Let’s Get Digital: The Digital Comics Report for October 19th 2011

This week Doctor Who joins The IDW collection, Key of Z gets a Same Day as Print release, Marvel brings out The Fearless and DC continues to Rock the New 52! Plus more new comics from Image, Dynamite and all your favorite publishers. What are you waiting for? Let’s Get Digital

Same Day as Print

Batman #2- Batman hunts a new and deadly killer in Gotham City–a killer with a vendetta against Bruce Wayne! But who is this mysterious killer in an owl skull mask? And is he the key to unlocking one of Gotham’s oldest and most terrifying secrets?

Key of Z #1- From the creators of The Amory Wars saga and Kill Audio comes a deadly new vision of New York City! The zombie apocalypse has transformed the city into two separate battle-hardened fiefdoms! And only one man, whose family has been ripped away from him, stands between these two warring factions. Wielding an artifact from the past that imbues him with a surprising power, find out what happens when he discovers the Key of Z. Features a special zombiefied incentive cover by Tony Moore, co-creator of The Walking Dead!

Dungeons & Dragons #12-  The new story arc kicks off here! Fell’s Five has returned home, only to find shattering news for Khal. He’s heading home, and nothing will stand in his way! Join us as John Rogers and Andrea Di Vito bring us the latest chapter in their thrilling adventures of swords and sorcery!

68 (Sixty-Eight) #5- MINISERIES CONCLUSION! Captain Joe ‘Dunk’ Duncan, CIA agent Declan Rule, Doc Russo and a handful of hardened US troopers hold firebase Aries against hordes of Viet Cong, NVA regulars and the rotting risen dead. It’s ‘Custer’s Last Stand’ Vietnam-style in the action/horror filled conclusion to the series’ initial story arc.

Collections and Graphic Novels

Chew Vol. 2-  Collects Chew #6-10! Tony Chu, the cibopathic federal agent with the ability to get psychic impressions from the things he eats, is on a bizarre new case. A newly discovered fruit takes Agent Chu to a remote island full of secrets, strangeness-and a shadowy killer with a particularly sinister appetite. Presenting the second storyline of IGN.com’s pick for Best Indie Series of 2009 and MTV Splash Page.com’s pick for Best New Series of 2009. Find out what the fuss is about in this latest a twisted and darkly funny comic about cops, crooks, cooks, cannibals and clairvoyants.

Okie Dokie Donuts: Open For Business!- Good morning! Welcome to Okie Dokie Donuts. Run by pastry pioneer and cunning culinarian, Big Mama! Okie Dokie Donuts is the best little donut shop in town! What’s her secret? Big Mama rolls in a heaping serving of love into each of her hand made creations! Loyal customers can’t get enough of her tantalizing turnovers.

New and Noteworthy

Doctor Who Vol. 2 #1-9- The Eleventh Doctor era starts here! When the TARDIS becomes infected with holographic spam, the Doctor, Amy, and Rory are forced to land on an alien world, but it’s been targeted for invasion by intergalactic mercenaries! Don’t miss the first adventures of the new Doctor and his companions in the latest volume of this critically acclaimed series.

Amazing Spider-Man #648-651 BIG TIME begins! Big changes are happening for Spider-Man: Bigger threats, bigger guest-stars, and a big opportunity that could turn Peter Parker’s life around! Guest starring The Avengers and The Fantastic Four!

Killing Pickman #4- Convicted child killer Richard Pickman now rots in a cell at Heorot maximum security prison. Has the evil been contained? All who have come into contact with Pickman are plagued with nightmares, paranoia, and thoughts of suicide. Pickman himself claims that he can simply ‘walk out’ of his prison whenever he chooses. Fearing for his life and the lives of all those whom he holds dear, Detective William Zhu does the unthinkable – he bribes a guard at the prison to make sure that Pickman’s life comes to an end!

Spaced Warped #2- Far away, in a land long ago…there was an orphaned farm kid with daddy issues trying to rescue an orphaned princess unaware of her daddy issues! In the tradition of Robot Chicken: Star Wars and Spaceballs, Space Warped continues, with a loving, affectionate parody of the greatest science fiction franchise of all time! The second of a two-issue mini-series, this is a fan-pleasing romp that is sure to deliver!

Check out the above titles plus the other 245 new books added to the comiXology collection this week. Tell us what you’re reading on Twitter and Facebook and be sure to keep an eye out for the latest in Digital Comics news right here!

