It’s the hundred birthday of creator Charles Addams, an American cartoonist who introduced the world to these characters in the 30s, with cartoons originally appearing in The New Yorker. Eventually, of course, the characters would come to life on Television, and later still, in film.

Addams died in 1988 of a heart attack at 76.

For the doodle itself, Google credits The Tee & Charles Addams Foundation (where the above image came from as well).

Note: The foundation’s site appears to be currently experiencing the doodle effect, and is experiencing periods of downtime.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call the current Netflix situation a philosophical issue, but I would call it a bit perplexing. It seems that most people on the interwebs feel that same kind of confusion regarding Reed Hastings’ Sunday night announcement regarding Netflix’s new DVD-only sister company Qwikster.

The announcement was wrapped up inside a supposed apology for the way Netflix handled the whole plan-restructuring, price change, whatever you want to call it. Hastings admitted that Netflix might have been in the wrong by just splitting up the streaming and DVD services, subsequently upping the prices by 60% in one fell swoop.

Basically, “I’m sorry for that whole splitting up thing we did a few months ago, we’re going to make it better by splitting it up some more.”

This is a perfectly understandable decision if you think that Netflix is trying to package their DVD service in order to get rid of it. It’s a mind boggling decision to Netflix customers who have valued the functionality and simplicity of the service for all of these years. Those customers are a little confused as to why the two services that they know and love are suddenly being disintegrated.

Back to that part about simplified scenarios helping us visualize what’s going on. This comic by internet comic force The Oatmeal is about as good as it gets. It imagines Netflix and a sandwich shop, one that decides to make an interesting decision regarding what they want to sell at their location.

Check it out below -

The comic is being published by Bluewater Productions, which publishes comics and graphic novels of all types. They do, however, put a large quantity of comic bios on the shelves. They recently published a Mark Zuckerberg comic that was immensely popular (it sold out). They have also published comic bios of Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, Lady Gaga and Sarah Palin.

The Steve Jobs bio is available for pre-order right now on Amazon for only $3.99. Unless there is some sort of error, it looks like the comic is already #109 on the bestseller charts for all books. Talk about your cult of mac.

Here’s what you can look forward to, according to the product description -

Steve Jobs is a very elusive individual. He strays from the public eye. He keeps to himself. He’s not a paparazzi driven, media-hungry entity. He’s a creator, an inventor, a genius. And he’s the brains behind some of Apple’s biggest items. Learn here the story behind the man, the legend of Steve Jobs. Get the inside scoop on what drives him to create and where his first need for intelligence came from. From his first Apple computer all the way to the newest inventions, learn how this man has shaped the company, and himself, for the better.

PC World has obtained an early look at some pages from the new comic. Frames range from a young Jobs in the hospital newborn unit to a black turtle-necked Jobs unveiling an iGadget on stage. The frames are early, and don’t contain any coloring or speech bubbles. This has the interesting effect of making Job’s rise to fame seem a tad inauspicious. Maybe that’s just me.

Check some of them out –

Another, less graphical biography of Job entitled “iSteve: The Book of Jobs” will hit the shelves March 6th, 2012. Which one would you rather read?

Just today, Arnold tweeted a link to the official trailer for the series. You can see the trailer above, be sure to leave a comment below with your thoughts on it.

The cartoon is just a single element of a multi-platform rollout, produced by comic legend Stan Lee, Andy Heyward and Schwarzenegger himself, which also includes a comic book, Internet delivered-content and a 3D feature length film. Recently Heyward told Deadline that, “it all starts with a 52-episode series that will feature the voice and animated image of Schwarzenegger as a superhero bent on beating the bad guys and the forces of evil.”

It’ll be interesting to see how the producers use social media to push these projects, as the cartoon series doesn’t even debut until late 2012. Can they make this series go viral before it even launches? Tell us what you think in the comments section.

An online subscription model that permits the reading of thousands of long out of print comics could be the key to a cash infusion at Marvel. Anyone with nostalgia for the early days of Spider-Man, or a desire to catch up on some more recent titles, will be the target audience.

With customary superheroic drama, the publisher has dubbed the program Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited. They offer monthly and annual subscription options, the annual option priced under $60.

The new program seems to have found plenty of interest on the Internet, as accessing Marvel’s website at times proved impossible. Marvel did make some 250 comics available for free reading online, as an enticement to pony up for a subscription.

New and very recent titles won’t be part of the program, as Marvel sensibly does not want to undercut the comic stores, on and offline, that sell them. However, making older titles available for an inexpensive subscription could hamper demand for the printed version of now-rare issues.

Such relatively inexpensive and broad availability of titles that made their marks on a younger audience may find favor with those now-grownup and working people. On a personal note, I’m looking forward to re-reading the first 24 issues of Excalibur, from the time when Alan Davis and Chris Claremont worked on the title, as well as Warren Ellis’ two-year run.

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MySpace Partners With Dark Horse Comics

"Dark Horse Comics, with a dedicated fan base and history of innovative comic properties, is the ideal partner for MySpace," said Shawn Gold, SVP of Marketing for MySpace.

"We are thrilled to help resurrect Dark Horse Presents in its new digital format and continue the long and storied legacy of this comic institution classic."

The August issue of "MySpace Dark Horse Presents" will be available today on MySpace.  Comics in the first issue include "Sugar Shock", a new comic from artist Fbio Moon and Joss Whedon, creator of  "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Samurai" by Ron Marz and Luke Ross, and "Comic-Con Murder Mystery" by Rick Geary.

