DC Comics vamps up its digital titles, will British publishers follow their lead?

DC Entertainment has just unveiled two new digital innovations today that the company says will take its comics to "the next level of interactivity" - DC2, a new initiative that layers dynamic artwork onto digital comic panels, adding a new level of dimension to digital storytelling.

DC2 Multiverse technology allows readers to determine a specific story outcome by selecting individual characters, storylines and plot developments while reading the comic, meaning one chapter of a digital comic has dozens of possible story outcomes.

You have to wonder just how much all this interactivity costs - and what the endgame is, in terms of hoped-for sales and response. Many British comic publishers have yet to make bring any significant additional content to their digital offerings to really exploit the digital platform, although ROK Comics - which only publishes digitally - has included audio on all its titles, which has received acclaim from a number of quarters outside the comics industry. The Phoenix Comic app is great, but there's as yet few 'extras' to its digital version that might give it even more of a buzz among its gadget-hungry target audience. DC Thomson are working hard to make the most of what can be done digitally with their digital Dandy, and their electronic offerings of Commando make good combined use of both the releases and a fantastic official web site to promote the recently-revamped title.

(Declaration: I work for ROK Comics).

DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson and Co-Publisher Jim Lee unveiled DC2 and DC2 Multiverse at the opening of Time Warner’s “The Future of Storytelling” exhibition at the Time Warner Medialab in New York.

“Since we made the game changing decision to go Same-Day-Digital with the launch of DC Comics – The New 52, we very strategically built our digital business to have the broadest distribution and most extensive Digital-First content line-up, and now we’re at the forefront of innovation,” stated Nelson. “DC2 and DC2 Multiverse leverages technology to make iconic characters like Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and Green Lantern even more relevant through highly interactive storytelling.”

DC2 will first appear in the highly-anticipated new Digital-First title Batman ’66, based on the popular 1960s television show, and the dynamic artwork features will bring the show’s action and retro attitude to life for comic readers. Readers will experience an expanded storytelling canvas as each comic panel tells a multi-dimensional story through layered artwork and sequences.

Digital-First title Batman: Arkham Origins, based on the upcoming video game from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, will be the first to showcase DC2 Multiverse.



DC2 Multiverse features dynamic artwork, along with action sounds and the ability to integrate a soundtrack – all while allowing readers to determine the fate of each storyline and character, including Super Heroes and Super Villains, with multiple options and end results available in each comic chapter. Only with DC Comics’ compelling rogues gallery will fans be just as excited to see what happens to Black Mask as they are to follow Batman’s adventures.

“Digital comics have proven to be a driving force in attracting new readers, in fact, since the onset of Same-Day-Digital our print and digital sales have both risen by double and triple digits, respectively,” stated Lee. “With Digital-First titles we’ve created a successful formula of pairing comics with other media forms like TV shows and video games. Today’s announcements demonstrate how we can tie innovations that organically fit and enhance comics – for example with atman: Arkham Origins you can choose the destiny of your character by playing the game and reading the comic.”

In addition to offering its Same-Day-Digital print line-up, DC Entertainment’s  line-up of Digital-First titles includes  Injustice: Gods Among Us, Adventures of Superman, Arrow, Legends of the Dark Knight, Smallville: Season 11, the Beyond series, Batman: Li'l Gotham and upcoming titles Batman ’66 and Batman: Arkham Origins. Additionally, last year DC Entertainment secured the most expansive digital distribution of all comic publishers by forging new deals with Kindle Store, iBookstore and Nook Store, in addition to its previous distribution on all comiXology platforms.

SEQUENTIAL gets set to launch

SEQUENTIAL, the free digital graphic novel storefront app for the iPad created by Panel Nine, is launching next Wednesday in the UK, bringing you loads of great titles from the likes of Hunt Emerson, Gilbert Shelton, Alan Moore, Krent Able and many, many more.

Sequential takes digital graphic novels and sequential art seriously, featuring work from the world's leading graphic novel publishers and creators, presented in deluxe digital editions.

Get up to date with SEQUENTIAL over at the new Facebook page - there are some great photos and sneak peeks.

• http://www.facebook.com/Sequential.cc

Comic Creator Ian Sharman pirates his own title

Not sure if you want to pre-order Marksosia's Hero: 9 to 5 - Quietus because you haven’t read the first book?

You want to read the first book but for any one of a million perfectly legitimate reasons you can’t buy a copy or legally download it?

Then you can always download a pirated copy here.

Yes, you read that right. Creator Ian Sharman has published a link to illegally download his work.

"Shocking, eh?" challenges Ian, Managing Editor of Orang Utan comics, on his tumblr. "But, hey, you have Google, you could find it anyway, if you really wanted. And if it persuades just one of you to pre-order the new book then I think it’ll be more than worth it. And, hey, maybe some of you will love it so much you’ll want to own a copy."

So, once you’ve read the first book, how can you pre-order the new book?

Well, you have until 18th May to pre-order Hero: 9 to 5 - Quietus from your local comic shop.

If you want a copy then please don’t just assume your retailer will order it in and you’ll just be able to pick it up when you see it on the shelf in July, because odds are that you probably won’t. If you want it, pre-order it.

To aid you in this, here’s a handy form that you can print out and take along to your local comic shop. It includes all the details that they need to order the book for you. It’s as easy as that.

Alternatively, order it from your regular online retailer, such as:

• TFAW - $12.79
• Forbidden Planet - £8.27
• Westfield Comics - $12.79
• Mail Order Comics - $11.99
• Midtown Comics - $11.19
• SciFi Genre - $12.80

Neil Gaiman's Keynote at the London Book Fair - Video

Here's Neil Gaiman's keynote speech at this year's London Book Fair, in which he talks about the need to experiment with new media and pretty much sums up what we're all thinking -no-one knows what is really going to work in the new digital medium - so experiment.

