FCBD 2013: Kids Comics Rule

The kids and I once again headed to the local comic shop to partake in Free Comic Book Day.  Like last year, the shop we go to was handing out the free comics in two bundles, older-reader and all-ages material.  We grabbed both and flipped through the all-ages material to see if it had the two comics my kids were most interested in, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles New Animated Adventures (yes) and Spongebob Comics Freestyle Funnies (no).  Knowing my daughter was really looking forward to the Spongebob comic, I asked one of the workers if they had a copy anywhere.  He said that the bags were filled at random, so he'd check some of the other all-ages sets to see if they had any.  Luckily he was able to find one!

We bought some other stuff (including some absolutely adorable tokidoki x Marvel FRENZIES) and headed home to look over our loot.  When I laid out all of the kids comics on the kitchen table, my son exclaimed: "Wait, we got all these comics for free???"

And that doesn't even include all of the comics that came in the "grown-up" bag!

Actually, next year I'll probably hand back the older-reader bundle and just ask for the kids stuff.  I flipped through the comics rated "T" and older and didn't find anything that looked interesting.  The offerings from Marvel and DC struck me as especially odd (although not as hilariously wrong-headed as last year's entry from Marvel): Infinity is all dull prologue, like a too-long outtake focused on the Other character from the Avengers, and doesn't even really feature any superheroes.  And Superman: The Last Son of Krypton Special Edition is just lazy and misguided: "Hey, let's reprint an issue of an old Superman storyline that doesn't tie into the current New 52 continuity and which will remind eagle-eyed readers of the last Superman movie that did so well!"

The good news is that the kids comics that we've read so far have all been really fun.  Spongebob and TMNT were of course hits, but my kids also enjoyed Uglydoll (from Viz Kids) and Mr. Puzzle (Capstone), and we have lots more left to read so that's positive.  And being exposed to so many comics in such a short time seems to have infected my kids with not only a comic-reading bug but also a comic-creating one which is fantastic!  Here's a recent effort from my son (inspired by his Frenzies, which were revealed as Magneto and The Human Torch when he opened the blind boxes), which reminded me of this vintage issue which my son had never seen before:

Excelsior!!

Deals on Dark Horse Digital Comics

Dark Horse digital graphic novels are now available on Google Play and Google is running a promotion where first volumes are on sale for only $3.99.  In my mind, the best books (and best deals) are the first volumes of the Nexus Omnibus and Finder Library collections. Finder is an especially good deal, with over 600 pages of material for just four bucks!

Title	Google Play	Print List	Digital List	Dark Horse Digital	Amazon Print	Amazon Kindle
Nexus Omnibus Volume 1	$3.99	$24.99	$21.99	$15.99	$18.24	$12.31
Finder Library Volume 1	$3.99	$24.99	$21.99	$17.99	$16.49	$12.31

The only problem with the books that I haven't been able to figure out yet is that the pages are stretched a little wide in the Google Books app on my iPad 1, at least in single page mode, and I don't see a setting to adjust this.  (I also can't figure out how to disable the grey progress slider that appears at the bottom of the page.)  The help section in Google Play says I should be able to download the books as DRM'd PDF files but so far the links haven't worked.  But in any event, this is a great opportunity to get some great deals on some great comics.

UPDATE: Well, I still haven't figured out how to fix the display ratio on my iPad, but the comics seem to appear correctly in the Android app, both on my wife's Nexus 7 and on the kids' Kindle Fire HD 8.9.  (Heh, reading Nexus on a Nexus.  How futuristic!  It's like I'm living on Ylum!!)

The Whole Story Part 2: Even Wholer & Storier The Second Time Around

Here's a pretty amazing success story: The Whole Story is running its second bundle deal, only this time it's using Kickstarter to raise funds.  (Last time founder Ryan Estrada set up his own site and collected payments using Gumroad and, later on, PayPal.)  On just the fourth day of the Kickstarter, the project has already risen past $10,000 in pledges, easily shattering the original $2500 goal.

To me it speaks to the power of Kickstarter as Estrada's first campaign ran for over a month; was featured on Robot 6 at CBR, Comics Alliance, The Beat, and probably dozens of other sites; but only ("only") received about $8700 in funds.  Clearly, Kickstarter is a major force in raising funds for creators.

