Marvel Comics on IPhone

The providing information has been copied and pasted from Bleedingcool.com

My comments are below.

___________________________________________________

Marvel titles being made available for iPhone and iTouch users through the iPhone Apps systems. And not tied down to any one App provider, but spread out a bit. So what’s out there?

Comixology: (71 issues, $1.99 each)
Age of Apocalypse #1–6Astonishing X-Men #1–24 (Full Whedon Cassaday run)Captain America #1–30 (Brubaker, Epting)Marvel Zombies #1–5X-23 #1–6

iVerse: (37 issues, $1.99 each)
Age of Apocalypse #1–6Amazing Spider-Man #519–524Astonishing X-Men #1–12Captain America #1–6 (Brubaker, Epting)Invincible Iron Man #1–6X-23 #1–6

Panelfly (84 issues, $0.99 each)
Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #1-25 (Lee, Ditko)Amazing Spider-Man #519-524Astonishing X-Men #1-24Invincible Iron Man #1-16X-23 #1-6Age Of Apocalypse #1-6

Comixology gets the lion’s share of new content at $1.99 a title but no Iron Man or Spider-Man. iVerse also has a different lesser range for $1.99 with some Iron Man and Spider-Man but no Marvel Zombies and only a little Captain America. PanelFly has a stack, no Captain America or Marvel Zombies but much more Iron Man and a stack of Lee/Ditko Spider-Man. More importantly, they’re only charging $0.99. So if you want Iron Man, Age Of Apocalypse, NYX or Astonishing X-Men, it would be silly to get them from the rival providers.

____________________________________________________

We all knew it was going to happen, so this isn't really a shock or anything. I'm just waiting to hear when DC is going to get in on this new stream of cash. I can never argue with comics being available in and on multiple mediums/platforms. If we can convert a few new readers, it can't be a bad thing. Personally, I'm not very interested in reading any comics on a small screen, such as an IPhone or IPod. I've discussed the new tablet that's coming from Apple at some point before (big color screen, unlike the Kindle) and what that could mean for comics, but until such time that that is the norm for everyone on the planet, we can only look at this new digital content as a positive for the industry. One of the most dangerous things about an IPhone or IPod is all the ways you can blow your cash, what with apps, music, games, and movies/tv shows. It's all a little crazy. If you happen to be one of those lucky souls that can spend all kinds of cash on digital apps, than go crazy! I'm old school, I know this, but I still like the physical comic and GN's, and most likely always will. This whole topic is more for getting NEW readers into the medium, this is for all the youngins that are used to only having their products digitally.

When DC makes the move, I wonder what titles they are going to start with and what era, interesting thing to ponder. Kingdom Come is a no-brainer, as well as Y, Fables, Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, V, Sandman, Batman: Killing Joke, the various Crisis stories, etc. They certainly have a lot of great stories to choose from once they make the move.

Tony Isabella's New Book!

