comics

Master techniques to draw attention-grabbing comics

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This bundle will help you grow your artistic foundation
With these courses in comic book drawing, even beginners can whip up amazing art.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Want to take your art and design skills in an unexpected direction? You can learn to create characters of all sorts with The Learn to Draw Comic Book Characters Bundle.

Whether you already love to draw, or always wished you could, these courses will show you traditional and creative ways to render your vision. With lifetime access to the coursework, you can learn at your own pace. But you’d better jump on this deal right now if you want to take advantage of a massive 97% price cut on the four-course bundle.

Final Batman v Superman trailer packs intense bat-on-god action

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Batman might stand a chance.
Batman might stand a chance.
Photo: Warner Brothers.

Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent have had enough with the pleasantries. In the final trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, it’s an all out war.

Warner Brothers has given fans their final glimpse of new movie footage before it hits theaters next month. Batman gets the biggest role in the new trailer that shows Superman won’t have an easy fight against Gotham’s Dark Knight. There are also some new shots of Wonder Woman, Alfred, and of course Lex Luther.

Check it out:

Talented cartoonist turns iTunes Terms & Conditions into comic book art

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R. Sikoryak does Steve Jobs and the iTunes Terms and Conditions.
R. Sikoryak does Steve Jobs and the iTunes Terms and Conditions.
Photo: Robert Sikoryak

We’ve all seen those horrendously long Terms and Conditions documents with every bit of Apple software we download, including the iTunes Terms and Conditions.

But what if you could see them in an illustrated version? We all might read them in that case.

These illustrated panels, each drawn in a different comic book style after famous other cartoonists, put Steve Jobs front and center of the otherwise dry, dusty legal disclaimers from Apple.

Totally worth a look, right?

6 great comic book movies written by their original creators

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Is there anyone who doesn't like Sin City's Marv? Photo: Dimension Films
Is there anyone who doesn't like Sin City's Marv? Photo: Dimension Films

We’re living in a golden age for comic book movies, but even with that being the case, it can be kind of rare for a film to arrive in multiplexes, faithfully guided there by its original creator.

Having the original creator also show up as a writer or even director can work wonders, however, as this sextet of comic book cinematic gems prove.

Hellboy beer will wash away your devilish thirst

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Hell yes! Rogue's devilish Right Hand of Doom Red Ale looks worthy of Hellboy. Photo: Rogue Ales
Hell yes! Rogue's devilish Right Hand of Doom Red Ale looks worthy of Hellboy. Photo: Rogue Ales

Here’s a comics crossover you can drink to: Rogue Ales is bottling a birthday brew for Hellboy.

Rogue’s Right Hand of Doom Red Ale pays tribute to the demon-spawn character created by Mike Mignola. A Mignola drawing of the wisecracking, cigar-chomping, supernatural badass adorns the label, just as the comics franchise reaches legal drinking age in the United States.

5 new comic book series you should start reading now

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comics-you-should-read
Sure, comic books are an old art form, dating back to the 1930s in American culture. The four-color sequential art format has had some major success as well as several dips in its fortunes over the intervening eighty years, but the comic book is very much alive and well at this point in time, thanks to a resurgence of the comic book movies and television series currently in vogue.

There are so many new books out there as a result, that it’s hard to choose which ones to pick up and read when you head to your local comic book shop (still the way most of us get our comics). If you’re picking up two to three-dollar single issues, things can add up quickly. That’s why we’re here — to get you a sampling of the finest comics your money should buy, right now. Scroll through the images above to see what we’ve put together for you.

Photo: Rob LeFebvre, Cult of Mac

Role-reversing comic book video shows the truth about geeks

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"Who got you into comics? Was it your mom, you sister? " Photo: Buzzfeed

“So, what do you cosplay as?” asks this geek girl in the comic book shop. “Slutty Hawkeye? Slutty Thor? Slutty Iron Man?”

The video below is one of those “funny because it’s true” situations, as many women who love superheroes and comics hear the same kinds of questions and face the same sort of dismissive candor from geeky men who can’t seem to realize that everyone loves comics and superhero movies.

Check it out and see how annoying it would be to face this kind of discrimination.

Iron Man takes on the Hulk in first Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer

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hulkvsironman2
Hulk smash! Iron Man huge! Photo: Marvel Studios

Update: The leaked Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer has been pulled from several sources, but once the toothpaste is out of the tube, even superheroes can’t put it back. Marvel Entertainment has responded with an appropriately cheeky tweet (see below) and released the official trailer in HD.