The comics in future issues of "Myspace Dark Horse Presents" will include both established comic creators and amateurs. Editors from Myspace and Dark Horse Comics will search MySpace profiles for new artists to feature in upcoming issues. New issues will be available on MySpace the first week of every month.

"Just over 20 years ago, we published our first comic, Dark Horse Presents #1. Our goal was to bring new and talented creators to the forefront of comics culture, and also to give industry luminaries a chance to retain the rights to their work" said Mike Richardson, president and founder of Dark Horse Comics.

"Years later, with that same goal in mind, we are reviving this title online, with the help of MySpace.com, whom we feel may be the most culturally relevant website on the net."

Coalition Comix will commission some of the comic book industry’s creators to work with users as virtual "Story Masters." Creators will guide participants to collectively develop new story properties for comics that can be used to create films, games and animations.

"Coalition Comix will allow readers to collaborate artistically with both a leading comics professional as well as thousands of like-minded MySpace users all over the world," said Sharad Devarajan, CEO of Virgin Comics.

"It opens the door to a new world of interactions and collaborations, taking an exciting step into the creative possibilities of the internet, and a new form of collaborative art without borders, barriers, or limits."

Each issue will have a creation period of two weeks, with sketches, artwork and scripts uploaded for user interaction. The first comic will be led by comic book author Mike Carey. (Voodoo Child, X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four).

Carey will communicate with readers and oversee the development of the plot along with reviewing feedback from readers, and asking questions with five or six choices for the Coalition Comix participants to choose from. Participant’s ideas and votes will decide the final plot.

Gotham Chopra, Virgin Comic’s Chief Creative Officer, said, "Creativity and innovation our the core ingredients to everything we try and do at Virgin Comics."

"So when we decided we wanted to experiment online and do something different, there was only one partner that made sense to work with – MySpace. What are we gonna create together? No one knows, but it will be cool. That’s the point."

The site is scheduled to launch in October and will have multiple on going Web comics. After the sites launch most of the Web comics will be selected by Zudacomics.com’s visitors who will vote on new comics during periodic competitions. Winners will receive commissions to create a year’s worth of comics for the site and will have their work published in print formats as well.

"There is an explosion of creativity in web comics," said Paul Levitz, DC Comics President & Publisher. "We want to build a great stage for this new generation of creators to perform on, a solid system for their work to reach audiences online and in print, and for the creators to share in the profits their creations can generate."

"In this time of rapid technological and cultural change, DC wants to be a good publisher for the evolving and growing community of online comic creators, so that we can be their partner for showcasing new kinds of works to entertain future generations."

DC Comics says they want comic creators to submit material that runs the spectrum of comic book genres such as humor, romance, science fiction, fantasy and superheroes.

A Zuda comic will be made up of a series of 4:3 aspect ratio screens, so that users can read a comic without having to open an additional browser. On going comics will run for 52 total installments.

 DC Comics used IBM to design and build the site. The site will have blogging, commenting, rating and tagging to allow user to participate and for artists to receive feedback on their work.

The Zudacomics teaser site will launch in July, during the San Diego ComicCon. "Zuda Comics will be a transparent publishing operation," said Ron Perazza, Online Director. "We’re asking the community and the creators to participate in the growth of a new business.

"They need to have access to every bit of information we can provide, so we’re going to roll out our submissions process, our contracts and agreements throughout the summer, well before our October content launch."

Greg Williams picks Wikipedia articles and “converts” them into small comic books, sharing enabled. The following WikiWorld comic is based on a Wikipedia article on Hammerspace:

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Microsoft talked Marvel Comics into unleashing its cast of 4-color characters into the netherworld of the Xbox360. With Marvel’s complete list of over 5000 character up for usage, some characters that don’t get into the comics or the movies could quite possibly end up here.

The deal is a worldwide licensing agreement so while I play Vision in Kentucky, my buddies in Germany and Japan can play Nightcrawler and Sasquatch. Of course the jerk who always plays the Punisher will come in and shoot everybody.

“The alliance with Microsoft catapults us into the games category in an unprecedented way. Microsoft is an acknowledged leader in the interactive game space, and backed by their technology, creative and marketing clout, Marvel will establish a strong presence in the burgeoning online gaming arena,” said Tim Rothwell, worldwide president of the Consumer Media Group at Marvel Enterprises. “We are very excited to be working with Microsoft to bring our fans what we expect will be a world-class online gaming experience. We also believe online gaming will provide valuable, global exposure to our character brands.”

MMORPGs are massive entities for online games that got their start a few years ago. They’ve evolved into topnotch games now with things like World of Warcraft. The Marvel Experience promises something exciting, especially when the game has about 30 gigs or so of graphics and other feature in high definition.

The catch, and this is a big one, is that this baby isn’t due out until 2008. We’ve got to wait a lousy 3 years to get at this puppy but I can hear the everlovin’ Thing’s battle cry “It’s CLOBBERIN’ TIME!” I suspect Microsoft will embrace that motto when faced with PS3s in the future.

I hope the game makes read this though because there are two important points to include. First, get the rights to the Ramone’s recording of Spiderman. It will certainly add flavor. And second, you have to include the Great Lakes Avengers. It’s absolutely imperative. EXCELSIOR!

John Stith is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.