| It’s time for our weekly look at the top-selling digital comics of the week. There are a few surprises this week and some predictable results as well. 1. Amazing X-Men #2 Marvel dominates the comiXology top ten again this week, taking seven out of ten slots; The Walking Dead #117, which topped the chart last week, is back for an encore in the number 6 slot, and DC has just two titles on the list. One of this week’s notable Marvel titles is Inhumanity #1, which kicks off a series about the Inhumans, an ancient, genetically enhanced tribe whose city has just been destroyed. And Peter Parker is back in Amazing Spider-Man #700.1, with both Peter and the series being resurrected after the supposedly final events of Amazing Spider-Man #700. 1. The Hedge Knight Most of the books on this week’s list are the same as last week’s, but the order is shuffled around quite a bit, which means people are still buying them. Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files is new to the list; it was released two weeks ago by Dynamite Entertainment. 1. Smallville #1 Smallville #1 topped the Nook list last week, too, but you didn’t see it here because it was a free comic—DC was offering a number of digital-first comics for free over the Thanksgiving holiday. Its position in the number one slot probably reflects a lot of free downloads. Everything else is in the same position relative to the other books as they were last week, except for one more new title: Demon Love Spell, vol. 5. This series was my pick for the worst manga of 2013 at the Best and Worst Manga panel at San Diego Comic Con last summer, which shows how much I know. iBooks 1. The Walking Dead #117 The Walking Dead are taking over the iBookstore, apparently, with six titles in the top ten as opposed to four My Little Pony titles. It’s interesting how much of a lock these two comics have on the iBooks top ten, and that holds true further down the list as well; it’s as if these are the only titles a lot of people buy on iBooks. Digital Comics Best-Sellers for December 8, 2013 is a post from: E-Reader News |
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Digital Comics Best-Sellers for December 8, 2013
Comics on the Small Screen: Jessica Jones Gets Netflix Series
| Early last month, Netflix announced that it will develop five miniseries based on Marvel comics: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist will each get their own miniseries, then they will all come together in The Defenders. Last week, the news broke that Twilight writer Melissa Rosenberg will be the writer and executive producer of the Jessica Jones miniseries; she had previously developed a series for ABC based on the character, but that project never came to fruition. Jessica Jones is an intriguing character. She went to high school with Peter Parker and was there when he was bitten by the radioactive spider that turned him into Spider-Man. Shortly after that, she was in a car accident in which her family was killed and she was exposed to radioactive chemicals, which gave her her powers. In her first comic series, Alias, which is not available digitally, she took the name Jewel and became a costumed superhero, but things did not work out well, and she left to become a private investigator. Jessica takes a prominent role in the series The Pulse, which is available as part of the Marvel Unlimited subscription service but not on comiXology (except for issue #10, which is a tie-in to the House of M event). As the series begins, she is the girlfriend of superhero Luke Cage and is expecting his child. Looking for a steady income and health insurance, she takes a job with the Daily Bugle (the same paper where Peter Parker, Spider-Man’s alter ego, is a photographer) as a sort of consultant, working with reporters Ben Urich and Kat Farrell. There are three story arcs that are a good read on their own: issues 1-5, in which the staff investigates the disappearance of another reporter and ends up unmasking the Green Goblin; issues 11-13, in which Jessica has her baby during rather tumultuous circumstances; and issue 14, the final issue in the series, in which she tells her baby about one other time she tried to be a superhero, but set it aside to protect two children who were left at a crime scene. At the end of this issue, she decides she will marry Luke Cage, who proposed in issue 13. These three story arcs are a great introduction to Jessica and Luke and won’t get you bogged down with other storylines, as the rest of the series crosses over with other Marvel stories. If you want to see more of Jessica—and Luke—check out The New Avengers, vol. 2, which ran from 2010-2012. In this series, Luke and his superhero compatriots move to the Avengers Mansion, splitting off from the main group, but they are soon drawn into a battle with supernatural forces. In Settle in for a good read, because this series lasts for 34 issues (also available on Marvel Unlimited). While news is out about the creative team behind the show, nobody has yet said where Jessica will be in her life journey—the series could focus on her Alias days, before she met Luke and had her baby, or it could pick up the storyline later. The course of true love doesn’t always run smooth for Luke and Jessica, so there are a lot of possibilities. Add that to the fact that Jessica is a strong woman who is fiercely devoted to her child, but at the same time has a realistic view of her abilities and the constraints of life as a superhero, and you have the opportunity for a show that really breaks the standard superhero mold. With Rosenberg helming the project, it will be interesting to see what lies in store for Jessica Jones. Comics on the Small Screen: Jessica Jones Gets Netflix Series is a post from: E-Reader News |
Holiday Gadget Giveaway: Are you our next winner?