It’s hard not to contain our excitement for the upcoming Joss Whedon joint, Avengers: Age of Ultron, especially with this new leaked trailer. It’s not the high-quality one you’ll likely see when Marvel Studios puts the official trailer up on YouTube, but it definitely looks legit.

The trailer gives us our first glimpse of baddie Ultron, voiced by James Spader, and features some creepy use of the Pinnochio song, “I Got No Strings” — a reference to the fact that Ultron is no longer a puppet, perhaps?

Check it out below:

This comic perfectly sums up the hilarious inaccuracy of iOS 8 keyboard predictions

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Screen Shot 2014-09-29 at 9.45.27 PM
Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give massages. Comic by xkcd.

One of iOS 8’s great new features is Quick Type, which scans your history for your most commonly used word combinations and suggests the word you’re most likely to use next, which can be selected with just a tap.

That said, Quick Type is hardly perfect… a fact made abaundantly clear by the latest xkcd comic, in which iOS 8 mangles famous quotes from Scarface, Wizard of Oz, Serenity, Goonies, Lord of the Rings and Goldfinger.

And you thought Damn You, Autocorrect was hilarious!

Dark Horse Comics does video game titles like no other

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Dave Marshall, Editor Dark Horse Comics. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Dave Marshall, Editor Dark Horse Comics, holding a coffee table book of video game art. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

SEATTLE, Washington – Walk into a comic shop, and you’ll probably see titles from publisher Dark Horse Comics. Known for its creator-owned series like Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and Sergio Aragonés’ Groo the Wanderer as well as television and movie adaptations like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or 300, the comic book publisher has a booth at the Penny Arcade Expo this weekend in Seattle to show off a different genre of comic.

The booth at the Washington State Convention Center in is full of video game-themed books of all stripe, from Mass Effect and Tomb Raider single-issue comics to larger, coffee table volumes like Hyrule Historia, which is chock full of the lore of The Legend of Zelda, and The Art of Naughty Dog, an art book that focuses on the popular game developer’s artistic output.

Dave Marshall says that video game books are the third pillar in the Dark Horse publishing strategy, and have become just as valuable a content stream as the creator-owned or media-based titles.

“We get the original writers and artists from the video games themselves to actually write or consult on these books,” he told us at the Dark Horse booth Saturday morning, “so we can come to the fans at a deeper level than just a crummy tie-in or cash grab.”

Community star gets dream job to voice Spidey on TV

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A tale of two Spideys.
A tale of two Spideys.

In an amazing twist of celebrity, Community star and rapper Donald Glover has gotten to voice Miles Morales, the Ultimate Spider-Man, in the Disney XD animated series.

As it’s Glover that was the original inspiration behind the alternate universe Spidey, written by comics star Brian Michael Bendis, this is a treat for fans and the actor himself.

“That’s the great part about the Spider-Man costume: He can be anybody,” Glover told USA Today. “Spider-Man could be a girl. Spider-Man could be an old man. You don’t know. So I just tried to be as me as possible, because you’re always just going to bring it back to yourself when you watch the show.”

Check out the clip below as Peter Parker (voiced by Drake Bell) meets Miles Morales, voiced by Glover.

9 awesome comic books ready to blow up your TV set

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Preacher, based on the ultra-violent and incredibly profane comic book series from Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon at Vertigo, is a not-so-safe bet. That’s why we’re super-glad that AMC (The Walking Dead) has picked up this amazing look at American culture and its obsession with big guns, Christianity and hyper-masculinity, all filtered through a Texas setting. The show reportedly will debut in 2015.

Preacher, based on the ultra-violent and incredibly profane comic book series from Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon at Vertigo, is a not-so-safe bet. That’s why we’re super-glad that AMC (The Walking Dead) has picked up this amazing look at American culture and its obsession with big guns, Christianity and hyper-masculinity, all filtered through a Texas setting. The show reportedly will debut in 2015.


9 things we’re desperately hoping Batman V Superman gets right

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There are few comic books movies fanboys are salivating over more than 2016's upcoming Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.As huge Superman and Batman fans, no-one is more excited than we are. With that in mind, here are the 9 things we hope more than anything that director Zack Snyder is able to get right for history's most eagerly-anticipated team-up. Check out the gallery to find out what they are.
There are few comic books movies fanboys are salivating over more than 2016's upcoming Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.

