The screenwriters of stealth video game Hitman: Absolution (Square Enix), Martin Brennan and Michael B. Jackson, team up with Simon Bisley (Biz) to tell a dark, supernatural story in a stand-alone app available on Android devices Friday 2/28. You are already able to buy the comic on iOS. Here’s all about 13 Coins on 13th Dimension!

By CLAY N. FERNO

Clay N. Ferno: Thanks for joining us! Tell me, we’ve been hearing about this graphic novel for some time, why are we getting this delivered in an app?

Martin Brennan: The decision to release 13 Coins as a stand-alone app came after a meeting with former Namco president, Barry O’Neill. We had one issue of 13 Coins almost completed, and Barry expressed interest in bringing it out through his new venture Corinthian — making it Corinthian’s first comic series. Given Barry’s past experience and his enthusiasm for 13 Coins we knew we had to go with him. Corinthian worked with tech company inlifesize, and animation genius Greg Maguire on bringing the digital comic to life. Greg is a legend, having previously worked on “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakaban,” “Happy Feet,” “Avatar,” “Terminator,” etc. — the list goes on.

Issue 2

Clearly, there is more to the 13 Coins app than just the comic. We get a soundtrack, in-app purchase bonus material and 3-D parallax covers. Did you want to develop further than what the popular ComiXology app can provide?

Michael B Jackson: ComiXology is great at what they do — deliver comics in a digital format. We want our app to deepen the entertainment experience. Music, 3D motion, freebies (like wallpaper) and a few more surprises are planned for the app as exclusives.

Promo art

I’m lucky enough to be reading this on a Retina tablet. Biz’s art is on a whole new level than what we might be used to from the newsprint days.

MB: Simon is one of those rare artists who captures and expresses emotion exceptionally well in his work. Simon’s drawings touch people. He’s able to see the pain, anger, frustration or joy in a character at that moment in the story and show it to you in his art.

MJ: Exactly, we took the art of one of the best comic artists in the world and enhanced it with technology, and are presenting it on devices that are truly extraordinary. It’s as close as you can come to bringing a character to life right off the page.

[READ MORE AT 13th DIMENSION]

Just in time for gifting purposes, O’Reilly Media delivers this new edition of the popular iPad:The Missing Manual. The timing’s ideal for non-holiday reasons too, as it’s only been a matter of months since the last major iOS 7 upgrade and release of new iPad models. As usual, this guide is an entirely useful companion, in paperback or even better via Kindle or iBooks. For those looking for a short version, the answer is yes–it’s worth buying for a loved one. Or yourself.

Turn your mom into a tablet ninja.

For the first time ever, I’m gently tapping through this review on the sleek glass surface of a new 64gb iPad Air with a rocket-fast A7 chip. An exclusive iPhone user for years, The Missing Manual has been essential reading in my getting intimate with this new tablet or, as I like to call it, my “comic book delivery device.”

As it were, 2013 also saw the release of the long-awaited Retina iPad Mini, which one can assume is inspiring innumerable consumers to choose an Apple tablet for the first time. In those cases, problems they might encounter include: Having little experience with iOS; Trying to replace their computer with an iPad (don’t do it!); not being tech savvy at all. The latter is a phrase I loathe, but what else better describes the “Facebook won’t let me do this or that” worrywarts who are always asking for us, the resident nerds, to help them post in their knitting groups?

Enter The Missing Manual.

Since 2000, the O’Reilly imprint has conquered the difficult task of communicating computing basics and essentials, and they’ve done it better than the For Dummies series (much respect to the helpers there, but it’s nice to not be insulted right in the title).

[READ MORE at DIGBOSTON.COM]

ADS:

MIGHTY Q&A: 13 COINS AT 13TH DIMENSION

BOOK REVIEW: IPAD: THE MISSING MANUAL, 6TH EDITION