Digital Comic Recommendation: Golden Age Batman

In the past few years the caped crusader has saved the world from aliens, traveled through time and space, established a global crime fighting syndicate while harboring a private battle against the ancient secret society now ruled by the mother of his only son. A little film called The Dark Knight was released back in 2008. His origins have been re-examined, re-told and even rebooted under the master pens of scribes like Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller and a host of other talented writers and artists. In short, right now the bat books are the best they have ever been…or are they?

Bob Kane created the character in 1939 that’s over 70 years of storytelling, and while the Batman of Grant Morrison’s recent awe-inspiring run is nothing short of ground breaking, so much of the character’s history that is featured in arcs like “The Black Glove” and “Batman R.I.P” is actually chronicled in the classic golden age issues now available on comiXology.

Find out how the Joker earned the title “The Clown prince of Crime”, See the first appearance of Dr. Hugo Strange, watch the evolution of Catwoman’s costume, then watch it evolve again. These classic issues are the building blocks of what made the original dynamic duo great, with each download packing a whooping 53 pages of all the POW! ZAP! and SLAM! you could ask for. These are some of the most sought after comics of all time, in print they’d cost close to 40,000 dollars per issue! On comiXology fans can read them for only $1.99

A welcomed addition to the ever expanding digital offerings in our library we’re not only extremely excited to feature the first 12 issues of Batman this week but also extremely proud. So go ahead and pull these comics today, there just maybe something to this Bruce Wayne fellow after all, so why not see what all the fuss is about for yourself.

A Curtain Call For Comic Books

Despite technical woes, legal disputes, and more bad press than even the Daily Bugle would care to print, the Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark continues to swing onward towards becoming one of the biggest musicals in history! It’s officially scheduled to open next month after over a year of false starts and while many have claimed the production seems doomed to fail, it is still anyone’s guess as to whether or not the web-slinger will hit the jackpot with theater goers.

One of the projects biggest hurdles has been it’s production. With a budget busting $65 million expense spread out across it’s massive cast, crew and elaborate effects and set design critics have argued that comics and superhero’s have no place among chorus lines and cat walks. True the high flying antics of many a spandex clad super-hero may not be the most practical choice for a Broadway musical, however that doesn’t mean the medium is without dramatic merits. Check out the list below for some awesome comics worthy of the spotlight but won’t break the bank in the process.

1. Little Nemo in Slumberland: Forget Little Orphan Annie, this classic Winsor McCay strip has the making’s of a sleeper hit. Worth it almost for The Marquee art alone this comic from the early 1900′s serves as a charming reminder of the magic of childhood and the dreams that go along with it. With the right set design and a proper score McCay’s timeless tale could speak to a whole new audience of all ages eager to dream once again on the great white way.

2. Jenny Finn Doom Messiah: Imagine if Oliver twist had been adapted for the stage buy H.P. Lovecraft.  Forget happy go lucky Street Urchins and get ready for a macabre mystery of the highest order. Seeing Mignola’s art translated to a stage production would be spectacular, and just imagine the stage directions “Exit pursued by an enormous tentacle monster” that’s just theater magic waiting to happen.

3. Pinocchio Vampire Slayer: Traditional Puppet Theater pre-dates the modern musical by several hundred years, and while current Off-Broadway hits like Avenue Q have reinvigorated the genre for a new generation, the most famous marionette of all time could use a bit of a re-boot. The SLG graphic novel would provide the perfect source material for an action packed take, savvy among the disturbing trend of vampirism fanatics on the up-swing of late. check it out today!

4. Tom Strong: A role tailor made for a true leading man of Broadway and with the success of Moore’s other work across different mediums Tom Strong seems a likely choice for the next disowned adaption. Tom ,Tesla and The Modular Man!  A homage to the science hero’s of pulp and dime novel’s past would work well in an industry known for revivals.

5. Archie: Speaking of revivals, a lot has been going down in Riverdale lately, a wedding, a funeral and the arrival of a brand new character helped finally bring this classic title up to speed with the rest of the industry. Sure Archie and the gang have have had their share of Musical endeavors in the past, but why not go out on a limb and do something a little different? maybe exam the genre mainstay in a darker light? or perhaps give it the Mel Brooks treatment?

