Sometimes I’m left dumbfounded that many people covering the comic book industry couldn’t understand how Marvel Comics, the publishing arm of the organization, fits perfectly into the overall business strategy for Marvel Entertainment and its parent company Disney — that it is the central hub that connects the dots between all the various departments utilizing Marvel-branded content or licensed products. (It’s also not that important, unless you start writing speculative pieces with a limited understanding of, well, business.)

That was the intention behind a SXSW panel featuring Marvel Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada and Editor in Chief C.B. Cebulski earlier this week. Sure enough, the pair spent nearly an hour outlining the various ways original work in the comic book publishing arm translated over to other mediums with great financial success. Some of the best examples included major comic event storylines being adapted to blockbuster big budget films (Civil War, Infinity War) and mobile game Contest of Champions using exact costume designs from current comic series runs.

In honor of Earth Day 2012, Dark Horse Comics is offering a FREE digital copy of Brian Wood and Kristian Donaldson‘s The Massive one-shot.

Collecting parts 1-3 from Dark Horse Presents, The Massive tells a story of three people whose lives were changed as a result of the environment. These three made it their goal to each become environmentalists on a mission to save the planet after the world has already ended. And Dark Horse is giving you the opportunity to read the comic that acts as a prelude to the upcoming series in a paperless, eco-friendly way for absolutely no cost.

Swamp Thing is a character who blurs the lines of regular man who looks like a monster, a straight up piece of vegetation that looks sort of like a man, and both of things but also an eco-terrorist of sorts, but no matter how you view the character, it’s impossible to deny the fact that some of the greatest writers in comics have either written him or his ancillary characters. Also, when he’s not questioning his identity, he’s a pretty eco-friendly dude. So, it’s with this fact that Comixology is offering a 99 cent three-day sale on Swamp Thing for this weekend’s Earth Day.

Comixology has recently made these sales more manageable if you don’t exactly know what you’re looking for and have places different comics into sections that categorize them more efficiently than just, “Here’s a bunch of comics that are on sale.” These different sections for Swamp Thing are:

DC Comics announced today that the comic book publishing company would be expanding its digital comics initiative with brand new weekly comics with Smallville Season 11, Batman, and a manga-inspired Ame Come line leading the charge.

Alright DC Comics, you’ve got my attention. This news story comes alongside a nice feature with writer Bryan Q. Miller on USA Today as he discusses preview pages and the previously announced Smallville Season 11 weekly digital comics series that follows the events of the popular TV show, which finally hits the digital platform today. Next month, Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti will begin a new weekly digital comic based on Manga style that focuses on Wonder Woman and other female superheroes which takes the Ame Comi name from DC’s popular statue line. Where this gets really interesting to me, however, is with the announcement of the weekly Batman comics.

Recorded March 30, 2012. Hosted by Justin Vactor, Willie Gillis, and Hunter Camp.

A return to the digital comics question – Are digital comics the death of the brick and mortar store?

Welcome comic book fans to another episode of Comics Of Doom, the official comic book podcast of Geeks Of Doom! On this week’s episode, Chris McDavid leaves to pursue an acting career, while Justin, Willie, and Hunter discuss a myriad of topics in the comic book world including current Marvel creator runs and the possibility of digital comics killing off brick and mortar comic book stores, as well as Willie’s first experience with last year’s comic book hero films. Also discussed is what second and third tier comic book characters could carry their own films.

Make sure to listen, because you won’t want to miss this one.