Marvel Monday – 50% Off Amazing Spider-Man Issues #602 – 647

Marvel Monday is here and this week we’re throwing the spotlight back on the Amazing Spider-Man with half-price issues.

The Chameleon returns with a mission that has Mayor J. Jonah Jameson in his sights! Meanwhile, the Anti-Spider Squad narrows its dragnet around the Wall-Crawler, and Peter Parker gets a new job. Will it bring him closer to Mary Jane or push her away?

Spider-Man can’t get rid of the Black Cat. Will her luck powers help the Wallcrawler out or is Spidey going to have to learn the ways to skin a cat?

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!

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: Alt comic stars give Marvel the indie treatment

Marvel’s Strange Tales title, a regular anthology of dark sci-fi and thriller comics, first hit the stands in 1951. It served as a showcase for the work of Kirby, Ditko and Jim Steranko, and introduced such familiar faces as Dr. Strange and Nick Fury. Today’s mainstream comics audience is no longer tantalized by titles making claims of Strangeness or Weirdness, as the most popular superhero creatives are increasingly those who insist on “gritty”, “realistic” quality in their writing and rendering – or even, god forbid, going meta. For the modern reader, what qualifies as “strange” is other comics; Marvel has confirmed this beyond any shadow of a doubt with its new, startling Strange Tales series, the first collection of which has just arrived in stores.

Perhaps not wishing to be shown up by DC, with their atypically heady Vertigo line and oddball ad-free projects like SOLO, Marvel stepped up to the plate last year with the resurrection of Strange Tales as a regular collection of comics featuring indie luminaries such as Johnny Ryan, James Kochalka, Michael Kupperman and more. Though awkwardly situated under Marvel’s ultraviolent Max division, the project seems to bring out the best in its participants. Many of today’s indie darlings began as pallid little fanboys, salivating over Sue Storm or Kitty Pryde (just ask contributor Jeffrey Brown), and Strange Tales names names. The whole endeavor feels be a bit like when you’re in high school and you realize you can write your sociology term paper on your favorite band.

Paul Pope is a rare bird in the comics world, a taste-maker and fashion victim in equal parts, who has worked for Diesel and DKNY when not drawing Jim Morrison look-alikes and their sooty-lashed consorts dealing drugs in a pre-apocalyptic future. For some reason, Strange Tales’ proposal proved that there is in fact a funny bone buried somewhere in Pope’s famously perfect bone structure, and he leads the volume with a protracted gag strip wherein Lockjaw (a character as rich in comedy gold as MODOK) single-handedly defeats Inhumans nemesis Maximus – only to use the villain’s crown to crack into a can of dog food. Wocka wocka.

Similarly, fine artist-cum-fashion model Dash Shaw churns out the funniest segment in the series so far, wherein we find Strange Tales standby Dr. Strange struggling with soup, contagious yawns, and his enemy Nightmare. Shaw is known for his exceedingly cerebral graphic novels and animated projects – but not so much his sense of humor. Shaw’s “Strange” tale manages to split the difference between his sophisticated art school inclinations, producing challenging layouts and floridly colorful imagery, and the wry wit that the project so deserves. Maybe the key to his success choosing Strange, whose powers allow for hallucinatory visual excess, but who has become something of a second-stringer with the passage of time, making him particularly vulnerable to Mad-style mockery.

A popular pick for the Strange Tales project has been Spider-Man, surprising no one – see also Peter Bagge and Jason here, confirming the erstwhile nebbish’s unstoppable popularity. Perhaps strangest member of Spidey’s fan club is Japanese artist Mizuno Junko, known to art comics and manga audiences for her mix of extreme visceral horror with uber-cute cartooning. Junko does us all the great service of bereaving Peter Parker of his super-powered specialness and damning him to his former terminal dorkiness. Peter’s powers become passé when he and MJ move to a town populated by spider people, and even his trophy girlfriend’s beauty and (um) brains can’t dig him out of the dumps. (See the results of her helpful hints above) It’s refreshing to see this character, who has gone from being the ultimate nerd avatar to a regular old comic book Adonis with a little black book as thick as the King James, returned to a state of relateable geekiness – even in Junko’s seductively surreal world.

I wish I had the word count to pore over every entry in this series, which will continue shortly in Strange Tales II, featuring Tony Millionaire, living legend Jaime Hernandez, the dearly missed Harvey Pekar, and more. Suffice it to say I’ll be back soon to say what more this unholy union spawns.