Here’s to the fastest death reversal in comic book history (I think), Bucky Barnes is not dead yet. In the issue Fear Itself 7.1: Captain America, Steve Rogers discovers that his friend and former sidekick and the current fella to hold the mantle of Captain America after his own “death” in Civil War, is actually still alive and kicking. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

Bucky was discovered to be barely alive after getting pwned by Sin, and was subsequently revived by Nick Fury’s last dose of Infinity Formula. Several takeaways from this issue, Bucky’s “funeral” goes on with a LMD taking his deceased self, while he goes about tying up loose ends as the Winter Soldier. What will happen to Nick Fury since there’s no more Infinity Formula….are his days numbered?

Coming in 2012…Winter Soldier #1.

Our friends at Oceanhouse Media have received the TechAmerica High Tech Award in the software category for their work in bringing in classic children’s literature, such as Dr Seuss’ beloved books, to mobile devices such as the iPhone and Android smartphones. We would like to wish them “Congratulations” over this important milestone and recognition of their efforts. Check out the press release below for further details:

Oceanhouse Media, Inc., a leading publisher of more than 250 apps for iOS, Android and NOOK Color devices, announced that it has been selected the winner in the software category for the 2011 TechAmerica High Tech Awards. In its eighteenth year, the annual awards program celebrates excellence in the region’s technology industry, and honors outstanding companies for their technological or business innovation; exceptional products or service; product marketplace validation; perseverance in the face of adversity; and community involvement.

Oceanhouse Media was recognized in the software category for bringing classic children’s literature, such as Dr. Seuss’s beloved books, to mobile devices. “We’re extremely honored to receive TechAmerica’s High Tech Award for our work in developing interactive children’s book apps that help teach kids to read,” said Michel Kripalani (picture below), President of Oceanhouse Media. “We’re committed to bringing more beloved children’s classics to the app market with educational features that promote literacy in the youngest of readers at the touch of a screen.”

The TechAmerica High Tech Awards were held on Oct. 28 and showcased San Diego’s most innovative technology companies. Nine awards were given across several categories, which includes Software; Internet/Web Commerce; Computers and Related Products; Communications Products and Services; SaaS/Cloud; Semiconductors & Analytical Instrumentation; Clean Technology; IT Service/Contract Services; and Outstanding Emerging Growth Company.

“Every year I grow more impressed by the caliber of award nominations we receive,” said Kevin Carroll, Regional Vice President, TechAmerica San Diego. “We are pleased to honor Oceanhouse Media as a leader in the software sector, not only for its innovative contributions, but because we believe its children’s book apps exemplify key development in the industry, helping further establish San Diego as a technology hub.”

The 2011 TechAmerica High Tech Awards were sponsored by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barney & Barney, CB Richard Ellis, Deloitte, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Formula, Procopio, SignOnSanDiego.com, and The Lawton Group.

Tacky and the rest of his fellow penguins are back on iOS devices with Oceanhouse Media’s fourth Tacky the Penguin omBook (e-book) release for the platform titled Tacky Goes to Camp (introductory price: USD 1.99). The star of Helen Lester’s children books, Tacky is a penguin that marches to his own tune.

In Tacky Goes to Camp, Tacky and his fellow penguins are off to summer camp in Nice Icy Land to enjoy themselves while Rock Hopping, Line Dancing, and playing Capture the Ice Cube. One night, they gather around the campfire to sing, eat s’mores, and tell scary stories. But after going to bed, something straight out of one of their scary stories pays the sleeping penguins a visit. Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly, and Perfect think they should high-tail it out of there, but Tacky has some ideas of his own.

New features only available in this interactive omBook include professional narration, background audio and enlarged artwork for each scene. To promote reading in young children, individual words are highlighted as the story is read and words zoom up when pictures are touched. By combining the original text and artwork with features that entertain and promote reading, this Book appeals to readers of all ages.

