Happy Thursday Folks,

This week DC comics finally got on board the digital comics train, and since most big name comic book publishers are now viva-ing the digital revolution, I thought that I would rate each publisher on how they are doing with bringing comics into this new medium. Let’s take a look shall we?

Marvel: The house of ideas has really been pushing the envelope since they went digital a few months back. Marvel was the first publisher to have it’s own dedicated comic book app, as well as having a presence on Comixology, iverse, and Panelfly. Marvel runs it’s app on the Comixology engine, which not only allows readers to go page to page, but panel to panel if they so wish.  The app is also very easy to navigate, with a wide variety of search options to help someone find what they are looking for. The quality of the books in the store is spectacular (especially on the high res display of an ipad). Marvel also allows readers to access the largest online catalog of any comic book publisher, giving readers a cornucopia of choices. most of their downloads are a pretty standard $1.99, but the publisher does offer a large number of free titles to get new readers hooked. The only hiccup that Marvel has had was their rather douchey release of the INVINCIBLE IRON MAN annual digitally on the same day that it came out in print (I went on a rant about this a few weeks ago).

GRADE: A– With a huge catalog, great app, and presence on several other digital purveyors, Marvel has really done a great job of not only embracing digital comics, but making easy for Marvel zombies to do the same.

DC: DC just began their digital comics push this past week, so they are a little late to the game. DC has quickly made up for lost time though, releasing a dedicated DC comics app, which also uses the Comixology engine. DC has also released their digital comics onto the Comixology store proper, as well as making titles available for download on the Sony PSP. While the available catalog is fairly small at the moment, Jim Rood (the man behind the DC digital push) assures fans that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Marvel did the same thing when it came onto the scene, so it makes sense. DC prices their comics at $1.99, $.99, and free, but the free comics available at this point are very limited.

GRADE: B+ DC was late to the party but seem to be doing their best to make up for lost time, still the tardiness and current lack of available issues dings their grade. The comics look good, and are reasonably priced, and with over 80 years of comics to choose from, DC could quickly have more digital comics on the market than anyone else if they wanted to. DC also gets kudos for getting comics onto the PSP, something their rival, Marvel has yet to do.

Image: This publisher was one of the first publishers to go digital, but their situation is a messy one. With each book being owned by different creators, royalties are a bit of a problem, so Image comics are strewn across a variety of different digital comic sellers, which the overall brand quality. As an example, Comixology (which, if you can’t tell has become the big papa of the digital comics world) has 29 Image series, including INVINCIBLE, CHEW, and THE WALKING DEAD, but iverse comics only has six Image titles, the most popular of which is PROOF. Image doesn’t have a dedicated app, but their comics are almost all $.99 per download across the board.

GRADE: C– The lack of a dedicated app really puts Image behind a lot of other publishers. With reading quality dependent on the program that readers may be accessing the books, it’s hard to rate readability. Image has done a good job of keeping their prices low, which does count for something, but they need to catch up to the other big boys.

Boom: These guys went balls-out a few weeks ago, releasing their whole catalog digitally, as well as introducing a dedicated app, using (can you guess?) the Comixology engine. Boom doesn’t have a large catalog, so “the whole catalog” sounds more impressive than it is, but no one else has come close to doing that. Boom also paired with Comixology and iverse to have comics on their sites. Comics will run anywhere from $1.99 to free.

GRADE: B– There just aren’t enough Boom comics yet. However, with titles like IREDEEMABLE, it won’t be long before this company pulls a huge digital market share.

Dark Horse: Going a different route than everyone else, Dark Horse allows readers to download their comics directly from the App store. The quality is fine, but the strictly panel to panel reading is a pain. DH recently began putting their books up for sale with the usual suspects as well, with prices again ranging from $1.99 to free.

GRADE: D+ If for no other reason than originality, but for goodness sake DH, get yourself an app!

IDW: These folks were right behind Marvel in releasing their own dedicated app, which actually runs on an engine other than Comixology (it looks like an iverse engine) . It turns out that this is a mistake, as the zoom feature isn’t nearly so intuitive as the panel to panel functionality that the Comixology app allows. IDW also has distribution deals with digital sellers, and has a fairly large collection of books for sale on line. The prices still run $1.99 and lower.

