Well, there was something amazing in the slushpile which I'm pretty sure is a glitch freebie, so enjoy it while it lasts.
Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons, is an award-winning ground-breaking graphic novel that should need absolutely no introduction whatsoever if you've any acquaintance with North American comics at all.
Nevertheless, if you don't, here's a nifty write-up
over at TVTropes (warning, I am not responsible for the hours of your life you will lose following the links there), and the obligatory
Wikipedia entry which explains just some of the history & cultural significance of this work and its creators, etc., etc.
This is a truly wonderful work which transcends genre and medium boundaries and should be experienced at least once if you've any interest in great storytelling (not to mention deconstruction and commentary of the genre and medium it's in), and I personally own three paper copies of this (the magnificent and highly recommended Absolute Edition, the Deluxe edition that came bundled with my Ultimate Collection Blu-Ray of the film, and my really old and worth-every-penny regular trade paperback edition which I bought way back when I was first starting to get into comics).
Anyway, this is free courtesy of publisher DC Comics, as some sort of weird glitch, it looks like (not a pirate edition, but the full legal version complete with a Q&A with artist Dave Gibbons on its product page), as it is definitely not free in any of the other venues that I checked.
Currently free @
Amazon (available to Canadians; this particular edition doesn't seem exist outside of North America, according to the spot-checks I made on various regional Amazon stores).
Incidentally, I'm going to also take the time to highly recommend
Hatoful Boyfriend (
Wikipedia,
TV Tropes, both of which are chock-full of spoilers and I recommend only reading far enough to possibly whet your appetite, if it seems like it might be your kind of thing, which if you like Alan Moore or Grant Morrison or Warren Ellis' usual sort of work, it should be), which is available along with a whole bunch of other games and their soundtracks at the $8 top tier in the current
Humble Bundle Weekly Bundle for Lovers.
It's a visual novel (kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure storytelling game) which on the surface of it looks like a wacky absurdist parody of the genre (it's ostensibly a post-apocalyptic pigeon dating sim), but if you keep with it long enough, turns into a truly incredible genre-deconstructive socio-political commentary mindscrew of Watchmen-esque proportions, with excellent "regular" storytelling and characterization and seemingly throwaway bits that all become relevant and important to the eventually revealed plot which you gradually become clued-in upon underlying all the "WTF did I just read?!" and which makes it all make horrible, terrible, and utterly brilliant sense in the end, to boot.
I bought this on impulse because I figured I might as well bump up my pay-more-than-average pledge by the extra $2 after shelling out for another game in the bundle which I wanted to try, and now consider it to be the very best reading-related purchase I've made thus far this year (compatible with Windows, Mac, & Linux, and it turns out there are some incredibly entertaining Let's Play gaming threads on other forums associated with it).
And this has been the (late!) selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.
Because for obvious reasons I don't need to explain.
Enjoy!
Description
This Hugo Award-winning graphic novel chronicles the fall from grace of a group of super-heroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the super-hero is dissected as the heroes are stalked by an unknown assassin.
One of the most influential graphic novels of all time and a perennial bestseller, WATCHMEN has been studied on college campuses across the nation and is considered a gateway title, leading readers to other graphic novels such as V FOR VENDETTA, BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and THE SANDMAN series.