So what is American Vampire?

The series follows, and is focused on, the concept of vampire geneology and vampire evolution. It reimagines vampires as these creatures that have evolved as the bloodlines hit different populations at different times, so there's different species of vampires, like there are different breeds of dogs. So there's this whole hidden history, this whole secret family tree. But the thing that it's about specifically is, there hasn't been a new breed of vampire in a couple of hundred years for reasons that are part of the fun mystery of the first couple of [story cycles]. There's only this one dominant species, and it's the one that's the classic, Euro-centric, nocturnal, stake through the heart... You know, the vampire that, when I conceived of the series, we were all a little sick of. The star of the series is the bloodline, this new breed of vampirism. The forward-moving part of the series, the part that's most exciting for us is, we have new characters with each cycle, with big parts played by favorite characters from the past, but we'll also be revealing parts of the secret history and how the world of vampires came to be the way it is. And also, the brewing tension between all the breeds of vampires that exist now.

So there's a big, behind the curtain, story that we're working on as well [as the individual story arcs].

So how did it get started? Did you pitch it to Vertigo?

I came up with it as a concept a few years ago, actually - I don't know how interesting this is, it's kind of a boring story, but I was in one of those model shops, like Warhammer shops, down in the West Village and I saw one of those figurines, and it was a zombie confederate soldier. I just started thinking about how, in so much vampire material at the time - and this was before Twilight, more around the Queen of the Damned time - vampires were always nocturnal and aristocratic and elegant and it just seemed so out of place, and out of touch with any straight-up American iconography that I could come up with, or my favorite genres, like westerns or 50s sci-fi and all that kind of stuff. I was like, how come we never see vampires in these kind of places?

I started to develop the idea back then, and I thought about doing it as a series of stories, I thought about doing it as a book, and at one point I was going to do it as a screenplay with a friend. But basically, I started doing some comic work on the side about a year ago, and I got the chance to pitch it to Vertigo last summer when an editor at Vertigo called Mark Doyle, who's since become one of my closest friends, read one of my stories in an anthology of literary writers coming up with new superheroes. He actually approached me at a reading for the book and asked if I was a serious comic fan, or just moonlighting for the purposes of the story. I told him I was, I'd always been, and I feel like he gave me a pop quiz; he was all, Well, what're you reading right now? And at the time, it was Final Crisis and Secret Invasion and everything like that. I think he was convinced, and he asked me if I wanted to pitch something. So I went there and I think he sort of expected me to pitch something more literary, but I was like, Hey, what about this vampire thing?
I'd been thinking about doing it as a comic for awhile, and thinking about approaching people who do more horror comics, like IDW or whatever, and then this came along and he really flipped over it. Once we got it on the table, it went pretty fast through development there. It was pretty much greenlit when they asked if there was anyone that I knew who from the writing world who might be interested in giving it a quote or a blurb. I knew Stephen King from before, so I asked him if he would be willing to do it. He read the pitch and decided that he really liked it and said, I'll do you one better. If you want, at some point, I'll write an issue for you. It's pretty funny; I called Vertigo on, I think it was a Friday afternoon, and left a message saying that Steve was interested - By the way, he makes you call him Steve, I don't want to sound like an asshole going "Steve, Steve" - I left a message on Friday afternoon pretty much when the office was already closed saying that he was serious about wanting to do an issue, and it was Monday morning, 9 in the morning, I get a call and everyone was there, and they're all "Did you say Stephen King was interested in doing an issue...?" [laughs]

Once he was involved we wanted to [work out how best for him to write an issue or two]. The characters were all developed, I had the seasons mapped out from the pitch. Steve wanted to write this character, who was planned for the second cycle, but Mark and I came up with the idea of doing it like an eight-page, or a teaser, at the end of each issue, to show a glimpse of Skinner, who's the first American vampire. He started writing it, and then he wrote me an email two weeks into it and asked if I'd mind if he went off the reservation a little bit. I was, like, go ahead, do whatever you want. He wound up writing five episodes of sixteen pages, doing so much better than I could've ever done. It really does raise the bar for the series, and he introduced so many big ideas about what the American West means to us, and all these questions about fact and fiction and legend versus history, and all this stuff that really enriches it. Not to mention, he just makes it really scary and vicious.

