ROK Comics

ROK Acquires Player One

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:10:00 +0000

ROK Entertainment Group, the mobile technology, applications and services company, has today announced the acquisition of leading mobile gaming company, Player One.

Player One, established in 1999, has carved out a valuable niche in the mobile gaming market through the creation and exploitation of its IP and in early 2006, the company launched Player One Sports dedicated to bringing the best sport action and entertainment to mobile phones.

Player One's reputation has been built on securing the rights to high profile, internationally recognised sports personalities and brands, such as Freddie Flintoff’s Powerplay Cricket, Ronnie O’Sullivan’s Snooker, Jensen Button’s Grand Prix Racing, Frankie Dettori’s Horse Racing, and Ernie Els’s Golf, amongst others, and delivering them as mobile games.

Within the last 12 months Player One has launched over 20 mobile games.

Commenting on the acquisition, Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman and CEO of ROK said “Mobile gaming is proving to be evermore popular worldwide, so we are delighted to add Player One to our portfolio of revenue-generating mobile products and we look forward very much to the successful deployment of their existing library of world-class mobile games as well as developing new games, going forward.”

In addition to it’s high quality mobile games, Player One Sports has enhanced its content offering through the development and distribution of sports branded wallpapers, ringtones, video clips and uniquely, the live streaming of key sports events.

“Player One Sports is dedicated to creating the best sport action games for mobile phones and ROK gives us a hugely enhanced sales pipeline to a massive mobile market worldwide.” Added Pete Russell of Player One.

Player One’s games are compatible with most mobile Operating Systems, including the iPhone. Freddie Flintoff’s Powerplay Cricket will launch on Nintendo DS later this year and a range of Sony PSP mini games will be available in early 2010.

ROK Team Pick: The Return of Ugly Fruit

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:30:00 +0000

Curly cucumbers, crooked carrots and mottled mushrooms - odd-looking fruit and vegetables are making a comeback as 20-year-old EU rules are lifted.

Marketing standards for 26 types of produce have been scrapped, in a drive to cut EU bureaucracy, the BBC reports.

Ligeia Goes Rock!

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:14:00 +0000

Comic artist Rodrigo D. Ricci, creator of the vampire horror comic Ligeia which first appeared on mobile on ROK Comics (www.rokcomics.com/ligeia.php), has just released a video single based on the strip via YouTube.

Edgar the Cat is a joint production from Rodrigo and his brother Paulo Diaz Ricci and is the first single inspired by the Ligeia The Vampire comic.

You can view the first full series of the comic - 40 chilling episodes - via www.rokcomics.com/ligeia.php

• LIGEIA THE VAMPIRE and EDGAR the cat is copyright RD.RICCI. Edgar the cat song: Lyrics and Music by All Rights Reserved.

ROK Deploys in India

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:10:00 +0000

The ROK Entertainment Group, owners of ROK Comics, has announced the launch of its subsidiary office in India.

Tasked with marketing ROK’s suite of revenue-generating mobile applications to India’s leading Mobile Operating companies, ROK Entertainment India Ltd, located in New Delhi, is lead by seasoned marketer Jasjit Puri (Jasjit.puri@rokent.com).

“I am delighted to be equipped with ROK’s portfolio of revenue-generating mobile products at this exciting time in the development of the mobile industry in India” said Jasjit Puri. “ROK is at the cutting-edge in mobile entertainment and services innovation.”

ROK, best known for its award-winning mass-market mobile TV service which streams live TV to mobile handsets over existing 2.5G and 3G mobile networks as well as over Wi-Fi, has created more than 20 leading mobile applications and will soon launch ROK TV, ROK Comics, Mobile Video Messaging and mobile email in India with several of the major network operators.

The mobile industry continues to grow rapidly in India with the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) reporting more than 9 million new GSM subscribers added in February alone to take the total to 277 million, nationwide.

Bharti Airtel cemented its position as the country's biggest operator by adding 2.7 million new users last month, with an overall customer base of 91 million customers and a market share of 32.8%, followed by Vodafone Essar's customer base which stands at 66 million. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) remains in third place with 44 million subscribers. Idea Cellular has a customer base of 41 million while other players such as Aircel, Reliance Telecom, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) and BPL account for 13% of the market between.

