Got some amazingly exciting news to launch this week off with.  Yeah, I count Wednesday as the beginning of the week as it’s New Comic Book Day!  (It’s the same way the New Comics Year ends and starts again with every San Diego Comic Con in July).  So every Wednesday, I actually am now in the habit of checking for both new print and digital releases and sure enough, we’ve got some downloadable gems this week.  In fact, we’re rolling out Frank Miller’s seminal work , The Dark Knight Returns. This is the book that brought me back into comics when I was in college and truly inspired me to become a comic book illustrator and is a must have for every Comics Cognoscenti.

What makes it even more special is that we are offering it up through our very own DC Digital Comics Store!

Yep, you heard that right.  We’re thrilled today to announce the opening of our brand new DC Comics storefront.  What does the latest development to our ongoing Digital Publishing Initiative mean for you, the ever-devout DC Comics fan?  Well, for one–it’s going to allow you all the ability to purchase and download comics from your desktop and laptop computers from our very own website.  And because we want to make the purchasing, storage and management of your comics digital library as easy and convenient as possible, we’ve made sure that our storefront is powered by comiXology which means if you buy a DC digital comic like the chart-busting Death of Superman on your Mac or PC at home, you can read the very same series on-the-go using your iPhone, iPad or laptop using our DC App without paying any a penny more or creating any new logins.  Or vice versa.

We call it convergence.  You will find it simply easy.

And you know what? Given the proliferation of digital comics apps, mobile devices and platforms, I know as a consumer of digital comics that I appreciate that kind of convenience.  And as a Co-Publisher who finds time to catch up on his comics reading while on-the-go, I love the fact that I can carry around not just the latest digital issue of The Authority, one of my favorite all time comics, but my entire DC digital collection on any one of the devices I schlep with me to the far corners of the earth.  And we’ve made many of the first issues of these great series free in commemoration of today’s news.

So check out what’s available for download this week–we run the gamut from Vertigo’s ground-breaking Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson to Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles to the DCU’s outstanding Identity Crisis series by novelist Brad Meltzer and artist Rags Morales.  It really is an embarrassment of riches and honestly, we have many, many internal discussions about what we should be rolling out next…should it be material from our classic archives or more recent tales of our iconic characters or the works of DC’s greatest creators? In cases such as writer Brian Azzarello who’s best known for his riveting Vertigo opus 100 Bullets but also for his poignant take on the Man of Steel in Superman: For Tomorrow, we couldn’t choose between the two and ran with both to celebrate the launching of our new storefront.  But please, sound off on our Facebook page and be heard—at the end of the day, we really do strive to make the DC Digital Offerings reflect not just the very best works of DC Comics but what YOU, the reader, wants out of very your own DC Digital Comics Experience!

And how does the beginning of Batman, Inc. work into Red Robin’s plan to initiate an international stranglehold on crime? If Batman approves of everything Red Robin has set in motion, what will he do when his protégé decides to release the gang-leader-and-maybe-undercover-cop Lynx from prison?

And guess which surprise guest star you’ll see when Red Robin takes a quick trip to Hong Kong. All thanks to the regular team of writer Fabian Nicieza and artist Marcus To.

RED ROBIN #17 hits today.

After Jock emailed over that epic Batman splash page, it was only fair that COMMISSIONER GORDON artist Francesco Francavilla chime in. And wow. Is that a great piece of art – the cover to DETECTIVE COMICS #874.

Bruce Wayne is back – but how did the world’s greatest detective overcome Darkseid’s Omega Effect and return to his proper place in time and in Gotham? Writer Grant Morrison – in tandem with versatile artist Lee Garbett – presents a turning point in his ongoing and intricate Batman saga with BATMAN: THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #6, which, like BATMAN AND ROBIN #16, sets the stage for this month’s epic Batman launches and new direction.

Check out a few pages from the issue below, which hits this Wednesday.

In this second issue from the team of writer Paul Cornell and artist Jimmy Broxton, our trusty heroes venture into rural England – or as they know it, home. But when someone starts using dangerous dark magic, they spring into action only to face a surprising and unassuming enemy. Can they take down a powerful magical enemy with their usual wit and charm? Let’s hope so.

KNIGHT AND SQUIRE #2 hits Wednesday.