As huge Superman and Batman fans, no-one is more excited than we are. With that in mind, here are the 9 things we hope more than anything that director Zack Snyder is able to get right for history's most eagerly-anticipated team-up. Check out the gallery to find out what they are.


New Constantine trailer outs your demons

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The horror!
The horror!

It’s definitely trailer week, especially for comic book and other genre movies, but here’s one for an upcoming DC television show based on the Vertigo property, Hellblazer. The show will cover the exploits of a certain John Constantine, supernaturally sensitive wizard-type who wears a trench coat, smokes incessantly (in the comics, at least) and does smart-ass battle with the angels and demons who plague us mere mortals.

The trailer really brings on the horror tropes: the creepy bugs on the wall revealing a scary message, the creepy flat-affect kid with the sharp knife, the broken-neck demon in a human body shot. You know, all the hits.

Check out the trailer below for all the creepy footage from what could be the best comic book show of the upcoming season.

Back up your digital comics with a click, not DRM

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comixology DRM-free

If you’ve been wary of joining the digital comics revolution because of digital rights management (DRM) concerns, Comixology, a comics portal and mobile app, is creating a solution.

Announced Thursday at the company’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, the new DRM-free backup service will let you keep a local copy of your purchased digital comics from the likes of Image Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, Zenescope Entertainment, MonkeyBrain Comics, Thrillbent, and Top Shelf Productions. You’ll be able to save a local copy in PDF or CBZ (a comic-book archiving format) right on your iPad.

“For those out there who have not joined the comic reading community because of DRM – you have no excuse now,” said ComiXology’s John D. Roberts in a statement. “We’re excited about the launch of DRM-free backups today and look forward to announcing more innovative features as we move ahead with our mission of making everyone on the face of the planet a comic book fan!”

5 non-superhero comic books that should come to TV screens

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buffy

Sure, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a movie that became a TV show that ended up as a comic book, but it’s a fine example of the cross-media value of certain nerdy properties. Comic book movies and television shows are all the rage right now, with Marvel and DC superheroes packing the theaters and shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Arrow filling the little screen.

But there are plenty of comic books that don’t feature superheroes, and we think they’d be a great match for the home television market, as they have less reliance on big-budget special effects and can sustain longer story arcs than a movie can. With that, then, here are our picks for the best non-superhero comics we’d really like to see come to a television screen near you. Or us.


At last, Wonder Woman lassos another female writer

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David Finch draws, Meredith Finch writes the new Wonder Woman this November. Photo: David Finch/Twitter
David Finch draws, Meredith Finch writes the new Wonder Woman this November. Photo: David Finch

For a comic book character that’s been around since 1941, it’s surprising how few women (five) have written DC Comic’s biggest female protagonist. The character is as least as popular and visible as DC’s other superstars, Batman and Superman, but it’s not until recently that we’ve seen her potentially coming to the big screen, while the other two have dominated DC’s movie output in recent years.

It’s exciting, then, to hear that the comic book itself is getting some new creative energy: Meredith and David Finch, a husband and wife writer/illustrator. While David has some serious comic book cred, from Ultimate X-Men (with Brian Michael Bendis) and Batman: The Dark Knight, Meredith Finch has some chops as well, as seen in her short stories for Zenescope Entertainment. This will be her first lead comic writing gig.

Meredith reminds us that having a female writer for one of the most iconic female superheroes is important. “It makes sense if you’re going to try to attract that female market that you appeal to them on every level,” she told USA Today, “– your writing demographic reflects the demographic of your readership.”

Comics’ best supervillains (and not just the obvious ones)

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batman-annual-freeze
Mr. Freeze has been an enduringly chilly presence in the Batman universe since his first appearance (as Mr. Zero) in Batman #121, back in February 1959. The most famous take on the character was the one engineered by Paul Dini in the Batman: The Animated Series episode “Heart of Ice.” That story introduced us to Freeze’s terminally ill, cryogenically frozen wife Nora, which both explained Freeze’s obsession with cold and turned him into a tragic character in the process.