How did Rafael [Albuquerque, series artist] come aboard? His preview art is beautiful.

Oh my God. I promise you, this guy is incredible. He came in and did some sketches to see if he got the characters, based on the scripts, because the scripts were done, and he just nailed it immediately. It was, that's our guy. The funny thing is, some of the promo art, the sketches of Pearl...? That's from his audition, those're some of his first sketches. That was the first thing I saw from him, and I thought, that's my character. That's exactly her. She's a little bookish, independent, a little quirky. He's been such a creative force on the series, he brings so much to it.
Rafael, when he read the scripts, was like, Why don't I do the different cycles in different styles? So he would up doing Steve's cycle - which is the origin story of Skinner, who's the first of the new American vampire species, born of this random mutation - in these beautiful washes, so it has this painted, antique quality to it, as well as a creepiness. And for mine - which takes place in the 1920s and picks up on the second American vampire, the first person Skinner turns, who's this young girl and a struggling actress in the silent film industry - he did it in this precise inked, art deco style. I can't reiterate enough how amazing he has been on the book. He's enhanced it, he's been a total superhero himself on it.

It sounds like this a really big story.

I'm so excited for the places we're going to go. We're already mapped out through the first twelve issues. The next cycle is already page broken, after these first five issues, and after that, the next cycle is pretty much thought out. And after that, I know what decade it's taking place in. It's fun with all of the press it's getting, the fun of introducing [the concept]. There's something sexy about an American vampire, because "It's American!" [laughs]. It's an interesting time to be American. Part of the series is about investigating what's horrific about the American character, and what's heroic about it, and the difference of that in different periods. But we're really way ahead of the game in terms of giving ourselves time to do eight or nine drafts of the scripts, because, believe me, no-one is more aware of a potential vampire backlash or the pressure once Steve is not on the series. We believe in it a lot.

American Vampire seems to be more than just a title, it's a statement of the book's intent, the American versus European...

Well, it's a fun hook, and there's a kind of, I guess, patriotic thrill in introducing a vampire that's supposed to be American and is stronger and more vicious and so on, but the story isn't about cultural stereotypes. The idea is that the bloodline mutates randomly at various times, and some of the characteristics of the person are adapted into that vampire. So it's the characteristics of a person, of Skinner, rather than a nationality, because otherwise you get into the specifics of, what makes us African-American, what makes us... It's person-to-person. Every once in awhile the bloodline will jump, not with every new person it hits, but every once in awhile, the blood will make something new with someone.

We're trying to keep it geneological, but the vampiric qualities have an American characteristic, because it comes from the character of Skinner and he is a character that's iconographic to the [Old] West, where he's this vicious snakelike outlaw. He has this desert quality, but they're based on him, based on a broad cultural assessment on what makes us American.

But what we are starting to do is explore the idea of American identity through the different time periods. With the first issues, it's a little tough, just because of the format, sixteen pages of story for Steve and sixteen for me, so there's a tightness to it that works really well for the way they double as stories. But there's more breathing room, I think, for exploring the decades once we get past the first cycle.

Pearl seems as iconic in her own way as Skinner.

I can promise you that the way they come across on the page, they're not someone you've seen before. Skinner is not The Man With No Name, in the same way that Pearl is very much her own character while keeping that quality of the "20s Girl." She's someone who's more fish out of water, she's a lot more bookish and isn't caught up in the glamour. She loves acting for her own reasons, and a lot of it comes from her upbringing. We try to flesh the characters out so that they're more than just their iconographic selves, especially these two. Pearl and Skinner are two opposing forces early on the series. Skinner is anarchy and violence and fun, and has the opinion that what makes us American is what keeps the west wild, and that we should be wild, and the taming of the west he sees as a feminization, an imposition on the American character. You can imagine how that works itself out in different time periods, where there's prohibition, or the construction of Las Vegas.