6. Batman/Superman: Without a doubt DC will likely cook up something cool to stake their claim in the theatrical world (although it should be noted there was in fact a short lived superman musical in the sixties, seriously!) but rather than rely on over-top stunts and an expense score, why not go in the direction least expected. Opera. Think Gotham City Soprano’s mixed with a fresh take on the Kryptonian Space Opera!

7.  Hawkeye & Mocking Bird: What’s not to love about the drama of star-crossed lovers unfolding before a live audience? The comic event that brought Marvel’s unlikely pair of Love birds back into lives of mainstream readership seems to operate on an almost shakepearean level. For comic relief just add Deadpool after all who needs aerial acrobatics when you can break the fourth wall and go “meta” with a little gunplay?

Of course these are just simple ideas offered up in the wake of the media frenzy that is Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark. As of this posting it’s scheduled to open on March 15th 2011 fans of live theater, comics and U2 should check it out. In the meantime however, check out the awesome comics hitting the app this week and while your at it why not tell us which one’s you’d love to see get the ol’ razzle dazzle treatment?

The Next Phase: A Batman Among Batmen

Somebody alert Superman! Some nefarious mastermind is multiplying our superheroes. His devilish aims may not be clear, but clearly they’re devilish!

Well, actually, let’s slow down a minute. Over the last few years Hero systems like the Green Lantern (okay his was a bit of a restructuring), the Justice Society, and the Flash have seemingly exploded. There are multiples of many of the characters themselves and then side/derivative characters have also popped up in a manner almost fungal. To be fair, this is an equal opportunity phenomenon, Wolverine started his systematic crawl towards omnipresence by joining every team in the Marvel Universe, and then started having children. Ultimately, the question is not whether this is a healthy trend or not, it seems to be a natural part of the wax and wane that Superhero comics go through when it comes to this specific issue, but whether it’s justified and effective in the case of a specific character, in this case the Batman.

It is. This week three different comics blitzed the stores representing the new Bat-us quo. Batman: The Return sets up the whole new premise and closes the Batman’s previous macro-adventure. Bruce Wayne has seen the big picture and realized he needs to empower his symbol to have a greater global and local impulse. He’s aggressively pursuing a (still mysterious) multi-front plan to better the world. Batman Inc. has him traveling the world in order to recruit and train heroes to form his army.  Batman 704 turns the focus to Gotham where Dick Grayson acts as the Batman’s first ensign once again. I enjoyed them all to different extents, but overall I think the project makes sense. The structure Morrison’s created allows for many Bat-units to exist within a Bat-army and it’s at least somewhat clear and sensible what role each character can play. There needs to be a structure like this in order for the multiple character thing not to feel derivative, and here it doesn’t. It seems complex and rewarding.

Second Helpings: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5

Grant Morrison’s The Return of Bruce Wayne has been one of the more critically lauded superhero runs of the year. Despite this, one dogged attack on the book (and of Morrison as a writer) still haunts me; namely complains of Morrison’s experimentations with the bat legacy and his free use of continuity. Morrison has taken Bruce Wayne from his genesis as Batman through to death and back again. As if death was not enough, The Return of Bruce has seen our hero take on the Batman mantle throughout the ages, finding new contexts for his vigilantism in various historical Gothams.

The latest issue finds Batman in a …ehhhh… post Martha and Thomas Wayne Gotham? Temporal specificity is a damning trick here. When the hell were Bruce Wayne’s parents killed?  Batman’s original Detective Comics origin story came to the public in 1939. Does this suggest then that they were killed in the 1920’s? Being a hero in a continuous prime, his origin is unset.

This fifth issue of The Return of Bruce Wayne summons up period detail but refuses to align itself with a single period.The world Bruce finds himself in this latest issue is a rough noir sketch of the world Batman originally entered in the Detective Comics of the late 30s and early 40s. We’ve got an obliging hardboiled intro narration and Bruce even makes a one off joke about being given a pinstripe ‘gangster’ suit. This temporal color plays out nicely until we see Morrison fixture (and  forties Detective Comics relic) Prof. Carter Nichols enter the story wearing the quintessentially 70s ‘Have a Nice Day’ shirt, replete with giant smiley. This detail has been a contentious one for readers. It seems to be a glaring anachronism. But how are we meant to date this period in Batman’s personal history? If he is permanently in his prime, shouldn’t the death of his parents be fluid, continuously shifting back twenty years, give or take. This admixture of times seem appropriate for Morrison’s aims. He has tried to synthesize the character, bringing an understanding to the entirety of his history. It was easy to intellectualize his choice but I wasn’t sure how I felt about it in practice.