“Crucially, India’s mobile operators are highly dynamic in their adoption and marketing of new mobile services while mobile customers tend to be hungry for content” added Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman and CEO of ROK Entertainment Group “and with Jasjit leading the deployment of our services, all of which are designed to raise ARPU while preventing churn, we are hugely excited for ROKs continued growth across the sub-continent.”

ROK Comics offered to 'Virtual Operators'

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:43:00 +0000

ROK Entertainment Group, the mobile technologies, applications and services provider and owner of ROK Comics, has announced the availability of a specially-packaged suite of revenue-generating products designed to enable MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) to compete with mainstream Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).

A mobile virtual network operator is a telecoms company that provides mobile phone services without owning its own network, examples being Virgin Mobile in the UK and US, and Call Plus and TracFone in the US. MVNOs essentially buy capacity in bulk and resell it at retail rates, but with what's known as the Average Revenue per User (ARPU) level falling across the mobile industry, it's widely recognized that the business models under which most MVNOs have operated to date need to be changed.

"Until now, most MVNOs have been competing for customers through the only means they have -- that of price-dumping their voice and text service offerings," said Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman and CEO of ROK. "However, with Operator hosts doing likewise, the margins for most MVNOs have been steadily eroding and are, in many instances, unsustainable."

There are currently approximately 360 planned or operational MVNOs world-wide, according to consultancy firm Takashi Mobile, with the UK, US, Germany and France among the countires having the most such networks.

In addition to ROK Comics, ROK's MVNO product pack includes such services as low-cost mobile calling technologies, low-cost SMS technologies as well as ROK TV, Push Inbox mobile email, FreeBe TV, News on Demand and Fonepark Mobile Content.

"Our aim is to level the playing field for MVNOs through offering them a one-stop-shop of relevant and appropriate revenue-generating services designed to raise ARPU, reduce customer churn and enable our partner MVNOs to pro-actively poach customers from rival network operators," added Kendrick.

• MVNOs may request more detail on ROK's suite of products at www.rokent.com/MVNO

Glazed over Gaza

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:58:00 +0000

Santa Goes Strange in 'Stick-Man'...

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:07:00 +0000

Courtesy of Scottish cartoonist Malcolm Kirk, whose hilarious Stick Man discovers Santa has gone a bit, well, strange this year...

Check out www.myspace.com/mal_comix for more of Mal's work, and there are more of his Stick Man cartoons here on ROK Comics.

Cartoon Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:02:00 +0000

Cartoonist Rich Diesslin, a ROK Comics stalwart, came up with this Cartoon 12 Days of Christmas. You can check out more of his work at the-cartoonist.com

Team Pick: Looking Back... by Raymond Betancourt

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:01:00 +0000

Here's the latest of US-based artist Raymond Betancourt's "Looking Back" strips, which offer an alternative take on famous historical events. Here at ROK Comics, we think Raymond's on a roll with this one -- just look at the success of book series such as Terry Deary's Horrible Histories.

Brooklyn-based Raymond is a self-taught artist and poet who, in addition to cartoons and paintings has recently written and illustrated a children's book as well as several colouring books. "My work is mostly surrealistic in its subject matter," he reveals on his Artmajeur page. Some of this more surrealist work is being offered by ImageZoo. He's also a contributor to The Dream People, an online literary journal run in association with Eraserhead Press.

Several collections of his Twisted cartoon collections are available via CartooneBooks and lulu.com. You can also view some of them online at www.twisted.dostweb.com.

• To see more of Ray's works visit Breaking Art, Live to Paint, or Now Surreal

Chris Reynolds on Show

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:08:00 +0000

Moon Queen creator Chris Reynolds has been in touch to tell us that one of his paintings, of Brownsea Island/Poole Harbour has been chosen to be part of the Stuckists Antidote to the Ghastly Turner Prize at the ViewTwo Gallery, Liverpool from 6 - 29 November 2008, part of the Independent strand of the Liverpool Biennial Festival of Contemporary Visual Art.

The infamous phenomenon that is The Stuckists - an international art movement for contemporary figurative painting with ideas, described as "anti the pretensions of conceptual art or Anti-anti-art" - returns to Liverpool for the first time since their major show at the Walker Art Gallery for the 2004 Biennial, which proved hugely popular and very successful.

