Correction to a previous post: the first ARTESIA graphic novel is in fact on digital, at Graphicly.  I remember the later ones being the better ones, and hope they’re digitised soon.

(I have attempted to buy said book through the iPad app.  The app first told me the payment had succeeded, and then that the payment had not succeeded.  I discovered that I could access the book through their web end, but it doesn’t seem to be accessible through the app.  Oops, no, there you go, killing the app in the multi-tasking bar and then re-starting it seems to have made the book appear.  It just has the Download button greyed out so I can’t, ha ha, download it.  Correction! The book was downloading in the background and decided not to tell me!  Oh god.)

This does seem to raise a peculiarity of digital: although many publishers seem to be distributing through more than one service, their offerings aren’t uniform across services.  ARTESIA was published by Archaia, but Archaia offer only the DAYS MISSING books through Comixology.

(I have next to no idea what’s offered through iVerse: I find their iPad app almost entirely unnavigable.)

It’s nice for me to be able to replace old books and catch up on missed books through these digital comics apps.  Dark Horse’s offering is especially nice.  But, sooner rather than later, these services are going to have to become more than back issue bins.  I’ve only had this iPad a few weeks, and I’m already getting tired of opening a comics app and having (for example) twelve issues of SQUADRON SUPREME from nineteen eighty fucking five thrown at me.

If I were planning more comics work right now, I’d be looking very hard at going digital-first.

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Dear Archaia Comics, I would dearly love to be able to buy digital copies of all the ARTESIA graphic novels.  And yet it seems I can’t.  Please get on that shit.  All best, Warren.  (Also, thanks again for being the only publisher who ever paid me with ray guns.)

ANU-ANULAN AND YIR’S DAUGHTER, a superb short piece of mythological comics.

Rich Johnson, on the current commercial comics landscape: “We’re firmly back in the Nineties, aren’t we?”

I swear, nothing else could make me want more to just say fuckit and do nothing in comics but digitally-distributed work.  With the novel and the other stuff, I’ve already massively reduced my comics output.  But “the Nineties are back”?  Just makes me want to take myself out of the equation entirely.  I already had to fight the Nineties once.

Broke the two humps that had set into the second 5000 words of the novel and am moving again.  Have filed the scripts for four of my six issues of SECRET AVENGERS for Marvel.  Contracts for Odd Digital Thing have arrived.  Draft Zero of Film Treatment Thing has passed muster, and I’m driving it to Draft One, although, as with all of my treatments and outlines, it won’t be any good until Draft Two.

And you may have noticed that I’m not posting here much either.  I’m pretty much down in the mines for the next several months.  Which is where I am now returning, grumbling about fucking Nineties comics and the lack of idiots geniuses queueing up to pay me for digital comics.

Jones just sent me this link:

You’ve probably heard of Kickstarter, the website where people post pitches for creative projects and invite the public to contribute money to fund those projects. You’ve probably heard that comics material is a popular category on Kickstarter. If someone told you that Kickstarter funded roughly the same amount of comics material as DC Comics’ Vertigo Imprint, you’d look at them like they were crazy…

I do actually feel bad about typo-ing DC’s current event comic Flashpoint as Fleshlight in an email earlier today.

Not least because in my head all these comics now have titles like Fleshlight Legion Of Doom, Fleshlight Emperor Aquaman and World Of Fleshlight now.

I do not need a world with Fleshlight Emperor Aquaman in it.

Steed Of The Water-Bear

Simon Roy

Little comic by Stuart Immonen.

Steve Rolston

Houdini

Artist Rick Buckler, writer Doug Moench, “Deathlok The Demolisher,” ASTONISHING TALES #25, Marvel Comics, 1974.

Ben Templesmith

whom I will not be seeing at London MCM Expo, which is saddening
there’s a print of this, you know

Rebecca Dart

“The Goddess Of Discord”

Derek Chatwood

"Sweeney & Crabb" - print

What Science Fiction Means

Egypt Urnash

(from her Tumblr)

I imagine this means that the brand new CASANOVA comics serial, by Matt Fraction, Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon, must be coming from Marvel Comics’ ICON imprint in a few months, eh? Eh?

Jon Morris

“Tattoo”

Rafael Grampá

art from his forthcoming book FURRY WATER

Yao Xiao

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Shaolin zombies!  Poison kung fu!

Because you didn’t have anything else to do today, I bring you the 250 pages of Kagan McLeod’s long-awaited (by me and my friends, anyway) graphic novel INFINITE KUNG FU that Top Shelf have put on the web for free reading.

The complete book is in fact some 464 pages long.  The book is out this summer, but if you look at that page, you’ll see a link to pre-order it.  In the meantime – two hundred and fifty fucking pages of free graphic novel.  Go now.

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