As with other Oceanhouse Media omBooks, there are several ways to read this omBook

• “Read to Me” — listen to the narrated story with words highlighted as they are read
• “Read it Myself” — read the book in its traditional form
• “Auto Play” — plays like a movie, automatically reading and turning pages. Great for younger children!

Check out the new omBook right here: http://itunes.apple.com/app/tacky-goes-to-camp/id468540040?ign-mpt=uo%3D6&mt=8

These two new action figures from Revoltech just came in a few days ago, had they were released earlier, I would have bought them in Hong Kong at the drop of a hat. But no matter, the action figures in question feature the same anime character, albeit him and his split personality. It’s none other than the wanderer himself, Kenshin Himura and his dangerous man-killer (assassin) alter ego, Himura Battosai from the anime/manga Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X).

I’ve watched the anime since I was a kid and remember being enthralled by how amazing it looked. I even started buying manga due to watching Rurouni Kenshin (simply because the manga and anime storylines diverge on some parts). 2011 marks the 15th anniversary of the animation of Ruroni Kenshin. The author Kisaragi Nobuhiro and a large number of fans have wanted to see the Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu moves in their display shelves, now Revoltech release a pair of action figures for the celebration.

Yamaguchi Studios analyzed Kenshin and his moves when they create the different parts. The flexible joints allows Kenshin to unleash his power and the display stand supports him when he leaps into the air. Each of the packages come with the drawn sword, the sheathed sword and the half drawn sword. His eyes are extremely sharp during the fights, change the face pieces to have him glare at his hidden enemies from side to side. Dust flies when he lashes out, the white effect part in the box is the materialization of the force

Both figurines are going for USD 39.90. Check out the Kenshin Himura version over here: http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-47yl-71-8x-49-en-84-j-70-4ct4.html and the Battosai Himura version over here: http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-47yl-71-8x-49-en-84-j-70-4ct3.html

I just got back from an 8-day holiday in Hong Kong, and it turns out that Halloween is a pretty big thing over there. The two main amusement parks, Ocean Park and Disneyland have Halloween events on certain days and I’ve been to the latter’s. It was pretty awesome, with a couple of haunted house attractions and a Halloween parade.

A visit to the streets popular with the toy-buying crowd (such as the one in Wan Chai), and you’ll find all kinds of Halloween related items, and the convenience stores such as Circle K and 7-11 stock Halloween collectibles like the Paul Frank Julius the Monkey doll which I got for my fiance. So it’s no surprise when I got back only to find Halloween related apps in my inbox.

The first app to catch my eye isn’t something that you normally associate with Halloween, it’s a children’s e-book from iStorytime along with HarperCollins Children’s Books, titled Biscuit Visits the Pumpkin Patch. What’s interesting is that the Biscuit print series has sold over 16mm copies and this marks the first time Biscuit has gone digital with complete cover-to-cover animations and sound effects for a more fun and interactive reader experience.

The well-loved retriever puppy is now available on Apple’s iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Developed in-house by iStoryTime and featuring illustrations by Pat Schories, the interactive Biscuit Visits the Pumpkin Patch digital storybook for iOS brings author Alyssa Satin Capucilli’s wonderful and popular book to life. The book is about the little yellow puppy Biscuit, who discovers the pumpkin patch with his friend and the little red wagon. He has lots of fun, and gains his own experiences, and most importantly meets new friends.

“We are big fans of Biscuit and his little adventures and believe by including animations and fun coloring and sticker book activities we provide an immersive reading experience that gets children excited about reading,” said Graham Farrar, Founder of zuuka and its publishing label iStoryTime. “HarperCollins Children’s Books is a leader in the industry and we’re extremely proud to be working with such a knowledgeable and innovative team.”

Fun for the entire family, Biscuit Visits the Pumpkin Patch includes several interactive features.

