Digital Horizons: Digital Comics Everywhere!

In digital comics news this week:

• Comixology came in at #2 of the week's top-grossing iPad apps, which I guess is pretty cool. Sounds like the Marvel and DC apps did pretty well too. 
• CBR spoke with Archie CEO Jon Goldwater about digital comics and he was all like, "Yeah, we were doing same-day digital before it was cool." Okay, not really, but that's what I would have said if I were him.
• CBR also spoke with Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson and he was like, "We do digital comics too!" 
• Bluewater Comics is taking advantage of the timeliness digital publishing allows by publishing a digital comic about Muammar Gaddafi. Seems like a good way to make the most of the medium, if you ask me (and by reading this blog you have implicitly asked me).
• Richard Rys at the Philly Post says digital comics just aren't the same as feeling a paper comic between your fingers, and that the internet just isn't the same as a comic book shop. Meh. I went to library school with a lot of people who made more or less the same sentimental arguments against digital books. I wasn't convinced then and I'm still not convinced now. Technology changes. You get used to it. I like my Kindle, I like my Comixology.
• At first I thought this Blog@Newsarama post was going to be about artists doing page layouts with the iPad in mind, but it turns out that it's about Warren Ellis saying basically what I said in my review of Knight and Squire: Digital comics work best when comics are written with the single issue in mind, not the eventual trade collection. When I pay two or three (or four!) bucks to download a comic, I want to feel like I've gotten a complete experience, even if it's part of a greater whole. 
• This week IDW released a bunch of digital comics in Apple's iBooks store, which I guess is a pretty big deal. I figure the more venues digital comics are available in and the greater variety of digital comics available, the better--it's always good to have options. 

Digital Dollar Bin: Batman/Planetary: Night on Earth

Batman/Planetary: Night on Earth
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: John Cassaday
Release Date: June 25, 2003 (print), July 15, 2010 (digital)
Rating: 4 out of 5 Pixels

I wasn't all that excited about this weekend's Batman 101 sale (going through Sunday night!) because I already own most of these comics in trade form, but I decided to check out the Batman/ Planetary crossover because a couple months ago I bought the JLA/Planetary crossover when it was on sale for $0.99 and I loved it. I've never read a single issue of Planetary but that didn't impede my enjoyment of either of the two crossovers. I loved how JLA/Planetary took more of an Amalgam Comics approach to the crossover, combining the two universes into one rather than doing a traditional crossover, so I wasn't disappointed by Batman/Planetary, which takes another slightly non-traditional take on the crossover concept, yet one that also has a parallel to the mid-90s DC/Marvel crossover that Amalgam Comics was spawned from: like DC vs. Marvel, Batman/Planetary also centers around a character who lives between universes. While Access was set up to be a superhero, though, John Black is more of a tragic figure, a man whose ability to slide between universes comes from a cruel experiment that killed his parents, and who can't stop himself from killing those around him as he sends parts of them to alternate universes or collides multiple versions of the same person into the same place.

Warren Ellis has fun with the concept, making references to 1986's Crisis on Infinite Earths, allowing Planetary's Jakita Wagner to butt heads and egos with Batman, and best of all, giving John Cassaday the chance to have some fun himself by rendering several different versions of Batman. Apart from the basic John Cassaday Batman from the then-current DC Universe, Cassaday also faithfully portrays the Adam West version (whom Elijah Snow mistakes for a transvestite hooker),

the Dark Knight Returns version,

the Neal Adams version (in this Neal Adamsiest of poses),

the Bob Kane version,

and some kind of cool-looking futuristic Batman that I presume John Cassaday made up.

I'd like to read more about this Batman.

Apart from the fun of seeing multiple versions of Batman argue with Jakita and Elijah, this comic also offers a great character moment when Batman recognizes the similarity between his tragic past and John Black's, and offers Black advice on coping with the pain of losing one's parents. Overall a great comic, definitely worth a buck if you get a chance to pick it up before the sale ends tomorrow night, probably even worth whatever price it will be after that.

Now one of these days I need to actually read Planetary...