What could be a more fun iPhone game than shooting the crap out of zombies as a badass postapocalyptic British lawgiver? Turns out, there’s quite a bit of alternatives. I had the opportunity to review Judge Dredd Vs. Zombies for Comics Alliance late last year and while the core gameplay was competently fun, it was sucked dry by the hollow presentation and shameless difficulty due to a freemium model-friendly unlock system.

If you’re looking for an epic Judge Dredd gaming experience based on the comics, let’s stop right there. This is not the game for you. While the word “zombies” in the title could imply a tie in to Garth Ennis’ epic “Judgment Day” zombie storyline, Judge Dredd vs. Zombies involves nothing of the sort. The closest you get to a story is a single briefing screen telling you that Zombies have infested Mega City-One and that Judge Dredd is the “Solution.” In fact, other than scattered badges and the occasional logo in each level, the only sights you’re going to see are Judge Dredd, zombies, and generic looking building interiors. To be fair to the developer, though, it’s what was promised in the title and by golly that’s exactly what’s offered.

Read my full review on Comics Alliance here

Each of the 12 Avengers vs. X-Men issues will be available in comics shops and digitally on the same day beginning in April, with each print issue including a free copy for download on the Marvel app.

Perhaps it should be the other way around as well. Buy a digital version, get a coupon for a print one too. It’s easier to obtain a digital copy, especially for new or casual comics fans who may never have even thought about visiting a comics store. Give them a reason to go to the store and explore other books.

via Marvel event reaches ‘critical mass’ – USATODAY.com.

Full disclosure: I’m a huge comic book and video game geek and have loved the Marvel vs. Capcom series ever since I was a kid. I’d buy each and every release, even if they only add new characters and come up less than a year after the last one. It’s a really fun fight experience and I find the ridiculous speed and combos a nice change of pace from the more methodical Street Fighter or Tekken series.

That being said, I really wish Capcom would include a nice tutorial mode or something to make it easier for newcomers to get into the game. It’s a blast to play and there’s definitely a larger audience for this stuff now that Marvel’s successfully launched so many high profile films.

You can find my full review of the game on ComicsAlliance. I’d feel honored if you read the whole thing, but I’ll admit it’s a bit detailed for you impatient types out there.

If you’re one of those people, here are some tl;dr points:

If you skipped out on the original Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and love the characters and/or just love a good brawling game, then picking up Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a no-brainer. It’s strictly superior to the previous version in virtually every way. Even if you’re not normally a fighting game person, you may want to at least rent the game once just to experience your beloved characters brought to full interactive life (LifeTip for overworked readers: I’ve found that setting the game to an easy difficulty and breezing through arcade mode is a wonderful stress reliever).

As for those who own the first version, whether or not you’ll find the right value in UMvC3 depends on how often you play with others — either online or on the couch together. This is a game meant to be played competitively. Things will get very tiresome on your own once you’re done experimenting with the new characters. Feel free to skip UMvC3 if you got the idea the first go-around and have no desire to see the new characters. It doesn’t bring a whole lot new to the table.

Read the full review: ‘Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3′ review on ComicsAlliance.

I see what they did there by setting the trailer to Nine Inch Nails’ “We’re In This Together.” (because they’re a team of super heroes.)

I’m a little disappointed that we don’t get a glimpse of Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill even though she isn’t a “name” actor like the rest of the star studded lineup, but what can you do. I’m also talking myself into ScarJo as Black Widow. Probably because she doesn’t speak at all in the trailer.  I don’t want to set expectations too high, but based on this trailer and Joss Whedon’s track record, I think we might all have good reason to geek out next May – comics fan or not.

That being said, I’d be more than willing to support my local comic book store if they were a part of this initiative. There needs to be a way to combine both paper and digital comics sales in a sensible way for the consumer. I sure as hell ain’t going to pay a premium for a la carte digital comics.

“By having a ComiXology-powered store and reader integrated with our existing new and back-issue comics website, we will provide our customers with even more access to the comics they love while increasing their loyalty to us,” said Chris Powell, General Manager and CRO of myccomicshop.com. “Having seen comiXology’s Retailer Tools and Pull List services, we trust comiXology’s technology to help us thrive in a market where customers are interested in both print and digital comics. ComiXology will help us provide the one-stop shopping that customers are looking for. Digital comics can be a great tool for reaching out to new or lapsed customers, and retailers should not be afraid of this new format. Instead, they should look for ways to make the digital format complement their existing print business.”

Read more: comiXology Announces Digital Storefront for Brick and Mortar Comic Shops – ComicsAlliance | Comics culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews.

1/ Apple take 30% right off the bat.
2/ In the case of Wanted, Comixology then splits 50/50 with the publisher.
3/ Then the publisher pays the agent and creative team out of the remaining cash depending on their deal.