Pearl, on the other hand, is ethical and struggling to be someone who carries the best qualities of what we would think as American. She has a more hopeful and optimistic belief.

Is this going to be a series where there's a lot of jumping around in time periods, as opposed to telling the story chronologically?

Yeah, each one is going to approach a different decade, at least at first. Each story will pick up in a different decade but the same bloodline in surprising ways, so there will be some chronological jumping.

Are you watching True Blood, reading or watching the Twilights?

I'm a huge fan of True Blood. Some things I've not caught up with... I read the first Twilight - my wife has actually read all of them - but my feeling is, each one of them brings something different to vampire lore. I've never seen vampires as teen heartthrobs the way that Twilight does it, or the reimagining of vampires as a sociological underclass and the Southern Gothic elements of True Blood make that really fresh. For us, we're trying to bring something new to the table too. American Vampire wasn't conceived as the tale end of a trend. It definitely, for me, predated both of those, so I'm hoping that - When each one of those came out, we were all, Oh, it's just part of the trend, but the better stuff comes out in the crashing of a wave and you're like, That's awesome! We're hoping that we have that kind of response.

We really have put a lot of sweat and blood into it about making it something different and high quality, so that if there were no other vampire things around, you're look at it in the same way. I was thinking about it, but other than Bram Stoker's Dracula, I haven't seen a vampire comic since the peak of 30 Days of Night. For us, it's great not to be on TV with Vampire Diaries or True Blood, and we're not a movie, so hopefully it'll stand apart as a good read.
American Vampire debuts in March from Vertigo.

It's a relatively solid week for new releases, with both Marvel and DC offering a raft of them. DC have Red Tornado, a new mini-series featuring one of the most defective, voyeuristic (as readers of Justice League of America know) and powerful robots in comics, and Magog, a new monthly series written by Justice League International's Keith Giffen, drawn by JLA's Howard Porter and starring a pro-active former soldier out to solve the world's socio-political problems by hitting folk. Marvel, meanwhile, have The Torch, and reviving the original (robotic) Human Torch. Plus Marvel Zombies Return is the first issue of an event that'll bring well-known zombie novelists into comics. There's an interesting bunch of collections, including a reissue of Hulk: Grey, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's look back at the early days of the the gamma-irradiated goliath, and a new hardcover collection of the very enjoyable New Avengers: The Reunion series by Jim McCann and David Lopez, bringing back everyone's favorite superhero couple, Hawkeye and Mockingbird.

Image Comics, meanwhile, launch Fall Out Toy Works - the first issue of the sci-fi series co-created by Fall-Out Boy's Pete Wentz. Dynamite offer up the collection of the underrated Dead Irons, which takes Universal's classic monster movie monsters and puts them into the Wild West with creepy and understated results. If you're looking for something a little more upbeat, IDW has the first collection of GI Joe: Origins to give you the secret origin of the little paramilitary group that could at the box office, even though you didn't believe it.
The two most interesting books of the week come from the crossover side of creatordom. DC/Vertigo's Sweet Tooth, by Jeff Lemire, brings a different take on familiar (post-apocalyptic, stranger in a strange land) themes. And Marvel's Strange Tales shows the strength of Disney's new IP farm by letting a whole bunch of awesome indie comic creators loose to cause trouble, kick some ass and take some names while they're at it.

If you're looking to pull a mini-Disney and buy some comics instead of a comic company, then kindly direct your attention to the Diamond Distributors Shipping List for the week to see what else is available, besides what's listed above, before heading out to your local comic store to find some IP to invest in. And remember: It's now that much smaller of a world, after all.

