneakerplay the way it’s meant to be supported. Sneakerplay really needs a new home. We believe in the right hands, Sneakerplay can flourish. It needs someone who can nurture it, build new features, and give it the right attention it needs.

Sneakerplay started on a shoestring budget ($1500) and never attracted any outside financing, so it was always more of a hobby project, although the 3 friends who started the social network did get a nice return on the money they put in (and then some) thanks to sponsorship and support from brands like Adidas, Nike, EA Sports and Microsoft. You can ask yourself what this might mean for other niche social networks: if turning Sneakerplay into something that made more money than it cost wasn’t even sufficient to keep these guys motivated, how many other niche social networks will be closing their doors soon?

As you can read on their blog, the founders are still trying to turn the shutdown into a sale, but that’s rather unlikely since the social network never got any real traction. They are, however, pitching the idea of a sale to MTV and Complex (who operates a competing network dubbed KicksOnFire) so maybe they’ll still be able to flip it.

For now, we’re putting Sneakerplay into the deadpool.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

On the December 1 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, co-host Sean Hannity asserted that in the Minnesota Senate recount, challenger Al Franken (D) "has been trying to challenge ballots that are clearly for [incumbent Sen.] Norm Coleman [R]," adding, "That is stealing an election." Subsequently, Hannity aired several examples of ballots that the Franken campaign has contested and said to former Rep. John Kasich (R-OH): "I'm gonna put up on the screen -- and I want Al Franken to sue me, because for him to challenge these ballots that are so clearly, you know, for Norm Coleman, I think it shows that he's trying to steal the election." However, Hannity did not display any of the published examples of ballots that the Coleman campaign has challenged that appear to be marked for Franken or another candidate besides Coleman.

Later, former Hillary Clinton campaign adviser Kiki McLean said to Hannity: "Sean, I'd like to know that you actually spent the time looking at the ballots that Norm Coleman has tried to have dismissed. Have you?" She also said: "My question to you is have you reviewed all the ballots that Norm Coleman has tried to throw out?" Hannity replied: "I've reviewed a number of them, but I don't see any that are this obvious." But Hannity again did not show his viewers any of the ballots Coleman has challenged.

As Media Matters for America has noted, a Minnesota Public Radio article, originally published November 19, provided some examples of ballots that the Coleman campaign has challenged along with reporting on the reason for the challenge:

The Coleman campaign challenged this ballot [on November 19], arguing the voter didn't intend to vote for Franken, because of the small dot inside the bubble next to Dean Barkley's name.

In a November 27 report discussing efforts to "turn around what some military analysts are calling an eight-year stalemate" in Afghanistan, NBC's Nightly News included a clip of NBC News military analyst and retired Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey saying, "The answer is the Afghan security forces, with 40 NATO and allied present supporting elements, but not the U.S. fighting the significant counterinsurgency battle." Neither McCaffrey nor NBC News disclosed during the report that McCaffrey is a member of the board of directors of DynCorp International, according to that company's website. An August 5 DynCorp press release reported that the company had been awarded an 18-month, $317.4 million contract with the State Department to "provide at least 580 civilian police advisors to advise, train, and mentor the Afghanistan National Police and the Ministry of Interior." According to a 2006 State Department "Fact Sheet," the "Afghan National Police" are one of two components of the "Afghanistan National Security Forces."

At the time Nightly News aired McCaffrey's remarks stressing the importance of "Afghan security forces," NBC was aware of McCaffrey's ties to DynCorp. McCaffrey's bio on MSNBC's website reports that he "has been elected to: the Board of Directors of DynCorp International." Additionally, in an April 20 New York Times article, investigative reporter David Barstow detailed the connections between media military analysts and the Pentagon and defense industries, and named McCaffrey as one of numerous military analysts who "have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air." Barstow reported that McCaffrey had his "own consulting firm[]" and "sat on the boards of major military contractors." (Following the Times' article, Media Matters for America conducted a review of appearances between January 2002 and May 2008 by military analysts named in the article, including McCaffrey, and identified more than 600 appearances by McCaffrey on NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC.)

Before Nightly News' November 27 broadcast aired, NBC was also reportedly aware of a then-forthcoming follow-up article by Barstow focusing on McCaffrey's extensive ties to military contractors. In a December 1 post on his Salon.com blog, Glenn Greenwald reported that he had "obtained, from a very trustworthy source" emails dated November 20 and 21 "between NBC News executives and McCaffrey (which cc:d [Nightly News host] Brian Williams), reflecting the extensive collaboration between NBC and McCaffrey to formulate a coordinated response" to Barstow's article, which was published on November 29 and detailed McCaffrey's ties to DynCorp, among other companies.