Flash forward to this weekend. I am channel browsing and happen upon the heaping brilliance of asynchronicity that is Tim Burton’s Batman. I hadn’t seen the film in a few years. What I saw in the 15 minutes I watched it was a free melding of time and tone. The film shifts from noir, to slapstick, to over-produced gothic blockbuster and back again. For backdrops we’ve got post-Regan urban squalor and parodies of old Hollywood soundstages. Instead of Heath Ledger’s reliably insane Joker we’ve got Jack Nicholson’s swaggering. He plays the part like the bastard son of Fred Astraire and Jack Torrance, camping it up in one dancey moment only to be utterly menacing the next. Oh, and the film has got Prince. Despite (or because of) its free use of continuity, the 1989 Batman film became a huge blockbuster and a primer for superhero adaptations to come.

While this self-aware Batman has been replaced by the grittiness of the Nolan Batman films, its initial success should be a reminder for readers of Return. While Morrison might be renowned as a alien abductee, doper, or high priest of metaphysics, he is just as concerned with spinning a damn entertaining yarn and is not afraid to play with boundaries to get there.

Treehouse of Horror #16 roasts halloweenies in hell

The Simpsons comic Halloween annual, Treehouse of Horror, is a welcome emission from the ever-expanding Matt Groening empire, considering that the creator was himself an indie darling cartoonist long before he was “that guy that did the Simpsons”, with his acerbic funny animal strip Life In Hell. Gazillionaire Groening returns to his roots for a moment to provide the beautiful painted cover for #16, in which Marge (in her “Marge Attacks!” manifestation) sports a brainy bouffant and flash-fries a skillet of eggs with a ray gun whose magazine is also full of brains, in an appealingly absurd post-Raw flourish. Much in line with Groening’s erstwhile indie sensibilities, Treehouse’s artistic lineup is eminently capable of this blend of humor and horror.

Evan Dorkin, whose ultraviolent cult hit Milk & Cheese (1991-1997, Slave Labor Graphics) and evil-looking Dork comics make him a shoe-in for the Treehouse of Horror series. The former “Dairy Products Gone Bad” book was often repellently violent even for indies — so memorably so that the pair recently appeared in Devil’s Due’s horrific Hack/Slash #12. Though no longer a young punk, Dorkin does not disappoint with his tale of Treehouse terror in which Dr. Frink’s Jerry Lewis-inflected babble accidentally unleashes a hideous space monster, swathed in Jack Kirby power dots, on an unsuspecting Springfield. If you’ve ever wanted to see nearly every single Simpsons character pop like a grape in quick succession, Dorkin’s river of gore will satisfy.

Kelvin Mao and Kelley Jones’ second chapter is just as strong and plausibly grosser, with Flanders trapping Homer in an automated coffin that delivers him to the grave, drowning in donuts and dying from a bacon dripfeed. Making sense of it here would suck all the fun out of the story; it’s much easier to remark on Jones’ inky handiwork, which presents a serviceable EC Comics impression that shouldn’t surprise any readers of his particularly gothy work on Batman.

The latter entries are just as much fun if a bit harder to explain in the case of arch politico Peter Kuper’s psychotic Poe mash-up, the Telltale Bart, which somehow manages to leave not a single story out; the final chapter, penned by Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister with the aid of Tom Peyer, involves Homer going to Hell in the company of Hitler, Kaiser Wilhelm and others…which is too awkward to discuss in light of Lemmy’s hobbies. You’ll see. Go and pick up a copy from your local Comic Book Guy before they all sell out for the Marge Attacks! trading cards.

Thor: First Thunder with Bryan J.L. Glass: A podcast worth doing somersaults for

Harvey Award winner Bryan J.L. Glass joins us once again to show how he makes lightning strike with Thor: First Thunder #1! We also talk app stuff as Image United joins our ranks and make sure we have all our shots with Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers! We keep the magic rolling with Zatanna, go to Infinity (Gauntlet) and (Batman) Beyond, and try to see what’s the story with Morning Glories.

Listen To: It Came Out On Wednesday: Thor: First Thunder!