BORAG THUNGG, EARTHLETS! I am The Mighty Tharg, and I welcome you to this special edition of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, featuring a selection of the ?rst appearances of some of my most iconic characters! This handy sampler allows you jump in right at the beginning of such series as Judge Dredd,Rogue Trooper,Strontium Dog,Nikolai Dante, A.B.C. Warriors and more. Enjoy!

I love platforms for media that might not necessarily find homes with traditional publishers and something like this could be great for those still producing fanzines/ezines. There is a fair amount of content already there with a number of things available for free. Whilst there is some overlap with a site like Lulu, I can see a place for somewhere dedicated to digital content rather than print on demand.

Unfortunately I’ve been sick as a parrot the last week so I’ve not had a chance to really nose around though I did spot a taster for the superb Murky Depths magazine plus a fiction collection I might nab.

Have a look around, you might find something you like.

However a while back I logged in to find a message stating the site was closed and would reopen as a worldwide site so anyone could read the books from any country. Sounds good but I’ve now checked it out and they have changed the way books can be read.

The free PDFs are history and you can now read all the titles online for free using their own reader. This whilst not as good as the PDF downloads is at least a good compromise for those countries that couldn’t previously access any of the books. However you can get the PDF files but you now have to pay rather high prices and not all books are available in all countries.

I’m not sure how successful this will be. I’ll continue to use it for reading free books online and it’s a good resource, it’s just a shame they couldn’t keep the advertising supported free PDF downloads.

Nevermind I enjoy short stories in general and Cory’s short stories have always been an enjoyable read, so a comic based on his short stories will no doubt entertain me.

As with all of my books, this one is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike-NonCommercial license, meaning you can copy it, share it, remix it and play with it, provided it’s on a non-commercial basis. I’ve uploaded the full book in high resolution as a PDF and CBR file to the Internet Archive, for your downloading pleasure.

Collected in this volume are adaptations of my award-winning stories “Craphound,” “Anda’s Game,” “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth,” “After the Siege,” “I, Robot” and “Nimby and the D-Hoppers.”

Atheist Anonymous Comic 6 by ~Devain on deviantART

If you can put up with browsing the eye-bleeding assault on the senses that is MySpace with it’s flashing backgrounds and hateful music that starts without asking you, then you can actually find some decent(ish) pages.

One of the best however is MySpace Dark Horse Presents, the online 2nd volume of what was Dark Horse Comic’s flagship title.

It’s all original content from both established and amateur talent and it’s currently at the ninth issue so there is some decent reading for anyone who hasn’t stumbled across this yet. It’s well presented and unlike most MySpace pages, doesn’t instantly make me want to gouge my eyes out so that’s a plus.

If you like comics and don’t mind reading them on your computer (Internet Tablets are the way to go for this:)) then it’s worth checking out.

Not knowing where to start, I had a hunt around and found One Manga, a really useful site which hosts an absolute ton of Manga ready to read right in the browser using a very simple interface.

They have a busy, friendly looking forum so I may join and ask for a few recommendations but for now I’m working my way through Full Metal Alchemist and thoroughly enjoying it.

It’s updated regularly, fast and does what it promises. I can’t really say much more, once I have read a few more I might be able to make some recommendations but for now get reading.

The (mostly) self published comic series Elfquest has been around since 1978 so there is a massive universe to catch up on. Thankfully the creators have seen fit to publish the entire series online for free.

I’m not hugely into fantasy comics but this series has plenty of fans so I’ll be having a read, and it’ll be interesting to head back to the beginning and see how it all started.

I’ve had a few issues accessing the site but this may be down to the traffic there at the moment.

There isn’t a huge amount to comment on yet but the premise is interesting, the artwork is great and I always enjoy Warren Ellis’ writing so I’ll keep reading.

The story is set in a future North America in the grip of a new Ice Age.

Head over to Myspace to read it or download a copy.

Do you fancy some free comic books to read? Well head over here then.

The small group of people over at FlashBack Universe are producing and publishing their very own comic books, free for all to read in .cbr format to download.

It is all very reminiscent of the golden age, heroes and villains style stories so plenty of action and larger than life characters.

It’s great to see other people looking towards the future of comics, perhaps the bigger publishers will start to take notice.

Here is where the future of comics starts. Downloadable comics using the the most popular format on the web – CBR format

We are a small group of creators who feel that the future of comics is the internet – but not through kludgely Macromedia/Flash programs that distort text and graphics, but rather with the more widely popular comicbookreader (cbr) format.

Check it out its called North Wind and you’ll find it here. You can either read it online or download a .cbz for reading with CDisplay or similar.

I’ve had a read and it’s an interesting post apocalypse story set in a frozen future America. There are the seeds of an interesting universe being created here so it could be one to watch and at that price what have you got to lose.

Whilst I’m all for free comic books, it is the slow move to digital distribution that I am most interested in. I believe that online distribution of comic books can only be good for the industry and consumer alike. It would certainly be good for the UK where access to comic books is rather poor being confined to some of the larger bookshops and a few independents.

H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds – Comic adaptation

This has been available to read for free online for some time now but it’s still worth a mention.

From the pen of legendary science fiction author and futurist, H.G. Wells, Dark Horse Comics is proud to present their adaptation of the most famous science fiction novel of all time: “The War of the Worlds”! In the closing years of the 19th century, the genteel tranquility of Victorian England is shattered by the arrival of an invasion force from the red planet – Mars! Methodical and merciless, the Martians are intent on nothing less than the conquest and subjugation of the human race. Told from the point of view of an ordinary man caught up in the carnage and chaos, witness first-hand how the then greatest empire in the world is brought to its knees by the Martians’ cool alien intellect and the implacable heat ray!

The eComic has since been released for sale as a graphic novel which is an indication of the quality of this adaptation.

For a short time there are 250 free sample comics which can be accessed through the site. I’ve tested out the service and the viewing and navigation is really quite well done, reminds me a little of the online magazines at Zinio.

If comics are to survive in the future and remain profitable I believe that digital distribution is the way forward. Sales of magazines and comics appear to be on a decline which is no doubt linked to the rise in popularity of the internet so its good to see Marvel looking towards the future.

UPDATE: The short time mentioned above ended some time ago. Marvel do still provide quite a few free samples for those who don’t want to subscribe or just want to try the viewer.