Tony Isabella's new book arrived at LCS this week: 1000 Comic Books You Must Read published by Krause Publications in hardcover, retailing at $29.99. There are a couple of reasons that I would like to recommend this book. Tony is a long-time contributor to Comic Buyer's Guide, as well as a comic writer and editor. (He created Black Lightning, DC's first headline African-American hero).
From the back of the book: "1000 Comic Books You Must Read is an unforgettable journey through 70 years of comic books. Arranged by decade, this book introduces you to 1000 of the best comic books ever published and the amazing writers and artists who created them." Full color, on glossy paper, this book would look great on any coffee table.
Chapter One: "This is a job for Superman." This is a very short chapter about the man himself, Superman, highlighting 6 of his golden age tales.
Chapter Two: The Fighting Forties. This is a pretty meaty chapter, highlighting many famous and not-so-famous but worth reading, golden age issues. Important books that are of course included in this chapter: Detective #27 (first Batman, for those of you that aren't good with issue numbers), Marvel Comics #1( first Human Torch and Sub-Mariner), Flash Comics #1 (first GA Flash), Planet Comics #1 (first sci-fi comic ever), and all the other major books of the Golden Age, and wow there are a lot of important ones. It's really something to see them all pictured together, with the explanation beneath each one detailing WHY the book is important enough to include in the book.
Chapter Three: the Fearful Fifties. This chapter is even bigger than the GA chapter. This of course details the non-superhero era. All of the important EC comics are showcased, as well as the famous western comics, the famous romance comics, Archies, Tarzan, Disney stuff, war titles, and other fun stuff that many folks may have forgotten. The last half of the chapter details the onset of the Silver Age (second age of heroes), with Showcase #4 (first SA Flash) as well as other important DC books of the day.
Chapter Four: The Swinging Sixties. Lots of great books are discussed in this chapter, no surprise here, what with the barrage of BIG Marvel releases this decade: first Spidey (Amazing Fantasy #15), first FF (FF #1), the first Avengers (Avengers #1 duh!), the first X-men (in X-men #1, surprise surprise!), and other such cool issues of note.
Chapter Five: The Surprising Seventies. Lots of great books came out in the 70's, despite the over-use of the word "groovy" and too many characters wearing bell-bottoms. Highlights include: Green Lantern #76 (first GL/GA), a bunch of good Kirby stuff (New Gods #1, Mister Miracle #1, Forever People #1), a ton of cool horror titles (Tomb of Dracula #1, first appearance of Werewolf by Night, first appearance of Ghost Rider, Swamp Thing #1), and many many other cool books that I now want to go back and reread.
Chapter Six: The Energetic Eighties. The Direct Market changed the comic book world forever, and made it possible for such gems as: Detectives #1, Jon Sable #1, Groo #1, Badger #1, Love and Rockets #1, Nexus #1, American Flag #1, Zot #1, TMNT #1, and holy shit there are a TON more of these great non-Marvel/DC books that made it in a big way back in the 80's! Wow, I remember my weekly trips to the local shop and there were just so many choices it was crazy fun.
Chapter Nine: The Noisy Nineties. The 90's were full of good and bad, 92-93 saw many many bad books hit the market. Notable exceptions: Sandman, From Hell, Bone, the Milestone books, Marvels, Tale of One Bad Rat, all 17 "Big Book" anthologies from Paradox Press (one-time imprint of DC), and as usual, many more amazing books.
Chapter Ten: The New Millennium. Blankets, Persepolis, Alice in Sunderland, and so many more. Two wonderful books that I am super excited have been included in this tome of comic book knowledge: Phantom #17 (part 1 of 3) of the Invisible Children storyline and Pat Novak: for Hire. Two Moonstone books in this most important collection of what should be read by all. We are very excited and proud to be part of this book. Both Phantom #17 and Pat Novak are available for purchase at all four Amazing Fantasy locations, your LCS, or if your LCS does not have them on hand, you can order directly from us : www.moonstonebooks.com.

There you have it, a small sampling of the 1000 comics that Tony has included. This is a book that all libraries should have on the shelf, every comic shop should also have it for sale, every book store and, of course every true comic book connoisseur should also make an effort to pick this up. It's a wonderful overview of over 70 years of sequential storytelling at its best.

NEW Stephen King comics from VERTIGO!

This is pretty damn cool news!
(More of my thoughts and comments after the copy and paste)
__________________________________


Via the Vertigo blog, news of a new vampire series, AMERICAN VAMPIRE, written by well-regarded horror writer Scott Snyder with art by rising star Rafael Albuquerque, and stories written by one Stephen King.





_____________________________________________________





The new ongoing series, AMERICAN VAMPIRE, will introduce readers to a new breed of vampire—a more muscular and vicious species of vampire with distinctly American characteristics. The series’ first story arc, to be told over the course of five issues, will feature two different stories, one written by Snyder, the other by King. Snyder’s storyline is one of decadence and deception and Jazz Age glamour. Pearl is an ambitious modern woman with starlet dreams. She frequents Hollywood’s speakeasies and dance-halls searching for her first big break, only to find something far more sinister waiting for her. King’s story provides the origin of the very first American vampire: Skinner Sweet, a bank robbing, murdering cowboy of the 1880s. Skinner is stronger and faster than previous vampires; he has rattlesnake fangs and is powered by…. the sun? Following the conclusion of the first story arc, Snyder and Albuquerque will trace Skinner’s bloodline through various decades of American history.