GRADE: B The lack of a Comixology engine has really hurt their app, but the company has been on the forefront of the digital push, and their extensive online catalog sets them apart from a lot of other publishers.

That’s it for me this week folks. Thanks for stopping in, and don’t forget to check in tomorrow for more supernatural awesomeness from Dr. Cellus.

Greetings readers!

Usually when I sit down to figure out my weekly blog, it takes me a while to scan through the world of comics and find my inspiration. As I was perusing the usual places, it slowly dawned on me that there is an inordinate amount of comic related madness out and about this week. From strange to silly to triflin’, the comic book news cycle was just a bit off. Don’t believe me? Let me share a few tidbits with you:

Lil Obama? A while back, Image comics and Robert Kirkman put out some pretty hilarious teaser images poking fun at Marvel’s AVENGERS promo for the upcoming GUARDIANS OF THE GLOBE book. The images depicted increasingly ridiculous characters joining the team, from Spawn to Barack Obama, to a very Harry Potter-like child (you can check em out here). Well, it turns out that these images were so popular that Image will now feature the team in a series of one page back up stories. The characters will also be cute-ified, as you can see from the cover above. When I saw this, I couldn’t help but think, “Why?” Was the world calling for lil’ Spawn? You can get the official press release over at Image’s Website.

IRON MAN double dipping? Last Friday, Marvel Comics announced that on June 30th INVINCIBLE IRON MAN ANNUAL #1 would be released simultaneously in comic book stores and on their ipad/iphone/ipod app, the first comic to be released in such a fashion. I know that Marvel has been on the forefront of digital distribution, and that your average digital reader might not be your average LCS shopper, but doesn’t this seem kind of, I don’t know, ho-ish? When I read this, I just felt bad for the comic shop guys. Yes, it’s only one comic, but it is still money out of retailer pockets. I guess I’m just amazed that Marvel would treat retailers (who kept them in business through many a rough year) with such disdain. Boo to you Marvel. You can read the press release on Newsarama.

X-men vs. vampires? Sticking with Marvel, the X-franchise has a new issue #1 coming out, with the mighty mutants taking on… vampires? I’m taken aback. Admittedly, I haven’t read an X-book in a little while, but doesn’t this seem kind of out of left field? Out of all the characters in the Marvel U, the X-men don’t really seem like the group to go undead hunting. There’s preview art for you if you are into that sort of thing over at Marvel.

90s trading cards? I came across this small piece of madness over on Comics Alliance and it boggled my mind. For those who don’t feel like following links, let me sum up; in the 1990’s Eclipse Entertainment actually made trading cards for comic book creators. Not characters, creators. Now, I think it’s great that Jack Kirby got his own trading card, but Shirtless McFarlane in the skinny jeans? No, with a side of no. I have often harped on the silliness of the 1990’s comic book scene, and this just proves me right. (On a side note, if you do click over to the main article, how scary is the resemblance between Clive Barker and Adam Sandler?)

World Record? Last week Melbourne, Australia broke the Guinness world record for… get ready for it… “largest number of people in superhero costumes gathered in one place”. That’s got to be one of the strangest world records I’ve ever heard of that didn’t involve some sort of bodily growth. The Aussies snagged the record with a whopping 1245 people in costume, beating previous record holder London, England by a scant 154 people (only one week after London had gained the title). Thanks again to Comics Alliance for filling me in on the craziness.

Super-Dwight? Yesterday, Adidas announced that they would team with Warner Brothers to produce a line of shoes and Apparel featuring Superman and Orlando Magic Center Dwight Howard (pictured above). I’m all for cross-promotion, but what Brad Globe of Warner Bros. had a quote in the article that made me groan. I’m sure you want to see the quote:

“Superman is the universal symbol of strength and speed, not to mention he has one heck of a vertical leap. Dwight’s super heroic feats on the court make this partnership with Adidas an ideal collaboration for basketball and comic book fans alike.”

The article goes on to talk about the history of Superman and the achievements of Howard. The more I read, the odder the pairing seemed. That being said, more power to DC and Warner Bros. for pimping out Supes like a cheap trick, he needed to be taken down a notch. Thanks to comic book resources for the story.

