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Cartoonist Paul Pope backstage at Expand (video)
Cartoonist Paul Pope of Batman: Year 100 fame swung by Expand's backstage to explore sci-fi and the state of comics. Interviewed by our own Brian Heater and Jeff Newelt (who gave us a hand on Expand's social media), the interview covers comics as a paper medium versus webcomics, making science fiction reality, how sci-fi has inspired actual gadgets and more. Hit the jump to catch the full video interview. Follow all of Engadget's Expand coverage live from San Francisco right here!
Comixology halts digital Marvel giveaway
A day after Comixology and Marvel announced a giveaway of more than 700 Marvel #1 issues for free, Comixology has had to halt the promotion. In a letter posted on the company's blog (and sent to customers via email), CEO David Steinberger said: It's been a whirlwind weekend, and we're fresh from SXSW where Marvel Comics launched their Marvel #1 promotion featuring over 700 free comics distributed via our platform. We expected a high degree of excitement for the Marvel initiative -- and had believed ourselves prepared -- but unfortunately we became overwhelmed by the immense response. We're still struggling to keep our systems up. The result is that you aren't getting your comics when and where you want. We don't like letting you down. Our teams are working around the clock to resolve these issues so that you can have the experience you've come to expect. To that end, we're pausing the Marvel Comics #1 promotion for the time being. For those of you that want to take advantage of the offer -- you will get your comics! Comixology is asking users to fill out this form so they can be notified when they can download the free issues. Comic Book Resources talked to several comic book publishers who offer titles through Comixology. Though the 700-free-issue promotion was Marvel-only, Image Comics confirmed that Comixology's server crash affected sales of its issues. It told the site that a "significant part" of daily digital comic book sales come through Comixology.
Marvel offers over 700 free first issue digital comics, might involve great powers and responsibilities
Looking to revise the whys, hows and who's who of the Marvel universe? Well, the movie-spinning comic book company wants to help you out, offering hundreds of first issue editions across the company's entire history. The free digital editions will cover perennial favorites like Spider-Man, the X-Men and Avengers, as well as slightly less mainstream hits and spin-offs. The promotion kicked off yesterday and -- tying in with the company's presence at SXSW -- will run until 11PM ET on Tuesday. The titles can be downloaded through either Marvel's official comics app or its web-based digital comics shop, although it appears US readers are having more luck downloading the digital comics -- we're getting error messages when trying to access it elsewhere. Of course, if you've already signed up to Marvel's Unlimited subscription service, there might not much here to pull you in, but this limited-time offer is unashamedly courting new readers and comic dabblers. If that sounds like you, start hunting down those hundreds of freebies at the source.
Marvel unveils iOS comic book subscription service 'Marvel Unlimited'
A few years ago I wrote an article titled Publishers' choice: Will the iPad be the hero or villain of the comic book industry? It was an open letter to comic book publishers urging them to embrace the digital distribution method to ensure comics didn't fall to the same fate as illegal music downloads. I spelled out four guidelines for a successful business model -- one that would appeal to comic book readers in the mobile computing area. Since then, the comic book industry has taken up some of the suggestions and it's now taken another step forward. That's because Marvel has unveiled its Marvel Unlimited service for iOS. Marvel Unlimited is essentially Netflix for Marvel comic books. Users can subscribe for US$10 a month to access a catalog of over 13,000 Marvel comics back issues. For a limited time, users can also pay for a year's subscription for only $60. The service serves up the comics in HTML5 and allows users to download six issues at a time. While 13,000 back issues seems like a lot, there's not much rhyme or reason to the selection or continuity of what's available. And that doesn't make a lot of sense because when collectors are reading a series, they generally read them in order. Also, the most recent issues of comics on offer will be at least 6 months old. That's because Marvel doesn't want to hurt its newsstand sales. Though Marvel Unlimited is a step in the right direction, I don't think it's the ideal solution for hardcore comic book fans. When Marvel makes complete series available on demand, the digital comic book subscription model will really fly. Marvel Unlimited is a free download.
