Recently I had a surprise email show up.  Amazon Studios wanted me to read a comic book.  What is Amazon Studios?  How did they get my email?  It doesn’t matter.  Free comic from a new publisher.  A big new publisher at that.  Sounds good, lets see what they have in store.

From 12 Gauge Comics.

Written by Ron Marz
Illustrated by Matthew Dow Smith
Based on an original screenplay from J. H. Levy

If the review has you interested in this book give it a look (for free!) at the following link. http://studios.amazon.com/projects/2705

First off, its a digital comic.  The kind that will show one panel at a time.  Not too bad, and an easy way to read the story.  But that does become annoyingly slow.  I ended up playing with the options and reading it full screen.  Its just how I’m used to reading comics.  Other than Mark Waid’s Luther its my preference as well.

The story is that Mister, a former Civil War soldier, wanders this country hunting down the beasts of darkness.  He is only known as Mister, and that is name enough for this man.  Grizzled, scarred, and not in the mood for any games.  When we first meet Mister he is taking down something awful.  Not quite vampire, or zombie, and with elements of the Thing it is a very real and very terrifying monster.  The rules are quickly established when other soldiers are shocked by what they see.  This is not a world in which everyone knows monsters exist.  However, they very much do.

Mister rides on to Blackburn Burrow to discover what happened to the missing soldiers and citizens of this town.  I bet he’ll find more monsters when he gets there!

So far its an enjoyable book.  Its not ground breaking at all but it is very fun.  The innovation is the platform.  Amazon is providing this digitally.  If it is a success, this could be the catalyst for many changes in comics.