CSI: Mortal Kombat? Weird can work sometimes though as well. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out this re-imagining of Mortal Kombat:

Pretty interesting. This short was put together in the hopes of landing a full length feature, and while parts of it are kind of silly (a former plastic surgeon becomes a martial arts master?), it seems like a shot in the arm for what has become a tired franchise. Given that my only memory of the original Mortal Kombat movie is laughing at Christopher Lambert as a lightning god, I’m rooting for this one to get made.

So, as you can see, it was an odd week for comic book news. Thanks for letting me rant, folks. Check back in tomorrow for the latest from Dr. Cellus. Have a great Thursday!

Today is only three days from geek Christmas. That’s right, this Saturday, May 1st is the 9th annual Free Comic Book Day. In honor of this wondrous day of  complimentary 4 color excitement let’s look at the origins of this magical day and see what it means for the comic industry moving forward.

Free Comic Book Day began as the brain child of retailer Joe Field (who owns Flying Colors Comics) back in 2001. The idea was to have a day that could help the industry to attract new fans who might not otherwise pick up a comic, bring back old fans, and reward current comic book aficionados. In 2002 Diamond distribution picked up the idea and ran with coordinating the first FCBD.  Ever since then, the First Saturday in May (with one exception in 2004) has been a day filled with free books.

In the years since FCBD began, over 2000 different retailers across America and 30 other countries have participated in the event, and more than 12 million books have been given away. The publishing initiative has spawned several offshoots and copy cats in a variety of industries as well; Germany is starting their own FCBD, and there is now a Free Magazine Day and a Free Role Playing Game Day (Which sounds interesting and terrifying all at once).

Publishers have used the day to increase awareness of properties and upcoming events. Marvel has used the day to promote upcoming films (the first FCBD was just before Spider-man), as has IDW (with Transformers). DC has set up events like Blackest Night. Smaller publishers like Red 5 have used the day to springboard into the public eye (Atomic Robo was a big hit last FCBD).

Many retailers have turned FCBD into full-on events for shoppers. It’s not just a day to get free swag, at some stores you can meet comic professionals (and collect a signature or two if that what you are looking for), get some free food, and commiserate with like minded funny book enthusiasts.

So has FCBD worked out? Well, it’s hard to tell. Obviously one of the major goals for the day from the retailers’ standpoint was to increase comic readership and comic buyer-ship (yeah, I’m pretty sure I just made that word up).While FCBD has generally provided retailers with a sales spike in May, there is no concrete evidence to show that the free comic books have generated a stronger market for comic books. The same goes for the publishers, there is no data that proves that FCBD helps or hurts publishers.

Despite the lack of evidence one way or another about the effectiveness of FCBD, it does not seem to be in any danger of going away. Every year the event has taken place, more retailers have gotten involved, and the number of free comics available has increased as well. Plus the fans (myself included) love it.

So this Saturday, go find your local FCBD participating retailer (you can find which retailers are involved on the FCBD website) and check out some fun stuff that you wouldn’t normally check out. Oh, and don’t forget to actually buy something while you are there, those retailers still have to pay for the comics even though we don’t. I personally will be going out to 4 Color Fantasies in Rancho Cucamonga to celebrate the day. Thanks for stopping in everyone, and enjoy Free Comic Book Day!

Greetings Semantinkists!

Today I want to take a look at something that has become increasingly important in comics: Promo images. In the last few weeks, all of the Semantink crew has been discussing how best to get people excited about our new upcoming titles. These days (though I suppose this has been true for a while) promotion before a comic is released is integral to it’s survival. If a book doesn’t get a good jump from the get-go, it’s as good as done. This is true for books big and small. Books like Marvel’s S.W.O.R.D. and DC’s BLUE BEETLE suffered premature cancellations due to low initial sales. Diamond wont even pick up small press books if they can’t meet a certain sales plateau. So, it all comes back to getting readers hooked early, and usually before a book is even launched, which brings us back to the importance of promotional images.

