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Excelsior! Marvel Comics to offer digital releases same day as print
Sure, we may have established that Stan Lee doesn't really know what to do with his iPhone on the last Engadget Show, but that doesn't mean your friendly neighborhood Marvel employees aren't ready to embrace the digital wave with full-force. According to Gizmodo, the comics publishing powerhouse will be bringing its full line of books (save for some third-party licensed titles) to digital platforms the same day they're released in stores, a move that comes as the company's chief competition, DC, has been aggressively establishing itself in the digital space. The transition is expected to be completed by the end of March. 'Nuff said.
Introducing Engadget: The Comic!
If you haven't picked up a copy of Distro yet, you're missing out on all sort of great content, including a little gem hidden away on the back page of each issue. We asked some of our favorite indie cartoonists to create strips based on tech news, and thus Engadget: The Comic was born. It's a weekly feature by a cast of revolving artists, including Box Brown, Dustin Harbin, Ed Piskor and more, that will appear first in the pages of Distro and eventually make its way onto our site. To give you some idea of what you're in store for, we've included a gallery below. We hope you enjoy reading these as much as we have.%Gallery-137018%
Preview: 4 pages from forthcoming Steve Jobs graphic novel
Forbes has published four pages from the upcoming Zen of Steve Jobs graphic novel. The 60-page book is brought to you by Forbes and the people at JESS3, who specialize in data visualization. The Zen of Steve Jobs is a re-imagining of Steve Jobs' life during the mid-1980s after he left Apple and before he founded NeXT. During that time Jobs befriended Kobun Chino Otogawa, a Zen Buddhist priest. The two shared a passion about art, design and innovation. The graphic novel imagines how their friendship influenced Steve Jobs' later decisions when he returned to Apple. Yeah, it's a little weird that Forbes is publishing fictional Steve Jobs comic books, but I'm sure it'll be a best-seller. The graphic novel will have its digital release in late fall. In the mean time you can check out four preview pages by clicking the link above and another page here.
Chris Ware releases iPad-only comic via McSweeney's app
Chris Ware is an amazing cartoonist out of Chicago, and he's done a lot of work with McSweeney's, the literary journal run by novelist Dave Eggers and his company. Now, Ware has released an iPad-only comic, released inside the McSweeney's app, and co-developed with Spaces of Play, the studio behind the recent iOS game Spirits. The comic is called Touch Sensitive, and it's apparently 14 pages of art and animations by Ware, featuring his great style and pace. The piece itself is a 99 cent purchase inside the McSweeney's app, which is a free download available now. There's a lot of other content in there, too, including a month long subscription to their service called The Small Chair, featuring stories, essays, interview, and other works from the McSweeney's stable. If you haven't checked the app out yet, you should definitely pick it up. And the Ware comic is a great first purchase in there, too -- it's completely exclusive to the iPad, so this is your only chance to read it.
IDW releasing comics for iBooks
Most of the comic books released on the iPad and iPhone have been inside of special apps (many of which are run by ComiXology, actually), but here's another option. Comic book publisher IDW is set to release some graphic novels and comic books through iBooks, meaning that you can buy them right inside Apple's official e-reader app. 20 different graphic novels are coming out in the first round, ranging from genre stuff like Star Trek and Doctor Who, to licensed titles like Dragon Age, and older stuff like Locke & Key and Bloom County. Each should cost around $6 to $10 (which is competitive, especially compared to buying the full paper editions of these books), and should be available in the iBookstore soon, if not already. I used to be a die-hard paper book reader, but lately I've seen a lot of value in iBooks, not just in terms of price, but also in the convenience of having all the books I happen to be reading stored on my iPhone. I have a feeling that ComiXology and other apps like it will probably remain the best way to pick up day-one releases of periodical comic books (at least until NewsStand comes along in iOS 5), but for library editions and collected graphic novels, iBooks could become the best and easiest way to read those.
Take a look at World of Warcraft: Bloodsworn comic preview art
If you like orcs getting stabbed in the neck with broken-off wooden objects (and who could blame you, really?), then the promotional art for the new World of Warcraft: Bloodsworn comic should be for you. Artist Jeremy Raapack put up two pages of promo art on his blog, talking about the reveal of the comic at SDCC. So far, it's looking pretty sweet, and Bloodsworn should definitely focus more on the Horde side of things than the original comic series did. I have to say I really enjoy this picture of a troll from the comic. Granted, I can't tell the story from these two pages at all, but the art's solid and I'll give it a chance for that reason alone.
Dark Horse compiles Valve comics
Dark Horse Comics has revealed Valve Presents: The Sacrifice and Other Steam-Powered Stories. According to the listing on Comic Book Resources, the 304-page book contains Left 4 Dead's The Sacrifice comic, along with stories from the worlds of Team Fortress 2 and Portal. The comic book compilation will launch on November 16 for $29.99. Although there are no further details regarding the Portal and TF2 comics, we'd guess they are Valve's online comics in physical form.
