Digiversity: Digital Spotlight (Week of 10/21/11)

Article originally written by Ryan Closs

Yes, yes, I took another week off. I was at NYCC with several others of the Multiversity Comics boys. I wasn’t working as hard as the rest of them but I did run defense during a couple of interviews. There wasn’t a whole lot of digital comics news that came out of the con, the biggest news being Vertigo is going same-day digital along with the rest of DCs line. With more and more books going same-day digital it’s making the whole “hidden gem” aspect of this column a little tougher. Marvel and DC are taking up the lion’s share of releases in a given week and I’m not really interested in spotlighting books lots of people have already read. That said there’s at least one DC book in the pile this week. Aside from all the new releases, Image has traded some of their Chew volumes for $7.99 apiece, go get them! Chew is a fantastic series. Now on to the picks for this week.

Hard Time ($1.99*12/DC, Comixology): I hadn’t heard of Hard Time before this week but when it was released digitally this week a ton of people began shouting its praises. Hard Time is ripped from the headlines dealing with a Columbine-esque shooting in which one of the shooters manifests some super powers and ends up killing his accomplice. It was a joke gone wrong and it looks like the next 11 issues are going to be set in prison. I haven’t seen much Brian Hurtt beyond the Sixth Gun and I might have enjoyed his art in Hard Time #1 even more than his current work. I did a quick look on Amazon and this seems to be out of print so give the first issue a shot and if you like it as much as I did, just TRY and not buy all 12 right away.

Book Smart ($8.99 (w/free Preview)/Kickstart, Comixology): Palmiotti and Gray have been putting out several OGNs and oversized issues this year and Book Smart is the latest. I checked out the preview which seems to set up a Shangri-La story where a pair of sherpas try and murder a woman after leading her up into the mountains, they try and sell her belongings to some criminal in Kathmandu who, when they tell him their story, shoots them to, I imagine, investigate what mysterious location they found in the Himalayas. I really liked the art by Juan Santacruz and am definitely going to buy the full OGN.

Now a quick digression about free previews. Book Smart, was initially put up on Comixology without a preview, I fired off a tweet to Jimmy Palmiotti asking why there wasn’t one and today a free preview is available. I really can’t stress the importance of previews enough. There have been several books that I wouldn’t have tried without a free preview being available first. So, creators! Put out free previews of your longer books.

Xenoholics #1 ($2.99/Image, Comixology/Graphicly): It’s hard to go wrong with an Image Comics #1 these days. They’re on a roll basically unmatched in comics these days. I’m especially a fan of books that are a little out there and rely heavily on the fun as opposed to the serious. This issue revolves around a AA type group called Xenoholics who have all been visited in some way by aliens (or other kind of non-human beings). This was a ton of fun and I’m really eager to read more. The bright cartoony art definitely added to things.

Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter & The Outfit ($7.99 & $9.99/IDW, Comixology): If you’ve never read Darwyn Cooke’s Parker books you are missing out on some of the greatest comics produced in the last few years. These are adaptations of Richard Stark’s famous series of books and are some of the absolute greatest examples of comic book storytelling you’ll ever see. You really can’t beat the digital price either.