Companies have become increasingly savvy about what a promo image should look like, and when to release it for maximum exposure. There seems to be a difference in what kind of promotion a book gets based on what kind of book it will be. Mega crossovers obviously get a much bigger push, as they affect the sales of more books. New series get a particular kind of promotional image, trying to invite readers to try something new. Events within established books target specific audiences (i.e. the people that already read the book(s) involved).

Obviously, the big two have more money and can afford to do a lot more in terms of images. As an example take a look at some of the images that they put together for the latest events, SIEGE and BLACKEST NIGHT:

DC’s BLACKEST NIGHT promotional image shows that while the book might be Green Lantern-centric, a host of recently dead heroes will be involved. SIEGE highlights the re-teaming of Marvel’s big three Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor, while showing who they are fighting against. Both pieces are very dynamic and feature a large cast of characters involved to get more fans drawn to the project. Marvel and DC have really cornered the market on the crossover event promotion, as most other companies do not have a shared universe to draw from. Smaller companies like Wildstorm or Crossgen have tried crossover events, but the promotional material is lacking, often using cover art from the books themselves as promo pieces.

Note how while both of these covers are striking images, neither lead the reader to pick up books that they might not usually go for. There is a reason that only Marvel and DC do the big cross over event, and it’s because they are the only ones that can do it well.

Promotional images for new comics are a little more diverse in how they can bring in new readers. Books that are hoping to gain a niche because of the creator(s) involved will often highlight that (those) creator(s). An excellent example of this would be the promotional image for the new Todd McFarlane series, HAUNT:

This title is banking on the fact that people will buy the book simply for McFarlane. The art itself is dynamic, but the name is the focus. Another tactic that a company might employ when banking on creator owned success is to just leak the name of a creator and give a dynamite picture to get people going nuts. Icon’s NEMESIS is an example:

While this isn’t the only promotional image that NEMESIS produced (they would go for a more HAUNT-like image later), the “leaked image” technique is an effective tool in the battle for sales.

For books that are getting a relaunch or feature established characters, the goal for promotional art is simple: remind fans that their favorite character is back. A great example of this would be the recent relaunch of the AVENGERS titles. For the better part of a month, Marvel would release an image a day showing some of the most well-known and well-loved Avengers back on the team. Take a look at Thor here:

Another route to take when launching a new book is to take a more humorous approach. Image comics, in an attempt to parody the rash of Avengers promos that appeared recently (just about all of them look like the Thor image above), launched a series of promotional images for their upcoming series, GUARDIANS OF THE GLOBE. They were hilarious:

Yes, that’s Harry Potter.

Whatever tactic is used in designing promotional art, the end result is the same: get people hooked. Promotional art can be the difference between success or failure for a book, and is something that we all think a lot about here at Semantink. Thanks  everyone for stopping in, I’ll see you next week.

Strap in.  This is a long one.

Hollywood is on a comic book movie roll.  The Spider-Man movies didn’t jump the shark until Parker got his emo-boogie on in 3.  The Batman franchise was reinvigorated when Nolan helmed Batman Begins and broke records with The Dark Knight.  X-Men 1 and 2 were both fantastic and Iron Man was a success, throwing Marvel’s hat into the ring again after a brief moment in suck after X-Men 3.  Ed Norton and Louis Leterrier gave us a kick-ass Hulk movie (finally) with the Abomination looking beautiful as well.  Over the last decade countless other films have been making the crossover from page to screen as well (some you may not recognize as graphic novels): American Splendor, Road to Perdition, 30 Days of Night, and Kick Ass to name a few.

But it hasn’t always been great…  For years the translation was murky, at best.  After Burton, Suckmaker blew his ass all over comic fans with Forever and & Robin, proving that he’d never actually read a comic in his life.  Singer’s Superman has mixed reviews, but at best it’s an “I’ll watch it if I’m bored” film.  And if you go back further you can find more examples of translation-de-shit: Ang Lee’s Hulk, Nick Cage in Ghost Rider, and who can forget Halle Berry’s Catwoman (a film unsurvivable, even by Halle’s twin pair of Monster Balls).

Making a comic film is still a gamble.  And while things seem to be getting better, fans everywhere still get nervous with each announcement that one of there favorite characters is getting the big screen treatment.  Thus my dilemma with Captain America: The First Avenger.