Marvel Unlimited for iOS appears, brings comics subscriptions to iPhones and iPads for $60 a year
Fans who follow the goings on in the Marvel universe just got a better way to do so... assuming they own an iOS device. With the debut of the Marvel Unlimited app, iPhone and iPad owners can now access Marvel's full 13,000 issue back catalog for a mere $60 per annum, or $10 a month. Subscribers can also keep up to six titles directly on their device for offline reading. This isn't the first time the publisher has courted digital denizens, as Marvel's subscription-based comics service has long been available on the web and it's been making digital copies of titles available for years. However, this is the first native app for iOS granting offline access to Marvel's full collection, and that, friends, is a reason to celebrate.
Mass Effect: Foundation comic series announced
Dark Horse Comics recently announced a return to the Mass Effect series in comic book form at Emerald City Comic Con. Mac Walters, writer for Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, will write the series, which is planned for 12 issues. Walters wrote Dark Horse Comics' other four-issue comic mini-series centered around the BioWare property."Rather than going into an area where we tell brand-new stories in a universe that people know already, maybe we could find ways of fleshing out some of the stories that we've heard hints of already," Walters told Comic Book Resources. "At a high level, that's where we thought about going with 'Foundations' and that's where we went with it."Click past the break to see a page from the series' first issue, courtesy of Comic Book Resources.
Deadpool reunites with Cable in High Moon game
High Moon's Deadpool game will feature familiar faces, sure, but only one character will have half a familiar face and one strikingly recognizable eyeball – Cable. Deadpool will team-up with Cable, who is designed to balance out the merc's insanity with some straightforward brute force and telepathy, Rob Liefeld writes. He would know, since he created both characters.Cable is the son of Cyclops and Jean Grey's clone, and he has telepathic and telekinetic abilities. He appeared in a 50-issue series with Deadpool, so they're like old chums by now. Think buddy-cop movie, but with more sarcasm. And techno-organic viruses. Cable joins Domino in Deadpool.[Thanks, JK Parkin!]
Massively Exclusive: Blacklight: Retribution shows off the end of the world, part 3
It's time for further installments of the motion comics accompanying Blacklight: Retribution's upcoming major patch, World's End. The first two comics yesterday set up the team and the stakes, but today's comic kicks off as the Blacklight team lands in Balik and starts getting down to business. Or not; the mission starts going cross-eyed almost the moment the team touches down. Obviously, the place is a mess by governmental standards, which makes sense when you consider that the team sent in is supposed to be the best of the best. But as the team trails the shadowy Order, it quickly becomes clear that this is more than just a fight against opponents with superior weaponry. But you don't have to take our word for it. If you want to see things going from bad to worse, you can check out the next two issues just past the cut and tune in tomorrow for another step along the path.
Massively Exclusive: Blacklight: Retribution shows off the end of the world, part 2
Yesterday we previewed the trailer and the raw content information regarding Blacklight: Retribution's upcoming patch, World's End. But what's the story behind the patch? For that, we turn to the first two parts of a six-part motion comic from the team behind the game at Perfect World Entertainment. The comic details some of what happened leading up to the events of the update... starting with a single man touching down on a hospital rooftop about ready to bleed out from injury. From there, the first two chapters go on to establish some of what's at stake in the game's lore and what happened on the main character's disastrous mission. If you're curious, the videos are each only a couple of minutes long, a chance to get a little does of lore and an idea behind the setting. But what happens next? Check in tomorrow to see more.
HeroClix TabApp adds DC Comics figures
The HeroClix TabApp is an interesting, if not all that impressive, app for the iPad that uses HeroClix figurines in conjunction with iOS to make a game featuring the superheroes of the HeroClix series. When it first launched earlier this year, the app featured only Marvel heroes. But apparently the series is doing quite well, because HeroClix has now added some DC heroes to the mix. There are two packs available. One includes Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, and the other is a "Dark Knight Rises" special featuring Batman, Bane and Catwoman. And the app, as you can see above, has been updated with new content for all of the heroes, so if you buy those packs, you can unlock and play the new games and settings. Unfortunately, this app isn't all that great, as I said in the review linked above. But it's good to see that this is getting more popular. Hopefully we'll see more and better interaction between the digital and physical worlds in terms of gameplay on iOS.