• Find-the-Bone: Throughout the digital storybook children and their parents are encouraged to find hidden bones for extra hide and seek fun.
• Fully Animated: Biscuit, his friends and areas around him are animated when tapped. Discover funny animations and humorous sounds on every page.
• Create-a-Scene: This digital sticker book allows little ones to use their imagination and create their own scene with Biscuit, his wagon and several other items.
• Coloring Book: Little ones can choose three different scenes to color along with saving to the photo album to share with friends and family.
• Narration Options: Auto Play, Read to Me and Read to Myself

Biscuit Visits the Pumpkin Patch is $2.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the Apple App Store in the Books category.

When my mum returned from the UK many years ago, she brought back plenty of books. One of the books was Richard Adams’ Watership Down. If you haven’t read it already, it’s an amazing book, bringing the story of a warren of rabbits to life into a tale that features heroism primarily with plenty of dark undertones of death and disease, only to end with a hopeful message for a brighter future.

It’s also a pretty good setting for an MMORPG. For those who have read the book, they would know that the structure of a warren isn’t that dissimilar to that of a typical MMO faction. There are different types of rabbits in the warren, and these match perfectly with MMORPG types like soldiers, foragers, bards, you get the idea.

So, in a Watership Down MMORPG, players get to play mini-games such as bob-stones (a game described by the book as being a traditional game played among rabbits) or explore other locales (otherwise known as dungeons in other MMORPGs) in the book such as the farm, the river crossing and even other warrens. Not only that, perhaps they can even engage in PvP combat among warrens…just like in the book!

Players will also get to uncover legends and stories, such as the one regarding El-ahrairah, the rabbit folk hero, and also the Black Rabbit of Inle. For flavour, the game’s language would be a mix of English, and Lapine! Imagine saying “Embleer Frith!” instead of “Dammit!”. LOL, while I know it’s pretty far fetch but I think this idea would find support from fans of the book. So what do you think?

William Fortheringham’s book, Cyclopedia, is one of those books that would look extremely cool on a bookshelf. Not only is this hard cover in a shade of yellow that is very hard to miss, it’s an exhaustive tome to one of the things that is well loved by him, which is cycling. This encyclopedia of sorts is probably the next best thing to Google when you need to look up stuff about cycling.

Arranged in a style that reminds me of a thesaurus, or a dictionary, Cyclopedia covers a wide range of subject matter and topics in regards to cycling, from personalities such Henri Desrange to Chris Hoy, events, history, terminologies, technology and even the crazy and inane stuff related to the sport. You’ll be hard pressed to find an alternative to this book other than going online. Even then the book has an advantage of having everything (as of 2009/2010) in one, single location.

Having said that, tackling the book head on like a normal book would be a staid manner of approach, who reads a thesaurus straight on anyways. I would recommend just heading over to a random page, and be surprised, and learn a new thing or two about the sport. One grip I have about the book though is the publisher chosing the colour yellow as the font colour for words that have entries in the book, it makes some paragraphs rather hard to read.

One of the many fun parts of the book including an illustration on how many cyclists needed to power certain household items like the humble light bulb to a washing machine. Each individual in this book has a fascinating to tell and you can’t help but imagine in your head how those classic races played out in your head, thanks to Fortheringham’s prose.

Cyclopedia is a worth addition to any cycling enthusiasts’ bookshelf, Nine Over Ten 9/10 rates it at a 4.5 out of 5. It is available on Amazon for about USD 16. Click here to check it out.

The bulk of DC Comics’ first issues of the new 52 arrive this week, and among the key highlights are Detective Comics #1, Action Comics #1, Batgirl #1 and Animal Man #1. To me, it is as if the books I’m reading are sharing an overarching theme of being gory, as if the objective here is to creep the reader out.

Detective Comics #1 has the Joker apparently getting his face sliced off, among OTHER things, the evidence is pretty much there on the last page. Batgirl #1, has Barbara Gordon back on the saddle and through a miracle she’s walking again. The shocker is however having a hospital patient thrown out of the building and Batgirl failing to act to save him. OUCH.