Touch it and it will grow. Yeah. Slowly now…

The seeds for this one were planted a couple years back when Marvel announced plans to make Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Captain America before releasing an Avengers film — fans everywhere went gag.  Then Iron Man came out and we all wet our pants.  For the first time ever we realized that it was possilbe for the Avengers film to really, truly happen (and for that God Bless you Mr. Favreau).  But we got a bit more…  In one clip of the film, Tony Stark is in his lab and we get a glimpse at Cap’s shield itself.  Geeks rejoiced.  But the goodness still wasn’t over.  At the end of the film, for those patient enough to sit through credits, an even bigger surprise: Sam, Motha-Fuckin’ Jackson strolled in yappin Fury styles.  It was, without a doubt, one of the greatest moments in the history of the geek community’s relationship with Hollywood.  And for that moment, we will always be grateful.

Things got even more real when The Incredible Hulk came out.  Now this film didn’t see the same level of love that Iron Man did, which is a shame because it was perfect.  Much Like the latest Castle romp, Punisher: War Zone, the film stayed true to the comic book and wasn’t received well by the crowds (PS: I will fight any of you bitches that says differently about Punisher because you are wrong and stupid).  Despite it’s lackadaisical numbers, we got another moment of Marvel madness at the end of The Incredible Hulk when, Tony Stark shows up blabbering about the Avenger initiative after the credits! Shit got really real…  But in a DVD-only exclusive, we got to see a frozen Captain America in the ice!

So, where are we now?  Well Brannaugh’s shooting Thor and managed to pull in quite the cast (Portman, Hines, Hopkins, Russo, Skarsgaard and Jackson to name a few).  But to be honest, I’m kind of “whatever with that one.  It’s Thor.  He’s great, but he’s no Captain America.  Disagree?  That’s fine.  You’re a moron.  Besides, Brannaugh is a fantastic Director so I’m not much worried about that project.  Now, Captain America: The First Avenger, or, The First Avenger: Captain America, or whatever the hell they’re calling it starts shooting in June, and this one has me all twitterpated.  Here’s  a couple reasons why (and if you don’t know anything about Captain America, I suggest you get familiar at this, his Wikipedia page):

The Director.  Joe Johnston is in the hot seat, fresh off of the Wolfman.  Yeah.  That Wolfman.  Now Wolfman wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t mind-blowingly good either.  Perhaps we should look at Mr. Johnston complete body of work to get a better grasp on the situation.  So, in complete fairness, here are the last seven movies directed by Johnston (before Wolfman): Hidalgo, Jurassic Park III, October Sky, Jumanji, The Page Master, The Rocketeer, and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.  If you’re like me (and you probably aren’t) you’re thinking, wow, I really wish I had a picture of that girl from The Rocketeer staring into a mirror all nakey (see right).  Or, if you’re a more normal human being (which sucks for you), you may have noticed a theme in Johnston’s line of work.  Keyword: mediocrity.  None of his film are terrible, but none of them are edge-your-seat, smack-a-hooker, lick-a-midget awesome either.  It is with that in mind that I wonder, is this the man to bring Captain America to the big screen?

The next anxiety-inducing cluster involves all of the rumored actors to be filling Cap’s boots.  Aintitcool.com broke the news in February that there was a particular list of potentials for the role — all of them scared the hell out of me.  If they choose one of these kids, I hope I’m wrong and that they knock it out of the park, but for the record, I’m voting for nay on each of ‘em.  The list includes (Click for a pic): Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl), John Krasinski (The Office), Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights), Mike Vogel (Cloverfield), Michael Cassidy (Privelaged), Patrick Flueger (Brothers), and Garrett Hedlund (Tron Legacy).  As a reminder, this is what Cap it supposed to look like:

“Your ‘list’ can suck my Patriotic nuts.”