The Stuckist art group was founded in 1999 by Charles Thomson and Billy Childish, who has
since left, with 13 artists to promote “figurative painting with ideas” and oppose conceptual art.
There are now over 160 sister groups in 40 countries. The name comes from an insult by Tracey
Emin to Childish that he was “stuck”.

The Stuckists have gained considerable media attention for their demonstrations against the
Turner Prize, and also instigated a media scandal about the Tate’s purchase of its own trustees’
work. This led to a Charity Commission ruling that the Tate had been acting illegally for 50
years.

• Brownsea Island, the current location for BBC Autumnwatch with Bill Oddie and Kate Humble. is just one of many paintings by leading British Stuckists that form the exhibition and large (A1) prints of this painting are available in a limited edition of 100 from the Guildhall Gallery, Poole, UK, price £39, Tel: (01202) 673 715.

Hallowe'en Horror Fun: Fone Freaks!

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:19:00 +0000

Thomas Behe, author of the comic Contraband and artist Chris Walker have launched a new comic strip, Fone Freaks, via ROK Comics just in time for Hallowe'en.

Fone Freaks follows the adventures of Sally Snedley, a wireless scientist who seeks revenge on the nasty corporate criminals who stole her cell phone invention back in the 1970's.

Sally seeks justice by targeting the Fat Cat's cell phone customers by creating a haunted network that enables ghosts to zoom out and make people to do dumb things on their phone.

Illustrator Chris Walker has been creating comics for five years and hopes his new strip will appeal to sequential art fans of all ages. "Each Freak represents a silly, embarrassing or annoying social cell phone habit we all do - or see others doing - at some point in time.

"It's mildly self-deprecating at heart although we hope younger children will enjoy the characters - even if they don't fully understand some of the sometimes twisted underlying message. Most kids seem to have a cell phone now and (the ones I know anyway) really love being on them as much as possible."

• For more information about ROK Comics go to www.rokcomics.com. For more information about the Fone Freaks strip, please go to www.fonefreakscomic.com.

Garfield Minus Garfield!

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:21:00 +0000

ROK Comics creator David Reddick, creator of Reddickulous, is contributing new "Garfield Minus Garfield" news reports to the official Garfield web site (www.garfield.com). where I interview Jim Davis... minus Jim Davis! Just go to Garfield.com and look at the main video screen at top, and click #3 - and be sure to click it again and again, as there are several different takes! "I went all Stephen Colbert on this," laughs David.

ROK Comics on Now on iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:28:00 +0000

ROK Comics has launched ROK Comics as an application on the Apple iPhone.

The ROK Comics application, the first of a planned series of applications currently in development by ROK for the iPhone, enables iPhone-owners to read a selection of strips from the huge and fast-growing ROK Comics portfolio, to include such strips as Anomaly (by Kennedy Rose), Crumb (by David Fletcher), Reddickulous (by David Reddick), sci-fi strip Crazy Mary (by Mike Colbert, Edward Woodward and others) and gothic comic Ligeia (by Rodrigo D. Ricci).

"We felt we should offer variety in our comics offering and this selection reflects the diversity of strips available on ROK Comics to include humour, adventure and sci-fi," ROK Comics Managing Editor John Freeman commented. "We will constantly be evaluating, adapting and looking at new features while adding further strips in future versions of the application."

If you already have iTunes installed on your computer, you can view the App on ITunes via: http://tinyurl.com/rokcomicsoniphone

More information about the new application can be found at: www.rokcomics.com/iphone

"The iPhone is having a far-reaching effect in transforming access to - and use of - mobile entertainment," added ROK's Creative Director Graham Baines, "and we at ROK are focussed on deploying ever-more interesting, engaging and easy-to-use content services and applications into this fast-growing channel".

This week, the New York Times reported that Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones in the last quarter in the US alone and has already surpassed its goal of selling 10 million iPhones during 2008, according to Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs.

"This is an exciting development for us," said ROK’s Group CEO, Laurence Alexander "and reflects our ongoing commitment to develop and deploy engaging entertainment services to mobile phones globally."

