The Private Eye Chapter One is available as a pay-what-you-want digital download at Panel Syndicate 
When done right, science fiction can be used as a commentary on a current social or political situation currently affecting either a large part or asmall part of the world (which is usually the one shared by the sci-fi creator). While it may be to early to call, the first issue of writer Brian K. Vaughn and artist Marcos Martin’s The Private Eye has the setting for what could be a thought-provoking commentary on the darker side of social media. In this future created by writer Brian K. Vaughn, personal data that was shared over the internet became accessible to everyone due to “the cloud” bursting. As a result, people now wear disguises to protect their identities.
The Private Eye starts off on the right foot by introducing us to the main character, The Private Eye (hence the title) who is chased through a future version of Los Angeles (readers will notice the influence of Blade Runner here) by a reporter after being caught taking photos of a woman slipping out of a body disguise in her apartment. The chase scene does an excellent job of introducing us to this new world where the majority of the citizens wear a disguise of some fashion and taking any kind of picture of someone without their consent is now a crime.
These two plot points are further explored when the private eye is visited in his office by a beautiful femme fatale with a secret past. (Just like a scene from a classic hard-boiled detective story) Taking a cue from classic hard-boiled detective stories by Dashiell Hammet, the mysterious woman entices the reluctant private eye to accept her job of uncovering all he can about her and her past. As with most pulp fiction stories, the hero will soon find himself taking on the case whether he wanted to or not for solving it could prove to mean life or death for him.
There is no denying the talent involved here have each brought their A-game. Both writer Brian K. Vaughn and artist Marcos Martin have crafted a perfect example of what a first issue of a series should be. Not only that, this is the kind of comic you will not only want to read again but you should read again.
The Private Eye Chapter One is available as a pay-what-you-want digital download at Panel Syndicate
When the buzz first began for digital comics, Comixology was one of a small handful of companies trying to establish themselves as “the” digital comic distributor. This was back in 2009. At that time, Comixology’s bread-and-butter was working with independent and small comic publishers. Marvel and DC (and most of the other prominent comic publishers) were still figuring out what to do in regards to digital comics.
Since then, those same prominent comic publishers finally figured out digital comics enough to begin making them available and Comixology was there, waiting with open arms. Now, Comixology can easily be considered the Diamond of digital comics- and this is not exactly a good thing.
This is not to imply Comixology is an evil empire or a ruthless business. But problems do arise when a business has a monopoly such as the one Comixology has.
Some of the most common problems include no innovation, no price competition, and market limitation, just to name a few. The only real competition Comixology has is iVerse Media with their Comics+ service and app. But their decision (or perhaps their only choice) to work with Diamond Comics and libraries illustrates how they perhaps realized the digital comic distribution “war” was lost before it actually begun. The same might be said regarding Graphicly’s sudden switch from being one of Comixology’s early competitors to shifting their business model to being a middleman between independent comic creators looking to turn their comics into digital comics which are then available on different platforms through multiple outlets like Apple and Amazon.
So what now?
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I was a Marvel Zombie when I was kid in the 70s with Spider-man being my favorite character. And in my book, Gil Kane has to be in the Top Three list of greatest Spider-man artists (the other two would be Ditko and John Byrne). So it’s only natural I would pick his classic Amazing Spider-man #101 cover featuring the debut of Morbius for today’s Scary-A-Tastic cover. Enjoy!
For the month of October, Friday’s cover spotlights will feature some of my favorite horror-themed comic covers. I can’t think of a better way to kick it off than to feature one of the more disturbing comic covers featuring the awe-aspiring artwork of Bernie Wrightson: TWISTED TALES issue 2.
Pacific Comics wasn’t around for very long unfortunately but it did produce some comics worth looking for such as Mike Grell’s STARSLAYER and Jack Kirby’s CAPTAIN VICTORY. They also publish TWISTED TALES which-as you can tell from this cover- borrowed lovingly from those classic EC Comics like TALES FROM THE CRYPT.
This was my second year in a row of going to Fan Expo in my favorite city in the world (next to Pittsburgh): Toronto. One of the things I dug about last year’s Fan Expo was that it was manageable in that it was crowded but not too crowded. Walking around the con floor was not a chore or a pain. You could stop and go through a vendor’s $1 dollar comic box without feeling like you had to hurry for fear of being pushed out of the way by the oncoming train of people dressed as their favorite Anime character (which usually meant their costume was too big to walk around in a crowded room without ticking off a couple of people).
This year was different.
I was only there for Friday and Saturday which are typically the busiest days of a weekend-long con and I can safely say the number of attendees this year was far more than last year’s. As a result, walking around on the con floor was frustrating at the best of times. It was like shopping at a major department store on Black Friday times 100. Read More…
Every Friday, I’ll proudly display a comic cover which, to me, deserves to be seen. Whether because it exemplifies what a comic cover should be or it shows how powerful and important a cover is or just because it’s goddamn cool!
First up is the cover to one of my all-time favorite comics growing up: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 134. I hope to one day owning the original art for this cover because I just love it. Plus, I always thought Tarantula had one of the coolest costumes around.
I’m always open to hearing your opinions. So let me know what you think of this cover. Cheers!
Every month, I’ll put together a list of some comics and graphic novels I think you should be checking out. Besides comics shops, you can also find get these through digital distributors like Comixology, Comics +, and Dark Horse Digital (in the case of Mind Mgmt.).
Daredevil- Month-after-month, writer Mark Waid and a line-up of stellar artists produces one of the funnest and best superhero comics in today’s market. If you dig superhero comics, then you owe it to yourself to give Daredevil a try.
Mind Mgmt- In only three issues, creator/writer/artist Matt Kindt has created one of the best titles available today. Weird, intelligent, creatively wild, and so very addictive. In my opinion, Kindt is one of the best pure comic creators working today. A must!
Read More…
This past weekend, The Beat columnist Todd Allen wrote one of the better articles I’ve read on what could be the problem(s) behind the low sales Marvel Comics has been facing lately.
As someone who grew up reading comics in the 70s, the worse it got in regards to crossovers would be the occasional appearance of Spiderman in, say, Daredevil for one issue or there would be the rare multiple-title crossover between The Avengers and The Defenders, culminating in a finale in one of these title’s annual giant-size issues. All was well-and-good in regards to crossovers for Marvel till the mid 80s with the release of the year-long Secret Wars.
Secret Wars was a major success for Marvel. A Secret Wars sequel came out a short while later along with other Secret Wars-spinoffs. For the next 20 years, Marvel would experiment with crossovers and event-driven story lines, mainly involving their biggest sellers at the time: X-Men and The Avengers. This “experimentation” became a full-blown addiction in 2004 – 2005 when Marvel launched a number of crossover / event-driven story lines helmed by writer Brian Michael Bendis. Some of these include The House of M, Secret Invasion, Secret War, and Civil War. All of these were successful in regards to sales and giving Marvel fans what they wanted.
Since these releases, Marvel (and Bendis, to a certain extent) has given us Siege, Heroic Age, Fear Itself, and, most recently, Avengers vs. X-Men. And if that wasn’t enough, this coming October 2012, Marvel will launch Marvel NOW which will (hopefully) do for Marvel what DC’s recent clearing-the-decks sales success has done for them.
But the problem Marvel is finding themselves facing is- if the sales figures for the last six months is any indication- their regular event-driven story lines (while big sellers) could be taking sales from their other titles. Read More…
My name is Wesley Craig Green and I'm a comic creator, freelance writer and screenwriter.
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