Ligeia was created in the summer of 2006 in Italy, inspired by the story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe. The plan was that this vampire "with a touch of irony", drawn in a style echoing the work of Alex Toth and Frank Miller, would be the kind of work an Italian publisher interested in publishing a graphic novel by Rodrigo would like. Unfortunately, neither of the two projects were realized and have been buried on Rodrigo's computer for some time. Then, when he put some of the pages of comicspace.com, a lot of people told him that they liked the character.

Ligeia is inspired by various sources. Poe first, mainly to capture as much as possible the environment with the use of black and white in high contrast. There's also elements of the Lovecraft, especially his lesser known work "Medusa's Coil" ( by Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop, read it online), more than anything because Ligeia's hair moves in a lively, bizarre way.

The strip also pays homage to movies like La Maschera del Demonio), directed by Lamberto Bava, more than anything because of the use of black and white in that film. Physically, Ligeia is a blend between Barbara Steele and Edwige Feneche and other actresses of the Golden Age of film.

Rodrigo decided to make Edgar a pet cat to avoid the horrible cliches of Igor in some bad movies. As a character it works well: cats have an extraordinary personality. "They do not need to interpret any role, since they are the role," he says.

The story comes with the Nazis after reading the book Hanussen, a Jew in the court of the Third Reich. Rodrigo was astonished by this bizarre character, a Jew who was the magician of many senior Nazis, but hated by Gobbels who considered him a charlatan. Hanussen believed in The Temple of the Uunseen, but made the mistake one night at a party having a vision and predicting that a building would be burned, causing a major sea change in the Weimar Republic. One day later someone set fire to the Reichstag and Hitler came to power. Shortly afterward, Hannusen was found shot dead in a park. (more about Hannusen here on Wikipedia. Werner Herzog made a movie about him in 2001 starring Tim Roth, and there have been others).

There is a definite morality to the comic although Rodrigo leaves the reader to choose whose morality they favour. Ligeia is a vampire, so in theory, evil. On the other side are the Nazis sent by Himmler, and those who might be the traditional heroes are a band of mercenaries, all united bya desire to loot the gold of the vampire.

"This series was born at time of many changes," says Rodrigo. "Gradually, publishers are leaving paper behind and transferring their attention to the massive audience potential of the web cell phones and the iPhone."

Any decision on the quality of the strip Rodrigo leaves in you hands, cordially inviting you to read... Ligeia!

The report, published this week, reveals that over half the world now uses a mobile phone and predicts that 80% of the world's population – 5.8 billion people - will be doing so by the end of 2013. Put into perspective, 5.8 billion mobile phones represents more than twice the total, combined, number of TV sets and PC’s globally. Among the top 20 growth markets there are few surprises, the report says.

China wins the top spot, just ahead of India. These two countries alone are expected to contribute over 1 billion additional mobile phone users in the next 5 years. Africa, the Middle East and Latin America are also expected to experience high growth, estimated at 13.3%, 10.7% and 9.9% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate), respectively.

Meanwhile, despite rising mobile data revenues, mobile ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) continues to decline, and is predicted to fall from $23.20 in 2005 to $15.80 by the end of 2013, largely because the additional subscriber growth is likely to come from low per capita income markets. Nokia, the world’s leading handset manufacturer, shipped 437 million handsets in 2007, while Samsung has displaced Motorola from the number 2 spot. In the first two quarters of 2008, LG displaced Sony Ericsson from the number 4 spot.

Commenting on the report, Laurence Alexander, Group CEO of ROK said “We are enthused by the Portio report as it highlights not just the staggering and continuing growth of the mobile industry, but also the increasing need of operators and manufacturers alike to develop non-voice revenue streams, which is exactly what we offer”.

ROK Entertainment Group Inc., (OTCBB: ROKE) founded in 2004 and owners of ROK Comics, is a global mobile entertainment group. With approximately 200 staff worldwide, ROK has filed more than 40 international patents for its suite of innovative mobile technologies. With 3.3 billion mobile handsets in use worldwide, the mobile entertainment industry is a multi-billion dollar business. ROK TV enables the streaming of live and on-demand TV to mobile phones over mass-market 2.5G, as well as over 3G and Wi-Fi.

More Info: www.rokent.com

More Ligeia by Rodrigo D. Ricci at: www.rokcomics.com/ligeia.php

More Ligeia by Rodrigo D. Ricci at www.rokcomics.com/ligeia.php

More Ligeia by Rodrigo D. Ricci at www.rokcomics.com/ligeia.php

Marking a major change in the way ROK Comics promotes its comics to mobile service, almost all the comics on the web site (www.rokcomics.com) are now Free To View online.