__________________________________________





More info via The Beat:



The Daily Beast has some more art, some of the origin story of the project:
When American Vampire was in the early stages of being greenlit, the editors at Vertigo asked Snyder if he knew anyone that would be willing to give a blurb to the project. Snyder had maintained a friendship with Stephen King after King had written a blurb for Voodoo Heart, so he sent King what he had so far of the series.





“He came back saying he loved it and he’d actually be willing to do a few issues at some point if we wanted him to,” Snyder says. “I went back to Vertigo and pretty much made sure that they were gonna take it regardless. It was really important to me that they weren’t going to take it because Steve was involved, because I’m the one who has to carry the series beyond Steve.”

__________________________________________________

This is great news for Stephen King fans as well as comic fans in general. All of King's forays into comics thus far have been adaptations of his existing work. (Marvel has published several very successful Dark Tower mini-series, and a few Stand mini-series thus far. DelRey is starting their Talisman comics very soon too. ) This would mark King's very first ALL NEW original story and characters for the comic book medium we know and love. This could possibly prove to be one of the best-selling Vertigo series of all time. This might also mark the first time that Vertigo will offer hardcover collections FIRST for a title BEFORE the paperbacks. Vertigo has been slowly offering hardcover GN of some of their best-selling series, way way after the fact. For example, Fables is on volume 12 in the paperbacks and volume 1 of the hardcover was released last month. Each volume of the Vertigo hardcovers contains two volumes of the paperback. They did a similar thing for Y and for Preacher. Well after the series was over, the first Preacher hardcover was published a few months back. Y's first hardcover volume shipped for the X-mas holiday last year. Marvel, on the other hand, has released the Stephen King Dark Tower collections in hardcover ONLY, the same with the Stand. Marvel's normal formula is to releases a paperback release of the hardcover volume of the same name, about 2-3 months after the hardcover release. The first Dark Tower HC volume came out 2 years ago. Similar to the Harry Potter novels, there is little reason to publish paperback editions of a book when the hardcovers continue to do well. Those first three volumes of the Harry Potter books were in hardcover ONLY for a few years before the paperbacks were finally released.

One other note about the future collection of this yet-to-be released, not even officially solicited series, American Vampire. Traditionally, Vertigo releases all of their volume ones for ongoing Vertigo series in a super affordable $9.99 edition. There are exceptions to this of course (Madam Xanadu volume 1 leaps to mind) because this is a newer development, sometime in the last 5-7 years, starting with Fables volume 1 if I'm not mistaken. I don't think they were able to offer this attractive price point for Madam Xanadu because the first story-arc is longer than the normal initial story arc. Books that I can think of that started off with a $9.99 collection: Scalped, Fables, DMZ, Crossing Midnight, American Virgin, Exterminators, House of Mystery, 100 Bullets, the forth-coming Unwritten collection, Sandman Mystery Theatre, and Young Liars. I am therefore guessing that Vertigo will not release a $9.99 paperback edition of American Vampires because they will not be able to afford to do so. Stephen King is not cheap labor, so they may well try to milk the hardcover for as long as possible before releasing a paperback edition, and when the paperback is finally released it will most likely be in the neighborhood of $14.99, but it is a little premature to start guessing about this kind of thing. More food for thought: American Vampire could well be the first $3.99 monthly release from Vertigo also, again because of the price tag for Stephen King.

Much to speculate about, and much to look forward to with this announcement!


This new American Vampire comic could well turn out to be the True Blood of comics. I'm definately interested to check this series out.

Library Craziness!