ROK Comics (www.rokcomics.com) provides comic publishers and creators to reach a worldwide audience by delivering comics to mobile phones, either by WAP subscription of Pay Per Download via Multi Media Messaging (MMS) with creators receiving up to 50% of the available revenue on every sale.

• If you already have iTunes installed on your computer, you can view the App on ITunes via: http://tinyurl.com/rokcomicsoniphone

• More information about the new application can be found at: www.rokcomics.com/iphone

YuuROK Mobile Social Community Hits 300,000 Users

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:47:00 +0000

ROK Entertainment Group, owners of ROK Comics and the YuuZoo Corporation, the global mobile media company, have jointly announced their mobile social network service, YuuROK, has passed the 300,000 registered user milestone and is on target to generate one million users within the next few months and three million users worldwide within 12 months.

Juniper Research predicts the number of active users of mobile social networking sites is expected to rise from 54 million in 2008 to nearly 730 million in 2013.

Advertising-funded, YuuROK is free to use providing the user has a data package in their mobile tariff. YuuROK is available from www.yuurok.com/web.

YuuROK is currently generating more than 20,000 new sign-ups a day worldwide through integrated promotional campaigns and through existing users notifying the existence of the service to their friends and families, virally.

“YuuROK not only delivers Blackberry-like mobile email functionality to mass-market WAP-enabled mobile phones at no cost to the user, it also provides a unique mobile social network service with several value-added applications such as ebooks, daily news and sports news feeds, daily comics and jokes all designed to encourage uptake and use of the service.” said Ron Creevey, Group President of YuuZoo.

It is the email utility aspect of YuuROK which generates repeat usage which enables YuuROK to launch a multitude of additional services into the community.

“Mobile email is a very fast-growing service worldwide and YuuROK is a mass-market, all-devices capable mobile email service” said Laurence Alexander, Group CEO of ROK “but YuuROK is much more than just a mobile email service and we will shortly be adding our GeeSpark mobile social network application which allows people to communicate virally and send images and YouTube videos to each other from their mobile phones.”

• YuuROK is available from www.yuurok.com/web

Secrets of Ligeia Revealed

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:55:00 +0000

With a new episode of Ligeia now available on ROK Comics, creator Rodrigo D. Ricci has revealed more about the background to the character in a posting for the strip's Facebook page. What follows is a translation/adaptation of Rodrigo's posting, which is in Spanish...

Ligeia was created in the summer of 2006 in Italy, inspired by the story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe. The plan was that this vampire "with a touch of irony", drawn in a style echoing the work of Alex Toth and Frank Miller, would be the kind of work an Italian publisher interested in publishing a graphic novel by Rodrigo would like.

Unfortunately, neither of the two projects were realized and have been buried on Rodrigo's computer for some time. Then, when he put some of the pages of comicspace.com, a lot of people told him that they liked the character.

Ligeia is inspired by various sources. Poe first, mainly to capture as much as possible the environment with the use of black and white in high contrast. There's also elements of the Lovecraft, especially his lesser known work "Medusa's Coil" ( by Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop, read it online), more than anything because Ligeia's hair moves in a lively, bizarre way.

The strip also pays homage to movies like La Maschera del Demonio), directed by Lamberto Bava, more than anything because of the use of black and white in that film.

Physically, Ligeia is a blend between Barbara Steele and Edwige Feneche and other actresses of the Golden Age of film.

Rodrigo decided to make Edgar a pet cat to avoid the horrible cliches of Igor in some bad movies. As a character it works well: cats have an extraordinary personality. "They do not need to interpret any role, since they are the role," he says.

The story comes with the Nazis after reading the book Hanussen, a Jew in the court of the Third Reich. Rodrigo was astonished by this bizarre character, a Jew who was the magician of many senior Nazis, but hated by Gobbels who considered him a charlatan. Hanussen believed in The Temple of the Uunseen, but made the mistake one night at a party having a vision and predicting that a building would be burned, causing a major sea change in the Weimar Republic.

One day later someone set fire to the Reichstag and Hitler came to power. Shortly afterward, Hannusen was found shot dead in a park. (more about Hannusen here on Wikipedia. Werner Herzog made a movie about him in 2001 starring Tim Roth, and there have been others).

