Free & Legal Marvel Comics

If  you are a Google Chrome user, you might have heard of the Google Chrome Web Store. I recently browsed a few apps in the web store and found some interesting stuff. One such thing is the Marvel Comics app. If you believe in digital comics then you have to give this app a try. You can check out a few free Marvel comic books there and enjoy the future of comics.

Check out the web store.

DIY mini comics

Mini comics is not really mini.  Basically it's a self-publish type of comic drawn on a 8-1/2x11 paper.  Mini comics can be black and white or in color, either way just create your best if you want publishers to notice you.  The number one reason to do a mini comic is to pimp your talent to publishers or to self-publish and sell your own comics to people.

Click here to go to a tutorial site on how to make your own mini comics.

Stan Lee and Joe Q contemplate Cap's death

In relation to my last post about Captain America's death, here's a news item (interview) from MSNBC regarding Joe Quesada and Stan Lee's views of the comics icon's demise.

JOE QUESADA: The Marvel universe is always at its best when we are reflecting the world around ourselves. “Captain America” was created right around the time of World War II, he fought Adolph Hitler, he sold war bonds; then in the '60s when you look at the cold war and the fear that we had of the atom but also the promise of the atom, and you get characters like the Hulk, who comes out of a gamma-bomb explosion, and Spider-Man, who is bitten by an irradiated spider. Then there’s Vietnam, and Tony Stark is a guy who’s building weapons for the war in Asia and happens to get crippled there and become Iron Man--all these things really stem from comics being a product of their time. So when we were thinking of the story of “Civil War,” there was absolutely no resistance on our part to do it because we just knew it was one of those great ideas that we had to go forward with.

STAN LEE: I was a little bit shocked when I heard about it, as I think everybody else was. It’s really a shame. He was a great guy and certainly America could use a man like that right now.

Captain America dead?

Marvel's sweeping Civil War has taken the life of a very significant character.  Captain America has seemingly died when he was afflicted with a mortal wound while going to his trial.  Joe Q has this to say about comic book death:  "There was period in comics where characters would just die and then be resurrected. And the death had very little meaning and the resurrection had very little meaning," he said. "All I ask of my writers is if you're going to kill a character off, please let that death have some meaning in the overall scope of things."

So, is Cap dead-dead, or will he be returning?   

D-list comics characters make millions

In lieu of Ghost Rider, a b-list comic character, making millions at the box office. Newsarama made a blog post about other b-list to d-list characters that might possibly become a big hit in the tills. Enter Matter Eating Lad! Enough said!

My newest acquired comics and manga

I've had the pleasure lately of acquiring the full volume to Akira and Watchmen. I've read about 2 volumes of Akira (big thanks to Geekman for the copy) so far and I find it an interesting read, though not as revolutionary as everyone says it was. Maybe I'm not far enough into the story yet, but I'll definitely finish reading that.

As for Watchmen, I've heard a lot of comic geeks like me go on and on about this graphic novel. I bet I'll like it, hell, I like almost everything comics and manga. I don't have any idea about the story of Watchmen, I only heard geekgasms about it by fellow comic readers. I expect to be surprised and be left stunned with a gaping mouth, since this is one of the best work of Alan Moore. Alan Moore incidentally is one author that I've only heard good things about but has never really read any of his work. If I had unlimited resources, I would like to go buy all of his works just to familiarize myself with his genius.

Anyway, this summer will be busy for me because this is the time when we'll seriously move our business to fruition. I've been slowly developing a business plan to get people to invest, but every time I think of involving people the more I feel that doing this on our own will be a much better experience.

Nydia and I are excited to get this thing into motion that she's even considering taking the summer's off from law school just to help me. I'm excited as well, though I'm more nervous than anything else since I'll be putting a lot of my savings on the line in this venture. I guess that's another reason why this project is taking so long--I'm just making sure I'm not throwing money away.

Megatokyo addiction

I've been a huge supporter of webcomics though I must admit that I only read a few of them. One that really stands out for me is Fred Gallagher's Megatokyo.

I'm sure a lot of you don't need any introduction to Megatokyo. It's the most popular webcomic in the web. I love Megatokyo because it's an obvious escapist comic. High fantasy in a megapolis with full of quirky but fun characters you can identify with. Plus, the art work of this comic is superb. Piro is really a talented artist, though the story is nothing to sneer at. The story is just fun and sometimes heartwarming, but mostly comedic.

I can't get enough of this webcomic. The only problem I have with this setup is my dial-up connection. God I hate my dial-up connection. Reading a webcomic is click...wait...wait...wait...read...click...repeat and rinse.

I wish that in the future broadband can cover my area. We do have wi-fi coverage here, but it's crappy and not worth 1,500 php a month.

Free Athena Voltaire 22-page preview

I heard in Comics News Insider podcast that Ape Comics has released a 22-page preview of their comic book Athena Voltaire.

I have to say wow, the art is really good in this book. As Jimmy noted in CNI, this book is basically like a female Indiana Jones, but this one's cooler. According to Warren Ellis, Athena Voltaire is "if the likes of THE MUMMY and VAN HELSING were actually, you know, good."

