Comics

That Korean horror comic we linked to yesterday had everyone buzzing or else pooping their pants, but you know, future comics aren't future comics until Scott McCloud weighs in -- which he did on Google+.

ComiXology's digital storefront for physical comics shops went live yesterday, but not without some bumps. The release has been accelerated in order to get ready in time for DC's digital day-and-date rollout next week, and some retailers have voiced concerns about the contract, including the fact that retailers cannot use customer data, while comiXology can, use of store logos and so on. The terms have already been emended a bit from the version posted at Bleeding Cool, which was leaked on a private retailer forum, so we won't run it here. Although the basic agreement is that the stores are affiliates of comiXology, selling digital comics via their own sites, this is not entirely a comfortable idea for many retailers. Despite all the worries, about 100 stores have signed on for the launch, according to the PR, below.

This interactive comic from Korea has blown up on 4Chan and Tumblr, although its author remains unknown. Just click and then scroll down. KEEP GOING. KEEP GOING. And make sure the speakers are on! JUST CLICK WE'LL WAIT, in the unlikely event you have yet to see this.

While we're all waiting for the other shoe to drop on the New 52, digital comics are inching towards new developments that may make them even more native on digital platforms. A couple of examples were being tweeted about heavily this week. Cartoonist Dan Archer has been experimenting with interactive non-fiction comics for a while. What is Comics Journalism? by Dan Archer, a survey of non-fiction comics from Thomas Nast on. It's a nice looking piece but comes with bells and whistles:

New developments in the Atomic bankruptcy and Grant Morrison vs Chris Ware, and a new take on Kirby/Lee.

Initial orders for The New 52 are in and JLA #1 has more than 200,000 pre-orders, and six other #1s have more than 100,000 pre-orders.

Long, long delayed by difficulties finding the source materials, Fantagraphics' long awaited reprinting of the complete Pogo by Walt Kelly is finally at the printers, Mark Evanier announces.

Well not really a fight, more of a strafing run, since it's unlikly Chris Ware will ever be asked about Grant Morrison in an interview. While on his voluble book publicity tour, Scottish superstar Grant Morrison continues to drop quotable bombs to be picked up by websites worldwide. Today the battlefield is Rolling Stone, where he comes clean on Chris Ware; the Acme Novelty Library genius, known for his grim vivisection of human futility, is not Morrison's cuppa Earl Grey tea.

Despite what seemed like a logical timeline, Disney did not reveal the identity of two mystery Marvel movies planned for Summer 2014 at this weekend's D23. A mystery Pixar film was shown to be “The Untitled Pixar film about Dinosaurs" and “The Untitled Pixar Movie that Takes You Inside the Mind.” Well, fair enough. The only Marvel movie touched on was THE AVENGERS -- Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Chris Hemsworth all showed up to wave to the crowd — however, and a no cell phones policy meant that no pictures or leaked footage got out.

While googling for an image of Girl Genius in the previous post, we can across this Chris Butcher post from 2007 -- was it only fur years ago that the digital to print model was a new, uncertain thing? It was then that Phil Foglio began to serialize Girl Genius online and sell print collections, and pronounced it a success, a claim that Butcher analyzed:

Trying something a little different this month...

Clearly, then, you can’t rely on schools to teach these prospective writers to read. You'll have to do it yourself. Fortunately, there's an easy way. Comic books.