ROK Comics, which offers comic creators and comic publishers the means to create comics in a format suitable for mobile phone presentation via WAP sites, is also making strips viewable via its web site in an ad-supported format. The online versions of the strips can be embedded on almost any web site using players similar to many video sharing sites such as ROK’s own Newsjack.tv service or sites such as YouTube.

“We have allowed limited viewing of Pro Comics online since the service began last year,” explains Managing Editor John Freeman, “but an opportunity has arisen for us to promote the service in an ad-supported format on the web, and we’ve chosen to try that route.

“We think this is an appropriate move for ROK Comics,” added ROK Media CEO Graham Baines. “It enables full promotion of most of the comic brands we feature.”

There will be some territorial and contractual restrictions on certain strips being published under license but top independent creator strips such as David Fletcher’s humour strip Crumb, Ian Gibson’s quirky Annie Droid, Chris Reynolds’ superheroine series Moon Queen, Rich Diesslin’s Mobile Gospel, Kennedy Rose’ hilarious Anomaly, Rodrigo Ricci’s vampire tale Ligeia, John Maybrury’s SpaceBabe and Josh Alves’ Tastes Like Chicken are now viewable in full online.

“Reaction to the change has been positive,” says John. “From the outset, we knew ROK Comics was at the forefront of a new development for comics, bringing them to mobile, and the past year has been a tremendous and exciting learning curve.

“Many creators have been very positive about comics on mobile, recognising the potential of a huge market that big comics publishers are just beginning to wake up to. Like us, they see mobile comics as a way of raising awareness of their creations in a format that reaches many new readers, and the potential, ultimately, for making money from this new form. “Many see mobile a great way to promote their characters and strips, complementing their other distribution methods.”

Creators and publisher will share in any paid-for ad revenues generated by the online presentation, just as they already share revenue on WAP subscription page views from ROK’s mobile subscriber services operated in partnership with key telecoms such as Telenor, Exact Mobile and retailers such as Claires. Hand in hand with changes noted above, the ROK Comics design team have transformed the main subscription-based WAP site (wap.rokcomics.com). For pricing details in your country go to www.rokcomics.com/subscribe.php.

In the UK, for a free trial of the service on your mobile, text COMIC to 83736. For a full subscription text COMIC SUB to 83736. The UK subscription price is just £3 a month. You need to bookmark the site when you follow the link you are sent.

ABOUT ROK COMICS

• ROK Comics on Mobile (www.rokcomics.com) is a mobile comics publishing solution enabling comics' creators and publishers to syndicate their works to mobile phone users worldwide. The service opens up huge worldwide commercial opportunities for all comic creators, artists, writers and publishers. The ROK Comics Creator Tool is also offered as a standalone ‘sticky’ content feature for a variety of companies and was utilised last year by UK TV network ITV to promote I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.

With access to hundred of millions of handsets through existing Mobile Network Operator Agreements, ROK Comics can deliver digital comics straight to mobile handsets and collect revenue for doing so. ROK Comics is a new opportunity for publishers and creators to reach a worldwide audience who will be able to download the comics via Pay Per Download or subscription via Multi Media Messaging (MMS) and WAP.

Creators publishing professionally via ROK Comics will receive up to 50% of the available revenue on every sale, with full access to sales statistics, viewings and more. In addition to several licensed comics that are being offered via ROK Comics, publishers can also create Free Samples of strips that can be viewed online and on mobile to promote their print editions, and let fans know about them by e-mail, and also provide an "Embed" of a strip, which can be posted on web sites, blog or company site.

Publishing partners include King Features, Egmont, the Mirror and Express national UK newspapers and comics publisher Markosia.

• ROK Comics, managed by ROK Media Ltd, is part of ROK Entertainment Group, founded in 2004, a global mobile entertainment group. With approximately 200 staff worldwide, ROK has filed more than 40 international patents for its suite of innovative mobile technologies. With 3 billion mobile handsets in use worldwide, the mobile entertainment industry is a multi-billion dollar business. ROK TV enables the streaming of live and on-demand TV to mobile phones over mass-market 2.5G, as well as over 3G and Wi-Fi.

Published by UNESCO in partnership with EDGE G3 Ltd., The Case of the Spoilsports, published in English, Spanish and French, stars Rattus Holmes and his assistant Dr. Felis Watson and dramatizes UNESCO's anti-doping role and explores the importance of the International Convention against Doping in Sport, adopted by UNESCO's member states in 2005.

The characters come from the pen of Sheffield artist, Mychailo Kazybrid who has been involved in the cartoon and comic book industry for over 30 years, with work covering a variety of licensed characters from Shaun the Sheep, Wallace & Gromit, The Tick to Duckula, Dangermouse and the Bash St. Kids, to name but a few. He also publishes his own strip, Do-Do Man, on the comics-to-mobile service ROK Comics.

