identity crisis | DC Comics

BRAD MELTZER ON SEEING HIS WORK BECOME HIS FATHER’S PRIZED POSSESION

Brad Meltzer is the New York Times bestselling author of many titles including IDENTITY CRISIS and numerous novels including The Book of Fate, The Tenth Justice, Dead Even, The First Counsel, The Millionaires, The Zero Game, Book of Lies and The Inner Circle:

“My father had two things on his wall at home: One was the cover of one of my novels. The other was a framed page from the dedication of my very first comic book work: Green Arrow - The Archer's Quest. The dedication reads:

For my Dad,

who bought me comics all those years,

Even when he would've rather been buying baseballs.

For me, I loved that that became a prized possession.”

– Brad Meltzer

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brad meltzer, identity crisis

Brad Meltzer on ABSOLUTE IDENTITY CRISIS

Last week, you may have seen that IDENTITY CRISIS, the game-changing book written by New York Times bestselling novelist Brad Meltzer (Dead Even), will be receiving DC’s Absolute treatment later this year. Brad shared his thoughts on the book and what this new edition means to him:

“IDENTITY CRISIS changed my life. It truly did. And it let me be a part of something that was so far bigger than myself. I'm honored that it's being given the Absolute treatment and that we're adding so many extras. And I just want to say a special thanks to every single person who told me that IDENTITY CRISIS was the book that got them back into comics.” – Brad Meltzer

Featuring art by Rags Morales and Michael Bair, ABSOLUTE IDENTITY CRISIS will include all issues of the series, a gallery of variant covers and previously unpublished script pages. On sale October 12, 2011.

Click on the below image for a larger sneak peek at the book's cover:

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absolute identity crisis, brad meltzer, identity crisis, michael bair, rags morales

DC Digital Comics Store

cx_dc Got some amazingly exciting news to launch this week off with. Yeah, I count Wednesday as the beginning of the week as it’s New Comic Book Day! (It’s the same way the New Comics Year ends and starts again with every San Diego Comic Con in July). So every Wednesday, I actually am now in the habit of checking for both new print and digital releases and sure enough, we’ve got some downloadable gems this week. In fact, we’re rolling out Frank Miller’s seminal work , The Dark Knight Returns. This is the book that brought me back into comics when I was in college and truly inspired me to become a comic book illustrator and is a must have for every Comics Cognoscenti.

What makes it even more special is that we are offering it up through our very own DC Digital Comics Store!

Yep, you heard that right. We’re thrilled today to announce the opening of our brand new DC Comics storefront. What does the latest development to our ongoing Digital Publishing Initiative mean for you, the ever-devout DC Comics fan? Well, for one--it’s going to allow you all the ability to purchase and download comics from your desktop and laptop computers from our very own website. And because we want to make the purchasing, storage and management of your comics digital library as easy and convenient as possible, we’ve made sure that our storefront is powered by comiXology which means if you buy a DC digital comic like the chart-busting Death of Superman on your Mac or PC at home, you can read the very same series on-the-go using your iPhone, iPad or laptop using our DC App without paying any a penny more or creating any new logins. Or vice versa.

We call it convergence. You will find it simply easy.

And you know what? Given the proliferation of digital comics apps, mobile devices and platforms, I know as a consumer of digital comics that I appreciate that kind of convenience. And as a Co-Publisher who finds time to catch up on his comics reading while on-the-go, I love the fact that I can carry around not just the latest digital issue of The Authority, one of my favorite all time comics, but my entire DC digital collection on any one of the devices I schlep with me to the far corners of the earth. And we’ve made many of the first issues of these great series free in commemoration of today’s news.

So check out what’s available for download this week--we run the gamut from Vertigo’s ground-breaking Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson to Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles to the DCU’s outstanding Identity Crisis series by novelist Brad Meltzer and artist Rags Morales. It really is an embarrassment of riches and honestly, we have many, many internal discussions about what we should be rolling out next...should it be material from our classic archives or more recent tales of our iconic characters or the works of DC’s greatest creators? In cases such as writer Brian Azzarello who’s best known for his riveting Vertigo opus 100 Bullets but also for his poignant take on the Man of Steel in Superman: For Tomorrow, we couldn’t choose between the two and ran with both to celebrate the launching of our new storefront. But please, sound off on our Facebook page and be heard—at the end of the day, we really do strive to make the DC Digital Offerings reflect not just the very best works of DC Comics but what YOU, the reader, wants out of very your own DC Digital Comics Experience!

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Batman, brad meltzer, brian azzarello, comixology, DC Store, dccomics.com, Digital Comics, facebook, frank miller, identity crisis, ipad, iphone, rags morales, Superman, the dark knight returns, twitter

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS…

...But a thousand words ain't too shabby, either!

Don’t get me wrong… words AND pictures are where it’s at fer me... but reading ANYTHING these days puts us all in a very, very elite club. But if you find yourself liking the work of the writers-- nay, AUTHORS-- who pen DC Comics these days, there is a veritable library of OTHER material available to you these days written by the very same people.

Used ta be that a comic book writer “escaped” the four-color and “pulp” ghetto and went on to become Mickey Spillane or Mario Puzo… and never looked back (except maybe to write a SUPERMAN movie or two, I guess… ).

Nowadays we have novelists (and television and screen writers, for that matter—but that’s another blog) coming to comics to DO comics. Because they LOVE comics!

Brad Meltzer’s one fellow who’s had plenty of success BEFORE he wrote some GREEN ARROW comics and JLA comics and IDENTITY CRISIS for us! Check out his “Book of Lies” for a nice literary world meets comic book history mash-up!

You’ve also probably read Greg Rucka’s work for DC and Oni Press on series like 52, GOTHAM CENTRAL and DETECTIVE COMICS and White Out… but you really should get a look at one of Greg’s coolest creations-- Atticus Kodiak-- in one of the seven novels Greg’s written that chronicle the adventures of this hard-as-nails BG (body guard). Start with “Keeper” and don’t stop!

Jodi Picoult, author of “Nineteen Minutes”, “Change of Heart” and thirteen other novels did a nice run on WONDER WOMAN (collected in WONDER WOMAN: LOVE & MURDER thank you very much). Hope she’ll do more someday.

And we’ve even got people doing both comics and prose at the same time! Working with Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham on JSA titles currently sets me up for reading their recent novels. Matt’s started a series for Pyr titled “Midwinter” and it’s an excellent fantasy set in an intriguing world that’s ripe for sequels for sure. And Bill W.’s just seen “Peter & Max: A Fables Novel” published—this is an all new all original story set in Vertigo’s FABLES Universe… not a novelization (though we’ve seen our share of those over the years and Marvel’s still working with Stephen King on his “Dark Tower” series)!

And willya look at THIS?! Bill’s novel was published BY Vertigo! Way to go “funny” book publisher!

And outside of our universe, writers like “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” author Michael Chabon have seen their characters come to new life in comic books for Dark Horse even… Peter David still works in both media… and scores of other examples of the back and forth between words & pictures and just words are out there… as I run out of room here.

Anyone you’d like to see us hunt down? I know I’d love to see the Batman villain “Fight Club”’s Chuck Palahniuk has in him.

Great time to be reading… anything!

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amazing adventures of kavalier and clay, bill willingham, brad meltzer, Greg Rucka, identity crisis, jodi picoult, matthew sturges, michael chabon, mike carlin, peter david