Firefall dev diary features Orson Scott Card, reveals planned free manga comic
Here's the latest developer diary for Red 5 Studios' Firefall, which outlines the general backstory for the upcoming free-to-play co-op multiplayer shooter. Red 5's CEO Mark Kern, who served as team lead on a little indie title you may have heard of called World of Warcraft, walks us through the tale of Crystite and a dying future Earth, beset by an alien race called the Chosen. He also introduces writer Orson Scott Card, who talks about how he put the story together for what's "essentially ... a post-double apocalyptic world." Card's also working on a manga with his daughter Emily Card, to be published free on Red 5's website in conjunction with Udon Comics. The manga is supposed to be available sometime before the game is due out later this year.
City of Heroes' Intrepid Informer introduces new Freedom tutorial
Paragon Studios has released a very special Intrepid Informer for City of Heroes players today, giving them a look into the new-player tutorial that will arrive with the advent of City of Heroes Freedom. In true superhero fashion, the new tutorial will incorporate a hand-drawn comic book by Paragon's own David "Noble Savage" Nakayama. The game will open by dropping new players smack in the middle of Galaxy City as it falls under siege by Shivan invaders. The villains of the Rogue Isles -- opportunists that they are -- aim to take advantage of the chaos to cause mayhem while the heroes work to thwart the threats to the city. The full post details the process that went into creating this exciting new tutorial and also includes a sneak-preview of Nakayama's stylish comic work, which players will see prior to the tutorial proper. To read up on all the fine details of the game's new introduction, head on over to the official CoH site.
Hyperspace Beacon: The Lost Suns
This week, we are taking a break from studying the class powersets, although I do plan to return to them eventually. As I was contemplating what to write, it occurred to me that I really haven't covered any lore for quite some time. While my editors and I are talking about doing a specific series of lore-based articles leading up to the game's release, I definitely wanted to focus on more of the canon history behind the game. After all, this is Star Wars: The Old Republic, and it epitomizes the fourth pillar of MMO design: story. I finally got my hands on the latest comic book with direct ties to SWTOR this past week. It's called The Lost Suns, and while it's fresh on my mind, we should probably discuss some of the main points and characters in the story. BioWare writer Alexander Freed and comic book artist Dave Ross collaborated to bring us this first of a five-issue comic book series about Theron Shan. As Freed said on the official TOR forums, "I like to describe The Lost Suns as our 'ninth story' -- every class in The Old Republic tells its own Star Wars epic, and Theron's tale intersects with the other eight and pushes the greater game story forward, just as they do." Follow after the break to discover how this "ninth story" is starts out.
Publishers' choice: Will the iPad be the hero or villain of the comic book industry?
Music piracy rose to epidemic levels at the beginning of the 2000s (although, according to Wired, those days are now over). There were many causes of this growth in piracy -- high speed internet access, easy-to-use P2P software -- but perhaps the biggest accelerator of music piracy was two-fold: the emergence of devices that allowed us to easily copy and then consume music (namely CD-burners, and then MP3 players) away from the computers we downloaded them on, and the reluctance of the record industry to embrace new technology. In other words, once people had the hardware for consuming digital music, the record industry failed to give listeners the digital music they wanted at a reasonable price and in an easy-to-access centralized location. The same factors that lead to mass music piracy are now in place to disrupt another flavor of media -- comic books. The excitement and media attention around Free Comic Book Day yesterday shouldn't deceive anybody about the fact that there's trouble around the corner. Why is the comic book industry set for a piracy tipping point? After all, people have been able to illegally download comic books on the Web for years. Why should it suddenly accelerate? One factor: the iPad. Before the launch of the iPad, people who illegally download comic books read them on their computers -- compared to a printed comic book, a decidedly inferior experience. However, with the advent of the iPad and the tablet form factor that closely mimics a comic book, Apple's tablet is liberating illegal comic book downloads from the computer monitor and allowing them to be consumed in a much more appealing and natural way. I first noticed this last year when I was talking to a friend who was complaining that his local comic shop was out of a specific issue of a comic book he wanted. I suggested to him that he buy it through Marvel's iPad app. However, Marvel's app didn't offer the issue in question. That's when another friend asked what issue the first friend wanted. The next day, friend #2 emailed him a CBR (Comic Book Archive) file containing a pirated copy of not only that issue, but every Marvel comic that shipped that week.
Square Enix-produced Imaginary Range comic book out now, free
About a week ago we heard Square Enix would be releasing an interactive comic for iOS, and now it's out and available on the App Store in the US on the same date as the Japanese release. While the early reviews are terrific, with art that's supposed to be really solid and interactive parts keeping everything enjoyable, the real kicker is the price. Square Enix has released the app for free. That's a solid deal, so if you're looking for a little something to read through and play with this weekend, there you go. There's an HD iPad version as well, and it's also free. With this, those upcoming Chaos Rings titles, and the arrival of the great Final Fantasy 3 on the iPad recently, Square Enix is really delivering some solid titles for iOS users.