Gaiman believes that "Amazon, Google and all of those things probably aren't the enemy. The enemy right now is simply refusing to understand that the world is changing". 

With a nod to forward thinker Cory Doctorow ("Think like a dandelion") he said later of the speech: "When the rules are gone you can make up your own rules. You can fail, you can fail more interestingly, you can try things, and you can succeed in ways nobody would have thought of, because you're pushing through a door marked no entrance, you're walking in through it. You can do all of that stuff but you just have to become a dandelion, be wiling for things to fail, throw things out there, try things, and see what sticks."

Panel Nine's SEQUENTIAL project backs upcoming Comica Festival

Digital comics publisher Panel Nine's new SEQUENTIAL is the main sponsor of the Spring Comica Festival, taking place at The Platform Theatre, Central St. Martins College of Art and Design in London this coming weekend, where, amongst other things the company will be giving away an iPad mini.

What is SEQUENTIAL, you say? Well, here's the blurb...

"SEQUENTIAL is the forthcoming platform for the tablet that we believe to be the digital future of graphic novels and sequential art," explains publisher Russell Willis.

"We're working with the world's leading graphic novel publishers and creators to expand the market for one of the world's most under-appreciated art forms," he continues, "and, rather than go the tired old commercial route with the inclusion of superheroes, a genre that has tainted and held back the art form for too long, we stand in opposition to what that genre represents and instead will feature only accessible, intelligent, entertaining, life-enhancing storytelling at its visual and verbal best.

"The time is right to evangelise graphic novels and sequential art anew," Russell enthuses. "Quality graphic novels are being nominated for -- and winning -- awards such as the Costa Prize; digital is making access to material available to most, and British publishers are leading a renaissance in quality material.

"SEQUENTIAL will be making quality graphic novels easily available to all in a specially engineered deluxe format, acclaimed as the 'gold standard', with new features that expand the way in which graphic stories can be told."

Sound interesting? We expect SEQUENTIAL to be available for download for the iPad by the end of April, and we'll let you know as soon as it is.

• Moire about Panel Nine, whose titles include digital editions of David Lloyd's Kickback, Terry Wiley's VerityFair and The Certified Hunt Emerson at www.panelnine.com

• Entrance to the Comica Comiket on the Saturday is FREE, and there are more details here: www.comicafestival.com

• Declaration: Panel Nine is currently the main sponsor of downthetubes

Aces Weekly Volume 4 now online

Aces Weekly, published by David Lloyd, stuffed with creator-owned strips is now running its first week of the fourth collection of their great, exclusively digital, online comic art series which is appropriately called  - Aces Weekly Volume Four!

"It's our biggest volume yet," says David, "and with an extraordinary mix that I hope readers are all enjoying."

This Volume - which runs forseven weeks of seven issues  - contains the excellent Phoenix by Jimmy Hoxton and Guy Adams; Firehawks by the legendary Herb Trimpe; Dark Utopia by Mark Montague; and Just Force by Stephen Baskerville, amongst other beautifully-crafted pieces of the dramatic and the comedic.    

"Phoenix is the second of our contributions thus far in Aces Weekly to explore some of the possibilities of digital storytelling outside of venturing into the dismal areas of ' motion comics'", David enthuses. "What Jimmy and Guy have done with Phoenix in this volume is what Mark Wheatley and Jeff Vaughan have done in our previous volumes with Return of the Human (which is returning soon...) - i.e. use the advantage of unlimited, non-printed-page-restricted space to show the growth of a concept rather than playing with rudimentary technical trickery to elaborate and decorate!  

"We are very proud and very pleased to present the inventiveness and creativity of these excellent creators, and wish our readers great fun in seeing it all develop in front of your eyes as time passes over our period of running these excellent works.

"Aces Weekly continues to reach out into the world," David reveals. "I just came back from a trip to a comics show in Italy last weekend where the response to what we're doing in this new world of publishing on the net was warm and welcoming despite the fact that it came from an audience that was accustomed to a market of healthy and regular newstand print sales.

"Each country I visit on the quest to spread the message of what we're doing with Aces Weekly has its own history and customs, but not one of them is less than a welcoming.  Some are more open to the new than others, but none are rejecting.  And every one of them recognizes that what we are representing with Aces Weekly is the future.  I am glad to be a part of it (despite all the hard work attached to it...)"

• Subscribe to Aces Weekly here: www.acesweekly.co.uk

ROK Comics teams with escape artist 'Master Merlini' for latest audio title

Lancaster-based ROK Comics, publisher of audio comics for a range of mobile devices, have announced the release of Master Merlini, its latest interactive title featuring an all-new incarnation of the real-life, world famous escape artist David Merlini.
Escape artist, crime fighter, adventurer, Master Merlini is all of these things and more, as he battles the villainous Caligari while a mysterious woman helps him discover an incredible truth about his world and his existence!

Written by Cy Dethan, author of the acclaimed Cancertown series and Starship Troopers, with art from Giancarlo Caracuzzo (artist on Marvel's Formic Wars and Gorilla Man), the debut Master Merlini audio comic plunges the hero into a strange world beyond our own, linked to a real world event in New York on April 18th 2013.