In his November 29 follow-up article, Barstow wrote that McCaffrey "has immersed himself in businesses that have grown with the fight against terrorism" and highlighted a June 28, 2005, NBC News special report anchored by Williams in which McCaffrey said that "the Iraqi security forces are real," but did not disclose his ties to DynCorp -- the company that trained those forces -- or to Veritas Capital, DynCorp's parent company. According to Barstow, McCaffrey served on DynCorp's board of directors at the time and "owned special stock that allowed him to share in DynCorp's profits, up 87 percent that year largely because of the Iraq war." Forbes.com has previously reported that McCaffrey joined DynCorp's board in 2005. Barstow further reported that McCaffrey has "earned at least $500,000" for his work on the "advisory council" of Veritas Capital.

According to a June 23 company press release, DynCorp has been a "major part of the CIVPOL [International Civilian Police] mission in Iraq since 2003" and has held the contract for the "overall Civilian Advisor Support work" in Iraq since 2004.

Barstow extensively detailed McCaffrey's role with DynCorp in his November 29 Times article, specifically how "when DynCorp executives learned that General McCaffrey was planning to travel to Iraq that June [1995], they asked him to sound out American commanders and reassure them of DynCorp's determination to make things right":

At the same time, General McCaffrey used his access to further business interests, as he did during the summer of 2005, when Americans were turning against the Iraq war in droves.

Veritas had been on a shopping spree, buying military contractors deeply enmeshed in the war. Its biggest acquisition was of DynCorp International, best known for training foreign security forces for the United States government. By 2005 operations in Iraq and Afghanistan accounted for 37 percent of DynCorp's revenues.

The crumbling public support, though, posed a threat to Veritas's prize acquisition. The changing political climate and unrelenting violence, DynCorp warned investors, could force a withdrawal from Iraq.

What is more, some of DynCorp's Iraq contracts were in trouble, plagued by cost overruns, inept work by subcontractors and ineffective training programs. So when DynCorp executives learned that General McCaffrey was planning to travel to Iraq that June, they asked him to sound out American commanders and reassure them of DynCorp's determination to make things right.

"It is useful both ways," Gregory Lagana, a DynCorp spokesman, said in an interview. "If there were problems, and there were, then we could get an independent judgment and fix them."

Mr. Lagana said General McCaffrey had been a troubleshooter for DynCorp on other trips. "He'll say: 'I'm going over. Is there anyone you want me to see?' " Mr. Lagana said. "And then he'd go in and say, 'I'm on the board. What can you tell me?' "

The Pentagon had its own agenda. For eight days, General McCaffrey was given red-carpet treatment. Iraqi commandos even staged a live-fire demonstration for him. But General McCaffrey also was given access to officials whose decisions were important to his business interests, including DynCorp, which was planning an I.P.O. He met with General [David] Petraeus, who was then in charge of training Iraqi security forces and responsible for supervising DynCorp's 500 police trainers. He also met with officials responsible for billions of dollars' worth of contracts in Iraq.

Barstow went on to report that following the June 2005 trip, McCaffrey "undertook a one-man news media blitz in which he contradicted the dire assessments of many journalists in Iraq" and "vouched for Iraq's security forces," including during the June 28, 2005, NBC News special report:

Back home, General McCaffrey undertook a one-man news media blitz in which he contradicted the dire assessments of many journalists in Iraq. He bore witness to progress on all fronts, but most of all he vouched for Iraq's security forces. A year earlier, before joining DynCorp's board, he had described these forces as "badly equipped, badly trained, politically unreliable." Just months before, Gary E. Luck, a retired four-star Army general sent to assess progress in Iraq, had reported to Mr. Bush that security training was going poorly. Yet General McCaffrey now emphasized his "surprising" conclusion that the training was succeeding.

After Mr. Bush gave a speech praising Iraq's new security forces, Brian Williams asked General McCaffrey for an independent assessment. "The Iraqi security forces are real," General McCaffrey replied, without noting the concerns about DynCorp.

His financial stake in the policy debates over Iraq was not mentioned. He did not disclose that he owned special stock that allowed him to share in DynCorp's profits, up 87 percent that year largely because of the Iraq war.