Spock (Star Trek)
Let's start with the really obvious here. Spock's father is a Vulcan ambassador named Sarek and his mother a human named Amanda Grayson. Much of his character, therefore, is based in the contrast between his two halves, with Leonard Nimoy having said that Spock is ""struggling to maintain a Vulcan attitude, a Vulcan philosophical posture and a Vulcan logic, opposing what was fighting him internally, which was human emotion."

Jack of Hearts (Marvel Comics)
The Jack of Hearts was born Jack Hart, the son of Philip Hart, a human scientist, and Marie, a humanoid extraterrestrial of the Contraxian race. His powers, which include such things as flight and the ability to project heat and concussive force, don't come from his parents, but rather his exposure to "zero fluid," a discovery of his father's.

B'Elanna Torres (Star Trek: Voyager)
B'Elanna, chief engineer aboard the USS Voyager, had a human father and Klingon mother, but her father left for Earth when she was a child, leaving B'Elanna to be raised by her mother. Either due to her childhood or her parentage, B'Elanna was short-tempered and often aggressive, but Roxann Dawson (the actress who portrayed B'Elanna) has said that over the course of the series, the character grows from an "unruly teenager" into a woman.

Moonshadow (Moonshadow)
The titular character in this twelve-issue comic book series written by J. M. DeMatteis is an adolescent boy of human-alien parentage. His mother is a human woman from Brooklyn named Sheila Fay Bernbaum, who takes on the name "Sunflower" during her flower-child days. When she's transported to the alien "zoo," she marries one of her abductors, a member of a nigh omnipotent race called the G'l-Doses. They're essentially glowing orbs of indeterminate largeness who use their power to wreak havoc on the universe, causing war and peace, death and life, with no real modus operandi beyond the delight they derive from the randomness of their actions.

Rystáll Sant (Star Wars)
A dancer for the Max Rebo Band, Rystáll has a Theelin father and human mother from New Bornalex. (It's argued, actually, that due to their greatly varied physical characteristics, that most Theelin are hybrids of one kind or another.)

Deanna Troi (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Troi is the counselor aboard the USS Enterprise, with a Betazoid mother and human father.

Jason (Superman Returns)
When Lois's son shows up, we're supposed to assume the father is Richard White, her fiancé (and Perry White's nephew). But then Jason starts showing signs of super-strength and Kyptonite sensitivity, thereby implying that (sorry, Richard) Jason is actually Superman's kid. (The current convention that Superman cannot conceive a child with Lois clearly does not apply here.) So, yes. Superman: deadbeat alien father.

Reverend Golightly and the kitten children of Thomas Kincade Brannigan and Valerie (Doctor Who, new series)
In "The Unicorn and the Wasp" (Episode 7, Series 4), the Reverend Golightly is revealed not only to be Lady Eddison's son, but also the product of an affair she had with a Vespiform, a giant wasplike alien. Awkward.

"Gridlock" (Episode 3, Series 3) sees the introduction of a delightful little nuclear family, made up of Thomas Kincade Brannigan, a cat man, his human wife, Valerie, and their children: a litter of kittens. (It's debatable whether Brannigan counts as an actual alien, as he probably counts more as just a highly evolved feline lifeform. It's also debatable whether Brannigan is named after Thomas Kinkade, the "painter of light." Let's hope not.)

Additionally, in the 1996 TV movie, the Doctor himself claims to be "half-human, on my mother's side." But generally speaking, nobody listens to anything the Doctor Who TV movie said.

Hera Agathon (Battlestar Galactica)
Hera is the first known half-Cylon, half-human child. Her father is Karl "Helo" Agathon and her mother Sharon "Athena" Agathon.

