By Todd Allen
While the print version won’t be showing up until October, DC continues to have a fairly imaginative creative line-up on it’s Legends of the Dark Knight digital comic. They recently announced the next batch of creators:
August 9— “A Game to Die For” written by TJ Fixman with artwork by Christopher Mitten
August 16— “Slam!” Part 1 written by Joshua Fialkov with artwork by Phil Hester & Eric Gapstur
August 23— “Slam!” Part 2 written by Joshua Fialkov with artwork by Phil Hester & Eric Gapstur
August 30— “Slam!” Part 3 written by Joshua Fialkov with artwork by Phil Hester & Eric Gapstur
September 6— “Bat-Man: The Movie” written by Andrew Dabb with artwork by Giorgio Pontrelli
September 13— “Together” written by Jonathan Larsen with artwork by Tan Eng Huat
September 20— “Gotham Spirit” written by Jeff Parker with artwork by Gabriel Hardman
September 27— “Dungeons & Dragons” writing and artwork by Mike Oeming
October 4— “Look Inside” written by Rob Williams with artwork by Juan Ryp
October 11— “Arkham’s Ghost” Part 1 written by Joe Harris with artwork by Jason Masters
October 18— “Arkham’s Ghost” Part 2 written by Joe Harris with artwork by Jason Masters
October 25— “Arkham’s Ghost” Part 3 written by Joe Harris with artwork by Jason Masters
Who are these people? TJ Fixman spends most of his time writing video games, notably Ratchet and Clank. Christopher Mitten is best known for drawing Wasteland over at Oni. Joshua Fialkov is currently writing I, Vampire but is still best known for indie fare like the excellent Elk’s Run. Phil Hester’s spent a lot more time as a writer lately. Probably his best known pencil work was on Green Arrow. Andrew Dabb has written for the Supernatural TV show, as well as some comics work. Giorgio Pontrelli has had work in CBGB and Heavy Metal. Jonathan Larsen is a television producer, formerly associated with The Daily Show, who dabbles in comics. Jeff Parker and Gabriel Hardman are the team behind Agents of Atlas and Hulk over at Marvel. Rob Williams has been all over the place, from 2000 AD to Marvel to Dynamite. Juan Ryp has done a little Marvel work lately, but is probably best known for being one of Avatar’s primary artists for years. Mike Oeming is also pretty widely travelled, even if Powers hasn’t shipped very often in the last couple years.
DC is really playing around with the creative teams on this one in fairly adventurous ways.
Hmmm… so if I want done-in-one stories, I should read the digital-first comics?
So, are these really digital comics, as in the format I’m using on Mojo Pop, and that Mark Waid is using on Thrillbent, or are these just traditional-format books you read online?
I’ve bought all of these so far and really am enjoying them. They seem to be created in mind for digital first, with the formatting and orientation of each book, seemingly to me at least, created with an eye towards the guided view process of reading the comic first as opposed to retrofitting existing floppies to the digital medium. It’s seems very much in the spirit of it’s print predecessor, but priced for digital at the much talked about .99 price point per week. With some of the upcoming creators involved, as well as some new voices I haven’t heard about before, I’m hoping all the companies can take to this as a viable format for their books.
So… it’s still formatted like a regular comic, but with a guided view?
It’s hard to explain without having you actually see it. If you’ve read any of the Zuda stuff, it seems it was created with that format in mind. So it seems formatted first towards people who will be reading it digitally on the Comixology platform first, as to retrofitting it from a floppy into digital like the monthly books are.