On Tuesday it broke that there might be a light at the end of the tunnel.  Yahoo is reporting that Channing Tatum may be up for the role.  Yes, the guy from Step Up.  So why do I see this as good news?  Well, for starters the guy is agile — he’s a fucking dancer!  In the agility department, the next best choice for Cap is Jason Statham!  Second, he looks the part.  Seriously.  And finally, he’s got some acting chops, not big ones, but they’re there!  I know I’m going to take some heat for this, but I think this is the man.  I’d say Chris Evans, but he blew his load on those flaming pieces of shit called Fantastic Four.  I know there are a ton of actors out there, but if we end up with Tatum, things could be a lot worse — just look at the list we mentioned!  Please don’t misunderstand me, I can think of a list of actors that are both better qualified and better suited to don Cap’s costume, but I’m being realistic — the studios won’t let that happen.  Does Tatum have issues?  Yes.  But if I have to choose between him and the guy from The Office, it’s not even a choice.

Now I don’t want to leave you all scared, so let me throw out this little tid-bit of gloriousness: The Red Skull casting is spot-the-fuck-on.  Agent Smith himself, Hugo Weaving.  I couldn’t be happier about this choice.  I know a few people that have said, “as long as he changes his voice he’ll be fine.”  Really?  I think this guy’s voice was made for this role.  Let him take it and run with it.  As a matter of fact, let Weaving play all the roles and direct the film — I’d be happier with that than the Johnston/Tatum team up I’m getting now…

I am very scared about this film.

Until next time,

Mr. Wolff

Back to Semantink

Happy Sunday folks!

With the end of the year (and the decade!) right around the corner, I thought it best to start giving out awards. Since all the greatest awards have cute little names (Oscars, Tonys, etc., etc.) I thought it only fair that our awards at Semantink have a name too. So, with that in mind, I am giving out the first annual INKY awards. Huzzah!

Best Series (ongoing):WALKING DEAD (Image)- No other series continues to bring shock and surprise as well as the WALKING DEAD. Robert Kirkman can and will kill off any one at any time, so the reader is constantly on their toes. Charlie Adlard provides gruesomely perfect art as well. This book is a must read every month.

Best Mini-Series: WAR OF KINGS (Marvel)- Marvel has done a great job with their space operas the last few years, and this year continues that trend. WAR OF KINGS pitted the Kree against the Shi’ar in a battle royale and did it beautifully. Paul Pelletier does a great job of showing interplanetary ass-kickery, and nobody does a better job at interstellar warfare stories than Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning.

Most fun I’ve had reading this year: Old Man Logan (Marvel)- There were plenty of great reads this year, but nothing was more fun than Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s tale of Wolverine in the future. A great concept, executed to perfection.

Best Writer: Grant Morrison- This was a tough one. Brian K. Vaughn has done a great job this year, making politics cool in EX MACHINA.  Geoff Johns made SUPERMAN readable again. Grant Morrison, however, has had a banner year. FINAL CRISIS, Morrison’s version of the semi-annual DC crisis finished up at the start of the year. Morrison followed up with another great installment of SEAGUY, and an awesome run on BATMAN AND ROBIN.

Best Penciller: Steve McNiven- Just look at the pretty pictures.

Best Inker: Oclair Albert: Oclair is the inker for GREEN LANTERN and BLACKEST NIGHT. Ivan Reis is a great penciller, but Albert’s inks make the pencils sing. He has a slick style that is perfect for s a space book.

Best Colorist– Dave Stewart- Stewart is the man behind the beautiful colors of the HELLBOY and BPRD books.

Best Cover Artist: J.H. Williams III- Williams has been doing beautiful work for years, but his covers for DETECTIVE have been some of the best of his career, as well as some of the best covers of the year.

Best Editor: Tom Brevoort (Marvel)- The man handles an insane load of titles for Marvel, from Spider-man, to the Avengers, to the Fantastic Four, and does a fine job with all of them.

Best Event: Blackest Night (DC comics)- Blackest night has been kicking butt and taking names since the first issue, and shows no signs of stopping. Anytime you have scads of undead rollin’ around and offing people, you are on the right track to awesome.

Best Big Publisher: Marvel Comics- Marvel wins based on it’s advancements in digital comics. The publisher signed a deal with several online comic book reader sites like Panelfly and Iverse to produce content for them. They also did a great job in 2009 with motion comics like SPIDER-WOMAN and ASTONISHING X-MEN.