I'm excited for Estrada and all the creators, and I'm excited to read all of the comics in the Winter 2013 Collection (two of the four titles -- The Dog's Sins and Plagued -- have already been opened up to backers), but I'm especially excited to read the two new offerings from Nam Dong Yoon that are part of the Double Comics Collection (available to those who pledge $13 or more).  For me, Nam Dong Yoon's material was the primary appeal of the Summer 2012 Collection, so I'm very much looking forward to reading more of his work.

Anyway, head on over to the Kickstarter page for The Whole Story, Round 2, and check out what's available.  There are plenty of great books available and a number of different incentive levels to choose from.  You can get four "complete, creator-owned, DRM-free digital comics" for as little as ONE DOLLAR and the goodies only get bigger and better from there.

Batman: The Parks and The Bold

Yet another reason to love one of the best characters from the best comedy on television:

She has great taste in comics.  (That's The All-New Batman: The Brave & The Bold #10 in case you're having trouble making it out, from the 11/8/2012 episode of Parks & Recreation, "Ben's Parents."  Man, I think I miss this comic even more than my kids do.)

Delayed Reaction To Old News About Fast Releases

Just noticed this news in the latest issue of Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha:

I didn't remember hearing about this but it turns out Brigid Alverson mentioned it over at Publishers Weekly in an article that talks about some of Viz's other digital efforts and how they're speeding up and taking advantage of simultaneous digital release, and others covered the news even earlier. 

Viz is already doing a great job of releasing digital volumes on the same day the U.S. print editions come out; how cool would it be if they eventually get to the point where they're doing digital releases of everything simultaneous with Japan?  I imagine that would go a long way to making pirated manga much less attractive.

Digital Deals

Here are a couple digital deals from Viz:

The first appears to be a pricing error specific to the iOS app: The eighth and final volume of the wonderful Cross Game series is only $4.99 via iOS, while it's $6.99 on the VizManga site and other apps.

I bought the book and my iTunes receipt confirmed I was charged $4.99.  (Everyone else should buy this book too, even if it's at the full digital price:  It's a fantastic finale for a fabulous series.  Maybe I'll get around to discussing the final volume and/or overall series at some point.  But probably not.  Because I'm lazy.)

The next deal may be one specific to Android but I'm not sure.  I saw Brigid Alverson's post explaining that first-time downloaders of the app could get a free volume one until 11/20.*  Well, I already have the iOS app installed on my iPad and it remembers I previously had it even if I uninstall it, so that wasn't going to work.  So I tried installing the Android app on my wife's Nexus 7.  None of the first volumes showed as free on the Android app (even before signing in to my account), but it presented me with an offer to try the current issue of Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha for free:

 

Clicking the 'Free' button prompts you to sign in to your Viz Manga account:

After you login to your account, you are taken to a screen where you can download and launch a sponsored free app to claim your free issue of WSJA:

After you install and launch the free app (you have to launch the app or the offer doesn't work), you can go back into the Viz Manga app where you are now allowed to download the free issue of WSJA:

Once you've downloaded the issue, you can also view it on other devices, including the Viz Manga site.

Again, I'm not sure how long this promotion is running or if it's only for the Android app, but it might be worth trying if you're interested in checking out WSJA.  It looks like this is meant to be a one-time offer, but I found that if you uninstall and reinstall the app it allows you to claim another free issue of WSJA.  (Discovered when I realized I failed to capture screenshots the first time through the process.)

UPDATE 12/5/12: According to this press release from Viz, it looks like (a) this is limited to Android and (2) it's not a one-time deal (which I can vouch for as I've been able to get each issue of WSJA for free for the past five weeks), so no uninstalling & reinstalling required.  Also, you can only download it for free on the Android app, but once you have, you can sync it to your account on other apps and devices.  (I generally redeem the free offer on my Nexus 7 but then read it on my iPad.)  No word on how long this free option will last.

* At first I was wondering what the offer was because that link took me to a page that didn't mention anything about a free manga volume.  But then I tried opening the page in other browsers and lo-and-behold this banner image appeared in IE9 and Safari (but not in Firefox or Chrome):

I'm unable to redeem the offer, but this is probably because I'd already downloaded a version of the Viz app a long time ago for my iPad, so I suppose that technically the offer should specify that it's only for first-time users who haven't previously installed the app on any devices.