With full audio 'play' to accompany the comic and escape artist tricks revealed in exclusive videos as well as animations and extra background information on some of the characters, Master Merlini will leave you wondering... where does fiction end and reality begin?
Based on a concept by ROK Comics founder Jonathan Kendrick and David Merlini himself, who also voices his comic alter ego, Master Merlini merges the real world with a fiction that is all too real for its hero!
Master Merlini joins a range of audio comics published by ROK, including Team MOBILE, a teen secret agent title, Houdini Adventures and The Beatles Story. The company is developing a number of new audio comic titles. There's a full list of released comics below.
MASTER MERLINI ONLINE
• Master Merlini Online at www.mastermerlini.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Master-Merlini/576738435671570
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MasterMerlini
Available now for iPad, iPhone and Android

• From iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/app/master-merlini/id615910310

• From Google Play for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rok.comics.mastermerlini001

Other ROK Comics


Team MOBILE #1
https://itunes.apple.com/app/team-m.o.b.i.l.e-1/id578981996
Also available for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rok.comics.teammobile01


Team MOBILE #2
https://itunes.apple.com/app/team-m.o.b.i.l.e-2/id579055097
Also available for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rok.comics.teammobile02


Houdini Adventures #1
https://itunes.apple.com/app/houdini-adventures-1/id579058111
Also available for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rok.comics.houdini


MUSIC COMICS

The Beatles Story

https://itunes.apple.com/app/the-beatles-story/id569176209
Also available for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rok.comics.beatles001
Rick Fury

https://itunes.apple.com/app/rick-fury/id573928983
Also available for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rok.comics.rickfury001


OG Niki
https://itunes.apple.com/app/og-niki/id594555051


ZeZi
https://itunes.apple.com/app/zezi/id573944649
Also available for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rok.comics.zezi001


Joe Whelan
https://itunes.apple.com/app/joseph-whelan/id562249855
Also available for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rok.comics.joewhelan

Dandy App promo video released... and here it is!

Britain’s longest-running comic has been dishing up anarchic fun since 1937 but went solely digital eaerlier this year.

The Dandy app for iPad and other devices is now being relaunched and includes a regular Dandy digital comic you collect on your virtual book case - and other Dandy-inspired interactive features. Create and dress your own Dandy avatar, play about with the sounds in the Joke Room, collect stuff for your Den and play games with your favourite characters, including Bananaman in "Go Go Go Bananas". You can also look after your very own virtual pet in "The Dollops".

Try it before you buy it? Then you want The Dandy Taster Issue, the FREE taster comic featuring all your favourite Dandy characters including Desperate Dan with voice for the first time ever.

 • Dandy App for iPad, iPhone

• Dandy App for Android

• DC Thomson have also released the Beano iPrank for iPad and Android devices. 

Madefire and deviantART To Launch "Motion Books" to Worldwide Audience

Digital comics makers Madefire and the art-focused social network deviantART have announced they have formed a strategic partnership to provide unprecedented access through deviantART’s creators and audience to the making and distribution of digital Motion Books ™ published with Madefire’s highly respected publishing platform.

The companies involved say the new partnership formed between deviantART and Madefire, will turbocharge a next generation of dynamic storytelling.

Founded in 2011 by Ben Wolstenholme, Liam Sharp (who DTT readers will recall as the artist on British comics such as 2000AD, Death's Head II and more) and Eugene Walden, Madefire provides artists and writers a publishing solution for iOS and the web, allowing creators to build their stories in a new format called Motion Books.

Madefire is backed by Toni Schneider, Partner at True Ventures and CEO of Automattic, the makers of the wildy popular blogging platform Wordpress, with angel investors including Sina Tamaddon, former Senior Vice President of Applications for Apple Inc. The Advisory Board also includes industry leaders Mike McCue, CEO and Founder of Flipboard, Dave Gibbons, co-creator of Watchmen, the bestselling graphic novel of all time, and Bill Sienkiewicz, widely recognized as one of the greatest innovators of sequential art.

The alliance between the 5-star App Store-rated sensation Madefire and the massive creative community of deviantART brings together the toolset and delivery system to reach a global audience.

"The walls of the traditional comic book world, limiting artistic access to the tools of production and distribution, have now fallen," claimed a spokesperson.

"Madefire and deviantART have seized the power of the digital space to introduce the next generation's shared cultural mythos with stories and characters that will move across the screen of imagination with incredible sound and fury.

“DeviantART and Madefire will provide the ultimate story engine, by bringing creators and readers together,” said Ben Wolstenholme, co-founder of Madefire. “The Madefire app for iOS has had a storming response, and now we are moving to the web with deviantART and enabling a new generation of storytellers.

The deal consists of a creative partnership where the entire deviantART creator community is given unlimited access to Madefire’s revolutionary, browser-based publishing platform to create and distribute content while individually controlling the price point. Using deviantART’s Premium Content Platform, the content will reach an enormous worldwide audience while taking advantage of the Platform’s built-in payment and royalty systems fuelled by deviantART’s virtual currency. The content will also then be available on mobile through the Madefire App.

“Madefire and deviantART share in the creator-first mission of empowering artists, writers and visionaries to liberate their narratives,” said Angelo Sotira, CEO and Co-Founder of deviantART. “It just looks so fantastic, exploding cells off the ‘page’ with the pop vibrancy that the comics style had always suggested, but never achieved until now.”

As a special introduction, the first flight of Madefire books will be made available on the Web through deviantART for 10 cents a piece - the same price at which the world first thrilled to Batman and Superman in the 1930s. The books will remain free on the Madefire App for iOS devices for a limited time.

As part of the agreement, Madefire will be the very first native motion-book reader on the deviantART platform. Madefire’s previously iOS app-only experience will now be available for web reading through madefire.com and deviantart.com. Top line publishers now will be able to distribute through to deviantART’s huge community with Madefire.

Several Motion Books are now available on your desktop by some of the top creators in the world working with Madefire, like Dave Gibbons, Liam Sharp, Bill Sienkiewicz, and now you can keep an eye out for radical content by some of deviantART’s amazing community of storytellers from every corner of the art world.

