Re-Post -- Star Wars: The Clone Wars for iPhone and iPod Touch

Here's a re-post of a blog entry I wrote last school year.  We're moving on from a Fantasy literature genre study to Sci-Fi, and I'll be using some of these resources again.  Enjoy!

Well, the Comic-Con International announcements keep poppin' up, and happily, more good news for teachers of comics. Comic Book Resources posted an interview with Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars editor in which it was revealed that an issue of Star Wars: The Clone Wars entitled "Shipyards of Doom" will be available soon for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Check out the preview here. Great news for me especially, as I've got 15 iPod Touches coming into my classroom this year.

The traditional print version of "Shipyards of Doom" (available now) is a 96-page story that features characters from the popular Cartoon Network television series. No word yet on a release date or price.

I've used the television series in class as part of a science fiction unit. The series' website offers awesome episode guides, which is a great help if you're looking for which episode to show in your classroom. Also, there are webcomics available for each episode that add another dimension of characters' experience to each story. I went with "Ambush", the very first episode of the series, so that my students didn't have to wade through any backstory.

Prior to viewing this episode, though, my students looked at these two articles about the science behind the Star Wars films and television show. In this way, they got to take a look at the genre characteristics of science fiction, which led to discussions of the advances of technology.

Digital Comics Platform -- Longbox

Recently, the folks at Comic Book Resources reported on an exciting announcement at HeroesCon in North Carlonia -- Longbox Digital Comics. Basically, Longbox is marketing itself as the iTunes of comics -- a place where consumers can purchase digital versions of their favorite single-issue comics for a low price (99 cents!). The interface looks really neat, with the ability not only to easily organize your digital comics, but to enlarge individual panels for easy viewing (see below).



With a target release of late 2009, I think that there is some great potential here for getting comics into the classroom in a much more cost-effective (not to mention environmentally-friendly) manner. As Ron Richards from iFanboy mentioned in a recent article, the key to success is securing the big comic book publishers, one of which (Marvel, through their Digital Comics Unlimited program) already has a subscription-based digital comics service. (Though as Ron mentions succintly in his article, Marvel does not allow for offline reading of their digital comics--something that Longbox will.)

Some concerns I have about such a service in the classroom:

1. Would students feel comfortable reading comics from a computer screen? I've heard adults bemoan the rising popularity of hardware like Amazon's Kindle, but is there a generation gap that might explain a greater receptiveness by students to reading digitally?
2. The aforementioned announcement at HeroesCon included mention of developing software for use with the Kindle and iPhone & iPod Touch. While I believe the digital comics format can work on a large-ish computer monitor or television screen, will it work on small, portable devices?

Regardless, I find any instrument that gets comics into the hands of students quickly and cheaply to be fascinating. Count on me to follow future announcements from the Longbox people as they are made.