Animal Man is having his own set of problems. Not only is he suddenly bleeding out of his eyes, after a really cool sequence of taking out a hostage taker (err…no pun intended), his daughter seems to have the ability of bringing dead animals back to live, fulfilling her wish for a pet. Freaky. It’s like Pet Sematary (blame Stephen King for the typo).

Grant Morrison’s Action Comics #1 does a take on Superman which most people would have a hard time not noticing the similarities with Batman. Featuring a younger Superman with under-developed powers and really lousy costume (the cape might as well be a towel), the guy throws a perp off a building only to catch him right before he lands on the ground.

Having a guy dressed up in black with a bat logo on his chest do that is cool, but Superman? He’s supposed to be a boyscout, straight arrow kind of guy. Anyways, it’s a whole new DC Universe out there and with plenty more of books this week (OMAC #1, Green Arrow #1, etc etc), which one would be competing for your dollars? I’d go for Detective Comics #1 and Animal Man #1 from this lot.

*Warning, Spoilers Ahead* So, the whole cause of the DC Universe reset was due to the Flash trying to go back in time to save his mother from certain death at the hands of the Reverse Flash, only to cause time to shatter resulting in the events detailed in Flashpoint (and its accompanying books). Upon realising this, The Flash goes back in time again in Flashpoint #5 to stop himself from going back in time to save his mother, and this results in the new reboot of the DC Universe, due to the merging of timelines.

Justice League #1 is the first book to carry the new DC reboot. The character of Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and even The Flash have received superficial changes but for anything deeper, one will need to go through the upcoming books for the respective characters. I particularly like the Superman and Batman costumes, Superman seems to have ditched the spandex look, for a more armor-like suit. And Batman, being the only superhero with ZERO superpowers (except being extremely bad-assed), packs even more armor and surprisingly even shoots a grappling hook THROUGH an alien adversary.

Most certainly everyone looks younger here, mainly due to the fact that the book is set 5 years in the past of the new DC Universe reboot. Haha. Confusing, no? I can’t wait for the next issue though, it’s gonna be the newly rebooted Superman, versus the newly rebooted Batman! Yeah!

Wow, this just in today. Zuuka Group along with its publishing label iStoryTime, the largest library of children’s book apps has announced today a USD 2 Million Series A investment by venture capital firm CFP & Founders Investment. This investment will allows the company to quickly expand their domestic and international library of more than 100 books in 80 countries.

This investment will also allow the company to expand distribution of content to additional mobile platforms. As of now, iStoryTime’s catalogue consists of bestsellers such as the Kung Fu Panda 2 storybook, Transformers Dark Side of the Moon Mix & Match app and several major digital mobile licensing partnerships involving heavy hitters such  as Cartoon Network, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Reader’s Digest Children’s Books and The Jim Henson Company.

This has made the company a recognized leader in interactive storytelling experience in which CFP & Founders Investment have saw fit to facilitate in its ambitious expansion plans. The extensive library is delivered to the convenience of mobile devices including Apple’s iPad, iPhone and iPod touch along with Android and the HP TouchPad, HP’s first webOS tablet.

“The exciting growth of the mobile marketplace provides excellent opportunity within the children’s content industry,” said Jens Munk, Managing Director at CFP& Founders Investments. “iStoryTime makes an excellent addition to our portfolio with its proven track record and is well positioned to take advantage of this mobile entertainment revolution.”

The investment finalizes the merger between Santa Barbara-based FrogDogMedia and Germany’s zuuka GmbH, which have combined under the zuuka Group name and will continue to publish under their flagship label iStoryTime. Now, the four founders Susanne and Dirk Busshart, Graham Farrar and Woody Sears join forces to bring the company even further and keep up the leading market position in the children’s book segment.

For more details, check out http://www.istorytimeapp.com/