If you enjoyed the digital editions of our magazines we offered back on Free Comic Book Day in May, you’ll be glad to know you can now purchase our latest mags as digital editions for only $2.95 ($3.95 for the oversized Jack Kirby Collector)—less than half the price of the print editions! These PDF versions are in FULL-COLOR, and contain the full content of the printed issues, at excellent resolution for viewing on screen and zooming in. Currently available are:

Alter Ego #70, 71, and 72 (with #73 going up within a week)
Back Issue #23 and 24
Draw #14
Rough Stuff #5 and #6
Write Now #16
Jack Kirby Collector #49

These digital editions are posted weeks before the printed issues hit stores. And if you’re a subscriber to the print edition, you’ll automatically get the digital edition FREE to view while you’re waiting for your printed copy to arrive in the mail! (Just make sure we have your correct email address on file, so we can send you the private link for your freebie.)

We’re trying this as a test through the end of 2007, to gauge response. If enough people are interested in getting digital editions, we’ll work on adding all our older (and out of print) issues as digital versions as well next year.

So log in to www.twomorrows.com today and hit the “Digital Editions” category in the upper lefthand of our home page to see what’s new!

…Jack Kirby Collector #49, I mean. Thanks for everyone’s patience at this blog (and those sending emails to me), while I was working away to get the issue finished. It’s at the printer now (with quite possibly the most gorgeous cover we’ve ever run), and should be shipping in two weeks. Now, to get caught up on all the emails that have piled up…

Check out last week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine (Aug. 31st issue, with the “Summer of Scandal” cover feature). Each issue, on the letter’s page up front, they have a feature called “Obsessive Fan Of The Week!”. Our own Benjamin Holcomb, author/designer of our upcoming book Mego 8″ Super-Heroes: World’s Greatest Toys! is said whacko fan this time out; a honor he earned, based on the amount of effort he put into this book.

We got the printer’s proofs yesterday, and it’s huge, gorgeous, full-color-on-every-page hardcover, and crammed over capacity with Mego goodness. If you, like me, had a couple of the Mego “action figures” as a kid (sorry, we called them “superhero dolls”), you’ll be amazed at the intricate depth of detail Benjamin covers on every figure. And if you’re a Mego collector, this is an invaluable reference tool, showcasing every freakin’ variation of the figures’ arms, legs, heads, boxes, costumes, accessories… I could go on and on. It’s just so amazing that one guy could put together something this exhaustive, particularly with covering the history of this long-defunct company.
The book’s being printed now overseas, which takes a lot longer to get shipped back to the US than many of our other books, but it should be out in early November, just in time for the holidays. I think it’d make an awesome gift for anyone with even a passing interest in Megos. I know if I weren’t publishing it, I’d be tickled if Pam had it under our Christmas tree for me.

Yep, I’m finally wrapping up issue #49 of The Jack Kirby Collector this weekend, so it’ll be going to press next week, and shipping three weeks after. Really meaty issue this time (as if any Kirby issue isn’t, right?). But boy, finding time to put my own mag together is getting harder and harder these days. Still lots of fun, though; I never get tired of seeing Kirby art, and learning more about the guy.

I got a copy of the second Fourth World Omnibus from DC Comics yesterday; I sent them a bunch of Kirby pencil scans to run, and man, they ran them all! It’s another gorgeous volume, although some people complained about the paper they’re using. My first reaction was the same as others: “Man, why’d they print this hardbound, full-color book on crummy newsprint?” But upon looking more closely, I saw what the designer had in mind; he/she chose a really nice paper that just LOOKS like crummy newsprint. It actually prints lots, lots better than newsprint, and looks 10x better than the original comics, or the 1980s color reprints. I highly recommend it; Mark Evanier’s afterword is really a fun read.