TVSquad

Apple's iPhone and iPod are emerging as the preferred delivery device for online comic books. They're portable, hand-held and feature vivid screens capable of delivering any necessary colors. You can use the touch screen to flip the pages back and forth.

An online comics website, Comixology, is a central point for scores of online comics available via iTunes' App Store, including several titles based on popular genre shows of the recent and not-so-recent past.

You'll find that 80's anime after school favorite, Voltron living here. Marvel's animation-influenced X-Men flourishes in multiple versions. The Middleman, a now-canceled creative comic-book inspired children's live action show, continues in iPhone form. In fact, The Middleman stories on Comixology were written to continue the TV show's storyline.

It's always odd when pop culture personalities show up in comic books. It's the print equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters showing up on Gilligan's Island.

This comic book is from 1984 and features The Avengers meeting...David Letterman! He was on NBC back then doing Late Night and in the comic The Avengers go on the show. For some reason.

[via Pop Candy]

Caprica producer and former Buffy the Vampire Slayer scribe Jane Espenson is one of the minds behind the latest arc on Joss Whedon's Buffy comic that sees vampires coming out of the coffin. After the very True Blood-esque outing, vacuous vamp Harmony goes on The Colbert Report to, of course, promote her new reality TV show in the latest issue of Dark Horse Presents.

The Buffy comic is a direct continuation of Joss Whedon's TV series, and the medium has allowed the Buffy story to go to places it never could have gone on TV. Fans itching for a Buffy fix should pick up an issue or head over to MySpace to follow Harmony's adventures with Clem, the hilarious "loose-skinned demon" who first befriended Buffy and crew on the TV series.

Colbert is becoming a regular in the comic book world, with appearances in Spider-Man and his own comic book series, Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen. Maybe Buffy should show up on The Daily Show to give Jon Stewart some comic book love in next month's issue.

[Via: Comics Alliance]

G.I. Joe and Transformers climbed to their lofty perches atop Hollywood's food chain from their iconic beginnings on 80's television.

Now, IDW Publishing is helping to bridge the gap between those classic 80's shows and their 21st Century big screen adaptations with new series of digital comic books based on the adventures of Snake Eyes, The Baroness, Optimus Prime and Megatron.

Made especially for online devices like iPods and the iPhone, these digital comics should be a welcome site for hardcore fans of the original TV hits as they're not blown away by the CGI-driven movie adaptions. Yes, the animation of those after-school cartoons was about one frame every four minutes, but they had such purity and charm to their morality plays.

One of Marvel's upcoming projects is a new direct-to-DVD animated movie called Planet Hulk. It's based on the comic story of the same name. It looks to be a pretty faithful adaption. I have read the original story and thought was good.

It's a huge story, though, and I doubt they'll fit all the details in a 90-minute movie (or however long it is). If the DVD has big sales, will Marvel release the sequel story in which The Hulk returns to Earth and fights the other Marvel heroes as a DVD as well?

Even though I liked Planet Hulk, there are other, better stories I'd love to see released as a DVD animated movie. Hey, DC, how about putting The Dark Knight Returns on a DVD (a real movie and not the cheap animotion Watchmen DVD)? Marvel, where's my animated movie of Marvel Zombies?

The trailer is after the jump so you can judge for yourself. Which comic storyline would you be interested in seeing animated?

[via Topless Robot]

Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, has been going to Comic-Con since 1977. That's before a lot of you were born and is so long ago that Lost used the year in their time travel story last season. TV Barn's Aaron Barnhart found Groening roaming the floor and buying comics and filed this video interview.

(S02E22) Space poop! That's really all you need to know about this episode-- oh, and Penny still totally has the geek hots for Leonard. But mainly, this episode came out of the writers' desire to see how many poop jokes they could fit into a half-hour show. The answer? A lot.

The whole thing about Wolowitz's toilet for the space station was kind of great, because it showcased Sheldon's continued evolution. He actually recognized that jokes were being told! And he thought they were funny! In fact, other than the whole "breakdown of the social contract" thing with regards to Leonard's voicemail, Sheldon really wasn't his usual nitpicky, neurotic self. Instead of making everything about his compulsions, he actually managed to fit in and become a member of the group. Sheldon has had a lot of personal growth throughout this season, so it was nice to have it showcased in this episode.