"When Ed Chatelier of EDGE G3 Ltd, provided the script, he wanted something different, and the idea was to take a new approach to something that was already well known." Mychailo explains. "So we came up with the pets of the famous having an encounter with pets of the infamous, with my partner, Sarah Sier naming the characters. When the rat and cat belonging to Holmes and Watson have to take on the evil bird of Moriarty, anything could happen!"

With the colour work produced by fellow artist Richard Thomas the story is in five chapters, published weekly.

Inspired by the famous detective stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it will trace how twin athletes react differently to the pressures of competitive sport. One gives in immediately to the pressure put on him by his trainer and teammates, while the other athlete suffers as a result of the use of performance enhancing drugs by his competitors. From one sports event to the next, the plot will lead us to the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Having also produced Rattus Holmes and the Case of the World Water Crisis, artwork is already being put together for the character's third adventure.

• View the strip on the UNESCO Social and Human Sciences website

• Check out the Back from the Depths web site

• You can view all the comics on ROK Comics on your mobile by subscribing to the WAP service for a small monthly fee - $4 in the US, £3 in the UK, other countries also served. Simply visit this page on the ROK Comics site and choose the subscribe option. When you receive a WAP push message to your mobile, connect to the site using that link using your browser, bookmark it -- and you'll be subscribed to ROK Comics Mobile for the next month.

Mobile service Fonepark is offering a number of 'wallpapers' for mobile featuring the likes of William Shatner, Jeri Ryan, Robert Picardo and many others, along with TV theme ring tones and more.

More SF celebrities will be added to the service in coming months.

Fonepark is also set to add wallpapers by top comics artists already creating comics for mobile, complementing existing comics and magazine-sourced imagery from titles such as Look and Learn and The Bible Story.

For even more Dreadman madness, check out David's web site: chillinwithdreadman.com. But be warned, David puls no punches when talking about anything and everything --  politics, relationships, sex, gas prices, terrorist plots, new products, stupid criminals, drugs, natural healing, race relations, celebrities and people you’ve never heard of. Click on a volume, chill and enjoy!

David is relatively new to the comic world. While you may not know his face, you likely know his voice from dozens of TV shows, commercials and award shows like Showtime at the Apollo, as well as some of the most popular vide games on the market.

So how did he get into comics? "I spent many years as a radio personality, able to comment and joke about what was going on in the world," he told ebonyjet. "I've been off the air for a number of years now and think I finally just needed an outlet for what I see and feel about the world we live in with out having to actually write a book that no one would read.

"I have to give a nod to Barack Obama also. His victory speech after winning Iowa inspired the first Chillin With Dreadman comic that I sent out to a few friends who were foolish enough say that they liked it and that I should do more. Since then I've created almost 200 cartoons and see no end in sight."

With the number of mobile phone subscribers close to 108 million, or 85 percent of Japan's population, carriers there are already finding e-mail, music downloads and web surfing hugely popular, and are looking for new opportunities to make money in a highly competitive market - and that includes comics.

Mobile Comics led the size of the Japanese mobile publication market to double in the last business year to 22 billion yen ($204 million), according to Internet and media research firm Impress R&D, almost three times bigger than the e-publication market for PCs.

"Until now, users had been extensively using mobile phones for email," Shinko Securities analyst Tomohiko Okugawa told Reuters. "Now that's shifting to games and comics ... This is the area that's going to be very interesting."

"The importance of content has been growing," agreed Toshitake Amamiya, general manager of telecom KDDI's content and media division. "It's crucial to pursue what we can do in this market where each adult always carries around a mobile phone and uses it as a life tool."

The Mobile Comic phenomenon is not restricted to commuters aboard trains into Tokyo or Osaka. Comics on mobile aren’t just proving popular in Japan," argues John Freeman, also Managing Editor of comics-on-mobile service ROK Comics. "Translations of strips first published on ROK Comics for China have proven very popular in recent months. "Selling comics on mobile to traditional comics readers is, surprisingly, a hard sell," he acknowledges. "It's hard to beat the beauty and versatility of the printed comic page either online or on mobile. But reaching a new, wider audience who have always read newspaper cartoons but never set foot in a comic shop is proving the key to making mobile comics a success.

"Webcomics creators argue a hardcore fan set of a couple of thousand readers is enough to turn a profit online (largely through sales of strip-related merchandise such as collections, t-shirts etc.) so the potential revenues are strong," he argues.

"What we’re finding is that mobile comics are popular even in countries where there is no traditional print-based or web comic industry, and mobile reaches far more people than even web comic creators reach via PC delivery.