DeviantART - the seventh largest social network on the web – was created to entertain, inspire, and empower the artist and art lover in all of us. Founded in August 2000, deviantART is home to over 26 million registered members worldwide and features an extensive platform used to exhibit, promote and discover works and other members within a peer community. As the largest aggregator of creative talent on the Internet fuelled by over 150,000 daily submissions and an audience reaching 76 million monthly unique visitors, deviantART is one of the world’s largest websites enabling participation in the arts at a scale never imagined in the traditional art world.
• The Motion Books are available at http://browse.deviantart.com/motionbooks

• For more information go to madefire.com

Panel Nine releases Terry Wiley's VerityFair on iPad

Panel Nine, digital publishers of Eddie Campbell's Dapper John and The Certified Hunt Emerson, and has just released their iPad edition of "unheralded star" Terry Wiley's VerityFair.

A slightly twisted soap opera with the merest dash of X-Files, VerityFair tells the story of Verity Bourneville, a 40-something semi-talented actress and full-time extrovert, in her quest for success and a good night's sleep.

 

This app collects together almost 100 pages of comics comprising the whole of VerityFair Part 1 – Chapters 1, 2 and 3, which Terry first published in 2010 and 2011.

It gained some terrific reviews, with Bleeding Cool's Rich Johnston describing Terry as "The greatest comics creator you may never have heard of."

"Look out, Verity Bourneville doesn't so much break 'the fourth wall' to address you directly, as demolish it and grab you to join her and her mates for all sort of escapades inside the panels," enthuses Paul Gravett of the story. "Terry Wiley is at the top of his game in VerityFair, fashioning this '45-year-old car-crash of a personality' into the most feisty, fascinating, personable, unpredictable, multi-faceted new character in 21st-century British comics. She'll tell you what it's all about. Brilliant!"

Terry Wiley is also the artist behind Sleaze Castle, with a tight-knit and dedicated group of admirers from within the comics community and others in the know.

"Quite frankly, nobody else produces comic stories that are anywhere similar to Terry Wiley's," says Bryan Talbot. "They are unique, well-crafted, character-driven comics, filled with humour, incident and emotion and populated largely by a cast of distinctly individual female characters. In a medium that's still, in the English-speaking world at least, largely considered by the general public to be dominated by male adolescent power fantasies, Terry's stories are firmly set outside this geek boy's locker-room territory."

Almost every comics page in the new VerityFair app has audio commentary recorded by Terry exclusively for the production.

VerityFair Part 1 is also supplemented by a whole host of extras including sketches and artwork, seven strips and stories including Sleaze Castle and Surreal School Stories, and an exclusive interview with Terry himself.

This stunning app for the iPad includes the following special features:

• Introductory notes to each extra comic strip and piece of artwork, written by the artist
• Beautiful high-quality digital images, with a specially-designed user interface that gives you fast, smooth swiping from page to page and flawless pixel-per-second movement
• Audio commentaries on over 80 pages, recorded by Terry Wiley exclusively for this app
• Panel Mode where you can double-tap on comics pages to view them panel by panel
• Visual contents and bookmarks that let you view thumbnails of all pages and navigate quickly and easily

Be warned the story does contain adult language and scenes, as indicated by its 12+ Apple rating.

• Buy VerityFair from iTunes
• Terry Wiley's Official web site

• Follow Terry Wiley on Twitter

VerityFair © 2013 Terry Wiley. Panel Nine sponsors DownTheTubes

CDComics releases 'Robin Hood 2020'

Sheffield-based indie publisher CDComics has just launched Robin Hood 2020 – a political action thriller offering a modern take on the classic outlaw legend.

How would Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men respond to the current political and economic climate in the UK? How will they react when placed just seven years into future and the dystopian nightmare of 2020?

‘It just felt like the right time to write a story like this,” said the writer and artist Craig Daley.

The first digital issue - available online or on CD ROM from the Sheffield Space Centre - issue includes the usual humour expected from CDComics, whose previous titles include three Surreal Murder Mysteries (Meadowhell, Spring Heeled Jack and Football Crazy) and a 1960s-based alien abduction story, Carnacki & Hannay. This time, Craig's telling his story against the backdrop of a society that is divided across old class boundaries. On one side the plebs and on the other those who were born into privilege, the ruling elite class.

Along with a revamped Robin Hood, the comic has many of the characters you would expect to see such as Little John, Marion, Tuck, Much – and Scarlet, who has been through the most blatant transformation and is now a female. Along with the characters, even Sherwood Forest gets a surprising make over as the action moves from the traditional forest locations to the cities of London and Sheffield in 2020.

There isn’t a bow and arrow in sight, but the politics is close enough to the truth that the comic keeps the appearance of reality that flows through CDComics’ output. The comic says ‘There is No Conspiracy’ and unlike political thrillers, such as The X-Files, it doesn’t create one. The narrative uses current and historical events, facts and figures and just takes the reader seven years into the future.

“I'd like to think it owed more to A Very British Coup with action piled on top, rather than The X-Files," says Craig. "That was the reasoning behind the title of this first issue."

The action is full on and takes centre stage throughout this 32-page first issue that introduces all the main characters and the comic also asks enough questions to make you want to read Issue Two.

• Issue One of ‘Robin Hood: There is No Conspiracy’, is available to download from Amazon.co.uk, Drive Thru Comics, Smashwords (and after processing by Smashwords will be distributed on Kobo, Diesel, Barnes & Noble, Sony and Apple, priced around £1.25/$1.99 or the Euro equivalent.

• The CD ROM version of the comic packaged in a slim line DVD case with wrap around cover will also be on sale, priced £2.50, from Sheffield Space Centre on the Wicker, Broomhill’s Galaxy 4 and Record Collector, Rare and Racy on Devonshire Green and Blackwells on Carver Street, Sheffield

Phoenix launches digital edition on first birthday

If you haven't sampled The Phoenix - the lively weekly childrens comic aimed at 8-12 year olds that sprang from the ashes of The DFC - then those of you who have or were given shiny iPads for Christmas are being offered the chance to do so as the title launches its digital edition - backed by an unbeatable launch subscription offer of just £9.99 for six months, for this coming week only.