Check out this story that I found on Comic Book Resources:

_____________________________________________

Libraries Two library employees in Nicholasville, Kentucky, were fired last month after they refused to allow an 11-year-old girl to check out The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which they dubbed pornographic. However, the policy of the Jessamine County Library states it's the responsibility of parents to decide what's appropriate for their child to read.
The fired employees, Beth Bovaire and Sharon Cook, stand behind their decision, asserting that the award-winning comic by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill contains lewd pictures that are inappropriate for children.
"If you give children pornography, a child, a 12 year old, can not understand and process the same way a 30 year old can," Cook told a local television news station. [WTVQ, WTVQ]

__________________________________________________

I have to say, I'm a little torn over this. I don't think the library employees deserved to be fired for this. I understand and applaud the library's policy, BUT maybe the employees were just trying to cover their own asses. I know I've done this at the shop several times. Not that long ago, a 14 year old came in to buy League volume 1. His mom was with him, I told her she might want to look at the book first to make sure it would be appropriate for him. I, as a retailer, do not want to be the one to decide what is appropriate for any child to read. For example, all of the Vertigo books out there, have a "suggested for mature readers" printed on the front of the comics and the graphic novels. If I encounter a child (if you can't drive yourself to the store, I will consider you a "child") that wants to buy Vertigo books, I always double check with the parents. I don't want to get slapped with a law suit for selling pornographic material to a minor. I support the CBLDF but hope to never have to use them as a source for launching a legal defense. I absolutely agree with the principle that the library supports of not censoring any checkout by a minor, I find it downright amazing that a library in Kentucky supports this right so strongly. Couldn't the library just have reprimanded the employees instead of firing them? It seems a little extreme. I'm betting if these employees had gone ahead and let any under age child check LOEG out, there would be at least one parent out there trying to sue the library for exposing their precious children to "pornography." I do not agree with the assessment of these employees that LOEG is "porn" . "Lost Girls?" Oh yeah, definitely porn, but LOEG Vol 1? Adult themes and situations for sure, but I would call it "suggested for mature readers" before labeling it "adult", "porn", or even "erotica". Volume 3 on the other hand, what with the Tijuana Bible insert perhaps could be considered "adult." Thanks for the controversy Alan Moore! (That crazy old White Wizard loves to stir up controversy over any type of porn. If the old man had it his way, there would be a whole class devoted to Victorian Porn in kindergarten.)

Odd note: I just walked over to the shelf, and I'll be damned, NO WHERE on the LOEG graphic novels does it say "suggested for Mature Readers" I guess that is only a Vertigo thing, not America's Best Comics (Moore's imprint at Wildstorm, which in turn is a imprint at DC). I checked a bunch of the Vertigo GN's, and yep, sure enough they do have the "suggested for Mature Readers" tag line printed on every volume. That is really all we need on these books, so that the publisher's ass is covered. Every store and library needs to find some kind of middle ground for how to handle these situations. I'm betting that most bible-belt conservatives would NOT want their children checking out LOEG or any other "suggested for mature readers" title, in fact these very folks would stage a protest outside of any public institute that has these types of materials on display on a shelf low enough for the kiddies to stumble upon. How many times have I heard stories about comic shops that sold "adult" or even "suggested for mature readers" books to minor, only to be slapped with a lawsuit or at least threatened with a lawsuit? Thank god that the CBLDF exists for this very reason.

There is you food for thought for the weekend, nothing like scratching your head over the strangness of it all. What a strange f'd up world we live in.

Fables: Peter and Max Novel Review

Finally finished Peter and Max by Bill Willingham. LOVED it! I'm so glad that Vertigo decided to go ahead and publish their very first foray into prose. Comic fans should love this story because it explores until now, unknown information about Peter Piper and Bo Peep, their mysterious past back in the Homelands and their secret role in the recent War for Fabletown. The story moves along very quickly, alternating between past events in the Homelands and present events in New York and Europe. Willingham manages to get most of the important "Peter" fables moments in this story: he gets his hand stuck in a jar of pickled peppers, and he puts his wife in a pumpkin shell and keeps her very well, and of course more Piper related story than I thought would be possible. Did you know that not only is the Piper of legend that leads the rats away Peter's brother Max, but there was a whole family of pipers back in the Homelands. The same with Bo Peep, she was just one sister among 5 other Peeps. The Peeps and the Pipers were friends back in the Homelands, which is how our two lovebirds met. I don't want to give too much away, but Bigby, Snow, Red, King Cole, and Frau Totenkinder all make key appearances, especially Frau Totenkinder back in the Homelands. Frau Totenkinder at one time she was not only powerful, but youthful and beautiful. This is a story of two brothers, two pipes, the past and the present, true love, and true evil. A magical tale for fans of the Fables comics/graphic novels as well as potential new fans. The 8 page comic at the back of the book places the story within the Fables current continuity, hopefully spurring more readers to pick up the trades. The above illustrations are peppered throughout the book, along with countless others, making it heavier on illustrations than the average novel. I expect that DC will see another surge in Fables GN sales after this release gets hold in the book stores.

