Gath Ennis and Jacen Burrows take the zombie genre to the limits in “CROSSED.”

Comics have been going zombie crazy lately. Over the last few years we have seen more and more zombie titles such as the popular and innovative “Walking Dead” and the “28 Days Later” series. Comics have been doing what they do best; taking a theme that had become generally stale in the movie industry and figuring out new and interesting angles to bring to the public. However, everything has its limits.

The best example of this is the Marvel Comics “Marvel Zombie” miniseries. What started as a great set of character generations by Mike Millar in “Ultimate Fantastic 4” #21 was followed up by the popular and creative “Marvel Zombies” miniseries by Robert Kirkman both in 2005. The series gave us a chance to see our favorite heroes run amok in a humorous fashion. Marvel then went on to continue with their time honored tradition – taking a good idea and completely over serializing it. The beginning of the fifth installment of the ¨Marvel Zombie¨ franchise was released in September 2009, though the quality of each miniseries has continually diminished. (I could deal with the Marvel Zombie civil war, but Marvel Zombies vs. Marvel´s cast of C-string heroes was unoriginal and pathetic.)

The traditional Superhero is finally beginning to break its stranglehold on American comics.

There have been times when I have wondered if my local comic book vendor actually likes me, or if the meaning of the smile on his face on my arrival to his shop is because I single-handedly pay the monthly electricity bill… My vendor is always quite happy not only to provide me with my standard monthly serials as well as new or interesting books to make sure I leave the store with my wallet a little lighter than I originally planned. This is traditionally how the comic industry works in America. Your local comic book shop is not only the place where you purchase your favorite monthly titles and browse new ones, but is generally the place where you can socialize with other like minded individuals.   It is one of the few places where it is socially acceptable to chat about all “geek” issues, such as comics, sci-fi, and anime with strangers and friends alike without fear of ridicule from your more unimaginative co-workers and classmates.   (Unless you are working for NASA perhaps.) However as much I enjoy my local comic book shop is there is an ongoing tendency I have noticed that I do find strange - The lack of support for independent titles.

An independent comic is defined as either a book not released by a mainstream comic publisher or has a more realistic plot line; as opposed to the industry standard of “superhero” related themes such as American comic avatars such as “Spider-Man,” “X-Men,” or “Superman.” Independent comics are otherwise known as small-press, self – published, alternative, or underground comics.  My personal definition of independent comics is of any comic serial, single issue, or graphic novel that breaks away from American mainstream industry standards in terms of publishing independence, subject matter, or maturity level of the intended audience.

Warren Ellis' “FreakAngel's” Is Not Only Hands Down the Best Web-comic To Date, It is Almost Certainly Potentially ...the Future of the Industry

There is no doubt that the Internet is one of greatest inventions to date for humanity.  The ways in which it has changed life on planet Earth are as yet immeasurable.  Yet for the comic book industry the Internet has not yet quite caught on.  Marvel is the only major publisher to date that has an option to legally view comics in a digital format, but only from a small selection of their collection. The biggest change to the industry from the perspective of the Internet is from the illegal copying of paper serials into digital format.   Then the comics can be downloaded digitally, usually by the use of the torrent network or directly viewed online ...this is known as pirate scanning.  This practice is generally frowned on by the magazine industry.  In an attempt to stem the practice the Marvel legal team forced the shut down the server of Z-Cult.Com, the biggest comic scan website back in 2007, with a lawsuit.  Undeterred, illegal have flourished. The other revolution within the comic industry has been with the concept of webcomics.  This is the posting off free comic serializations on the Internet, mostly in .jpeg format. To date most works have been posted by amateurs; showcasing their work in the hopes that it will lead to future paid commissions, or to create hype to incite future sales of their publication.  Some on the other hand post work just for personal enjoyment.  As the once niche market matures, there are now a handful of professional web-comic artists and writers, making their income solely off the profits from web advertising and selling print copies of their serials.