Newbury Comics is a small chain of retail outlets in the northeast. While most notable for its music sales and selection, it also sells, comics, toys, clothing, and various other items relating to pop culture. Over the past decade, their core business, music sales, has over gone a dramatic shift. Mike Dreese, co-founder, occasionally sends out updates in the Newbury Comics email newsletter with a general status of the company, current strategy, and general musings of being in the business over the years. I find the updates fascinating in both a business perspective and a personal perspective. As someone, who is familiar with many aspects of business and the need to adapt to your environment, I love to hear what goes on behind the scenes. I also feel a certain attachment to the chain, in that its small and local. I’m a native to the New England area and with that comes a certain pride in local businesses. I want to see them succeed and strive for excellence.

I have posted one of these updates before here.

You can read the update after the jump.
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The latest installment in Powet Editor Zac Shipley‘s look into Geek Culture in Madison, WI.

Westfield Comics counts votes for Obama and McCain with Presidential Material from IDW
One hero struggles with identity, searching for a cause in life, coming to grips with how he can bring hope to the world. Another hero stands tall, looking to maintain a long legacy of service, realizing only after losing his freedom how important it is to him. They are not the costumed, super-powered titans found only in the pages of comic books, though, but candidates for President of the United States.
Read more at The Daily Page

Black is white, up is down, and Jack Thompson is… funny? Mr. Thompson, the notorious anti-game lawyer (well, former lawyer) best known for his crusade against the Grand Theft Auto series, has made a rare appearance outside of the news channels to crack some jokes on the Jace Hall Show. The clip can be seen here and I’ve got to say that, as a politically minded gamer I’m not reall sure what to make of this. It’s akin to seeing George W. Bush play himself in a war parody; humorous, yet deeply unsettling. I laughed though, I think I need to go take a shower.

Thanks to GamePolitics and Baker from NeoGAF for the scoop. So unclean…

In move determined to make him unpopular with readers of this site, Wisconson State Senator Jon Erpenbach is proposing a tax on videogames.

His goal is sound: Keep 17 year old delinquents in the Juvenile system instead of the harsher adult system, but using taxes on videogames may be the wrong way to go about it.

His reasoning:

“The idea being that this is kind of a kids-kids thing, in other words, if we’re going to do this for kids maybe this would be a good way to go about it. And if it’s not the best way, I’m open to any other way,”

This would put the burden on Wisconsin gamers (the vast majority over the age of 18) to fund the court system, and may put a stigma on videogames when they’re taxed at a higher rate. Wisconsin gamers are already talking about ordering games online where they won’t pay the tax

From Channel 3000: Watch The Report

Paul Fusco has come out of exile to perform once again as ALF. Apparently after one season of his TVLand show (the cancelled “ALF’s hit talk show) he’s now interested in being a Fox News Pundit.
Though his show has been off the air for quite some time, I’m happy to see all 4 seasons are on DVD.
For those that might’ve forgotten this classic, the canned laughter sitcom highlight reel is included below. [Read the rest of this entry…]

DeadlineHollywood reports that Warner Bros studios, based solely on some low numbers for the Jodie Foster movie “The Brave One” and Nicole Kidman’s “The Invasion” is putting an immediate ban on any movies with female leads.

Sure Hollywood has always been sexist, but this is seriously a new low. The Movie Blog does an excellent job pointing out that movies with men in the lead bomb too. Specifically the Kevin Bacon revenge movie “Death Sentence” did much worse than the similarly themed “The Brave One.” John Campea of The Movie Blog is calling for a boycott of Warners and is challenging other sites to join him.

On a personal note I think this policy is so stupid and arbitrary, that I’ll be joining up with this boycott. You can forget about me reporting on any Dark Knight or Justice League stuff. I’m not even going to finish watching the Superman: Doomsday DVD I already bought and opened. I won’t watch the CW television network (Ok, so that ones going to be easy). I’d encourage anyone who cares about fairness and equality to leave a comment and don’t give a dime to WB until they publicly retract this policy. Yes that means you should not buy DC comics. My views are not necessarily the views of Powet.TV as a whole, but that because we’re independent and no one voice speaks for all.

Well Quebec actually wants more games in French, which I’m all in support of, but the method they’re using to make such things happen is something which I’m not too wild about.

Le soleil reports that the French language police has decided that all video games sold in Quebec must now have a French translation.

This is a huge slap in the face to all Quebec gamers who will have their video game selection cut down considerably. As little as 36% of games released in Quebec are currently bilingual or French. While it’s already the case that new games in Canada come with bilingual packaging and instruction manuals to have the actual game include a full French translation is a much more involved change requiring a considerable amount of work on the development side to implement.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

CNN reports the Senior Senator from Vermont has been cast in a cameo in The Dark Knight, the next Batman movie.

Patrick Leahy is professed comic book fan, and this will be his third appearance with Batman. He was an extra in the movie Batman & Robin and was the voice of the Arizona Governor in the Batman: The Animated Series episode “Showdown”

Like the rest of the cast, he isn’t talking about his role, except to say that he did share the scene with Christian Bale and Heath Ledger(Batman and The Joker, respectively).