Best Small Publisher: Top Shelf– These guys had a banner year. THE SURROGATES became a major motion picture and they landed Alan Moore and all his new projects (like the latest LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN project). It’s tough for anyone to top that.

Best Comic Book Movie: Watchmen- Given the choices this year, this one was easy. Wolverine was a hot mess and Whiteout was boring. Watchmen, while not perfect, was a beautiful translation of the source material. Jackie Earle Haley was chilling as Rorschach, and Zack Snyder obviously put a lot of heart into making Watchmen the best movie it could be,

Best Original Graphic Novel: ASTERIOS POLYP- Dave Mazzucchelli spent years on this book and it shows. The story is nothing earth-shattering, but the way Mazz uses color and shape to dispaly tone and emotion is.

Best Publication Design: Absolute Editions (DC)- The Absolute edition books that DC puts out are always the cream of the crop for story reproduction. The — format allows the art to shine and only the best stories make it to Absolute format.

Book I’ve been waiting forever for: Planetary #27- Thank you Warren Ellis and John Cassaday for making it worth the wait.

Technological breakthrough that will shape the next decade: Digital comic book readers- Over the next 10 years, comics aren’t going away, but they are going to evolve into the digital realm. This year was a huge step forward in the evolution of comics with apps for smart-phone comic book reading and companies like Longbox digital gearing up to put comics online.

Best comic viewing app: Iverse- There are several great apps for comics, but none are as clean and easy to use as iverse. Iverse also has the largest catalog of books, which is a big deal.

Publisher to look out for in 2010: Semantink–We are hot!

Congratulations to all Inky award winners! Your statuettes are in the mail. To all of our readers out there, thanks for tuning in, I’ll see you tomorrow.

Welcome to November!

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about digital comics. This was inspired by two things; first, I just got an iphone, and it is rockin’ my world. Second, on Friday Marvel comics began making their comics available digitally through a number of sources. You can read more about Marvel’s deal here.

Now, I’ve ranted before on motion comics and webcomics, but today I wanted to talk to all those smart phone holding comic book readers out there about your options for reading comics on the go. There are a number of choices out there, so you all should know what you are getting into.

iVerse: Of all the comic readers available for phone use, iVerse is the cleanest and most professional. The store is simple and easy to navigate, and the reader itself is intuitive to use. For those who need a tutorial, iVerse has videos on it’s website to show how to navigate both the store and reader pages.

Several companies have signed up with iVerse, including Red 5, IDW, and Boom! studios, as well as Marvel. Currently, the company has not decided to produce the iVerse application anywhere other than for the iphone, but press releases state that the company does have an eye towards eventually developing apps for other smart phones. Perhaps most importantly, while the comics themselves may cost you 99 cents or so, the app itself is free.

Comixology: Comixology is also a comic viewer, but the focus for this company less about the reader and more about the comic shop experience. The Comixology app and website both try to give subscribers a more connected feeling than other apps do. With Comixology, subscribers can read and write reviews, create virtual pull lists, read columns,listen to podcasts, and find the local comic book shop. Comixology is also working on a virtual subsciption service, but it’s still in beta testing. The app itself is easy to navigate but the reader is not as good as the iVerse reader, but the browsing capability is better. Comixology is also paired up with Marvel, as well as Vertigo, Aspen, and Top Cow among others. The Comixology app is currently only available for the iphone, but Blackberry and Android versions are on the way. The full app costs $1.99, (as well as the comics themselves) but there is a lite version for free as well.

Panelfly: Another of the companies that Marvel has partnered with, Panelfly is a pretty neat app. Like Comixology, Panelfly gives a community feel, allowing subscribers to rate and review comics, and post their feelings onto facebook and twitter, straight from the app, as opposed to Comixology, where a lot of the features are available from the website. The reader itself is basic, but neat, and the store is well arranged and easy to navigate.

Aside from Marvel, Panelfly doesn’t have a lot of big name publishers in it’s stable yet, with SLG, Antarctic and picturebox being about the biggest names you will find available, but that is sure to change with Marvel signing up. Panelfly, like the other apps I’ve mentioned so far, is currently only available for the iphone. The panelfly app is free, which we all love, and there are a large number of free books available to download.