Despite McCaffrey's repeated failure to disclose his ties to military contractors, as exemplified by his appearance on that June 2005 NBC News special report, in which he said that Iraqi security forces (trained by a company whose board McCaffrey serves on) were making progress, NBC defended its actions and those of McCaffrey to Barstow. Barstow reported:

The president of NBC News, Steve Capus, said in an interview that General McCaffrey was a man of honor and achievement who would never let business obligations color his analysis for NBC. He described General McCaffrey as an "independent voice" who had courageously challenged Mr. [Donald] Rumsfeld, adding, "There's no open microphone that begins with the Pentagon and ends with him going out over our airwaves."

General McCaffrey is not required to abide by NBC's formal conflict-of-interest rules, Mr. Capus said, because he is a consultant, not a news employee. Nor is he required to disclose his business interests periodically. But Mr. Capus said that the network had conversations with its military analysts about the need to avoid even the appearance of a conflict, and that General McCaffrey had been "incredibly forthcoming" about his ties to military contractors.

In an April 29 post on his MSNBC.com blog, Williams responded to Barstow's April 20 article, describing McCaffrey and fellow NBC News analyst Wayne Downing, who passed away in July 2007, as "honest brokers" and writing that McCaffrey and Downing were "warriors-turned-analysts, not lobbyists or politicians":

All I can say is this: these two guys never gave what I considered to be the party line. They were tough, honest critics of the U.S. military effort in Iraq. If you've had any exposure to retired officers of that rank (and we've not had any five-star Generals in the modern era) then you know: these men are passionate patriots. In my dealings with them, they were also honest brokers. I knew full well whenever either man went on a fact-finding mission or went for high-level briefings. They never came back spun, and never attempted a conversion. They are warriors-turned-analysts, not lobbyists or politicians.

In asserting that McCaffrey "never gave what I considered to be the party line," Williams' post did not address Barstow's April 20 reporting on McCaffrey's ties to military contractors. According to a Media Matters search, Williams has yet to comment on Barstow's November 29 story.

From the November 27 edition of NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams:

DAVID GREGORY (guest anchor): When the Afghanistan veterans return to the war zone, they may in fact be using a new strategy to defeat the Taliban. Here's NBC's Jim Maceda.

[begin video clip]

MACEDA: Even on Thanksgiving Day, there was no letup in Islamist attacks on U.S. and Afghan forces. In Kabul, yet another suicide bomber set off explosives, this time outside the U.S. Embassy, just as an American military convoy passed by. None in the convoy was hurt, but the car bomb killed four more Afghan civilians.

With violence escalating, U.S. military commanders are now looking at bolder strategies, like winning over Afghan tribal leaders with money and the promise of political power if they fight against the Taliban -- similar to the game-changing deal struck with Sunni tribes in Iraq -- and investing billions of dollars to beef up the Afghan army and police to some 200,000 forces. In Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, Major John Payne, an embedded police mentor from Brooklyn, New York, shows Afghans how to search cars, interrogate people, and be good cops.

PAYNE: You got 200 liters a month, would that be good?

MACEDA: But he spends a lot of his time on other more basic issues, like helping out when the Afghan police cars run out of gas and keeping their poor living standards high enough to fight off corruption.

PAYNE: Well, we're not talking fancy things. We're talking power, water, and sewer.

MACEDA: But here in Afghanistan, what is often called "the other war" is heating up. Some 10 to 15,000 more U.S. combat forces are expected to deploy here over the coming months to try to turn around what some military analysts are calling an eight-year stalemate. Still, even those who support a surge in Afghanistan say it's not America's war.

McCAFFREY: The answer is the Afghan security forces, with 40 NATO and allied present supporting elements, but not the U.S. fighting the significant counterinsurgency battle.

MACEDA: But with Afghan forces still years from being able to hold their own against the Taliban, U.S. soldiers are likely to mark many more Thanksgivings here. Jim Maceda, NBC News, Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan.

[end video clip]

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Gallery: The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

Riddick: Dark Athena coming early '09, features new 10-hour campaign originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s nice to see creators having fun with widescreen on YouTube — but after a few seconds of goofing off, Hank from Vlog Brothers gets down to serious business: telling 50 jokes in four minutes, giving viewers a chance to stock up on silly puns for the next time they have to entertain a 5-year-old.

And next year, Fox is giving Talkshow With Spike Feresten the MadTV slot on Saturday nights. Why do you care? Because Talkshow has launched some of the best viral videos you didn’t know originated on TV, including the flawless Lil O’Reilly. Could this little-watched underdog become the new (and funnier) Saturday Night Live? Find out on NewTeeVee Station!