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Remember to shop often – the more days you submit an order, the better your chances of winning. And since Marketplace is compatible on all PCs, Macs, tablets and smartphones, you can shop (and enter the daily giveaway) anytime, anywhere… even at home in your PJs! Show us how you select and develop your digital media collection: send us photo submissions of you or your team shopping for eMedia to blogs@overdrive.com for a chance to be featured on the OverDrive Library Blog or Marketplace homepage.
We're two weeks into the giveaway, and these lucky winners are already feeling the holiday cheer. Will you be next? Suzy Deucher, eMediaLibrary (IL) Trish Read, Toowoomba Grammar School (AU) Tracy Babiasz, Alachua County Library District (FL) Heather O'Neil, Minuteman Library Network (MA) Duane Shaffer, Sanibel Public Library (FL) Sarah Redman, Midwest Cooperative for Library Services (MI) Kristen Cavanagh, Brampton Library (CA) Heidi Schwab, DigitalLibraryNJ (NJ) Stan Friedman, Conde Nast (NY)
Terms and conditions: Offer is open to Marketplace customers, age 18 or older, except where prohibited by law or policy. The prize is one Google Nexus 7 Tablet (16GB), and is subject to change based on availability. Limit of one entry per day per Marketplace account. Qualifying purchases must be placed between November 24, 2013, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time ("EST") and January 4, 2014, at 4:30 p.m. EST. No purchase necessary; to enter without a purchase, mail your contact information (name, address, email, telephone) and your Marketplace account name to: OverDrive, Inc., Holiday Gadget Give-A-Way, One OverDrive Way, Cleveland, Ohio 44125. Mail entries must be postmarked by January 4, 2014. Winners will be selected at random by OverDrive from qualifying entries. Prizes for each winner will be selected by OverDrive. Winners will be posted on the Marketplace homepage every day at 4:30 p.m. EST through the qualifying period. OverDrive will pay all shipping and handling fees for prizes. This offer may be modified, canceled or revoked at any time by OverDrive at its discretion. OverDrive employees and family members are not eligible for this promotion. Odds of winning depend on the total number of qualifying entries submitted.
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eBook Review: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck
| Verdict: 4 Stars Game developer and author Jeff Kinney has done it again with a new Diary of a Wimpy Kid title, Hard Luck (Amulet Books). In this go around, life is even tougher for everyone’s favorite cartoonish middle schooler. Not only does he have the usual obstacles to juggle, like unpopularity, not doing well in school, and the proverbial middle child problems, this year, and even bigger threat has invaded: a girlfriend. Specifically, Greg’s best friend’s girlfriend. Rowley, who could be counted on to be Greg’s wingman in all situations, somehow has attracted someone of the opposite sex, and therefore dropped Greg like third period French. Part of the fun of the Wimpy Kid books is that they are completely relatable to both current readers and to adults who remember the angst of middle school. Apart from that, readers can also enjoy the “you, not me” aspect to Greg’s misadventures. While the book series has been banned in several US schools and libraries due to the attitudes and misbehaviors of some of the key characters, the entire series and this title in particular are perfect for reluctant readers who might identify with the constant uncertainty Greg feels. Hard Luck is available now, and currently holds the number one bestseller spot on several retailer and book lists.
