Mike alluded to this in the last podcast, and it looks like quite a deal. Only available today, so diggity! It’s $100 for 130 stand-alone digital SW comics. Click pic for more info.

Season 2 of The Walking Dead starts Sunday, Oct. 16, and in celebration all Walking Dead comics are HALF OFF today only on Comixology. I have been waiting for this day for a long time… but I am not looking forward my phone bill.

Deadline: Hollywood is reporting that the post-Smallville CW network make switch comic gears in a very big ways.  There are talks of a “superhero” series starring none-other than probably one of the least-known heroes in the DC Universe (OK, he’s better known than Ragman…) but has a compelling back-story.

Trapeze artist, Boston Brand, was murdered by a mysterious hook-handed killer. Thanks to the help of a Hindu god, Brand becomes the alter-ego of his act, Deadman, and has the power to possess the living to help them find those who have had crimes committed against them.

This could be an interesting series, especially if it keeps Deadman’s sense of humor despite its obviously dark roots. CW are you up to the task?

But today, that has changed!

Dark Horse and Lucasfilm have reached an agreement which allows Dark Horse to sell Star Wars comics online.  Check it out here for the official word.  Crimson Empire?  Yep.  Old Marvel adaptation of “A New Hope”?  Yep.  Dark Horse says there are fifty titles available, with more to be released over time.

Prices will be $1.99 or $.99.  Looks like the initial $.99 offerings are first issues… probably wanting to suck you in and hook you on a new series.

This now leaves me with one issue to resolve:  do I spend my comics money on the DC reboot, or catch up with old issues of Star Wars?  Don’t make me choose…

With most classic fairy tales, Westerners can recall the story in a heartbeat, and they mostly evoke happy, and likely Disney-infused memories (at least for the last generation or two). However if you look back on many of the classics like Hansel and Gretel or Cinderella there is often a streak of sometimes perverse evil that seems like the opposite of what a parent would want to share with children.

Vincent Paronnaud (co-director of “Persepolis”) steals back a story stolen by Walk Disney using the pen-name Winshluss. This illustrated version of Pinocchio is absolutely not for the little ones, but is it worth picking up for mature readers? The nice thing about the illustrated medium is that it knows no boundaries. That can work for it and against it when crossing the lines of good taste, and I have put down more than a few books that simply seem to disgust for the sake of it. Although Pinocchio does have shocking and disarming scenes and imagery, overall it is for the sake of the story, which is surprisingly well-put together and satisfying.

In this version Pinocchio the wooden boy has been re-imaged as a mini metal war machine built by Geppetto to sell to the miliary, and Jiminy Cricket is a cockroach who takes roost inside the robot’s spacious skull. There are a host of other characters, some recognizable, like Sleeping Beauty, and others that will be new to readers, like the blind hobo and his scam-artist partner.

What Pinocchio has going for it is a compelling story structure, where Pinoccio’s tale is told without words, only full color illustrations, which is counter-balanced by the wordy (and often funny) rendering of Jiminy Cockroach’s version of things in a more stark black-and-white pencil drawings. The detailed funny-pages style artwork is smattered with easter eggs here and there, harking back to big Richard Scarry books. Heavy and humorous at the same time, Winshluss’s big and beautiful Pinocchio delivers. I cannot tell a lie.

The Del Rey release should be in your local bookstores now.  If not, you can always go find it online. 

I have not read the book yet, so I won’t say much about the plot.  But the descriptions on several sites indicates that the book will focus heavily on how a World of Warcraftesque online game takes over the life of returning protagonist Shesh Maccabee, with plenty of gaming and manga references flying around.  I’m sure we will be talking about this book at some podcast in the future!

Jason Thompson is also the author of “Manga:  The Complete Guide“.  He has edited more manga titles than I can list, contributed to multiple magazines, and regularly speaks on panels about manga at conventions.  Sci-Guy-John caught up with him at Kumoricon 2009 in Portland.

Mister Wonderful: A Love Story began as a serialized comic strip in The New York Times Magazine, but has now been compiled and supplemented into one single hardbound volume. Made up of a series of strips with the Cinescope shape of a Sunday funny, Daniel Clowes (Ghost World) delivers the story of Marshall, a shlubby middle-aged divorcee making a half-hearted effort for a last chance at love.

Our story begins as Marshall waits for his blind date, Natalie, who is painfully late. With nothing better to do, Marshall continues to wait, moving from coffee to liquor until Natalie finally shows. It takes a quarter of the way through the book for her to arrive, but the entire time the reader is entertained by Marshall’s entertaining, but self-deprecating internal dialog. In fact, a good portion of the spoken words in the story is covered up by Post-it note like thoughts from Marshall. We know Marshall thinks he is bombing, even if it is hard for the reader to judge on his own. What follows is a combination of funny and uncomfortable quips through the get-to-know-you mating ritual between two swans that are probably off their game and out of practice. Over the course of the evening sides of both main characters are revealed that are surprising, especially for a tale on (seemingly) such a relatively small and narrow scale.

The comparison to Sunday funnies is limited to the unique and easy-to-read shape of the book itself. Even though Marshall may have a little Dilbert in him, this story, spanning about 24 hours in total, can go places even Andy Capp wouldn’t dare, and flashbacks that would make Garfield lose sleep. I understand 40 pages were added to this version, which doubles the length from the original story. This also allows for two-page spreads that wouldn’t have been possible in its original serialized form. If you read the original in TNYTM, (like I am sure all the other Sci-Guys did) then you will surely want to revisit this expanded retelling.

As entertaining as Mister Wonderful is, it is a fast read, and the $19.95 cover price is a little hard to swallow. However, who pays cover price these days? Released only a week or so ago, Amazon.com already has new copies selling at about half that, which truly is wonderderful.

Free Comic Book Day is on May 7th 2011, get it in your calendars now!

On Tuesday March 8th until 11:00pm you can pick up digital copies of the 6 issue “The Walking Dead” compilations for $5.99 each.

We make no bones about it – us Sci-Guys loves us some ComiXology, and also some “The Walking Dead”.  I’ve always said if comiXology can get digital comics out for $.99, then my kids are going to need to figure out some way to put themselves through college, because I will be draining every bank account I have.  And at these prices, it works out to about a buck an issue.

Even if you’ve never read the comic, or seen the TV show, you should go pick up at least the first compilation.  Especially if you’ve never read the comic.  This deal is too good to pass up.

P.S.  NO you don’t need to have an iPad, iPhone or Android device to use comixology – they have a flash based reader on their site!