Technology

As someone who once spent good money on a volume of manga that told the story of the secret origins of Cup Noodle --- you know, the microwave ramen --- and found it to be one of the most compelling comics I've ever read, I've always had an interest in comics that draw their inspiration from unusual sources. R. Sikoryak's latest big project, though, is one of the most interesting I've ever heard of --- a graphic adaptation of something a lot of people have seen, but almost no one has actually read. That project: A 96-page illustrated take on Apple's iTunes Terms and Conditions document that reprints all that legal fine print in its entirety, with no additional dialogue or narration. But while it might be a strict adaptation in terms of text, there's one more twist: Each page is drawn in a different style, as an homage to everything from Winsor McKay to Marjane Satrapi to Frank Miller to Jack Kirby to Raina Telgemeier and beyond.

If three years of mandatory French classes in high school taught me anything, it's that learning a new language is not only incredibly hard; if you're not motivated, it's pretty much impossible. Thankfully, there might be a new way around that thanks to LingoZing, a new app that teaches readers new languages via comic books, which has launched a Kickstarter campaign today.

The past decade in comics has been a constant process of innovation as publishers and tech companies try to figure out how digital comics might work in the future. Motion comics were big for a while before fading away, and in recent years the "Guided View" format of panel to panel transitions has become the preferred method. Google and the team behind the Android operating system have been exploring several alternatives to Guided View, including last year's introduction of a "Vertical Scrolling" featuring. However, a new innovation has just been announced at San Diego Comic Con that may change the game forever, and it's called Bubble Zoom.

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!

Remember when Tom would just be your friend on MySpace? He'd just sit there in that little box, letting you know you had a friend out there on the internet. He didn't make a big deal out of his life story. He didn't buy out big virtual reality firms in the hopes of commercializing the technology. Tom was always just there for you when you needed a reminder that someone out there in the big, wide world wanted you to be able to connect to friends you may never have met, or to stay in touch with buddies from high school when they traveled far away. Nowadays you got this Zuckerberg fella making all kinds of claims on his newfangled social media empire, the Facebook. This guy sees one movie about himself, and he thinks he can just do whatever he wants. Donate millions to charity, buy into Oculus VR because he's got the money to do so, give your racist uncle a place to vomit up all his garbage ideas, and now, now he wants to go ahead and make an AI for his house based on the concept of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's JARVIS. Well you know what, Mark? You can just take that idea, and please make it marketable and affordable to me and the billions of people around the world who desperately want to be stuck inside Minority Report's ad-serviced future.

After not so subtly teasing a special variant edition of its new Galaxy S6 Edge for the past week, Samsung has formally unveiled the Iron Man edition of the new smartphone. As part of a brand partnership with Marvel, Samsung has already released a handful of Avengers themed goods like phone cases for the Galaxy S6 and a wireless charger that looks like Captain America's shield. All of those goods however, pale in comparison to a phone designed to put Iron Man right in your pocket. Sort of.

Over the past year or so, comics publishers have jumped onto the online bundle bandwagon with both feet, offering up deals via HumbleBundle and StoryBundle, among other outlets. Now, Dynamite is trying a deal through yet another medium: BitTorrent. The publisher's "Mega Bundle" from BitTorrent Bundle includes 200-some issues of comics from 30 different series including Vampirella, Red Sonja, Bob's Burgers, Django/Zorro, The Green Hornet and Shaft, all for just $6.

Earlier this month, Black Mask Studios announced a new initiative to bring comics to potential fans who aren't necessarily going into comic shops. This new initiative is a products they call 'Tubecomics', which you can find, unsurprisingly, on YouTube, as well as the Black Mask Tubecomic site. With voice over and camera movement on many of the panels, they're not just videos of still comics. They're also not quite motion comics, not quite animation, not quite guided view... but they're a bit of a hybrid of all of the above. It's an interesting endeavor that's worth a closer look.

To promote his new Oni Press book Hellbreak with writer Cullen Bunn, artist Brian Churilla has been putting together these great process gifs to show how he creates his art. As an artist that works entirely digitally, Churilla has gone to great pains to still give his work texture and depth. He does all the linework using an iMac and Manga Studio 5 before passing it off to colorist Dave Stewart and letterer Jared Fletcher. Check out an animated gif, exclusive to ComicsAlliance, plus the variant covers for Hellbreak #1 and an explanation of his process.

A Netflix (or perhaps a Spotify) for comics may have arrived. Scribd, an online depository of books and audiobooks that gives subscribers unlimited access to a massive library for an $8.99 per month subscription fee, announced today that it has added more than 10,000 comics from publishers including Marvel, Valiant, IDW, Top Shelf, Archie, Boom! Studios, Top Cow, and Arcana to its subscription service.