Digiversity: Digital Spotlight (Week of 9/23/11)

Article originally written by Ryan Closs

Every week I take a look at the new digital comics and try to highlight some stuff that may fly under the radar. Some weeks that’s easier than others. This week has a boatload of books, including wrapping up Y: The Last Man and the extremely controversial The Big Lie by Rick Veitch. Unfortunately buying the whole Y is still cheaper in print so I can’t recommend that and I refuse to acknowledge The Big Lie any more than I already have. We also have Chris Ware’s first foray into digital comics; I’ll get into that after the cut. Here are the non-Ultimate/non-DC same-day digital books: Transformers #26, Kevin Smith’s Bionic Man #2, Witch Doctor #3, X-Men Schism #4, Generation Hope #11, Spider-Island: Spider-Woman #1, Spider-Island: Cloak and Dagger #2. Let’s dig a little deeper into the new books, shall we?

Touch Sensitive ($0.99/McSweeney’s, McSweeney’s): This is unfortunately iPad only, so I’m sorry if anyone reading doesn’t have one. If you do, go download the (free) McSweeney’s app and you’ll be able to buy Chris Ware’s iPad exclusive comic Touch Sensitive for $0.99. Unlike the vast majority of digital comics this really takes advantage of the platform. It’s not just displaying each page as an image, each of the 16 pages loads bits at a time to help control pacing. There are also some subtle animations to accentuate some moments in the story. Technical aspects aside this is just a great story of a relationship and how the sense of touch can turn from a loving thing to something worse. It’s actually my first Chris Ware story and I’m definitely going to be checking out more sooner than later. If you have an iPad you absolutely have to check it out, if you have a friend with an iPad instead? Go over and read it there instead.

Casanova: Avarita #1 ($1.99/Marvel, Comixology): I’m mostly mentioning this because it’s the first new Casanova book in years. For those of you not in the know, Casanova was one of Matt Fraction’s earliest creator-owned work and it’s esoteric as hell. I read the initial two volumes years ago and remember enjoying them but not loving them and this issue is more of the same. If you’re a Casanova fan from back in the day you should definitely check this out, it’s more of the same weirdness. This issue definitely won’t sell anyone on the Casanova concept though if you aren’t a fan of the earlier stuff. I’m a little down on Fraction these days though so your mileage may vary.

Gingerbread Girl: ($8.99/Top Shelf w/ free preview, Comixology): This was original a free web release under Top Shelf’s 2.0 umbrella (you can read it starting here: http://www.topshelfcomix.com/ts2.0/gingerbread_ch01/) and it pairs Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin two fantastic creators to bring you the story of Annah Billips a 26 year old woman who likes both boys and girls and may or may not have had a sister who has gone missing. She might also be insane. I really liked the preview and I’m considering buying the full story instead of reading it online mostly for the convenience of having it offline on my iPad. Definitely check out either the free preview or just read the whole story on the web.

Criminal: Last of the Innocent ($1.99*4/Marvel, Comixology): In this alternate universe take of Archie Andrews and the Riverdale gang we see Riley Richards of Brookdale in an unhappy marriage with a Veronica analogue. He finds out she’s cheating on him and decides to kill her to inherit her fortune, and that’s just in the first issue. I’ve read most of Criminal (I might have missed one volume) and this is definitely my favourite. Brubaker did a really great job with these Archie analogues and Sean Phillips alternates between his usual style and an Archie Comics style in flashbacks. You really can’t beat this story for < $8. This is Brubaker and Phillips at their absolute best.