As an Android-powered phone user have you been jealous of your friends who get to enjoy reading comics on their iPhone or iPad? Well, time to feel better as comiXology has announced a Beta release of its industry-leading comics reader for Android.

The new beta is available in the Android marketplace and enables fans to read comics on devices running Android 2.1 or higher. The Comics by comiXology beta app gives users the ability to discover, purchase, and read more than 2,500 digital comics and over 300 free comics from 40 publishers.

Launch partners providing content for the app include DC Comics, Image Comics, Vertigo, Top Cow, Boom! Studios, Dynamite Entertainment, Archie and many more. Users can search and browse through comics based on titles, creators, publishers, genre and ratings, and find local comic book retailers with the built-in retailer finder.

“Our enthusiastic community has been asking us for an Android app and it’s with great pleasure that we bring it to them in time for the holidays,” said David Steinberger, CEO of comiXology. “Comics by comiXology on Android delivers comic books to mainstream audiences on even more devices. Now, more people who want to read a comic will have the opportunity to do so, when and where they want, while giving our content partners another major distribution outlet.”

Comics downloaded to the Android app will be available on the iOS and Web version as well through cross-platform synchronization so users can enjoy comics purchased on all their devices. So, great news for Android users. Even better news when those Android-powered Tablets start arriving in quantity.

One of our favorite comic book companies will be showcasing a whole bunch of stuff during next week’s San Diego Comic-Con. Top Cow, probably most well known for Wanted, will be bringing lots of exclusives and their talent to the show so we can all meet and enjoy.

Here’s all the info you could want on this from the official press release from the company.

TOP COW UNVEILS 2010 SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON EXCLUSIVES

LOS ANGELES, Calif., July 14, 2010 – Top Cow Productions, Inc. is proud to announce their exclusive offerings at this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego, which includes an exclusive wraparound cover variant to the publisher’s most ambitious project-to-date, Artifacts.

Attendees of the convention have a chance to grab the following exclusives at the Top Cow booth #2629:

ARTIFACTS #1 WRAPAROUND SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON VARIANT
Exclusive SDCC variant cover art by Michael Broussard and Sunny Gho of IFS
(W) Ron Marz (A) Michael Broussard (I) Rick Basaldua, Sal Regla (C) Sunny Gho of IFS
Price: $10

Thirteen mystical Artifacts, including the Witchblade, the Darkness and others, guide the fate of the Top Cow Universe. For centuries, it’s been whispered that bringing together all 13 Artifacts would herald mankind’s destruction. But a mysterious figure has been manipulating events, laying plans to put Armageddon into motion.

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Even though San Diego Comic-Con seems to be dominated by movies and tv programs these days, it was originally all about the comics. This should be obvious by the fact that ‘Comics’ is right in the name.

To help keep that alive we wanted to make sure people knew about the comics companies that will be attending the show this year. To keep that going we bring you the Top Cow schedule of events for the Con, direct from their official press release.

TOP COW AT COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL 2010

Top Cow Productions, Inc.’s race to Artifacts will include a stop at this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, the world’s biggest and most exciting popular convention, from July 22nd – 25th.

Top Cow will once again storm into the convention and set up shop at booth #2629. Among the goods to prepare attendees of CCI 2010 for the race to Artifacts will be exclusives, preview books, free goodies, variant comics and trade paperbacks, including free copies of Artifacts #0 as well as other comics, posters and bookmarks (while supplies last).

Attendees are invited to join Marc Silvestri (Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia), President Matt Hawkins, and Publisher Filip Sablik for an exciting and lively multimedia presentation about Top Cow’s plans for 2010 and 2011 in comics, film, television and much more. Be the first to hear announcements and updates on film projects including Witchblade, Magdalena, Alibi, Wanted, and The A-Team.

Plus announcements on new comic projects with creators including Ron Marz (Artifacts), Jeff Katz (American Original, Freddy vs. Jason), Phil Hester (The Darkness) plus surprise guest directors, screenwriters, producers and more! The panel will be featured in room 9 from 1:30-2:30pm under the title Top Cow: “We Create” Multimedia, on Saturday, July 24th.

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Our friends at Top Cow have sent us their list of comic solicitations for May, 2010 and because we know you are comics fans and also enjoy some Top Cow titles, we’ve included them for your advanced planning needs. And we’ve also got some cool cover images for you as well. Be sure to check those out after the jump.

Meantime, take a look at the comics coming in May from the official press release:

VELOCITY is off to the races!

MAY 2010 CHECKLIST

Velocity #1 Ron Marz/Kenneth Rocafort $3.99
Angelus #5 Ron Marz/Stjepan Sejic $2.99
Pilot Season: Stellar #1 Signed Robert Kirkman/Marc Silvestri/Bernard Chang $19.99
Broken Trinity: Pandora’s Box #4 Rob Levin/Bryan Edward Hill/Alessandro Vitti/Tommy Lee Edwards $3.99
Pilot Season: Hardcore #1 Signed Robert Kirkman/Marc Silvestri/Brian Stelfreeze $19.99
The Darkness #85 Phil Hester/Sheldon Mitchell/Aaron Campbell $2.99

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If you love comics like we do around The Flickcast then you probably like to get together with your fellow enthusiasts and discuss them read them trade them and buy them. If you happen to be in California, you may think that Comic-Con in San Diego is the final word on all-things comic convention. Well, you would be wrong.

