Introducing a great new feature where we wrap up the best stories of the week into one handy bundle!
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Not content with just creating one of the best comics in recent memory with Saga, writer Brian K Vaughan is set to shake up the world of self publishing too with his new creator owned website Panel Syndicate and it’s debut title, The Private Eye #1.
Last week saw the release of a new series of Marvel Infinite Comics based around their intergalactic superheroes, Guardians of the Galaxy. The team behind the first issue, Drax the Destroyer, are the superstar team behind Powers, writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Avon Oeming. Keen to get the scoop on what it was like for such an established team to work in the exciting world of digital comics – especially a team who are used to working on creator owned projects – we contacted Michael Avon Oeming to ask him just how got involved with the Guardians and whether this would inspire him to create digital editions of his creator owned titles.
There’s no denying that Alan Moore is a visionary comics writer, his résumé speaks for itself. But in recent years as his work has taken a more avant grade and experimental approach, not always for the better. The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, once his most well rounded book has descended into psychedelic insanity, perhaps as a reaction to the ill fated movie, and subsequent books, especially the recent 1969 and 2009 editions, although brimming with inventive ideas became oblique and pretentious. They were still packed full of insightful references from the world of music, art and literature and Kevin O’Neill’s art still bristled with energy and imagination, but as the references became increasingly obscure and the characters often more and more self indulgent each issue seemed to require a degree in occult literature and an epic companion glossary just to make head nor tail of it. Although it is great to know that someone is at least making intelligent comics,  showing off how much you know about obscure literarty characters it does not always make for the most interesting read.Â
This week saw ComiXology launch the new ComiXology Submit service for indie comics creators with help from an awesome how to guide from indie stalwart Too Much Coffee Man by Shannon Wheeler.  Submit offers independent creators the chance to upload their comic book and graphic novels for approval at no cost. ComiXology then transforms the work intro their Guided View reading format, market it via their apps on iPad, Amazon Kindle, Android and Windows 8  and creators and ComiXology equally split all profits, with creators maintaining full ownership of their work. As well as launching this great service they also unveiled works from Indie creators that are new to ComiXology thanks to Submit, such as Wheeler’s Too Much Coffee Man,  Jake Parker’s The Antler Boy and Other Stories, Becky Cloonan’s  Wolves & The Mire, Richard Stevens Diesel Sweeties would be available at www.comixology.com/submit
How far would you go to earn a living? In the brilliant High Crimes from MonkeyBrain Comics lead characters Zan and Haskell go literally to the top of the world – Everest to be precise – in order to lower themselves to the bottom of the moral barrel as they attempt to swindle money out of the family’s of deceased climbers. With this brilliantly original premise at the heart of High Crimes we wanted to know whether writer Christopher Sebela was as intrepid as his lead characters and whether he would pay to get his loved ones off the worlds highest peak!
Following in the metallic footsteps of last years Transformers: Autocracy from IDW Publishing comes another digital exclusive title in the form of Transformers: Monstrosity. Written by the same time of Chris Metzen and Flint Dille and with the stunning painted artwork of Livio Ramondelli it continues the story of the early days of the Autobots and Decepticons on Cybertron. Following on from the events in Autocracy, Orion Pax has assumed the title of Optimus Prime after ousting the despotic Zeta Prime and defeating the rebellious Decepticons – who had aided his coup d’état but betrayed him and left him for dead before he uncovered the Matrix of Leadership and vanquished the duplicitous Megatron.
A group of game developers from the fantastically named Loveshack Entertainment have announced a rather intriguing iOS game that mixes our two favourite things – comics and iPads. The game is called ‘Framed‘ and looks like an old style comic book page – but no ordinary one. Your character works his way through the panels in order, according to what the panel depicts – whatever the consequences might be – and as the player it’s up to you to prevent your hero from meeting a sticky end by rearranging the panels so he make it to the end of the page unharmed.
This weekend Marvel unveiled 3 exciting new initiatives at the South by South West festival in Austin, Texas as they look to ‘re’-evolve’ the world of digital comics – their words, not ours! by releasing them at SXSW’s Interactive event, which is primarily focused on technology and interactive web design, Marvel made a clear statement of intent that the world of digital comics is one that will be the real driving force for them in 2013
You wait for months for an exciting new digital comic to come along and then two come along at once with Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Infinite and a new Atomic Robo!
