guest post by mikl-em
Marvel Comics celebrates Presidents’ Day with a special 6-page digital comic featuring Abe Lincoln, Spider-Man & Captain America. For more POTUS / crime-fighter crossover action, they also include a digital version of Spidey Meets the President, the mini-adventure set at Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony which was published in a recent Spider-Man issue.
The comics are viewable for free using the Marvel Digital Comics Reader, a web-based program that renders the PDF-y pages of the many digital comics that Marvel offers. Scott wrote about the launch of Marvel’s Digital Comics Unlimited back in November 2007.
A couple words of warning: there were some technical difficulties earlier today. They may be fine now, but if the comic seems incomplete try quitting and re-launching the reader. I suggest browsing the comic using the “Smart Panels” option for the best readability, though it was likewise buggy at times.
The Presidents’ Day comics are fun but simple things, not much room for a story arc in 4-6 pages. In fact they remind me of the old one-page Hostess snack cake ads from the 80’s–there’s even a fruit pie reference at the end of the Lincoln comic as a nod to those ads. Seanbaby.com has a fantastic site dedicated to the old Hostess ads.
You can read 4-page digital samples of other Marvel issues (several classic Spidey issues are featured on the PrezDay page, but you can browse to others) for free. Subscribing to their service gives you all-you-can-eat access to a chunk of the Marvel Catalog (“5000 issues and growing”). No need for the titles to be mailed flat anymore, I guess.
For more free comic goodness, put May 2, 2009 on your calendar. That will be the 8th annual Free Comics Day, where your local comic shop will have a pile of free issues from numerous publishers–the actual titles for this year’s giveaway have just been announced.
Finally for those of you who thought that Presidents’ Day itself was a straightforward proposition, well Snopes has some must-read background for you.
via Kelly Sue and Comic Riffs
images via Marvel
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