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite update optimizes your Manga mania, offers quicker settings
Amazon is on the cusp of launching the complete Kindle line in Japan, so it's only right that the online retailer fine-tune its firmware for local reading habits. A new version 5.3.0 update for the Kindle Paperwhite puts much of that focus on Manga, introducing options to fit the stylized comics to the screen as well as tweak their page refresh interval separately from that of plain old text. Wider efforts to improve font rendering touch on Japanese characters in the process. Even if we're a little rusty with our hiragana, there's still some usability tweaks in store: settings are accessible directly from the menu, readers can purge their home screens of recommended content and sample books now sync their position relative to the full title. The bookworms among us that are too impatient to wait for an automatic update to 5.3.0 can hit the source link for the full skinny and a fast-track installation through USB.
DC Comics makes deal for Kindle, iBookstore, and Nook
I've written a few times here about Comixology and its strong hold on comics on the iPad, and DC Comics has now signed a deal to put its funny books on three big digital platforms, including Apple's iBookstore. iBooks already had some DC graphic novels available, but this deal is set up to bring DC's monthly releases to customers there as well. DC says that digital sales per title top out at about 40 percent, but overall are up 197 percent year over year, showing that there's a huge amount of potential in selling digital comic books over devices like the iPad. This news is bad for Comixology. While that company still has a great app, a huge userbase and licenses for all kinds of awesome content, you have to think that the iBooks audience is bigger, and Apple's licensing department can eventually get whatever it wants. If comics become a big deal on the iBookstore, that seems like it can only hurt Comixology's sales. Comixology is a company that's being run very well, and I have no doubt that they're already thinking about how to compete with iBooks. But for now, this is just good news for comic book fans; you'll have one more way to grab your monthly issues on the iPad.
Domino will appear in High Moon's upcoming Deadpool game
X-Force regular, occasional X-Man, and full-time female mercenary Domino will make an appearance in Deadpool, according to the Merc with a Mouth himself. Just as he did in San Diego earlier this year, Deadpool showed up during a Marvel games panel at the New York Comic-Con last week and, after confronting his dancing alter-ego, said that the Rob Liefeld-created Domino, a.k.a. Neena Thurman, would be showing up in the upcoming game from High Moon Studios.Unfortunately, that's all he decided to share during his very raucous appearance. High Moon is reportedly hard at work on the game, and Deadpool promised it's still set for a release sometime next year.
Comixology debuts Submit program, picking up indie comics for their app
Comixology runs the biggest dedicated comic book app on iOS (appropriately called Comics), and today it announced a new program designed to make its comic book marketplace even bigger. Comixology Submit, still in closed beta, will allow independent comic book creators and artists to sell their works directly on Comixology and split the profits with the publisher. Once the service is up and running, creators will be able to submit their works, Comixology will approve incoming submissions, apply its GuidedView technology so users can easily read the digital versions on iOS and sell the books worldwide. Comixology doesn't say what the profit split is [it's 50/50, see update below], so creators will definitely want to wait until all of the rules are laid out before seeing if they want to participate in the program. But those interested can sign up now, and considering the app's wide reach, this will likely be a great opportunity for comic book creators looking to grow their own audience. The company is also continuing to release comics the traditional way: They just added Terry Moore's great Strangers in Paradise series to the digital marketplace. But it'll be interesting to see what kind of new independent work shows up in the Comics app through a program like Submit. Update: Comixology got in touch with us to say the profit split on comics sold will be 50/50.