The Joker looms over the Dynamic Duo. Superman stands tall, in front of an iconic American shield, an eagle perched on his shoulder. Two images that stand out as milestones for not only the Golden Age of comics, but the medium as a whole. While artist Jerry Robinson – the legendary artist who played a vital role in the early appearances of Batman characters, The Joker, Robin, Alfred, and The Penguin – has a career full of similar high points, his cover to DETECTIVE COMICS #69 spotlight the skill, verve and craftsmanship that make him a living comics legend. The cover to SUPERMAN #14, by artist Fred Ray, which Robinson has owned for years, is also a major piece of comic book history.

And they can be yours.

For the first time ever, the original art boards for these two classic covers will be put up for auction. Starting Wednesday, 11/10 until 12/1, as part of ComicConnect.com’s November/December Event Auction.

What more is there to know? Two of the most sought-after images in comic book history stand within the reach of one or two lucky buyers. As some of you may have seen in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, the auction is a historic opportunity and a chance to celebrate the work of a comic book legend in Jerry Robinson.

For more information, visit the ComicConnect website.

As we announced not long ago, hyper-talented artist Dustin Nguyen joins the BATGIRL creative team this month, pairing him with regular writer Bryan Q. Miller. But what’s in store for Dustin’s BATGIRL debut?

Well, it’s a new year for Ms. Stephanie Brown, and as her second semester at Gotham U. kicks off, she’s faced with your standard college drama – new classes, friends, oh…and a vigilante stalker. Say what? But if anyone’s prepared to deal with a stalker, it’s Batgirl. But what happens when she also has to face off against the mysterious Order of the Scythe? Check below for a first look at this jumping-on point issue, which hits next week.

You’ve heard from the editors, you’ve seen teaser images and we’ve talked up a storm about this book – and now it’s here. This coming Wednesday, writer Nick Spencer and artist CAFU present a modern, topical and just plain exciting look at the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS in an issue that asks the simple, oft-quoted question: Would you rather burn out, or fade away?

When a handful of people, desperately clawing at their last shred of hope are presented with the opportunity to be heroes, the offer sounds ideal. But there’s one catch. Their powers will eventually kill them.

Spencer and CAFU put a forward-looking and bold look on the classic property in the first issue of this new ongoing series. If the concept alone isn’t enough for you, take a look at some of the pages we’ve got below. Can’t go wrong with Frank Quitely and Darwyn Cooke covers, can you?

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #1 hits 11/10.

I think all the best villains articulate something, stand for something. The Joker: chaos unleashed. Lex Luthor: concern for the big things means losing sight of the small. They’re often one trait of a balanced mind magnified to the point of unbalance. They’re also often children’s fantasies of lives lived without acknowledging civilisation’s limits. (It’s no coincidence that small children will often root for the villain.) They also often say something about the hero: Batman is rationality (if he isn’t, he’s lost); Superman, for all his power, cares about the small things. Because Batman represents the balanced mind, he’s faced by a whole pantheon of exaggerated visions of mental unbalance, every trait from quizzicality to mourning boosted way beyond normal. The Flash is such a nice guy even his rogues are only playing at it. Everything about Green Lantern in the last few years has been the quantifying of his opposition into symbols for emotional complexity and symbols for outright villainy. I’ve quietly tried to offer new reader introductions for a lot of the villains that show up during Lex’s run in Action Comics, because I’m thinking of it as, amongst other things, a gallery of them, a chance to show off how exciting and interesting DC villains are.

But how do you make a new villain? Well, it’s quite daunting. I think it was only Grant making the creation of new villains a stated aim of Batman and Robin that opened my mind to doing so. Without giving too much away, my aim was to take a facet of Batman’s rational life that hadn’t had a mad villain amplifying its opposite into psychodrama, and do just that. Then around that core one has to try to build a sort of archetypal shape, the idea being that it’s easy for audiences and other writers to understand exactly what this new character stands for, what they mean. Their look should say it, ideally, even without dialogue. I can’t claim to have got it right. I have no idea. Writers don’t get to say who joins the pantheon. We can only put the character in place and hope that other writers use them again. My new guy is called The Absence. And about him I’m saying nothing. He first appears in Batman and Robin #17. He’s nobody special, you could say. The story in question is called ‘The Sum of Her Parts’, and it’s about one of those girls you always see on the arm of Bruce Wayne, who, post mortem, has been unfortunately removed from her grave. I like to think that it shows off the side of me that writing Knight and Squire doesn’t (although that has a rather more chilly ending), the bloodthirsty, darker side.

That, I suppose, is the central thing writing villains lets us do: articulate what otherwise must stay inside. Good night.