Despite huge acclaim, a great creator line up and an attractive print subscription package (albeit, we're told, some initial glitches for some), The Phoenix, like The DFC, has suffered from a lack of presence on the shelves of your local newsagents or supermarket. It's currently to be found in Waitrose, but for a lot of the country that supermarket chain is still nowhere to be seen, so sampling The Phoenix before committing to a subscription has not been possible.

The launch of the digital edition changes all that, offering not only a great-looking comic app available worldwide, courtesy of downthetubes sponsors Panel Nine but a sampler issue as an appetiser - and a staggeringly cheap, one week only six month subscription offer.

It's an offer that has proven an instant success, with the app currently the top-grossing Children's Magazine in Apple's Newsstand, beating out CBeebies, Doctor Who, Pokemon and Barbie.

The comic reader not only enables a page per view option but also features an impressive 'Panel Mode' feature that presents each strip panel one at a time with a simple 'double tap' command. For those relucant comic readers, unsure even how to read a comic (sadly, a common affliction thanks to a decline in comics literacy), this helps them learn just how to digest a great strip before going on to enjoy The Phoenix at its full page best.

A fabulous mix of humour strips and adventure serials and carefully designed feature pages that put the boot firmly into many rivals offerings in terms of puzzles and interactivity, the launch issue of the digital Phoenix includes an impressive roster of talent.

Pride of place surely goes to the return of Pirates of Pangaea by Daniel Hartwell and Neill Cameron, plus Cora's Breakfast by Nick (Hugo Tate) Abadzis and plenty more, including Long Don Gone by Don Skelton and Star Cat by James Turner.

The app is the work of digital comics company Panel Nine, who have have created the digital Phoenix for Apple’s Newsstand for iPad service. It's a slick comic reader, with a good choice of font size and the aforementioned Panel Mode view (although I think I'd still like a pinch and zoom option, too, but you can't have everything).

Given that a single printed issue costs £2.99, the subscription launch offer is really good - but it ends very soon, so head over to the iTunes store now to take advantage!

Now all we need are digital back issues or print/digital collections of the best strips in the first 52 issues of this great comic!

• The six month, 24-issue subscription is going to be available for the first week only at the quite amazing price of £9.99 ($13.99) (that's something over 80% off). Go to https://itunes.apple.com/app/phoenix-weekly-story-comic/id583824799 to download!

• The Phoenix official web site: www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk

 

Doctor Who Adventures arrives on iPad, iPhone

(Updated, #300 info corrected): Immediate Media has just released Doctor Who Adventures for iPad and iPhone, bringing the junior Who comic magazine to digital devices.

The title reaches its landmark 300th issue this week.

Described as "the ultimate magazine for kids that are crazy about monsters, aliens and that top Time Lord, the Doctor!" each weekly issue of Doctor Who Adventures comes "bursting with beasts, brain-teasers and big Who news".

Sadly, there's little emphasis in its marketing for the comic strip element of the title, although it is mentioned, the iTunes promo mildly enthusing: "Follow the Doctor’s adventures as he battles aliens, saves worlds and tries out new hats..." I have to say I find this a little disappointing.

However, if it's brain teasers, behind-the-scenes info (although we'd argue Doctor Who Magazine was by far your best port of call for that) and finding out a Dalek’s weak spot, how to knock out a Sontaran or survive a Weeping Angel attack - then DWA is for you.

That said, given the physical title's free Who-related gifts - some of which have been rather cool - we'd suggest this might be a title that's still got the edge when it comes to news stand presence.

A three month app subscription costs - £22.99 and single issue copies are also available within the App. The subscription will include the current issue if you do not already own it and subsequently published future issues. Payment will be charged to your iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase.

• More about the app on iTunes

• Doctor Who Adventures Official web site: www.dwamag.com

 

SelfMadeHero's HP Lovecraft titles get Kindle-fied

Fancy a slice of the macabre alongside your Christmas turkey this year?

Just in time for the Yuletide festivities, SelfMadeHero - a quirky British independent publishing house committed to producing ground-breaking work in the graphic novel medium - has announced their adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft’s classic horror tales are now available for Kindle users! 

An ideal gift and the perfect introduction to their extensive catalogue, these digital editions are sure to give the Kindle owner in your life an icy chill this Christmas.

These e-versions are suitable for: Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, Kindle for iPad and Kindle for Android and the titles available are:

At The Mountains of Madness
Adapted and illustrated by Ian Culbard

A scientific expedition to Antarctica unearths a shocking discovery that challenges humanity’s place in the universe and threatens our very existence. This one's totally brilliant and highly recommended.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
Adapted and illustrated by Ian Culbard.

In which the eponymous hero obsesses over the life of his 16th ancestor, an evil alchemist. Trying to emulate the wizard, Ward not only revives old experiments but also resurrects the mage himself, with terrifying consequences.

The Lovecraft Anthology, Vol I
 

Seven of Lovecraft’s best known short stories are brought to life by an array of creative talent, including Ian Edginton, D’Israeli, Shane Oakley, Rob Davis, I.N.J. Culbard, David Hine, Mark Stafford, Leah Moore, John Reppion, Leigh Gallagher, David Hartman, Dan Lockwood and Alice Duke.

The Lovecraft Anthology, Vol II
 

Nine more haunting Lovecraft tales are interpreted by top-notch creators, including Jamie Delano, Steve Pugh, Chris Lackey, Adrian Salmon, David Camus, Nicolas Fructus, Dwight L. MacPherson, Paul Peart-Smith, Chad Fifer, Bryan Baugh, Pat Mills, Attila Futaki, Benjamin Dickson, Mick McMahon, Simon Spurrier, Matt Timson, Dan Lockwood and Warwick Johnson Cadwell.

