Andi Ewington’s ambitious meta-comic Forty-Five employs a fictional journalist to dig into superheroics and uses eye-popping viz from 45 artists to bring the stories to life. Produced by indie publisher Com.x, it's the kind of visually arresting comic that's going to look great on online and on next-gen e-readers like the iPad.
"I think comics are really going to benefit from the digital medium," Com.x publisher Benjamin Shahrabani told Wired.com last month.
“Online graphic novels and collected editions are the way forward (for indie publishers)," he said. "Our books will never be out of print, because people will always be able to download them." Of course, the material version still has its charms. In fact, we worked with Com.x to give away a beautiful copy of Forty-Five to a Wired.com commenter who schooled us on digital comics' very near future. The winner? Joren, who said:
"It's great to see more thoughtful graphic novels like this. Serious works like Watchmen, The Sandman and The Dark Knight Returns are the highlights of the medium to me, and the most fascinating to read. The art looking phenomenal is a great bonus too – from these images here I'd buy it for the art alone. Digital distribution I think holds a bright future for comics and graphic novels. I would quickly spend far more money on comics if I could turn on the latest e-reader and subscribe to comics to be delivered directly to me in high-quality color, particularly if they could be subscribed in packages, e.g. The X-Men package, Batman package, maybe a package of random indie titles from a smaller studios. It'd be hard to set down an e-reader at that point."
Thanks for chiming in, Joren, and thanks to Com.x for the giveaway. Watch this space for more chances to score free comics in service of possibility.
See Also:
- Ambitious Forty-Five Probes Superheroes' Psyches
- After Watchmen, What’s 'Unfilmable'? These Legendary Texts
- John Constantine Goes to Iraq in Pandemonium
- Alan Moore: Comics Won't Save You, but Dodgem Logic Might
- Grant Morrison Talks Brainy Comics, Sexy Apocalypse
- Brian Wood's Apocalyptic Comic Myths Catch Fire