Every Fables fan should read this book. Highest possible recommendation.

Some of These Are Just WRONG

As a lifelong fangirl, I am excited by the sheer number of female superhero costumes now available for the average gal for Halloween. Last year, we saw a great assortment: Supergirl (which I did pick up, and even wore last year), Wonder Woman, Batgirl (granted the Batgirl costume they produced looked NOTHING like any Batgirl I've seen, but that's besides the point), and a female Robin. (Female Robin is pictured above). I applaud all of these choices because all of these characters have actually appeared in comics. (Don't forget that there was a female Robin first in Miller's Dark Knight Returns and then briefly when Spoiler took over a few years back for something like a half a issue). New this year, apparently: Jade (I think they are actually calling it Green Lantern on the packaging, but those of us in the know can approve of this costume), Emma Frost the White Queen (again, makes sense, because both of these are indeed female characters in the comic book world). Pictured here are just some of the new offerings for this Halloween season that defy logic: a female Captain America (sorry boys, but no matter how hot she looks, this just doesn't work for me on any level. yes I know that there was that female Captain America character in the M2 universe, but she didn't look like this), Spider-man (god knows if they are calling this costume "spider-man" or "spider-woman" on the package, but this reeks of WRONG. and yes, I know there is a Spider-woman in the Marvel U, but THIS is not her costume. If they had produced a costume that actually looked closer to Spider-Woman's regular costume, I wouldn't have an issue with this), Black-costumed Spider-man/Venom (ugh, this looks awful! make a Black Cat costume already if this is what you want to do!), Flash (OMG, really?). And last but not least, we have the slutty version of poor Zorro here. Wow, that one is in a category all its own. The Zorro people should sue this company for making this piece of shit. I understand the need to produce sexy super-hero costumes for the ladies, but couldn't they just work with the ones that already exist? I've yet to see a store-bought version of Harley Quinn, what about Power Girl (that outfit is sexy enough without tweaking), Raven, Starfire, Vampirella (I mean COME ON, this is already such a whore-ish costume it's a no brainer), any of the female Legion characters, BATWOMAN already please (and no the weird Batgirl costume they've been producing does NOT count, it needs to come with a beautiful long-locks red wig thank you very much), Question (they could sell the Batwoman and Question costumes as a two-pack!), Storm, Marvel Girl/Jean Gray, and the list goes on for some time. Now maybe some of these do exist out there at the stores, it's not like I did a ton of research, most of the ones I mention and picture here were offered through Previews (with the exception of that god-awful Zorro-whore). I am VERY happy that suddenly we have SO many options for the fangirl and non-fangirl alike (who knows, maybe somewhere out there a gal will pick up the Green Lantern/Jade costume and then will wander into a comic store to pick up Blackest Night, it COULD happen), but some of these choices have left me rather annoyed. It's like the companies didn't bother to ask REAL fangirls what we would like to see available on the shelves this year. I guess I wouldn't have a problem with this whole thing if they started making MALE versions of the Wonder Woman costume, the Catwoman costume, and Emma Frost. Surely if we can have female versions of male characters as costumes, how about the other way around. Turnabout is fair play if you ask me.

I'm sure most of the men on the planet don't care one bit if any of these are actual characters or not, as long as they can convince their girlfriend or wife to wear it they will be as pleased as punch. Btw, if that is indeed the case, I too have issue with THAT because these same comic fans have TONS of issues with various super-hero movies or video games not staying true to the character etc., but THIS is ok. I really shouldn't try to find logic where there is none to be had, I should know better, after being in this industry for 18+ years.

Lantern Symbol Ramblings

Red=Rage (Love that choice, it’s perfect!)