SelfMadeHero say they will be rolling out more digital editions in 2013. 

More info: www.selfmadehero.com

Digital Strip Magazine #7 on sale now

The digital edition of Print Media Productions STRIP Magazine #7 for iPad is on sale now from iTunes.

Diamond UK have confirmed the print edition of STRIP Magazine #7 will be on sale in UK comic shops from Wednesday 19th December.

This edition of the magazine is a Christmas Special that takes a slightly different form to the usual magazine.

While including an exciting new episode of Phil Hester and John McCrea's regular series Warpaint, the Magazine is largely devoted to a variety of one off stories, including Citadel – a story created by the late, great French creator Moebius that was first published in a different translation in Heavy Metal magazine back in 1980.

By way of a hint of things to come next year when the regular magazine returns after a break in production to ramp up properly, the team hope, for news stand release, Print Media also offers a sneak peek at several all-new stories including Thracius by James Hudnall and Mark Vigouroux; Denizens (by Miko Horvatic and Maxim Simic); Dan Barton of Space Command (by John Freeman and Andrew Chiu) an affectionate comedy homage to space heroes, which may return as a regular series in late 2013); and Corwin Blays, a festive tale starring a hapless thief!

The digital edition also features some exclusive extras, such as a quirky festive tune when the app is launched, and added 'data cards' with background information on the characters and some creators, along with a video trailer for David Lloyd's digital project, Aces Weekly.

There's also a bonus taster of PMP's digital partner ROK Comics titles Houdini and The Beatles Story - only in the digital edition

• Buy it on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/app/strip-magazine-1/id582768929


• This edition is IOS6 only - PMP tell us an update is being submitted which will be compatible with older iPads

 

Hudnall, Mayverik deliver 'Blue Cat' for Aces Weekly

This stunning promo piece by Val Mayerik is for a new strip, Blue Cat by James Hudnall, appearing in the next issue of the digital comic Aces Weekly (acesweekly.co.uk) this month (December).

In the story, Cindy Sparks is a 16 year old girl who gets into serious trouble and is soon haunted by the ghost of a mysterious cat. The cat leads her on a journey to solve a mystery through places within walking distance of her home that she never imagined were there. Places scary, mind blowing and certainly not safe.

James Hudnall burst onto the comics scene in 1986 with Espers, which Aces Weekly publisher and creator David Lloyd illustrated. He went on to produce many acclaimed comics for Marvel, DC, Image, Malibu, Viz such as The Psycho, Sinking, Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography, Streets, The Age of Heroes (now being re-published in colour STRIP Magazine, re-mastered by John Ridgway), and Devastator. Last year, his graphic novel Aftermath made its English language debut from Humanoids.

James is excited about digital comics having produced one in 2000 with Spanish artist Rafa Fonteriz which is the early version of Aftermath. It can be seen on his site thehud.com. In addition to Blue Cat, which he is producing for Aces Weekly, he's finishing his self published crime series 2 To the Chest for 2013.

Egmont expands its digital collections with Misty, Battle and Scream stories

Egmont UK’s Classic Comics imprint was created to re-publish the wealth of classic comics in their archive. Four volumes of Roy the Rovers kicked off their e-comic publishing in June this year – and now they have announced the launch of further classics on popular comic series from the 1970s and 80s.

A fifth Roy of the Rovers is now available, along with strips from popular girls comic Misty and The Thirteenth Floor from the short-lived but fondly-remembered Scream.

Also joining the digital line-up soon are strips from Battle Picture Weekly, including Johnny Red, Major Eazy and the ground-breaking Charley’s War. Some of the biggest names in British comics were involved in the creation of these stories, including Pat Mills, John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra.

Roy of the Rovers is one of the best-known and enduring British comic strips. Roy’s journey began in 1954 as a comic strip in Tiger; he became a popular fixture, so much so that in 1976 he was given his own comic, charting the highs and lows of his eventful career as a footballer.

Misty’s edginess and adventurousness paved the way for a new genre of girls’ comic books. The stories were dark and mysterious, the characters flawed and morally ambiguous; upon its publication, Misty introduced readers to an imperfect world which didn’t always have a happy ending.

Battle Picture Weekly encompassed several action-packed strips that sought to invigorate the British comics scene with punchy, thrilling storylines and adventurous but believable characters. Featuring well-known strips such as Charley’s War, Johnny Red, Major Eazy and Rat Pack, it became well-known for packing a punch like no other.

The Thirteenth Floor which first ran in Scream but transferred on that title's demise to New Eagle, is about Maxwell Tower, a unique block of apartments that was built without a 13th floor. The building is watched over by Max, a computer who has created his own 13th floor, which he uses for his own sinister practices. People who harm the tenants of the building are lured to Max’s 13th floor, and often don’t come out, causing suspicion among the authorities and trouble for Max.

David Riley, Managing Director of Egmont Publishing Group, said: “Roy, Battle, Misty…these are iconic magazines which still have a place in the national consciousness. They deserve to be brought back; their appeal also has the potential to transcend the generation gap and reach an entirely new, younger audience.

"With the limitless possibilities offered up by digital publishing, there has never been a better time to bring these comics to the fore.”

• Roy of the Rovers Volume 1 on iTunes 
It's the start of the 1976-77 season and the Melchester Rovers are on great form! However, player manager Roy Race feels the pressure when a supermarket offers £30,000 to the first player to score 50 goals in the season. Can Roy show the world - and journalist Eric Eddleston - that he's playing for the team and not himself? Meanwhile, new signing Roger Dixon just can't wait to get onto the field.