(S02E20) Don't you hate it when a show is so great for the first 29 minutes, but then in minute 30 it all seems to fall apart? That's what happens on this episode of The Big Bang Theory. Penny falls for a comic book guy and all of the characters show actual growth and development -- until minute 30. That's when they go for the fat joke.

The joke, which was basically just a sight gag that had Raj making out with a rotund woman in a tight pink dress, was obvious and lazy. In and of it self, it makes me roll my eyes, but doesn't really bother me. What bothers me about it is BBT is better than that. Why would a show that spends so much time humanizing and making us love a group of people who generally gets made fun of, make a thoughtless fat joke?

Cartoon lovers and comic book fanboys/girls rejoice!

Cartoon Network will be making Firebreather, The Vanishers, and Mice Templar as part of their slate of original movies. Despite the network's name, only two of these comic books will be developed into animated films. The Vanishers will be produced as a live-action movie.

In honor of our Buffy/Angel week of Retro Squad, it's only fitting that I finally give some updates on what's going on with each series with respect to their continuation in comic-book form. I'll throw in a little 'Serenity: Better Days' for good measure.

Let me warn you right now that I'll be revealing quite a bit about each series below. So, if you haven't read them yet or want to wait to read the books for any plot points, stop reading now. I'll be writing about the entire series of each, not just the most recent.

First up, Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season Eight.

Add another television show to the list of those heading to the comic-book afterlife. The Jim Henson company has just made a deal with BOOM! Studios to create several four-issue series adapted from Farscape. The series of books will take advantage of webisodes that will be featured on SciFi.com, created by Rockne S. O'Brannon, the original series creator.

I know at least a few people who are huge fans of Farscape. It's one of those shows that, I have to admit, I never even attempted to watch. At first glance, I didn't like the idea of crazy-looking aliens and thought it would just be too, I dunno, silly to get into. I know -- this coming from a guy who thinks Buffy is one of the greatest shows ever. Now that the show is gone and sci-fi fans still speak longingly about the series, I keep thinking I need to get the DVDs (all four seasons are, incidentally, already available). Might make a cool Retro Squad series here someday, no?

It's been a while since my last review of a Buffy season eight comic, and since then there's been other developments in the TV-on-comics front (we should have a category for that). Rather than dedicate separate posts to this news, I'll round everything up here, at least this time around.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - season eight - Issues #10 & #11
These were stand-alone "episodes," unlike 'The Long Way Home' and 'No Future for You'. A few things are revealed here that help keep the Big Bad of this season in play. Willow has even more power than we could have realized in past seasons, and an unexpected person has a crush on Buffy. I really liked 'A Beautiful Sunset' (#11) more than any other issue, with a great moment where one of the main, masked antagonists is almost revealed. Classic Joss writing.

A new multi-part series kicks off March 5, written by veteran Drew Goddard.

What are you going to do? The Office, How I Met Your Mother, and even new shows like Pushing Daisies and Chuck are either out of fresh episodes or quickly running out. Well, you don't need to spend the "strike season" curled up in the corner of your bedroom crying through a pile of TV Guides, remembering the good old days when you didn't already know what was going to happen this week on House.

Television is alive and well, and even growing ... just somewhere else. Want to know what happened to Jack Bauer before Season One of 24? How about Buffy and the Scooby Gang after the series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? More and more shows are expanding their horizons by telling prequels, sequels and even in-between-quels in comic books, or graphic novels.

(S04E09) "If you're good enough to fake a comic, you're good enough to be drawing your own." - Seth Marlowe

Numb3rs finally returned to form tonight with an episode that didn't quite make sense to me. When I think of the FBI tracking down a counterfeiting ring, currency comes to mind before comic books. Regardless, this was a great episode layered with an enjoyable and overly nerdy case, some mathematical explanation from Charlie (for once!), and some great sub-plots. It got even better though. Not only did Christopher "flux capacitor" Lloyd guest star, but the episode also saw a great turn from TV Squad's very own Wil Wheaton.

Geeks get treated pretty badly in the media. Thanks to the fact that most people who get above-the-line credit in Hollywood are anything but geeky, when a script calls for a socially maladjusted character, it's almost always a terrible caricature of true geek culture. For years little geeklings only had the likes of Steve Urkel to look up to and that's not right (believe me, Jaleel White, when the geek revolution comes, you'll be the first one guillotined).

The fact that I'm about to become the father of my own little geek-spawn has led me to start looking around the current TV landscape, looking for appropriate geek role models. I was surprised to find so many...