Comic Zeal: The Comic Zeal comics reader is very different than your other comic apps. The app itself is $3.99, and then there are a number of steps that one has to go through to make the comic books readable on the application itself. The goal of Comic Zeal is to create more of a library effect, like the way people have their music set up in an ipod. This app is still a ways from being something to really think about for on the go comic enjoyment.

Uclick: Uclick’s focus has been creating the best comic book reader available. The difference with Uclick is that there is no app to download, you just download the book you want to read, and Uclick makes the story readable. The approach is great for those who don’t want to be bothered with downloading another app, but for those who want to browse, this is not the way to go. Uclick has partnered with brands like IDW, Mirage, and TOKYOPOP, and is currently available only on the iphone.

Clickwheel: The new kid on the block in the comic reader market, click wheel is still finding it’s place. Clickwheel is pretty standard, nothing spectacular, or terrible about it. The one thing that Clickwheel has that other companies do not is 2000AD, home to stories like JUDGE DREDD.  The company’s biggest drawback is a dearth of big publishers involved. As of right now, Clickwheel is only available for the iphone, but other platforms are being looked into. The app is free.

There are a lot of choices on the market for reading comics from your phone, and the great thing is, you can try most of them out for free. None of these reader apps are exclusive to any particular company which means that you don’t have to go to company A for Marvel, company B for DC. People can choose a reader based on what they want most out of the comic book experience, and that is what is so neat about all of these companies, they all offer readers something different. I am sure that eventually there will be one app that becomes the standard, but this moment, with the amount of choices available, the winners are comic book fans.

Thanks for stopping by folks, see you tomorrow.

Happy Friday all!

I would be remiss if I did not write something  about the biggest comic book news of the week/month/year. That’s right, the news that Disney bought Marvel Entertainment for a reported $4 Billion Dollars. What does this mean? How do I feel? What Happens next?

Marvel is now a part of the Disney empire. That’s every bit Marvel, characters, licensing agreements, Marvel film studios, EVERYTHING. From press releases I have read from both parties, there isn’t going to be a lot of change in the near future. Marvel’s leasing agreements with video games and toys are staying in place for the immediate future, and existing film deals with other studios will be honored. Eventually Disney will take these things in-house, but not until current contracts are done. Disney seems to be easing the transition, which I think is a smart move.

I can see the potential for a lot of great things coming out of this deal, but as a child who grew up a Marvel zombie, I can see the other side as well. But, let’s focus on the positive for now. This is a great thing for Marvel in terms of exposure. Disney has the ability to now drop Marvel comic books where ever Disney products are sold, which is, well, everywhere. Disney has it’s own TV stations, that currently play 20 hours of animated Marvel programming a week, so imagine what they will do now that they have the rights to these shows. It will be awesome to see Marvel comics so accessible.

Another thing about this deal that could be great is the movie side of the equation. Disney owns Pixar, so I see visions of Marvel comics done by Pixar, and my inner geek does back-flips. Disney also does a good job of quality control, so the odds of seeing another Daredevil film that makes me want to puke are decreased.

As a small press publisher, I get excited because I see an opportunity for people like myself. Now movie studios that want to make comic movies have to go to the smaller guys, because the big two are spoken for. That’s right Universal, I am waiting for my phone call.

This could also help the small press guy with distribution. Marvel will probably be distributed through Disney now, and not Diamond, which means that Diamond is going to be looking for smaller books to fill it’s catalog. Yay, little guys!

Of course, this news isn’t all puppy dogs and rainbows either. There are lots of things about this deal that could really suck. For example, I don’t want to see Spider-man in the Magic Kingdom, he doesn’t belong there, and he would not fit. It would be a raping of two different aspects of my childhood, and that would make is serial rape.

Along that same note, I do not want to see Darkwing Duck joining the Avengers, or the Gargoyles taking up residence in Hell’s kitchen to bother Power Man. If Disney decides to become an editorial force in the comic publishing arm of Marvel, it could set the company back in a huge way.

So, my stomach is all atwitter with this news, but I do not know, and I don’t think that I will know for a few years, if this was a good thing or a bad thing for Marvel comics, and for the rest of the comic book world. What do you guys think?