ROK Comics provides both a platform for licensed comic content including Andy Capp, Roy of the Rovers and Garth, and the tools for independent comic creators to upload their own comics, promoting their characters on mobile using a comic creator tool which also enable web blog and web site publication. The sale of downloads and WAP page views are creditted to creators' accounts, with profits on sales shared equally between ROK and the creator.

"Delivering comics on mobile in the West is achievable - we’ve been doing that for over a year," says Freeman, "but creators and publishers do need to take on board the creative challenges imposed by small screen delivery."

• More about creating comics for mobile on the ROK Comics web site

It includes some other links which may be of interest to would be or indeed existing webcomic creators.

If you've got any thoughts on the subject yourself, please feel free to leave your comments here.

And talking of webcomics, what better moment than to mention Ian Stacey's arrival on ROK Comics, a much-praised cartoonist with a great eye for fun. Welcome aboard, Ian!

The Best of Roy of the Rovers: The 1980s [Titan Books, 13 June 2008, £9.99] is the first in a brand new series of bumper volumes collecting Roy’s thrilling comic strip escapades. Featuring some of Roy’s greatest matches and adventures from the early 1980s, this incredible collection is a must-have for footie fans of all ages. Thrill once more to the roar of the crowd, as Roy and Melchester Rovers face trials and tribulations on and off the pitch, including the threat of relegation, Roy’s marriage troubles, and an assassin’s bullet!

Collected together with an introduction from Gary Lineker, these are the tales that endeared Roy of the Rovers to a generation.

WIN ROY OF THE ROVERS BOOKS!

Thanks to the great team at Titan Books, ROK Comics has TWO copies of the Best of the Roy of the Rovers to be won!

Simply answer the question below and send us your entry by email via to arrive no later than 12 noon GMT Thursday 19 June 2008. (Alternatively, send your answer on a postcard to Roy of the Rovers competition, First Floor, King's Yard, High Street, Lancaster LA1 1LA). Good luck!

Who is credited with creating Roy of the Rovers?

• For information on Roy of the Rovers visit the official website www.royoftherovers.com

• Roy of the Rovers: England Manager is also being serialized via ROK Comics

Keni has strong views on art of any kind. "Art is a process more than a product," he feels. "It doesn't start with the paint, nor does it end with the picture. The process starts in the heart of the artist and continues in the viewer where spirits, minds and emotions interact through the body of work; testifying to the notion that paint, pastel, bronze, and now, digital art, are indeed mediums.

"Art can be a powerful force for social change," he adds. "Knowing this, I tend to create work that revolves around personal and global matters of concern. It’s my way of enlightening, while creatively promoting an awareness in my viewers that hopefully inspire to take action."

• View the animation on YouTube

• Read MuseToons on ROK Comics

• Visit the official MuseToons web site

Highway Robbery features the adventures of ape bounty hunter Pubba Gintaro, as he defends the population of Hounddog City from its tyrannical Elvis fixated bovine oppressor... King Burger! (who first appeared as a character for the Rok Comics Mobile Combat game, designed by Stu Smith). "The strip is exclusive to Bulletproof and will be updated every weekend," says David. "If you get the chance, pop along and have a look and tell us what you think!"

• Comment on Highway Robbery on the downthetubes forum (membership required)

The first-of-its-kind study by Northeastern University raises privacy and ethical questions for its monitoring methods, which would be illegal in the United StateResearchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home.

The first-of-its-kind study by Northeastern University raises privacy and ethical questions for its monitoring methods, which would be illegal in the United States.

Read the full story:  http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20080604/ap_on_sc/sci_cell_phone_tracking

ROK Comics offers the means to create comics you can download to your mobile or view on our WAP service (wap.rokcomics.com). ROK Comics also delivers partner services across the globe with operations in China, Pakistan, South Africa and elsewhere.

Many of the comics created on the ROK Comics service can be read online, although some have been set to "download" by their creators or publishers.To view them, you need to subscribe to the WAP service (information below).

We also create "white label" comics services for commercial partners. in 2007 ROK Comics provided a comics service for ITV's I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and we are also delivering a WAP comics service to UK retail partner Claire's.

Subscribe to the ROK Comics WAP Service

You can view all the comics on ROK Comics on your mobile by subscribing to our WAP service for a small monthly fee - £3 in the UK.

Simply visit this page on the ROK Comics site and choose the subscribe option. When you receive a WAP push message to your mobile, connect to the site using that link using your browser, bookmark it -- and you'll be subscribed to ROK Comics Mobile for the next month.

Yes, it's really that simple. Please note, the link we send is exclusive to your phone, so don't lose it!