Double Take is a new comic publisher funded by Take Two Interactive Software. The General Manager is Bill Jemas, the firebrand who ran Marvel during its bankruptcy (and never met a reason for free publicity he didn’t like). They’ve announced 10 comic titles, all set in the world of the movie Night of the Living Dead, which is in the public domain. So they’re banking a lot on zombies, and on coasting on the work someone else has already done […]

Action Lab Entertainment is releasing two collected editions in comic shops today — Stray: Who Killed the Doberman? and Nutmeg: Early Fall: Taste Buddies. What’s odd about this is the pacing. The Stray book collects the entire miniseries, four issues. But issue #4 was released just last week. The Nutmeg book collects the first three issues. But issue #3 was released the week before, at the end of May. That’s a really quick turnaround for the collected editions. Typically, retailers […]

IDW has moved its branded iOS apps from ComiXology to Madefire, relaunching with an IDW app for the entire digital library (over 3500 comics and graphic novels, they say), plus specific apps for Transformers, Star Trek, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics. The big difference? Their new apps allow in-app purchases, unlike ComiXology’s, which require a trip to a separate website so Apple doesn’t get a cut of the purchase. Forcing that action is customer-unfriendly and likely removes a lot […]

Hawaiian Dick was a fun and gorgeous retro private eye series set in 1950s Hawaii that I was reminded of when I saw the recent movie Aloha, which is similarly a love letter to the islands. Last decade, there were two collections of the comic released — Byrd of Paradise and The Last Resort — as well as a five-issue miniseries, Screaming Black Thunder, that hasn’t yet made it to book format. But more will be coming! A quick conversation […]

I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed reading the Perhapanauts. The series, written by Todd Dezago and illustrated by Craig Rousseau, has had a few publishers and stops and starts over the years (as can happen with an independent adventure series). It’s about a team investigating weird monsters who are themselves odd creatures — a sasquatch, a ghost, a telepath, and more. (Find out more about the characters at the official website.) Here’s the bibliography as far as I know, in […]

It used to be that a comic story (and I’m talking here about non-superhero work, stories that are planned to have some kind of ending) could be published as a limited-run miniseries and then collected into a final volume. However, miniseries these days don’t sell well. There are just too many comic options for shoppers, and many will wait for the eventual collection (since it’s a better package and often a better deal). So smart publishers have now switched to […]

Marvel has announced that Runaways will return in June, which is exciting enough news in itself, but even more terrific is its writer — Noelle Stevenson! Stevenson is gathering plenty of praise for her Nimona, and she’s shown skill writing groups of young people in her work on Lumberjanes. I’m also looking forward to the character lineup — Molly Hayes, Jubilee, Bucky Barnes, Cloak & Dagger, Amadeus Cho, Skaar, and a “few new faces” — mainly because I loved Amadeus […]

With just two issues released so far, Red One hasn’t made much of an impact, yet it’s already being reprinted in “an oversized European-style hardcover” from Image Comics in July. That’s 59 story pages, plus enough bonus material to make 80 pages of content for $14.99. I’m not a fan of the format, because I think it’s a lot to pay for not a lot of reading — particularly since many of the European albums I’ve seen prefer art to […]