But while Dini’s animated version of Freeze was good enough to become the standard portrayal of the character in most forms of media, more recently I’ve been loving the reinvention of Mr. Freeze seen in DC’s New 52. (SPOILERS) You see, in this universe it turns out that Nora was never Freeze's wife at all, but rather a woman born in 1943, who was put into cryogenic stasis at the age of 23 after being diagnosed with an incurable heart condition.

Writing his doctoral thesis on Nora, Freeze fell in love with her, and became obsessed with finding a way to bring her back to life. One cryonic chemical accident later, and the already unhinged Dr. Victor Fries is transformed into Mr. Freeze. It’s a clever re-imagining of Freeze’s origin which makes him less sympathetic, but a whole lot creepier.


Who’s the baddest of the bad?

Got your own favorite underappreciated supervillain? Let us know in the comments below.

Constantine TV show could nail comic’s smart-ass tone

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He's got the attitude down, at least.
He's got the attitude down, at least.

As a huge fan of Vertigo Comics’ Hellblazer, about hard-bitten wise-cracking paranormal detective John Constantine, I’m warily excited about the upcoming TV series on NBC. Wary because of the totally off-base movie of the same name. Excited because, well, it looks like they got a bunch of things about the character and universe in which he lives “right.”

“I think as with the source material,” says series lead Matt Ryan in an interview with IGN, “there’s so much to draw from in terms of the character and the balance of humor and wit and dark and gritty. It’s great, because John has this kind of real sarcastic, ironic British wit. It’s funny, but at the same time it’s serious and dark and gritty. It’s got it all, I think.”

At first glance, the trailer (below) looks like the show creators understand more of the character than the 2005 movie starring Keanu Reeves ever did, including emo angels, a world-weary John Constantine and his famous trench coat.

Excelsior: Alpha nerds choose the 10 best comics

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Never in its many incarnations has the Animal Man mythos been this fascinating.
Never in its many incarnations has the Animal Man mythos been this fascinating.

When we’re looking for comics in our local nerd den, we’re often overwhelmed by the quantity of new titles each week. That’s not even counting the back issues and collected series in trade paperback format.

So we asked some of the most alpha nerds we know: the folks at Industrial Toys, a game development team (Midnight Star) with a who’s-who pedigree in geek. There’s CEO Alex Seropian, the co-founder of Bungie games (Marathon, Halo), Tim Harris, part owner of Alley Cat Comics in Chicago, John Scalzi, best-selling science fiction author, and Mike Choi, a veteran comic book artist in his own right.

Harris and Seropian, along with art director Aaron Marroquin and senior graphic designer Sarah Chiappetta, chimed in to our request with the comic books that they think are the best in the bin.

Amazon and ComiXology are giving out a free comic a day for 20 days

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amazon-ology

So far, we at Cult of Mac have not been big fans of Amazon’s acquisition of ComiXology. Although we’ve previously praised them as the iTunes of comic books, the first thing the e-shopping giant did upon purchasing Comixology was stop allowing you to purchase comics directly within the app on iOS, presumably to get around paying Apple its 30% cut.

It was an anti-consumer move that made the app infinitely less appealing for digital comic readers, but Amazon has now announced something that might take some of the sting out: they’re releasing a free comic a day for the next three weeks. That means 19 free comics, which should be enough to tempt anyone who lovers comics to at least download the app.

Amazon Buys ComiXology

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Oh man, I just can’t wait for this week to be over. First the entire Internet turns out to have been broken for the last two years. Then Dropbox hires Condoleezza “Cruella de Vil” Rice to help out with security. And now Amazon has bought out ComiXology, the digital comic book store/platform.

I’m ready for the weekend.

ComiXology App Gets Wish Lists And Backwards-Reading Manga

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San Diego Comic-Con may be done and dusted for another year, but the memories will last forever: not least because some truly great announcements were made regarding the geekery that will be stealing our hearts, minds and cash over the next year or so.With each year seemingly bigger than the last, it can be a tough call to pick out highlights (and, indeed, the soul-crushingly disappointing lowlights) of the world's biggest fan convention, but we've given it our best shot. Check out our gallery for the best and worst that San Diego Comic-Con 2014 had to offer.
Picture: health_bar
(Credit: health_bar)

Top-grossing iOS developer ComiXology has just updated its popular Comics app with several improvements — including the addition of a highly-requested “Wish List” feature.

The feature lets users build their own list of ComiXology wants by tapping a Wish List button, which saves the book for later. Wish Lists can be accessed in the app’s Purchases section.