It may sound like hyperbole to say that The Sandman changed the face of entertainment, and it is, to an extent - but there's no denying that Sandman changed the face of the comic book industry, and that comics are one of the more dominant forces in pop culture these days (Don't believe me? My friends Iron Man and The Dark Knight may be able to convince you). The series also made a star out of writer Neil Gaiman, allowing him to step into the roles of screenwriter and New York Times-bestselling novelist, and also inspired careers for people as disparate as Tori Amos and writer G. Willow Wilson. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here're the five ways in which I think that Sandman changed the worlds we watch, read about and imagine today:

It Brought Mainstream Comics Into The Mainstream Culture. By 1988, American comics were gaining a measure of critical acceptance thanks to the now-near-mythical trifecta of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen and Art Spiegelman's Maus - but it took Gaiman and Sandman to bring together the populism of the former two and the gravity of the latter to create a series that Norman Mailer called "comic strip for intellectuals." Gaiman's creation of a comic that had the pop-cultural cache of coming from the same publishers as Superman and Batman, yet relied more on highbrow myth than knowledge of the history of Krypton, and asked more of its readers than just the ability to tell men in tights apart, unknowingly capitalized on a trend for baby-boomers to look for more depth in the medium of their youth. By following his own interests and obsessions, Gaiman accidentally created a comic that was familiar in format (32 pages, color, monthly), but unfamiliar in the most thrilling way to readers who wanted something more.

It Wasn't About Superheroes. Primarily amongst the ways in which the series was unfamiliar was its lack of superheroes as we'd come to know them. Yes, superheroes appeared in the series on occasion, but the series abandoned the tropes and cliches of what most people considered mainstream comics to be (while, in turn, bringing in and building on a lot of influences from long-forgotten or indie comics), proving to publisher DC Comics that a comic aimed at an adult audience, without a superhero lead, could not only sell, but gain critical acceptance akin to Watchmen or Dark Knight. Without Sandman, there would have been no Vertigo imprint at DC, and series like We3, The Invisibles, 100 Bullets, Y The Last Man, Preacher, Transmetropolitan, User and many, many more would never have seen print.

(There's a side argument to made for the success of Sandman being responsible for American publishers continuing to bring British writers like Mark Millar and Warren Ellis into the industry, and those writers' influence on superheroes being directly responsible for the success of movies like Iron Man and X-Men, but I'm not sure that's one I'm willing to make here. However, it's definitely there if you want it...)
It Took Urban Fantasy Out Of The Genre Ghetto. With his liberal use of sources, Gaiman may not have been breaking all-new ground with his mix of magical realism and myth and the world we know (I am still surprised that Jonathan Carroll never pointed out that the fifth "book" of Sandman, "A Game Of You," is pretty much his own novel Bones Of The Moon with some minor additions), but the high profile nature of the series - especially as it continued, and started garnering praise from Mailer, Stephen King and many others - exposed people to a use of fantasy tropes that avoided elves and goblins - Well, except when it didn't - and integrated it into their lives before television shows like Buffy and The X Files did so on an ever larger scale.

It Reintroduced The Auteur Comicbook Theory. For the first time in mainstream history, when the series creator left a successful ongoing regular book, the book left with him; even Alan Moore's groundbreaking run on Swamp Thing had been followed, the next month, by a new writer. This was, in part, because DC had learned from the mistakes that had driven Moore from the company, and was eager to keep Gaiman around for future projects - and, to that end, had actually granted him a certain amount of say over where and when the characters could be used again in future projects. The lack of a second writer to ruin the series' good name - or, possibly, outshine Gaiman's run on the character - has given the series two particular qualities: Firstly, a definitive ending, and secondly, the knowledge that this story was firmly and distinctively Gaiman's.

(To that end, the new Sandman: The Dream Hunters miniseries that commemorates the series' birthday feels "wrong," in a way, because it's only adapted from a Gaiman story, as opposed to being 100% written by him.)

It Looked Nothing Like Other Comics. Outside of its groundbreaking qualities in terms of stories, it's impossible to ignore what cover artist and designer Dave McKean brought to the series. His covers, whether they were paintings, constructions, early experiments in the use of Photoshop or whatever were as important to the series as Gaiman's writing - and each one changed the perception of what a comic cover could look like even more. Taking influence from fine art and contemporary design, McKean threw out the conventions of what makes a comic book cover (The title character must always be on the cover, the logo must always be in the same place) to create beautiful pieces on a regular basis... and confuse people who thought they knew what comics were supposed to look like.