Just go check it out, the art alone is worth the preview.

Go here for the preview.

Free digital comics of DC vertigo titles

This is awesome! As all of you know (yeah, all two of you who read this site) I'm an avid Comicology podcast listener. Well in show number 84, Neil Gorman gave out a link to free digital versions for the first issues for the best Vertigo titles. The webpage include award winning masterpieces like Sandman, Metropolitan (edit: it's Transmetropolitan, my apologies), Fables, etc.

On the same page I also found out that Lan Medina (artist of Fable) is the first Filipino to have won an Eisner. Belated congratulations to you, man. You have achieved the holy grail that only a few comic book talent can ever achieve.

Go check out the page now. It's legal and free.

FreeApps4u site

I decided to delete my other site FreeApps4U because I'm not able to update it as often as I can. So I will just have to re-post every review and tutorial I have on that site to this one. I'm not so sure when that will happen, but eventually that will happen. Get ready for more entries in my Freeware and Applications category.

This has been one heck of a year and I'm still enjoying the freedom I have right now, that's why I've been having fun and just slacking off as much as I can. Not that you care and not that anyone ever reads this site anyway.

I've also learned that 20-30 unique hits a day will not earn you much ad revenue. That's another reason why I've been slacking off with the posts and just rambling about uninteresting stuff about myself.

Anyway, I'm still reading some comic books and some novels. Maybe I'll have reviews of 'em later in the site or something. I have to say, if you can pick up a back-ish of Batman - Arkham Asylum: Living Hell you'll really enjoy this 6-part miniseries. I heard that there's a TPB of that series now so go check it out.

Read comics using your PC

Disclaimer: Let us support the comics industry. Please do not download comics that you have no intention of buying. Download only comic back-issues that are impossible to find in stores.

Yes, you can read comics using your PC

Note: These comics are compressed jpg files of scanned comic book pages that are surprisingly easy to read on the monitor.

1. The first thing you need to do is to learn about Bittorrent. You don't need to learn about all the nitty-gritty of bittorrent, just learn a few basics of the concept and you're ready to go.

2. Download a bittorrent client like Azureus.

3. Go to a torrent site like TorrentSpy. Search for words like "Uncanny X-men," "Superman," or what title you want to download. Next, download the torrent file that you need and activate it on Azureus.

4. After you have downloaded the files using Azureus, realize that digital comic books are in .CBZ or .CBR format. You can view files like this using Cdisplay.

5. Enjoy!

For a great audio discussion of digital comics and how to read comics on your PC, Linux box, or Mac go to www.comicology.net and hunt down podcasts number 70 and 71.

My favorite comics writer

One of my childhood dream is to become a comic book artist. When I was younger, I usually read the common Superman, Batman, and Spiderman comics. Reading them filled me with a sense of adventure that no other medium can ever do.

In the early days I admired artists like Kirby, Ditko, Buscema and other great comic artist. In the 80's to the 90's, there was luminaries like Byrne, Romita, Ross and the young guns like Lee, McFarlane, Liefield and artists from Image.

The rise of Image, with all there stunning visuals, made me realize that a comic book is not just about great aesthetics. Image comics, though made by great artists, didn't click with me because of the shallow charaterizations and overall crappy writing. This made me admire comic writers toe-to-toe with comic artists.

The man above is my favorite comics writer, Chuck Dixon. Dixon put a spell on me when he took the reigns of Robin, some Batman titles, and Nightwing. Sure, he may not have won any Eisner, but he epitomizes a writer who can show you why you love comics in the first place.

Mr. Dixon, thanks for the incredible stories that has made some of the worst days of my life a little bit tolerable. Thanks for bringing back some life to the characters that I love. And lastly, thanks for inspiring me to write.

I hope to goodness that you get back to the Bat titles. Well, maybe you won't go back since you have a lot of independent or freelance stuff in the works, but hey, I can dream. [Edit: Hmmm. I think he's back in DC, but I bought some Robin comics last week and he wasn't the writer...]

Now get back to your typewriter and spin us fans a good yarn!

25 greatest comic covers

This site, Atlas comics, made a cool list of the greatest comic covers of all time. Check out this great selection and stroll back in the shoes of past greats.

Rex Mundi

Rex Mundi is an original comic book miniseries from Image Comics. It is a tale of murder, sin and redemption in a world where magic is real and the Catholic Church never lost its grip on power.

This comic book is excellent. Thanks to Geekman who introduced me to this excellent mini-series. I have read the first twelve issues and I feel that this is one of the most well written comic book today.

After I pick up Nydia (she also loves the series), we’ll probably go to Filbars and try to hunt for issues 13 and 14.

Great torrent archive of comic scans

This site called Z-cult FM was discovered by my friend, Geekman when he was surfing for anime torrents. This site, he told me, is the best site to look for comic scans. This time the comics are from Marvel, DC, Image, and other Western comics publisher. If you are looking for complete volume scans of Ultimate Spiderman, X-men, Batman, Superman, and a host of other titles, this site is the best place to look. A warning though, this is not for people with dial-up connection 'coz the file size of the scans is huge.