There is a definite morality to the comic although Rodrigo leaves the reader to choose whose morality they favour. Ligeia is a vampire, so in theory, evil. On the other side are the Nazis sent by Himmler, and those who might be the traditional heroes are a band of mercenaries, all united bya desire to loot the gold of the vampire.

"This series was born at time of many changes," says Rodrigo. "Gradually, publishers are leaving paper behind and transferring their attention to the massive audience potential of the web cell phones and the iPhone."

Any decision on the quality of the strip Rodrigo leaves in you hands, cordially inviting you to read... Ligeia!

Temple Digital Showcase launched

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:34:00 +0000

The first edition of British Amateur Press Association group The Temple's digital showcase is now available online from their web site to download as a free PDF.

The 36 page magazine contains contributions from 10 members, including the likes of ROK Comics creators such as David Hailwood, Paul Harrison-Davies, Simon Mackie and Malcolm Kirk.

Inside you'll find cartoons, full strips, previews of soon to be released small press comics, work in progress, and a behind the scenes look at making a webcomic.

If you're a comic artist/writer who's interested in joining the Temple APA, then more details are available on the site (it's as simple as clicking 'join'). Although this is the first digital issue (apart from Issue 0, which is also available on the site), the Temple's been running for more than ten years now and seen a wealth of talent come and go. Everyone's welcome, from the rawest amateur to the most seasoned pro.

It's a good place to learn from each other and hone your skills, or simply draw more attention to upcoming projects.

Web Link: www.templeapa.ning.com

Fav Strip of the Day: The Norm

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:02:00 +0000

Fav ROK Comic of the Day: Joe's Blunder

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:53:00 +0000

ROK Launches GeekSpark

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:23:00 +0000

With the mobile social network market predicted to grow from 54 million users in 2008 to 730 million user in the next 5 years, ROK Entertainment, owners of ROK Comics, has announced the imminent worldwide launch of GeeSpark, the world’s first mobile viral messaging service.

The fastest growth in the mobile social networking market will come from the Far East and China, according to Juniper Research in a report published this week. In addition, Juniper predicts it will be advertising-funded mobile social networks which will drive the revenue growth of user-generated content from $1.1 billion in 2007 to $7.4 billion in 2013.

 Following the hugely successful adoption of broadcast messaging on computers, where users share messages with multiple friends at the same time, GeeSpark will enable users to chat, share messages, images and YouTube videos on their mobile phones and forward these to their friends and groups, in a viral fashion.

 GeeSpark has been developed by ROK’s Finland-based mobile services development company, Geniem. GeeSpark is currently in invitation-only Beta mode and will be advertising-funded. The service is free to join from www.geespark.com and is free to use providing the user has a data plan in their mobile tariff.   

“In the past few years, there has been a phenomenonal uptake in, and migration from, the use of email onto instant messaging and now onto multi-person ‘broadcast’ messaging using PC-based social networking services" said Tuomas Kumpula, Managing Director of Geniem, “and we believe the next evolution in the networking space will be through mobile phones wherein GeeSpark users can share messages, images and videos from YouTube with all of their friends at once, on a viral basis, through their mobile phones."

 Commenting on GeeSpark, Laurence Alexander, Group CEO of ROK said “To be launching the world’s first mobile viral messaging service is tremendously exciting and is another major milestone in the development and deployment of our suite of revenue-generating mobile services and technologies.” 

ROK And A Hard Place Comics Competition Winner

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:04:00 +0000

ROK Comics is pleased to announce that the winner of its 2008 ROK and A Hard Place Comics Competition, run in association with the Birmingham International Comic Show, is British comics artist Ian Stacey.

Ian’s entry, titled “Noah and A Hard Place” was a stand out winner for the BICS team and wins him a Nokia 95 mobile worth almost £500.

The BICS judges also spoke highly of John Maybury’s “SpaceBabe” entry and Ian’s other shortlisted entry, “Crossroads and A Hard Place”.

You can view all the winners at here on www.rokcomics.com.

Working in partnership with BICS (www.thecomicsshow.co.uk), ROK Comics threw down the challenge to creators to create a comic revealing a life changing moment.

“The Noah strips works on every level,” felt James Broxton, who judged the winners from a high quality shortlist along with indie comics distributor Shane Chebsey, owner of Smallzone Comics, and also a BICS organiser. “It’s a nice job, and Ian is a deserved winner.”