• Roy of the Rovers Volume 2 on iTunes 
Roy Race soon realises that new signing Roger Dixon doesn't have the stamina to last a whole match, but the players and fans want to see more of him. Things go from bad to worse when Roy starts to lose form himself, and Dixon starts competing with his own manager. Then, just as Roy cracks the Dixon problem, the Rovers come up against the toughest referee in the league, and a freak accident leaves Charie Carter short of confidence in goal! What's a player manager to do?

• Roy of the Rovers Volume 3 on iTunes 
Roy manages to restore Charlie Carter's confidence, but not before he has to act as goalie himself! Roy and Penny announce that they are expecting, but the happy moment is short-lived as the Rovers are knocked out of the league cup by Swinford. In the league itself, the Rovers continue their unbeaten run and even match the all-time record. However, after being knocked out of the FA cup in a fog-affected match, can the Rovers hang on to the league's top spot? 

• Roy of the Rovers Volume 4 on iTunes  
The Rovers win the league and it looks like Roy has achieved the Gold Rush with the winning goal, but he reveals it was in fact Mervyn who scored the clincher to win the £30,000 prize! Penny gives birth to twins, and the comic readers get to name them! Roy's invited to America by ex-Rover Steve Mason to play some matches for the Pine City Pirates. When Roy and Blackie arrive, they find a game which is much louder and brasher than they're used to. Roy wins extra publicity for the Pirates by beating the Americans at their version of football, but will he be able to craft the Pirates into a functioning team before his final game?

• Roy of the Rovers Volume 5 on iTunes
Melchester Rovers are in high spirits following their League Championship win the previous season and Roy’s return from his summer of football in America. But the good feelings are soon overshadowed by hooliganism at the stadium. Will Roy’s suggestion to install giant screens in the stands to show highlights from the game help control the situation or cause even more trouble?

• The e-comics can be downloaded onto the iPad and Kobo. More info on the range from Egmont: www.egmont.co.uk

Is online reading bad for you? Leading book store The Works argues it might be

Battling the ever increasing push toward digital reading that threatens its bottom line UK discount book chain The Works – responding to perhaps controversial claims about the dangers of online reading – has launched an investigation into why reading books is better for young children’s development than watching screens.

Despite increased digital reading – this week, US comics publisher DC Comics revealed its digital comic book sales are up 197% compared with the same period in 2011 –  the online and high street book retailer says it has recently noticed a significant increase in children’s books sales that relate to children’s television series including: Dr Seuss, Mr Men, Horrid Henry, Horrible Histories, Thomas The Tank Engine and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

After recent controversy over claims that watching TV can cause young children  psychological and physical damage, The Works interviewed professionals in the field, including children’s literacy expert, Doctor Sandra Williams, and the National Literacy Trust, to establish the benefits of reading books.

The Works research began after publication of claims by Doctor Aric Sigman, a psychologist whose similar claims about the dangers of social media were widely reported in 2009, recently saw his paper on screen time published as a Leading Article in the British Medical Association British Medical Journals’ Archives of Disease in Childhood.

In it, he argued the sheer amount of average daily screen time during discretionary hours after school children were having, be it watching TV, reading on computers or tablets, was increasingly being considered an independent risk factor for disease, and is recognised as such by other governments and medical bodies but not, however, in Britain or in most of the EU.

Doctor Williams, a Senior Lecturer at Brighton University who specialises in children’s literacy and a wide interest in emergent children's literature, said: “Reading a book, together with the tactile turning of the page is pleasurable and a good picture book has qualities that may not be found in electronic media.

"What is important is the construction of the child and many good quality picture books invite active participation and involvement. Significantly the authors/illustrators leave gaps for the readers to fill. There is a tension between text and picture which invites consideration.”

The Works hope that the printed book will survive the digital revolution. Reading doesn’t provide ready-made answers; it leaves room for imagination and extended periods of focus. This is increasingly important in today’s multi-media world, in which the over-abundance of information can be heavily distracting.

Conal Presho, Head of Development at the National Literacy Trust, agrees: “Only time will tell if print books will be excluded from children’s reading altogether, although it seems unlikely…there is an inherent value in a book as a physical item, particularly when given as a present. We are also very aware that print books are currently much more accessible to those from disadvantaged backgrounds and printed books can be more easily shared or passed on from child to child.”

The Works is keen to promote the exploration of words, sounds, stories and writing amongst young children and will continue working alongside experts and parents to ensure the rightful survival of the book.

We should advise a note of caution regarding Doctor Sprigman's research that seems to have sparked The Works good intentions (albeit intentions which also aim to encourage book sales in their shops, which isn't something we would not encourage anyway). In 2009, when Sprigman appeared on BBC's Newsnight talking about the dangers of social media, Ben Goodacre, writer of The Guardian's "Bad Science" feature, argued he was distorting scientific evidence. "He is the man behind the 'Facebook causes cancer' story in the Daily Mail," he noted, "and many other similar stories over the years (as part of the Daily Mail’s ongoing oncological ontology project). His article can be read in full online here as a PDF.

"I explained that he had cherry picked the evidence in his rather fanciful essay, selectively only mentioning the evidence that supports his case, and ignoring the evidence that goes against it. 

"I claim no expertise on the question of whether social networking and internet use is linked to loneliness," he continued. "I merely have a basic ability to use searchable databases of academic evidence, like anybody else. If you go to PubMed and type in:

loneliness [ti] AND internet

you will get 12 results.

"Many of them do not support Dr Sigman’s theory. These are the ones he completely ignores... [snip] Dr Sigman has ignored inconvenient evidence, in order to build his case."

ROK releases first Beatles audio comic in new eight-issue series

ROK Mobile Comics has released the first issue of its new audio comic The Beatles Story for iPad, iPhone and other mobile devices.