There’s another comic con in Cali that’s fun and gives you the opportunity to interact with many of your favorite creators and meet fans who share your interests: The Long Beach Comic Con. And now, we’ve got info about a new event in Long Beach presented by the LBCC to share with you today, from the official press release:

MAD Event Management and Long Beach Comic Con are proud to announce Comic Expo 2010 to be held Saturday, February 20, 2010 at the Long Beach Convention Center (LBCC) in downtown Long Beach. The one day event will be held in the Promenade Ballroom from 10am – 7pm and entrance to the floor for the day is $10.

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As we’ve debated on The Flickcast, digital distribution of comics and other content is here to stay and is the way things will be done in the future. To illustrate this point, comic book publisher Top Cow Productions has announced they are partnering with several companies to offer their comics and other content on mobile, portable and desktop readers.

Want to know more? For that, let’s check out the official press release from Top Cow.

TOP COW COMICS ANNOUNCES DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION PLANS

LOS ANGELES, Calif., December 9, 2009 – Top Cow Productions, Inc. proudly announced today that the publisher has partnered with comiXology, iVerse Media, WOWIO, Amazon.com and Longbox Digital to distribute their digital comics on mobile, portable and desktop readers. The move is in direct response to requests from fans and in an effort to tap into a new growth market.

The publisher plans to focus on primarily archival material and sold out issues of recent series. The first of Top Cow’s digital comics will be available beginning tomorrow, December 10th, 2009.

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When the Witchblade was formed, it was created to represent the balance between the light and the dark. Created by both the Darkness and the Angelus, the universe’s two primal forces, the mythical weapon bonded with New York City Police Officer Sara Pezzini. Recently the Witchblade split in to its two sides, with Sara retaining its Darkness while the light side went to Danielle Baptiste.

The two battled it out in last month’s Witchblade #127 which culminated in Sara sending Danielle off the edge of the building they fought on, only for Sara to be surprised herself by Angelus’s forces when Sabine plunged her blade through Sara’s back. Recently, we were given a sneak peek at the first few pages of Witchblade #128 and simply put, they look beautiful.

Stjepan Sejic’s pages look more like a painting than simple pencils. The level of detail and the backgrounds are gorgeous. Picking up the moments after the end of Witchblade #127, the fate of Sara and her side of the Witchblade is revealed.

Even in the first few pages, a few surprises pop up keeping the excitement high after seeing the series’ main character take a seemingly fatal blow at the end of the previous issue. Coming July 1st, this is a book that is definitely worth taking a look at. In the meantime, check out the bigger preview pages after the jump.

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This week was, to say the least, a BIG week in comics. My personal Pull List was 23 issues of all new books. Comic stores even said how expensive a week it was just by the sheer volume of books released. I’m just doing my best to keep you informed with the newest quality and best ongoing series from around the comics world. With that said, let’s get to the pulls.

Pull of the Week:

Dark Avengers / Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1 – Marvel – $3.99

Score: 8.5

The new superstar creative team of 2009 has finally arrived. Matt Fraction and Marc Silvestri may be the best combination of writer and artist to be placed on any series thus far this year. This one shot issue does a fantastic job of setting events in to motion for the Utopia crossover as well as the formation of the Dark X-Men team.

With anti-mutant tensions at an all time high following footage of the massacre in Alaska following the first mutant birth since M-Day coming to the public’s attention, Simon Trask and his Humanity Now organization march on San Francisco to support the enactment of a law regulating mutant breeding to prevent another incident like that in Alaska from occurring again.

They are met on the streets by another peaceful protest lead by Beast along with Northstar, Hellion, Rockslide and Pixie. Trask incites a riot to break out which ultimately results in his injury at the hands of Hellion and the incarceration of Beast. Playing off the anti-mutant sentiments, the media puts the blame on the X-Men for the riot which leads to further protests and violence around the city between the opposing groups for and against mutant rights, as well as the X-Men who put themselves in the roles of peacekeepers between the two.

The world looks on as these protests lead to further rioting to the point that the San Fran PD and the X-Men can no longer keep everything in control. Enter Norman Osborn, H.A.M.M.E.R. and the Dark Avengers. Split up and playing with kid gloves on, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, Hawkeye and Ares take to the city to calm the riots.

Norman doesn’t put himself in the field but instead calls a meeting with one of his Cabal, Emma Frost. He had placed Emma in charge of making sure mutants were kept in control and promised not to intervene until she failed to uphold her side of the bargain. Norman hands Emma a folder with a large white X on it and lets her know that now is the time to think big.

As said before here on the Pull List, Fraction knows the X-Men. He can handle all of the characters expertly, much like Chris Clairemont was able to during his famous run on the series. Fraction also displays an understand of not just the major players like Cyclops, Emma and Beast. He also takes the supporting roles very seriously with his great representation of Mercury, Hellion and the Cuckoo triplets.

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