eBook Review: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck is a post from: E-Reader News |
New Social Media Site Aimed Specifically at New Adult Explicit Romance
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Fans will also get in on the action as they can connect with authors and with one-another via the site. The Twitter and Facebook feeds for the new site will allow fans to engage with the storylines and offer their remarks. The site also offers Tumblr, Pinterest, and YouTube landings. Several authors have already been featured on the site, including S&S authors Jamie McGuire, Abbi Glines, Colleen Hoover, Alice Clayton, and Christina Lauren. As the site continues to grow, new program offerings will be announced, including reader events for fans. The site has also promised future efforts to promote the brand through connectedness with other presumably romance brands. Jamie McGuire, Abbi Gilnes, Colleen Hoover, Alice Clayton and Christina Lauren New Social Media Site Aimed Specifically at New Adult Explicit Romance is a post from: E-Reader News |
Tesco Plans Hudl 2 in 2014, Aldi Offers Competing Lifetab Tablet at an Even Cheaper £80
| None had expected the UK based supermarket chain Tesco to come up with a tablet offering of its own; and if that wasn’t enough, the company has now stated they are planning a sequel for launch soon. All of it started with the Hudl, whose biggest feature has been its affordable price tag. Tesco is claiming the Hudl, which went on sale for £119 (roughly around 195 USD), sold in numbers significant enough to warrant coming up with a sequel. The Hudi went on to notch up sales figure of more than 35,000 within the first few days of its launch, while around 300,000 have been sold in the two months since. That is the entire shipment they had expected to sell through the end of 2013. As for the upcoming Hudl 2, almost the entire thing remains cloaked in secrecy and the only thing we know of the upcoming device is that it will sport enhanced specifications. That’s hardly surprising considering every sequel is designed to be better than its predecessor. However, it remains to be seen just how much of an improvement Hudl 2 comes with without disturbing the affordability factor which is believed to be Tesco’s trump card. Aldi’s decision to follow suit with an even cheaper tablet, one that costs just £80, may be a competing point for the Hudl. Dubbed the Medion Lifetab Android tablet or just Lifetab, the tablet comes with features that can be considered befitting the price tag, though a reported four hour run time will be a real pain. Nevertheless, the tablet offers compatibility with the Google Play Store where it will have access to over 850k Android apps. The tablet also comes pre-loaded with quite a few apps such as Drawing Pad, a media player, and a month long free trial of Kaspersky Tablet Security. As such, there seems to be a new battle brewing in the ultra-low cost tablet segment where the Hudl may have taken an initial lead, though competition is hot on its heels.
Tesco Plans Hudl 2 in 2014, Aldi Offers Competing Lifetab Tablet at an Even Cheaper £80 is a post from: E-Reader News |
Gordon and Eben talk Pi (and other things)
| Gordon Hollingworth, our Director of Software, has been Googling himself, and mailed me to let me know about this video he found from Richard Ibbotson. Richard came by Pi Towers last month and filmed this little interview with Gordon and Eben – it’s worth a watch if you’re interested in what goes on behind the scenes. Enjoy! |
Apple App Store Now Boasts of Million Plus Live Apps
| The US Apple App Store has crossed one important milestone, that of playing host to over a million live apps for the first time ever. The above feat has been achieved in around five years' time since the app store first came into being in July 2008. Apple had announced its worldwide app store has made it past the million approved app mark almost a year ago though back then; it's about 700k apps that were live. Now with over a million live apps, the number of approved apps now stands at a staggering 14 million. Of the more than million apps now live, more than half of these are specific to the iPad while around 900k app apply to the iPhone. In comparison, the Google Play Store now has 881k live apps of the 1.17 million that has been approved. However, there has been no official statement issued highlighting the above feat. This is surprising as this is the kind of news that anyone will like to go around town trumpeting such an achievement. It was the app discovery site Appsfire that first spotted such a development, something that has been confirmed by Macrumors own app discovery site AppShopper which lists the number of apps available for download being 1,006,557.
Apple App Store Now Boasts of Million Plus Live Apps is a post from: E-Reader News |
