Pull List Online: 20 March 2013

There is an ease to digital comics that's quite dangerous, I think. It's not a matter of browsing through a store, finding a comic that looks interesting, queuing at the counter and handing over some cash. Now it's simple a case of: 1. see comic, 2. press button, 3. read comic. Thankfully the pricing of digital comics appears to be settling down to quite reasonable levels of between 99c and $2.99. I think anyone trying to sell 20 digital comic pages for $3.99 (such as Marvel) are begging to be disappointed.

Only two digital comics this week, however: I've been rather busy. Under the cut: reviews of the deliciously titled Tiger Lawyer as well as the Harlem-relocated Watson and Holmes.

Tiger Lawyer #1

Challenger Comics. Written by Ryan Ferrier. Art by Matt McCray.

He's a lawyer and he's a tiger! This is one of those concepts destined to make a book fly off the shelves, so stupid it's irresistible. The problem is that once it's flown off the shelves and onto your tablet/desktop, Tiger Lawyer turns out to be a little disappointing. It's not enough to have an insane concept for your funny comic, you've got to actually make it genuinely funny as well. In this regard I think Tiger Lawyer has struggled where similar titles such as Dr McNinja or Axe Cop have excelled. There's still promise, however, and I may check out the second issue in a bit to see if things have improved. There are two short stories in this first issue, plus a raft of pin-up art by a variety of indie artists.(2/5)

Watson and Holmes #1

New Paradigm Studios. Written by Karl Bollers. Art by Rick Leonardi.

Re-imagining Sherlock Holmes is a very popular pastime at the moment, whether it's Guy Ritchie's film franchise for Warner Bros, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss' TV series for the BBC or the American TV drama Elementary starring Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu. Watson and Holmes relocates the characters from 19th century London to 21st century Harlem. The hallmarks of the characters remain the same, and this issue is peppered with lines and tropes already very familiar to fans of Holmes and Watson -it's just that they're re-positioned through the lens of urban African-American culture. This is a great first issue: well plotted and characterised, and the characters have been deftly translated into their new form. Rick Leonardi's artwork is great as well. (4/5)