Digital Comics

When it came to 1960s action television, two campy crimefighting series captured the attention of audiences the world over. The first was Batman, the legendary Adam West/Burt Ward series that brought the Day-Glo hijinks of the comics to TV. The other is The Avengers, a long-running spy/science fiction --- or "spy-fi" if you will --- series from Doctor Who co-creator Sydney Newman. The best known seasons of The Avengers paired Patrick McNee's "top professional " John Steed with Diana Rigg as the stylish "talented amateur" Mrs. Emma Peel. Although they've starred in their own comics before under the title Steed & Mrs Peel (to avoid confusion with those other Avengers) --- including comics written by Mark Waid and Grant Morrison --- now the pair cross paths with the Dynamic Duo in Batman '66 Meets Steed & Mrs. Peel, by Ian Edginton, Matthew Dow Smith and Jordie Bellaire. Judging by this first chapter, readers are in for a treat.

My Immortal was the single greatest piece of Harry Potter fan fiction ever to roam freely online. Freewheeling, horny, a truly superb unleashing of id, It was a perfect portrait of "indignant Alternative fourteen year old diarist" --- a writer's profile appallingly neglected by society at large. In 2013, writer Brian McClellan and his team made a web series based on Gillespie's My Immortal. Now the team behind the show is releasing a 16-page digital comic as well, to help fund a feature-length My Immortal film.

In February, Action Lab Entertainment's Voracious debuted under the tagline, "Top Chef meets Jurassic Park." Needless to say, we were intrigued. The series tells the story of chef Nate Willner revitalizing his career by using time travel technology he inherited from his uncle to cook and serve dinosaur meat in the present day, and it's been a success both for Action Lab and for indigenous representation in comics. ComicsAlliance talked with writer Markisan Naso and artist Jason Muhr about the book's influences, the research involved, and handling another culture's representation with care.

The latest comic from Stēla blends the world of HP Lovecraft with a little Buffy the Vampire Slayer to arrive at Calla Cthulhu. The comic is written by Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer with art by Erin Humiston. The title character is a teenage girl with the blood of Lovecraft's Great Old Ones in her veins. She must struggle against the forces of darkness, many of whom she's related to, and prevent the rise of her namesake, the Great Cthulhu himself.

Digital comics app Comixology pulled off a major surprise this week with the launch of Comixology Unlimited, a monthly subscription service that's hoping to be the Netflix of comics, the Spotify of sequential art, the Marvel Unlimited of books not published by Marvel. The Twitter reaction since the launch suggests the news wasn't just a surprise to readers, but to many of the creators involved too. ComicsAlliance spoke to Comixology CEO David Steinberger about the rollout, what is and isn't available on the service, and what the future might hold for Comixology Unlimited.

As technology grows and changes, so too does the way we access our media. The first big jump was the move from physical to digital, but now it's all about monthly subscription services that provide content instantly. Netflix is one of the most popular entertainment platforms in the world, and its model has been replicated by the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, and WWE Network. This week, Comixology is taking the next big step by launching Comixology Unlimited, a digital comics streaming service that gives subscribers access to thousands of comics from top publishers for $5.99 a month. What's more, this isn't an announcement for something the compnay plans to do later in the year; Comixology Unlimited launches today!

The comics smartphone app Stēla is launching exciting new comics every week, all of them exclusive to the app and optimized for the phone-reading experience. The newest title is House Girls, a science fiction comic written and drawn by Sandra Lanz. It tells the story of a group of women who are serving as civil engineers for a human colony on an alien planet, who must conduct their own investigations when a mysterious force begins altering equipment, and possibly people. We sat down with Sandra Lanz to talk about her influences and her ambitions for the series.

Of the many artistic talents to pass through DC Comics, few have as distinctive a style as Darwyn Cooke. Taking an aesthetic rooted in both Jack Kirby and 1950s magazine illustration, Cooke has carved out a distinctive identity as the artist behind such hits as New Frontier, the Catwoman original graphic novel Selina's Big Score, and The Spirit, leaving perhaps the most distinctive mark on that last character since his creator, Will Eisner. Now until the 16th, thanks to Comixology, you get a chance to check out the vast majority of his DC Comics work, all for under $50. The marquee item here is of course New Frontier, and you can get the entire six-issue miniseries and a later one-shot for under $15. That's a great deal, but if you already have that series and you're looking for a fresh recommendation, we'd strongly suggest picking up Jonah Hex #50.

Kodansha Comics has been around for less than a decade, but in that time it has managed to put out some remarkable titles. Now, in the latest Humble Comics Bundle, you can get a bunch of those good books for under $20 to benefit the CBLDF, Worldreader and the Mental Health Foundation. The marquee title here is Attack On Titan --- one volume unlocks with each tier. The first tier can cost you absolutely nothing, and besides Titan volume 1, you also get the first volume of horror manga Parasyte and the drama Space Brothers.

Yesterday saw the announcement of this year's Eisner Award nominees, and Image Comics came away from it with a huge portion of the nominations, highlighting comics such as Sexcastle, Bitch Planet and Southern Bastards. To celebrate, Image is putting on a huge digital sale that features all of its nominated titles, reduced in both their single issue format and collected editions.