“It’s fantastic news,” said Ian on learning of his win, “Thank you very much and thanks also for finding my work a new home.”

Freelance cartoonist and illustrator Ian Stacey had already won high acclaim for his ongoing strip Wet Paint before taking the plunge and bringing it to ROK Comics for web and mobile distribution. “There’s some very funny material that made me laugh out loud,” says Monty Python team member Terry Jones, while top comic creator Alan Grant has described Ian as “an exceptionally funny cartoonist.

“He aims at just about every target under the sun, from genetic modification to Batman, and hits the mark in every case.”

Ian recently began offering a collection of many of his Wet Paint cartoons for sale via his web site (www.ianstacey.net), with all proceeds going to the Big Issue Foundation.

“When we first discussed the idea of a competition to tie in with BICS we were determined to stretch comic creators from the get go,” says ROK Comics Managing Editor John Freeman. “The cartoonists rose to the challenge, with some great entries.”

“We wanted comics with someone telling the story of a difficult choice they've had to make in their life,” said Shane. “It certainly made a change from superheroes.”

"We at BICS love the way that ROK Comics is so accessible to both creators and readers,” Shane adds, “and feel that working together we can help to bring the wonderful medium of comics to a wider readership. Mobile phones are now the most widely used method of communication in the world, so it seems the perfect way to present new comics to more people than ever before".

ROK Comics delivers the means for both comic publishers and creators to reach a worldwide audience by delivering comics to mobile phones, either by WAP subscription of Pay Per Download via Multi Media Messaging (MMS).

Creators publishing professionally via ROK Comics will receive up to 50% of the available revenue on every sale, with full access to sales statistics, viewings and more.

• The Birmingham International Comic Show takes place this coming weekend, Saturday – Sunday 4 -5 October 2008 at the ThinkTank, Birmingham.

ROK Comics 2008 Humour Competition Winners

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:17:00 +0000

ROK Comics is pleased to announce that the overall winner of its 2008 Humour Comic Competition is David Fletcher, for his strip featuring Crumb, his crazy, ever-hungry blackbird character.

David’s entry, titled “Pitter Patter” was a stand out winner for the editorial team at top Egmont comic TOXIC, who were the external judges for the competition which ran through August this year on the ROK Comics web site, and wins him a Nokia 95 mobile worth almost £500.

TOXIC editor Matt Yeo describes the strip, which stars Crumb and his rat friend as “A punchy quick-fire gag, with simple yet effective illustrations!”

Runners up were ClownoSaurus by Peter Coupe (“The ancient tale of a bizarre clown-based dinosaur. What’s not to like?!” says Matt) and Meteoro by Puerto Rican comics creator Vicente Aviles (“Classic euro-art, backed with madcap energy!”) starring El Profe.

Vicente, who has been publishing strips to ROK Comics since it started last year, originally published the strip in English, but has recently added Spanish versions at the suggestion of the ROK Comics team, and this entry qualified for consideration for the competition.

Responding to Matt’s comments, Vicente says “I'd say that I always liked the European comics style, and is the style which I've always trying to emulate, so... I have accomplished it! I wish someday I have the opportunity to publish a comic book.” (you can read more El Profe at www.rokcomics.com/elprofe.php)

Crumb is just one of top New Zealand-based cartoonist David Fletcher many cartoon creations. David’s cartoons are published in over 30 newspapers worldwide including New Zealand’s top-selling TV Guide (which has some 800,000 readers a week), the New Zealand Herald and the Australian Daily. The strip is now available in Chinese and through the whole ROK Comics mobile and online distribution network.

“It's great to have all the long hours slaving over a graphics tablet recognised by someone of Matt Yeo's standing,” says David. “My fourteen year old son's eyes lit up at the thought of getting his hands on the Nokia. No chance! Crumb's become very much part of my life and I'm still hoping one day he'll be able to support me into my old age.”

ROK Comics delivers the means for both comic publishers and creators to reach a worldwide audience by delivering comics to mobile phones, either by WAP subscription of Pay Per Download via Multi Media Messaging (MMS).