Dark Horse's online Dungeon Siege 3 comic now available
If you're interested in delving into the lore behind Dungeon Siege 3 before the RPG drops June 21, you might want to flip through the virtual pages of Dark Horse's comic book tie-in. The first, ten-page issue of the illustrated prequel is now available on Dark Horse's official site.
Square Enix working on two followups to Chaos Rings, Imaginary Range comic
Square Enix has announced three different iOS products in the pipeline for later on this year in both Japan and, eventually, the US. First up, original iOS title Chaos Rings is apparently getting not one but two different followup titles. The first will be called Chaos Rings Omega, and it will be a prequel (shouldn't it be called Alpha, then?), with the story set before the first game begins. Square Enix has also placed ads in a Japanese gaming magazine for a full-fledged "Chaos Rings II" sequel, though information on that is slim so far. But fans of the first game (which predated Infinity Blade as a full-featured, original AAA title for iOS) will have plenty to play through. Square Enix has also announced an interactive comic book called Imaginary Range, which offers game-related elements and mini-games in conjunction with a full comic book story. It sounds intriguing -- in part because it doesn't sound like your average comic or game -- and it will probably be an interesting experience built just for iOS. Imaginary Range will be out on the 5th of May in Japan, and presumably we'll see an English translation here in the US soon after that.
Dark Horse Digital coming to iOS April 27
The wait is finally almost over, Dark Horse Digital will be releasing their iOS app on April 27! I love reading comics on the iPad, the form-factor and experience is perfect. In fact, I prefer it to paper comics. However, while Marvel, DC Comics and some other publishers have been adding more and more issues from their libraries to a number of applications, such as Comixology, Dark Horse has been notably absent. The Dark Horse app is something I've been following pretty closely for a while now. Originally, it was slated to be released in January, but they weren't finished, so they postponed the launch and promised to make it up to excited fans. That's a promise they're making good on by including the first issue of Hellboy: Seed of Destruction bundled with the app, and they'll be giving away a few other titles if they can get enough people to subscribe to the newsletter before it launches.
First issue of the Portal 2 comic is now online
Just as you were warned, "tomorrow" has come, heralding the arrival of Portal 2: Lab Rat. The first issue has been posted over on IGN, spanning 14 total pages. The comic is more than a prequel than anything else. Actually, we don't want to give away too much, but we will leave you with this little nugget: Companion Cube kills Dumbledore. We know, we know -- who woulda thunk a cube could wield a wand, let alone gain admission into Hogwarts?!
Portal 2 comic available online tomorrow
Before Valve's new game comes out later this month, we thought we might interest you in a supplemental comic, Portal 2: Lab Rat. What, you'd prefer some crummy video game instead? Think about it. Would you rather (1) dirty your hands hands interacting to force the fun out of a disc or (2) just look at a screen and have the fun happen to you? When the first part debuts on IGN Comics tomorrow, the choice will be clear. Besides, the comic has people like Powers co-author Michael Avon Oeming, and Erik Wolpaw and Chet Faliszek working on it. Nobody at Valve could possibly compete with -- oh, really? All of them work there? ... Well, the comic's also free.
Unboxing the RIFT Collector's Edition
Like hyperactive kids on Christmas morning, we've been tearing into our copies of RIFT's Collector's Edition with unbridled excitement. Although Trion Worlds has offered a variety of versions of the game, from the standard to the Digital Collector's Edition, we're most interested in checking out the many physical goodies that come with the deluxe CE. Included with the RIFT Collector's Edition is the game, various digital in-game items, 30 days of gameplay, a poster, mousepad, 8 gigabyte flash drive, soundtrack, reference card, and a 128-page full-color comic set in the game world of Telara. If you like what you see, it's not too late to pick up a copy of the CE -- which runs you $76.99 from Amazon -- and get in with tomorrow's head start launch. You can view all of the CE's wonders and treasures by checking out the gallery below:%Gallery-117421%
Assassin's Creed: The Fall comic issue three is out
The third issue of Assassin's Creed: The Fall concludes the story arc and is now available in stores and on Ubisoft's website for $5. What will become of Daniel Cross? And of the results of the Tunguska event? We're not telling! We do have a pretty image from it after the break for you, though.
When worlds collide: A Ghost Trick/Dr. McNinja crossover comic
What happens when a character from one of our most anticipated games of this year gets involved with the greatest assassin/physician of all time? Magic happens, that's what. Check out a special Dr. McNinja comic strip featuring Ghost Trick's intangible protagonist posted after the jump.