The eight-issue digital series collects, for the first time in its entirety, the classic and highly-acclaimed Beatles strip created by the late Angus Allan and Arthur Ranson for the British weekly comic, Look-In.

With new covers by Martin Baines, the digitally-enhanced audio comic also includes rare Beatles videos and other material to complement the comic, including audio commentary memories from writer and radio broadcaster Angie McCartney.

Working closely with artist Arthur Ranson - with some pages scanned from original artwork - and the estate of writer Angus Allan, the eight-issue digital audio comic is available for for iPad, iPhone, Android and other mobile devices, the strip complemented by fully authored audio enhancements that further bring this unique comic biography of The Beatles to life.

The launch coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Fab Four's beginnings back in 1962, when The Beatles - John, Paul, George and Ringo - took the charts by storm in 1962 with their first official release, "Love Me Do", quickly followed by "Please Please Me" and "From Me to You". Beatlemania soon swept across the globe as the Fab Four recorded a staggering 12 studio albums, 13 EPs and 22 singles from 1962 to 1970.

It is estimated they have sold over one billion records worldwide and The Beatles continue to influence many musicians and artists today, attracting a new generation of fans.

Beautifully realized, The Beatles Story charts the history of the band from their struggle for success in the early 1960s through their entire career until the band's split in 1970.

DJ Mike Read has called the strip "the only worthwhile strip record of the Beatles" and the creator-owned comic, first published in British comic Look-In has only ever been reprinted in an abridged form, both in the UK and in Europe.

The opening page of The Beatles Story
© Angus Allan & Arthur Ranson

"Before The Beatles - Their Story in Pictures strip, Angus Allan, comic-book and Paperback Writer, and I had been teamed up by Look-in Editor Colin Shelbourn to do The Elvis Story," recalls Arthur Ranson of the origins of his acclaimed Beatles comic strip. "Like Dreamers Do I suggested to Angus that we might retain the copyright - prompted by belief in its future possibilities and thinking possible returns When I'm Sixty-Four.

"Rather than just the Money there was also pride in ownership and an interest in creators rights. Creator ownership was at that time even less usual then it is now and Nobody I Know at the time had done that. Can’t now imagine the hubris that made me pushy so don’t Ask Me Why.

"When Angus heard the idea he was nervous about it," Arthur continues. "Apart from the gamble that a reduction in fee would later be recouped I think it ran against his idea of how professional comics guys worked and he might be seen as a  Bad Boy. I convinced Angus We Can Work It Out and the Two of Us took the proposal to Colin. I said I would not draw the strip on any other terms. (How was it I was so cocky?) With much less argument than I expected Colin agreed. Thank you, Colin.

"When Colin wanted The Beatles strip it was more or less understood that the same terms would apply. At Look-in’s expense Angus and I became Day Trippers, took A Ticket to Ride and went to Liverpool for research, visiting  Penny Lane and all.

"ITV Publications reproduced the strip as a paper book only four months after its first appearance in Look-In, hardly Any Time at All. The impression I was left with was that whoever organised the reprint was so miffed when he discovered that Angus and I had the copyright that he made no attempt to sell it on so it wasn’t exactly Here, There, and Everywhere. Angus and I took on an agent to act on our behalf and he landed some foreign versions.

"Some of the artwork was displayed at the Walker Art Gallery in their 1984 'Art of the Beatles' exhibition."

"Do You Want to Know a Secret? Drawing a weekly story with the hope of seeing it reappearing in a complete continuous format did need some thinking about," Arthur reveals. "The space where the title would go required filling, but not with anything that was essential. For new readers the breaks are then not apparent and the story will move without interruption, Act Naturally..." 

The Beatles Story is the latest audio comic project from ROK, who launched their first audio adventure comic Team M.O.B.I.L.E. earlier this year, with several new titles, including Houdini, new adventures of the world's greatest escape artist soon to follow, along with spy adventure Tomorrow We Live, written and drawn by Mike Collins.

The company is also working on a number of music comics featuring up and coming bands, and a collection of Angus Allan and Arthur Ranson's other creator-owned strip for Look-In, The Elvis Story.

• The Beatles Story by Angus Allan and Arthur Ranson, with new covers by Martin Baines

• From iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/app/the-beatles-story/id569176209?mt=8

• Android Edition: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rok.comics.beatles001

CD Comics issues free Hallowe'en sampler

Sheffield-based CDComics is releasing a free 'Taster' of its digital titles free via Amazon on 30th/31st October 2012 - a sneak peek into a world of surreal murders and mysteries from the mind of their creator, Craig Daley.

Whether it’s demons, aliens, monsters or just your average human psycho that whets your appetite, the 30-page full colour digital comic, offered in Kindle format, has them all. It features six front covers and four pages from Meadowhell: The True Horror of Shopping, Spring Heeled Jack: From the Tunnels of Hell, the well-received Football Crazy: The Theatre of Nightmares on the Road to Insanity, CDComics latest title, Carnacki and Hannay: Eyam, the Plague Village UFO Mystery, plus samples from Manhattan 1930: The Man in the White Suit and War Nurse: Alone.

You can grab your copy from amazon.co.uk. The free comic is also available at Amazon.co, USA, Japan, Germany, France, etc.

“CDComics output has been nothing but a treat to read, Daley’s unique, dry wit is the highlight of his writing..." say the reviewers over at HorrorCultFims. "and when it comes to the closing pages, there’s no one else to compare.”

• Download free Kindle reading Apps for Smartphones, Tablets, Macs and PCs

The full versions of all CDComics current titles are available from

• Amazon UK
• Drive Thru Comics
• Smashwords
• Kobo
• Diesel
• Barnes & Noble
• Sony
• Apple