Creators publishing professionally via ROK Comics will receive 50% of the available revenue on every sale, with full access to sales statistics, viewings and more.

“We were delighted with the quality of entries for the competition and pleased the shortlisted entries tickled the fancy of the demanding TOXIC team, who were our external judges,” said John Freeman, ROK Comics Managing Editor and former editor for titles such as the UK Simpsons Comic, Doctor Who Magazine and Star Trek Magazine.

Scattered Comics Contest

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:30:00 +0000

To celebrate the release of the first issue of its full-colour comic Scattered, Scattered Comics, the publishing house featuring the work of Night Owl artist Jason Dube, have created a cool cover contest.

Your challenge is to create an original, cool, jaw-dropping cover art as inspired by Scattered #1.

(Follow this link to see pages from the comic for you to use as inspiration)… the rest is up to you and your creative artistic minds!

Submit entries to Jason Dube at scattered_catATyahoo.com

The Winner of the competition will have their cover used as a variant edition cover for Scattered#1 and you will receive 10 Free copies of that issue to show off or sell. Scattered Comics will also run a bio feature about the winner inside the comic itself and the Scattered website(s).

The runner ups will have their submission in the comic with name and contact information.

RULES:
• You must be 13 years or older to participate
• This is a worldwide contest.
• The art can be created by using any media.
• You may submit more than one entry: online entries only, hardcopies not accepted;
Entries are to be inspired by the linked comic book. (See: www.scatteredcomics.com/id46.html)
• Entries must be submitted before 11:59:59 PM (PST) ON November 15th, 2008. Entries after this date will not be accepted
• All entries must be 11” x 17” and at least 360dpi
• Acceptable file formats: TIFF, PSD, EPS, PDF, JPEG
• The Work (i) may not have been previously published or won any other prize/award, (ii) must be the exclusive original work of the entrant, (iii) must be in keeping with the Sponsors™ image, (iv) may not be inappropriate, offensive, libelous or defamatory, pornographic, sexually explicit, unlawful or plagiarized, as determined by the Sponsors in their sole discretion, (v) must not be harassing, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, profane, obscene, excessively violent, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable or offensive in any way, as determined by Sponsors in their sole discretion, (vi) may not violate or encourage others to violate any applicable law, statute, ordinance or regulation, (vii) may not defame or invade publicity rights or privacy of any person, living or deceased, or otherwise infringe upon any persona’s personal or property rights or any other third party rights, (vii) may not contain commercial/corporate advertising, including but not limited to corporate logos, brand names, and slogans, other than those relating to the Sponsors and (ix) may not include any viruses, worms, corrupt files, Trojan horses, or other forms of corruptive code or content that may harm or compromise the Contest Site and/or the proper conduct of the Contest.
• All Works submitted will remain the exclusive property of the entrant, provided that:
(i) entrant will not acquire any ownership or other interest in any and all trademarks, logos and other intellectual property of the Sponsors (collectively “Sponsors Marks”) contained in the Work;

Contest entries will be judged based on Technical Skill (25%), Originality (25%) and Creativity (50%). The more creatively you can capture the themes from Scattered, the better your score in Creativity.

• Visit the official Scattered Comic web site: www.scatteredcomics.com
• Visit the Scattered Comic Stuido web site: www.scatteredcomicsstudios.com
• Read Night Owl on ROK Comics

Virunga National Park Promo

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:29:00 +0000

If you're a fan of mountain gorillas (and who isn't?) then you might like this unofficial promo I worked up for the new Virunga National Park web site using pics sent in an email...

Check out the web site at: www.gorilla.cd

80% of World's Population on Mobile by 2013

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:55:00 +0000

Despite turmoil in world financial markets over the last year, the $1 trillion mobile industry continues to confound expectations, with spectacular and accelerating growth, says Portio Research in its report, 'Worldwide Mobile Market Forecasts 2009 – 2013'.

The report, published this week, reveals that over half the world now uses a mobile phone and predicts that 80% of the world's population – 5.8 billion people - will be doing so by the end of 2013.

Put into perspective, 5.8 billion mobile phones represents more than twice the total, combined, number of TV sets and PC’s globally.

Among the top 20 growth markets there are few surprises, the report says. China wins the top spot, just ahead of India. These two countries alone are expected to contribute over 1 billion additional mobile phone users in the next 5 years.