Sony shuts down PSP Comic Store after October 30th, leaves most of us in the lurch for now
PSP Comic Store, we hardly knew ye. No really, we hardly knew ye -- which is probably why Sony is warning PSP owners that its comic book portal is shutting down after October 30th. Come Hallowe'en, we'll lose the option to download the necessary app or buy additional titles. Any currently owned comics will be available to download again until mid-January, but readers will be on their own to preserve existing libraries after that. Outside of Japan, that creates significant problems for literary PlayStation fans: while PS Vita owners in Sony's home country will get a Manga store and reader in October, there's no equivalent crutch for other countries (or any PSP owners) at this stage. The console maker is non-committal and says there's nothing it can discuss "at the moment," which to us is a hint that we shouldn't plan our reading hours around a PSP or PS Vita in the near future. [Thanks, Sooraj]
PSP Comic Store closing this weekend [Update: Make that October 30!]
The PSP Comic Store will close on Sunday October 30, Sony recently announced. PSP and PSP Go owners will not be able to access the store after this weekend, and will not be able to re-download most comics purchased.Sony is offering a means of backing up purchased content using its Media Go software. The company stopped offering updates to its digital comics service in July 2011.Update: The PSP Comic Store service will be closing after October 30, not on September 30. We were so close on that one.
Katamari comic starts soon, greet the sun and the King of All Cosmos
Katamari is taking on comic form with a new online series from Alex Culang and Raynato Castro, the pair currently penning Buttersafe. The comic run begins September 17 and will be updated every Monday and Wednesday at 5 a.m. PST, over at ShiftyLook. Destructoid has a preview of the Katamari comic, featuring the Prince of All Cosmos and his father, the King With A Chiseled Chin (name paraphrased). Culang and Castro will be at New York Comic-Con, running October 11 - 14, dropping all the details post-premiere.
Storyboard: Lessons from what roleplaying resembles most
When you get right down to it, roleplaying isn't really like a movie or a novel in which you determine the story. It's not even all that much like a video game in which you write the story; those tend to be structured better. No, roleplaying is most like making your own serial comic book. Think about it. You have a number of charcters with superhuman abilities getting into conflicts on a regular basis. Sometimes those characters pan out into a satisfying story arc, but other times characters show up and then vanish, either because they were awful or because the author didn't know what to do with them. There's a real risk of running on into boredom, and there are a lot of times when characters get kludged into other storylines for cross-promotional purposes. Regular readers will probably guess that I don't think of this as a bad thing. I like comics a lot, after all. And it means that we can take some interesting lessons from the long lifespan of comics because when you realize you're making a big collaborative comic, you earn the right to use some tricks of the trade.
iBooks gets its first DC Comics title: Batman: Earth One
DC Comics has been publishing titles on the iPad for a while now, both in the official DC Comics app and in the Comixology app (which, as you may know, actually produces the official app anyway). But DC is now finally turning to iBooks to sell comics as well, with an iBooks version of the Batman: Earth One story that passed through the official Batman lines recently. This is DC's first title on the iBookstore, and it joins a slew of Marvel titles, as well as quite a few independent titles already selling comics in this way. Most of the "big" line titles in the iBookstore are trade paperbacks -- bigger collections of Marvel and other titles that combine more than one monthly comic together. But that's not necessarily the only option out there: Some companies have released single issues on the iBookstore, available for just a buck or two per issue. Because the market is so open, these companies can do whatever they want. Obviously, releasing titles in this way helps comic companies dodge the extra fees behind using Comixology's software to sell their books, but then again they miss out on Comixology's significant audience and discovery features that bring in new readers to old and obscure books. These days, comics companies will likely try whatever they can to sell these digital copies, and we'll see which method works best in the future.
Mega Man to meet Sonic in upcoming comics
Sonic's ever-expanding circle of friends is about to get even bigger, as a teaser image reveals plans to have Sonic meet Mega Man ... at least, in the world of comics.USA Today comics reporter Brian Truitt tweeted the above teaser image, which he received from Archie Comics. In addition to its slate of digest-sized books about indecisive time-lost teens, Archie has published Sonic the Hedgehog comics since 1993 (allowing plenty of time to build a unique and insane Sonic universe), and it began publishing Mega Man comics last year.Having this historic meeting take place in the world of comic books rather than video games doesn't make it any less bizarre, and we can't wait to see what happens. Will Mega Man destroy Sonic and steal his speed?Update: According to USA Today, the crossover will take place in twelve installments across Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man, and Sonic Universe series.