Orange=Avarice (Because of this storyline, there are now millions of geeks in the world that can use “avarice” in a sentence. See, comics CAN make you smarter).

Yellow=Fear (Yellow is suppose to be a cheerful color, but in the DCU it’s scary!)

Green=Will (Classic, there can be no argument for this choice).

Blue=Hope (Aw…hope is so "hopeful", isn’t it?)

Indigo=Compassion (Another aww color/word combination. Now if only they could be consistent with the hue, see my rant below).

Violet=Love (9/10 times it looks Magenta to me, again see my gripe below. I’ve yet to see any guy buy the “Love” shirt btw, lol. Come on men, you should be secure in your masculinity!)

Black=Death (Zombie, zombie, zombie fun in the DCU!)

White=Life (It has to be, right? It is the opposite of black after all. Will Wonder Woman be a White Lantern? Who knows, but it does look like Dove is a White Lantern, right?)

We received the lantern prom rings on Wednesday. Now, don’t freak out, we only received one of each as a promo for the promo. Seriously. A PROMO for the PROMOTION. Damn, this is nuts. All that aside, they looking amazing, I mean really. They have a metallic sheen to them, giving the impression that they are made of metal, pretty cool. So we made a nice little display showcasing them. Sigh…. So cool. So fun. Congrats Geoff Johns, the various Lantern symbols has really been a way to get people excited. The various symbol t-shirts are definitely selling like crazy, along with the ultra cool black shirts with the words on them, like “Compassion,” “Will,” “Fear,” etc. man I really like those black shirts, and if you don’t know what I’m referring too, you really don’t come into the Frankfort store enough. We have a lovely wall display showcasing all the Lantern symbol t-shirts.

Is it just me, or is it rather sexist that Star Sapphires can only be of the female persuasion, I mean really, what gives? It seems a little unfair, like only women are able to experience true love or some such bullshit. I don’t like it, not one little bit.

Color problems in the DCU. There seems to be some discrepancy in the Indigo Lantern’s true color. Have you noticed the problem? Sometimes it looks dark blue, sometimes it looks like a grayish dark blue, and now with the promo rings, the Indigo ring looks surprisingly PURPLE and then the Star Sapphires ring looks magenta. I don’t get it. We need consistency here people! The t-shirts for the Star Sapphires are definitely PURPLE, but in the comics and now the rings, they are MAGENTA. Magenta and Purple are NOT the same color, ask any artist. It is really that hard to get this stuff right? Does DC have no control over the colors that Graphitti Designs uses for the t-shirts themselves nor for the colors used for the images on the shirts? Do they not have control over the colors of the promo Lantern rings? I would find that very hard to believe. There is also a problem with the yellow shirt Graphitti used for the Sinestro Corps shirt. It looks like a Colonel Mustard color, why couldn’t they use the shirt they used for the Reverse Flash symbol shirt? THAT is the perfect color. And have you seen the Sinestro Corps hoodie? I won’t carry it at the store because it looks like beige or tan, not the right color AT ALL!

The first wave of Blackest Night action figures will be shipping next Wednesday. I guarantee that they will fly like the wind coming in off the lake. They will be here, and then *snap* they won’t be. Just like that. At the rate these figures are being delayed from DC Direct, I certainly hope that the next two waves of figures aren’t as late, because then Wave 3 would be coming out AFTER issue #8 of Blackest Night, and THAT just won’t do. Nope.

The spin-off Blackest Night mini-series, like Batman, Superman, and Teen Titans are doing WAY WAY better than I ever dreamed. Again, kudos to Geoff Johns for bringing this project together in such a cohesive way. Personally, I’m reading the Batman and Superman Lantern tie-ins and they are pretty good, I recommend them in fact, if you are enjoying the Blackest Night so far, pick them up. Teen Titans isn’t doing it for me, but there is another batch of Blackest Night mini Min-series on the horizon: Wonder Woman (the one to watch, I’m sure of it), Flash (written by Geoff so it should be good) and JLA (written by Robinson, so again, should be good). Can’t wait for all three of those to come out! Those minis will be starting in December.

Who knew zombies in the DCU would be THIS exciting? Thanks Geoff Johns!!!