Free Comic Book Day 2011 - Get your comics for Free!

Okay, so you walk into a book store, and you get all these comics for free... who wouldn't want that? Organised since August 2001, the Comic book industry in the US have held this one day each year, where kids (and fans) can go crazy and get selected titles from all the mayor publishers for free at their favorite local comic book store. It's an amazing feat and they're celebrating their tenth anniversary this year on may 7th, as Free Comic Book Day is being held every first saturday of May.

The Titles this year

Comic book Day 2011 has ten gold Titles and 27 Silver titles in store for free, it's great collection for everybody and has some very interesting content for everybody. Some publishers use their Free Comic Book Day title to introduce new series and/or characters.

DC Comic's title was still very hush-hush until recently, naming it their 'Top Secret' Project, but the secret's out now, their Free title is a Green Lantern /Flashpoint Special Edition, to get you ready for Warner's upcoming movie starring Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, directed by Martin Cambell (US Release date: June 17). DC's FCBK title reprints Green Lantern # 30 and features an exclusive preview of Flashpoint, the DC Blockbuster event of this year by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert !




Marvel Comics gives away a single issue of their succesfull 'Amazing Spider-man' series with art by Humberto Ramos, while Image publishes Robert Kirkman's 'Super Dinosaur Origin Special', with art by Jason Howard.

Darkhorse has two titles in a flipbook, one being 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars', featuring Savage Opress in 'Breakout Squad' by Grosset & Dunlap and 'Avatar: The Last Air bender', which will have it's own spin-off TV mini series later this year on Nickelodeon ('Avatar: Legend of Korra').

Boom! Studios has an issue featuring reprints of the first stories of their ongoing series 'Darkwing Duck' and 'Chip'n Dale: Rescue Rangers'

In the Silver comics line up, Marvel has another title, 'Captain America & Thor' by Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee, while DC has a 'Super sampler' featuring two new stories from their DC Kids line, 'Young Justice' and 'Batman: The Brave and the Bold', also known from the popular animated series on Cartoon Network.

From publisher Drawn & Quarterly comes a nice collection of John Stanley's stories from the John Stanley Library: 'Melvin the Monster', 'Nancy', 'Dunc and Loo' and 'The Little King'.
The Silver line up also holds a great issue of Fantagraphics's classic Mickey Mouse stories by Floyd Gottfredson, so don't miss out on those perfect classics!

Aspen Comics  has a great issue with some previews from their new 'Soulfire' and 'Fathom' storylines while showing us a little glimpse of their new titles 'Charismagic'and 'Lady Mechanika'. Bongo Comics has a crazy collection of 'Futurama' and 'The Simpsons' in an epic issue showing a cool variant on the old 'Scrooge' jokes by the great Carl Barks!

For more information on all titles, head over to the Free Comic Book day website and check for their latest updates! Check your calendar kids, May 7th is Free Comic Book Day !

Lara Croft get's a makeover - Tomb Raider returns!

Hey all, been a while, but you know what it's like...busy, busy, busy!
Just wanted to let you know that Crystal Dynamics has published the first shots from their new Tomb Raider game for PS3 and Xbox360, and it's a whole new Lara yet again!

One of the first generation Xbox360 games, Crystal Dynamics''Tomb Raider Legend' turned the whole franchise upside down with a fresh new attitude and a completely new vision in april 2006.
After a revisit to Lara's first adventure with 'Tomb Raider Anniversary' in June 2007, Eidos and Crystal Dynamics envisioned another look for their lead character for their 2008 release of 'Tomb Raider Underworld'. This look was even further enhanced for their download-only release of last year's 'Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light'.

Crystal Dynamics is now busy creating their latest adventure with Lara, which will be released in 2011. Check here for the great cover they put together for the January issue of US magazine 'Game Informer', featuring some awesome 3D work done by their pals in Japan based on the work by lead designer Branoch Adams.

There's a great video with Karl Stewart showing the creation of the cover and the artwork, check that out here (hit the link and scroll down). Alternatively, if you want the new Lara on your desktop, check out here for some awesome wallpapers the guys at GI put in their hub!







Lara's new look also means a new lead cast for the upcoming third Tomb Raider movie. In 2001 Angelina Jolie played the main character and respied her role in the 2003 sequel 'The Cradle of life'(Directed by Dutch director Jan de Bont).

The Game franchise was initially started by the British game studio Core Design, who created six games before with Eidos before Crystal Dynamics took over, starting in 1996 with the first Sega Saturn/Playstation title created by Toby Gard and Paul Douglas. Gard is now working as a computer game consultant at Focal Point Games. In 1997 Michael Silvestri's 'Top Cow' took the franchise into comics and has since succesfully published the Tomb Raider comics line with artists like Andy Park and writer Dan Jurgens.