Even if you don’t go through Apple, Comixology’s percentage looks to be pretty high as well. I’m not sure what printing and distribution costs are on paper comics, but I’d be surprised if they were as high as Apple and Comixology’s.

Mark Millar:

In hard numbers, the digital comic is normally half the price of the paper comic, but you have just as many percentages to pay out as a creative team to an electronic distributor and publisher. So effectively the creative team is getting half as much money. For creators, this isn’t great and for comic stores this is awful. I don’t mind paying thirty percent to a local store where my friends work and the guys care about the product. But do I want this money going to Apple?

Millar makes some great points about the finances situation, but let’s keep in mind that right now most of the comics sold digitally were released months and years ago. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that most of the current digital comics sales are gravy on top for everyone involved.  Put another way, the paper comics have already had their sales run with or without the existence of digital comics.

The real issue comes with how to deal with day and date book releases. There’s still a sizable audience of potential comics readers that have no interest or ability to buy paper comics. How are these people going to be served without being cast aside?

As someone who likes owning the paper books, I still feel a hybrid paper/digital solution is what I would like the best. I want to own the best books for my personal library, while also enjoying the convenience of digital delivery for when I don’t have time to get out to the store.

However, shelling out the same cover price as a paper comic for a digital one just doesn’t sit well with me. Like in the music industry, consumers want all-you-can-eat subscriptions. There’s books that I would want to try out, but with comics being $3.99 or more these days, it’s too hard to justify buying many of them on a whim. We need to have a compromise between the readers, retailers, and creators that leaves everyone happy.

Read: MY BIG CONCERN WITH COMIC DOWNLOADS – Millarworld.tv Forums.

Everyone considers themselves otaku about something—whether it’s the mythology of Lost or the minor intrigues of Top Chef. American Idol inspires—if not in depth, at least in length and passion—the same number of conversations as does The Wire. There are no more hidden thought-palaces—they’re easily accessed websites, or Facebook pages with thousands of fans.

I can’t argue with his observations on how pretty much anything is grounds for any number of people to “geek out” on these days. Talk to the millions of “twihards” or “gleeks” and you have enough proof you need.

The last half of the piece gets a little loopy ridiculous, though his point is made. I remember designing Zelda dungeons on notebook paper as a kid after school. If I had access to all the content I do now as a kid, I would have probably spent that time consuming content rather than doing that. After all, nothing’s more discouraging than seeing other people do things way better than you.

Read: Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die | Magazine.

Normally, I wouldn’t give a crap about some ancillary fan-fiction comic, but I noticed that the co-creator and artist of Powers, Michael Avon Oeming is involved with it. (Powers, if you didn’t know, is one of the best current comics, written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Oeming. It’s a gritty cop story set in a world where super-powered people exist.) Doing a little more digging on Oeming’s site revealed that the game writers over at Valve handled the scripting while he handled the art for this project.

“The Sacrifice” starts right after the end of the original Left 4 Dead and tells the story of what happened to that crew. We even get some flashback sequences from before the outbreak really hit the fan and learn a bit more about Louis’s life before he became a “survivor.” It’s actually a pretty compelling story and a recommended one  if you’ve played the games or like zombies.

Read Part 1 of “The Sacrifice”

God, I can’t wait for this game.

As someone who grew up on Street Fighter and Marvel Comics, Capcom’s (X-Men/Marvel) Vs. (Street Fighter/Capcom) franchise has always held a special place in my heart. It also tickles my inner nerd seeing not-so-mainstream villains such as Dormammu or Super Skrull get playable character status.

Something about the pseudo-3d graphics feels a little…sterile to me, though. I know it worked for Street Fighter 4, but my gut wishes that they would have gone with super hi-resolution 2d animation based off of a genuine comic artist’s work.

Oh well, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 still looks like incredible fun.

While the trailer may seem like a shitshow to the uninitiated, there’s actually a methodical way to play this game. It doesn’t take too long to process what’s going on and once you do it’s immensely satisfying to pull off those 16 hit air combos and/or fantastical super moves.

AMC’s on top of the television world right now with Mad Men and Breaking Bad as arguably the best shows on TV. So why wouldn’t they one-up HBO’s True Blood with an undead series of their own?

The Walking Dead is based off of Robert Kirkman’s graphic novel series of the same name. It just won the 2010 Eisner Award for Best Ongoing Series. I admit, I never got into the comic, but it’s definitely on my list to start before the show premieres at least.

Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) writes and directs the 90 minute series premiere about surviving the zombie apocalypse in small town middle America.

Check out the awesome trailer above and set your DVR’s for 10pm on Oct 31. (Yeah, I know. I couldn’t have passed up slotting the premiere on Halloween if I was a network executive too.)