There are also the unfortunate side-effects of Draxx, the experimental new chemical Henry has to use on a daily basis. All I'm saying is this: Anyone with a fear of cockroaches should probably stay away.

Showtime apparently plans for the show to downplay the more unrealistic plots from the comic, describing the new show as:

"Six Feet Under" in the world of pest control... "Exterminators" will revolve around the Bug-Be-Gone crew, an extended dysfunctional family of exterminators whose greatest enemies aren't the insects and rodents they meet and kill on a daily basis but rather their own self doubts, vices and inner demons.

Ironically, the news is announced in the same month as the final issue of the comic is released, having been cancelled due to low sales. If only Showtime had announced this six months earlier...

Showtime buggy over 'Exterminators' [Hollywood Reporter]

The comic series, which ran from 1994 through the year 2000 and "influenced" (which is to say, was completely ripped off by) The Matrix , personified and explained the eternal struggle between good and evil as a war between agents of the anarchist Invisible College and the Outer Church that spanned centuries and included time travel, psychic warfare and lots of things blowing up. Unsurprisingly, certain things would have to have been changed for the smaller-scale BBC Scotland adaptation but, according to Morrison, those things weren't what you'd expect:

[In the television version, protagonist] Dane has been changed to from a Liverpudlian to Glaswegian to assist the BBC SCOTLAND budget.

Otherwise, the completed scripts (two out of a planned six) stay remarkably close to the source material, adapting the first issue of the comic series and introducing newcomers to the ongoing war happening under everyone's noses without their knowledge. With rumors of a big-budget movie continually circulating, here's hoping that the project will make it into production at some point soon.

Invisibles TV [Grant Morrison]

It really is an embarrassment of riches in this week's new releases. Take, for example, the vampire lover. Usually, they're stuck with some randomly generic goth-lite indie book to feed their fetishes, but this week, they can choose from the Brian K. Vaughan-written Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8: No Future For You (It's the Faith-centric arc, and very good it is, too, first issue of a brand new sequel to The Lost Boys (no, really), The Lost Boys: Reign of Frogs, or Jessica Abel (and friends)'s slice-of-life take on the genre in the graphic novel Life Sucks. How often does that happen?

It's also time to catch up on a lot of books we've featured here in the past:

• Matt Fraction's Casanova finishes its current run with #14,
• Chris Claremont's "Children of the X-Men" series GeNext launches,
• you can fulfill your Tony Stark-isms with The All-New Iron Manual,
• Bruce Wayne meets his end (possibly) in Batman #676 (the first chapter of Grant Morrison's Batman R.I.P., and you can also pick up a hardcover slab of Bat-foreshadowing with Batman: The Resurrection of Ras Al Ghul, collecting an earlier Morrison storyline),
• Geoff Johns' Booster Gold has its first issues collected in the new 52 Pick-Up hardcover,
• and you can see whether Marvel Comics are afraid of nipples or not in the first issue of Euro-import Sky Doll.

For example, you could get your Ed Norton on in advance of next month's movie with the special edition Giant Size Incredible Hulk, which brings you up to speed on the recent history of the jade giant before everyone starts talking, once again, about how they just can't make a good movie out of his comic. If that doesn't satisfy your appetite for greens, then there are also collections of two recent mini-series, World War Hulk: Gamma Corps and World War Hulk: X-Men to show you big green men being scary. Or maybe the first issue of space-bound superheroes Guardians of The Galaxy would be your thing? Remember, they have a talking raccoon. With guns.

Best value for money this week, though, is probably Vertigo: First Cut, a $4.99 collection of the first issues of a number of series published by DC Comics' "mature" imprint, including Western Loveless, New York-dystopic love letter DMZ and M*A*S*H for the 21st Century, Army@Love. If that's not enough for you, then there's also a sneak preview of Air, an upcoming new series from the imprint, included. What more could you want for (slightly, just) less than $5, as long as you don't think about tax?