Africa, the Middle East and Latin America are also expected to experience high growth, estimated at 13.3%, 10.7% and 9.9% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate), respectively.

Meanwhile, despite rising mobile data revenues, mobile ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) continues to decline, and is predicted to fall from $23.20 in 2005 to $15.80 by the end of 2013, largely because the additional subscriber growth is likely to come from low per capita income markets.

Nokia, the world’s leading handset manufacturer, shipped 437 million handsets in 2007, while Samsung has displaced Motorola from the number 2 spot. In the first two quarters of 2008, LG displaced Sony Ericsson from the number 4 spot.

Commenting on the report, Laurence Alexander, Group CEO of ROK said “We are enthused by the Portio report as it highlights not just the staggering and continuing growth of the mobile industry, but also the increasing need of operators and manufacturers alike to develop non-voice revenue streams, which is exactly what we offer”.

ROK Entertainment Group Inc., (OTCBB: ROKE) founded in 2004 and owners of ROK Comics, is a global mobile entertainment group. With approximately 200 staff worldwide, ROK has filed more than 40 international patents for its suite of innovative mobile technologies.

With 3.3 billion mobile handsets in use worldwide, the mobile entertainment industry is a multi-billion dollar business.

ROK TV enables the streaming of live and on-demand TV to mobile phones over mass-market 2.5G, as well as over 3G and Wi-Fi.

More Info: www.rokent.com

Mind Reading Mobile!

noreply@blogger.com (John Freeman) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:15:00 +0000

The future (of playing games on your phone) has arrived. San Jose-based company Neurosky Inc. has developed a prototype of a mobile phone which reads brain waves and uses them in its applications. Premiered at a technology exhibition in San Francisco a week ago, web site TechOn reports the headset-shaped system consists of a sensor to read brain waves, digital signal processing part and so forth. The sensor contacts with a point on user's forehead.

By reading brain waves such as α and β waves, the system can roughly measure the degrees of brain's relaxation and concentration, NeuroSky said. The data of brain waves can be displayed on the screen of a mobile phone by using a visualizer or can be used to control the movement of a video game character.

By concentrating on objects and entering a zen-like state, attendees at the Game Developer's Conference in managed to push, pull and even burn on-screen objects.

NeuroSky has already sold development kits to home game console makers and game software developers, and they can now develop systems that use brain waves for operations. The company says it already has more than nine corporate customers.

The company exhibited the new system to show the usefulness of mobile phone application software developed by the kit.

"We prototyped and demonstrated the system to make it possible for our customers to imagine headset-like products," the company told Tech-On. For the future, the company is considering developing not only the systems that control home game consoles and mobile phones by brain waves but also those that control home-use audio-visual equipment.

"Project Millennia" is a multi-biosensor headset, initially targeting the gaming and market research industries and NeuroSky has teamed with technology partners Ascend Visual Systems, Inc., Eye-Com Corporation and Memsic, Inc. to support their phase-one objectives. These include the integration of brainwave (EEG) translations, 2-D accelerometer motion, eye-tracking and 3-D surround sound into a single headset.

The technology will be utilized to control various aspects of an avatar's movement and demeanor.

"NeuroSky´s breakthrough technology is creating a new dimension in human and machine interaction," said Ascend CEO Chern Lee. "Built with Essential Stereo technology, we are excited to incorporate the surround sound audio module with NeuroSky´s headset to create very natural sound effects while also offering comfort and reducing ear fatigue for gamers".

"Eye-Com Corporation envisions that the jointly developed Project Millennia by Eye-Com and NeuroSky will greatly change the way end-users interact with the simulated and real worlds. The integration of optical and neural sensory data has the opportunity to open doors that we have never considered," said Eye-Com CEO Dr. William Torch. "Think about how interactive games will change by giving the end user another tool to play the game – with and without manual dexterity! Think about how the games themselves will change 2008 and the future!"

"Memsic is excited to be working with NeuroSky to incorporate our proprietary accelerometer technology into their next generation gaming headset," says Dr. Yang Zhao, CEO of Memsic, Inc. "Moving forward I believe that there are many additional areas our companies can collaborate to create other groundbreaking applications and products".