STATS

Weekly Stats Report: 8 Feb - 14 Feb 2010
Project: THE TAINTED ARCHIVE
URL: http://tainted-archive.blogspot.com/

	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total	Avg
Pageloads	289	287	227	255	277	186	237	1,758	251
Unique Visitors	200	202	161	190	186	145	164	1,248	178
First Time Visitors	174	166	130	168	164	118	137	1,057	151
Returning Visitors	26	36	31	22	22	27	27	191	27

THE WOLFMAN

Despite a slew of mild reviews, I'm looking forward to seeing the new version of The Wolfman. Apparently it's made in the style of the old gothic movies - a real script and a pace that lets the story unfold around the viewer.

We have become so familiar with futuristic computer generated imagery and the convulsive, excessive violence of film series like Saw and Hostel that perhaps this sombre Victorian mystery may seem a little tame and "old school" to a new audience, but for traditional horror fans, the return of The Wolf Man is worth a look.

Apparently it's made the way they used to make movies - now that's something worth looking forward to.

PAPERBACK FANATIC NEW LOOK FOR NEW ISSUE

Issue 13 of The Paperback Fanatic is now available in a new A5 format.

olf Kruger Speaks! An exclusive interview with Shaun Hutson about his pseudonyms.

The Last Temptation of Roger Elwood. A look back at the controversial Sf editor

Four Square SF. An overview of the british publisher's classic SF list

Confessions of an Advertising Executive. The story behind the saucy Confessions novels

Loads of your letters and updates!

New format, 48 pages A5 inc 8 pages of colour

Check it our HERE

Nightmare in the Forest Commando issue 4268

The script comes from Commando veteran, Ferg Handley and interior art by Olivera. The computer generated cover image struck me because the usual covers are hand painted. I assumed that the publishers were trying to attract a younger readership with the cover style; after all the cover resembles a screen shot from the various war themed computer games out there. However I was informed by the editor that Commando do use computer created art from time to time. And that a large section of their readership are already made up of young fans.

I suppose it's always been the way as I can remember reading these as a kid and then my grandfather would read them after me, and then we'd pass them onto an uncle. I bet that's still going on today.


Nicholas Forder is the man responsible for the effective and exciting cover image.

The meat and potatoes of the story concerns a German squad led by tough as nails Sergeant, Kurt Sturm who after a skirmish, take several Russians prisoner. However they soon face a Russian counter attack and find themselves, together with their prisoners, stranded in a seemingly deserted and lonely forest.

A Russian private seem terrified of the forest and soon German and Russian alike find themselves battling against a vicious group of bandits who make their home in the massive Eastern forests.

It's a great story that makes full use of its graphic medium, each frame, excellently drawn to represent the almost ethereal world of the forest, advances the story as the writer skilfully weaves several plots threads in the action packed tale.

There are a few of the Germans who want to coldly execute the Russian prisoners and several Russians with mutual feelings, the conflict between the commanding officers who realise friend and foe have to join forces to beat the common enemy and that all pervasive threat from a dangerous and often unseen force. The soldiers are not used to fighting in the hellish landscape of the dense forest, but to the bandits it is home and they can blend in with their surroundings and vanish with the blink of an eye.

The Commando books have been publishing continuously since the early Sixties and they are still able to provide excellent stories such as this.

Nightmare in the Forest is on sale now, together with three other titles, priced £1.35

Amazon to give away the KIndle free in a fresh bid to dominate

Now that Apple has threatened Amazon's dominace of the eBook market, the online sales giants plans to give away its Kindle devices to customers. The thinking behind this is simple -the more Kindles out there, the more of their own format eBooks they can sell. The eBook market is going to be huge in the future and Amazon knows that major money is waiting to be made.



If these users of free Kindles buy enough books, and Amazon gets the production costs of the Kindle down enough, Amazon can get Kindles into “millions” of people’s hands, the company believes - its just a question of how heavily subsidised these devices will have to be.

Latest on Google book deal

SAN FRANCISCO — Determined to create the world's largest digital library, Google Inc. is betting it knows more about U.S. antitrust and copyright laws than the government regulators enforcing them.

The Internet search leader took an audacious step toward realizing its book ambitions late Thursday with a 67-page brief filed in New York federal court.

Among other things, the documents dismissed the legal concerns that the U.S. Department of Justice has raised about a class-action settlement proposing to give Google the digital rights to millions of hard-to-find books.

Google's stiff arm sets the stage for a showdown between the nation's top law enforcement agency and the most powerful company on the Internet.

They are scheduled to square off Thursday in a hearing before U.S. District Judge Denny Chin. The judge will listen to arguments from Google, the Justice Department and more than two dozen opponents and supporters of the settlement as he tries to decide whether the deal should be approved. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment Friday.

Google contends the world will be a better place if its electronic library of books is unlocked so everyone with an Internet connection can peruse and potentially buy volumes to store on their computers and other digital devices. The company has made digital copies of more than 12 million books and hopes to eventually scan everything that's still on printed paper — if it can gain legal rights to do so.

Most of the books in Google's digital database haven't been shown in their entirety because of a copyright dispute that triggered a class-action lawsuit filed in 2005 by groups representing authors and publishers. The $125 million settlement would remove that barrier and put Google in charge of an electronic bookstore, with most of the revenue going to participating publishers and authors.

The Justice Department has left little doubt it believes the settlement would stifle competition in the book market and undermine copyright laws. The agency has made the points twice, first in September and then again last week, when it filed its opinion about changes that Google made with authors and publishers in November. Those changes were made in hopes of overcoming the Justice Department's opposition to the deal.

In its most recent filing, the Justice Department called the settlement "a bridge too far" and asserted Chin "lacked authority" to approve the agreement.

Google countered that "the Department of Justice and other objectors have failed to articulate a meaningful principle" for Chin to reject the agreement.

The settlement's opponents include consumer watchdog groups, state governments, foreign government and Google rivals Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.

Shouting down that chorus of criticism might be easier if the Justice Department hadn't chimed in, too.

Google retreated the last time that the Justice Department warned the company was pursuing a path that would break antitrust laws, which are designed to prevent businesses from gaining an unfair competitive advantage.

To avoid a Justice Department lawsuit alleging antitrust violations, Google called off a proposed plan to sell Internet search ads for Yahoo.

But Google didn't have much invested in the Yahoo deal, either financially or emotionally. Google agreed to the deal mainly to prevent Microsoft from teaming up with Yahoo. (Those two companies subsequently have gotten together in an alliance still awaiting regulatory approval.)

Google has spent the past five years scanning books at an "enormous" cost, according to its court filing. Creating a massive library has been a dream shared by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

The Justice Department contends the settlement provides the framework for a literary cartel that could drive up book prices. The agency also warned the settlement could give Google an unfair advantage in the Internet search market that it already dominates by giving it a reservoir of human knowledge that its rivals wouldn't be able to easily duplicate.

Despite those red flags, the Justice Department endorsed the concept of Google's digital library. The agency also outlined ways Chin could dictate changes that would satisfy some of its concerns. FULL STORY

FREE TORCHWOOD ONLINE COMIC

With Torchwood now vanished from Wales, rebooted and relocated to Big Budget Land, USA, fans can re-live the golden days of Welsh sci-fi with a free online Torchwood comic HERE

Torchwood fans are up in arms over the show moving production to the USA, where Fox will take over the show.