Just like every other week, you can find the full shipping list to stores here, and then find out where to find the damn stores to shop in here. Just remember that $5 can't barely buy you a Happy Meal these days, is all I'm saying.

The book will be an ongoing mystery about the kidnapped people in the kidnapped house, as well as anthology-style one-off tales by guest creators each issue. But this won't be a series of frustrating non-endings:

The difference between this series and something like Lost or The X-Files is that we know what the answers to each of these mysteries are, and in our time and your time, they will be revealed.

Every now and again, there's a battle between [DC Universe] and Vertigo about who gets to publish the character. DCU guys go up to the Vertigo offices with the issue of Batman where Swamp Thing appears and say "Clearly this is a Batman character!" and suddenly there are pitchforks and they're forced back to the elevators.

All proceeds of the party (the 70 advance tickets cost $100 each, with an additional 70 being made available on the day of the event itself for $25 each, which means that there's still a chance that you, too, can attend) go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which offers some solace to the embarrassed Vaughan, who clearly isn't used to this kind of attention.

Over on his blog, by way of announcing the party, he wrote:

I would never dream of charging money just to see my stupid moon-face, but this is a 100% tax-deductible donation to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a charity that's vitally important to our medium, and I'll be joined by lovely co-creator Pia Guerra, and it sounds like editor Will Dennis and Y colorist Lee Loughridge will also be on hand (though they're probably only coming out to meet Joss Whedon, which is the only reason my wife will be there).

CBDLF, MySpace host Y: The Last Party on February 8th [Newsarama.com]

Y: The Last Party [bkv.tv]

• Y: The Last Man: Every male on Earth, human or otherwise, has died from mysterious causes... except for Yorick Brown and his monkey. This all happens in the first issue, and the entire series is about how the remaining women deal with a planet devoid of men. The series will wrap up this year, so if you haven't checked it out, try out issue #1 and you'll have plenty of time to catch up.
• NYC2123: Set in 2123 in a Manhattan that was devastated by a tsunami 70 years ago, the post-apocalyptic survivors struggle to continue living. This comic was originally conceived for Sony's PlayStation Portable and distributed under a Creative Commons license, although you can now read it online and check out the fantastically stark artwork.
• The War of the Worlds: Dark Horse Comics has the entire graphic novel adaptation of this scifi classic online, and it looks pretty vibrant even on a laptop screen. The art looks similar to Kevin O'Neil's in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and the Victorian-era story is a favorite of Moore's, so you'll only feel two steps slightly removed from one of his works.
• Doom Patrol: Grant Morrison's take on this superteam from DC Comics past went well beyond the envelope and into the realm of the bizarre. He had god-like supervillains, heroes who could only use their powers when asleep, and of course, Robotman... the lone holdout from the 1960s who has appeared in every version of Doom Patrol. This is some vintage Morrison at his best and most wacky.
• DMZ: This comic book about a civil war raging in the United States in the near future follows a journalist who has become trapped behind the Free States and the United States in the demilitarized zone that is Manhattan. It's not just a comic book, but it's also a harsh political statement about our current government practices.
• Swamp Thing: This title was fading fast and heading into obscurity when DC agreed to let relatively unknown scribe Alan Moore have a crack at it. He rewrote the origin of the character, so he no longer came from chemical origins but was instead a plant elemental. However, we'll forgive him that transgression, since he brought back The Floronic Man, who was bonded to plants through chemicals.
• Chaos PhD: This tribute to the silver age of comic books features very well-drawn art, tongue in cheek humor, and of course supervillains and capes. Plus, a well done web interface that makes it easy to read.
• 1984: George Orwell's classic novel about the future as a free webcomic? Big Brother would not be pleased. Particularly with those other websites you've been visiting on your filthy little computer.