A big fad that has returned to the comic book industry in recent years is the variant comic book cover. Often a tactic used by publishers to sell multiple copies of the same comic to a single person or convince retailers to purchase extra copies of a comic in return for a high ratio, rare cover of the comic, Archaia Entertainment is taking the variant concept to a whole new place this week with the release of Cyborg 009: Chapter 000.

Cyborg 009 is a popular manga series by Shotaro Ishinomori that began back in 1964 and has since spawned countless animes, video games, films, and more. The original Cyborg 009 manga has sold over 250,000,000 copies worldwide. A new animated movie adaptation produced by Production I.G. was released this past October in Japan. Last year saw the start of a new Cyborg 009 series, entitled Cyborg 009 Conclusion: God’s War. God’s War was intended to give a proper conclusion to Ishinomori’s long running series, 14-years after Ishinomori’s death. Yet even with this finale being done for Cyborg 009, the series’ popularity rages on and Archaia looks to once more bring it to the states with a re-imagining of the classic Japanese superhero tale. Cyborg 009: Chapter 000 is the historic first chapter of the forthcoming Archaia graphic novel coming this summer. When a young man known only by the numerical designation “009” discovers that his body has been cybernetically augmented and “improved” against his will, he must break free from the clutches of The Black Ghost, a secret society hell-bent turning humans into cybernetic weapons of mass destruction for sale to the highest bidder. Written by F.J. DeSanto (The Spirit, Insurgent) and Bradley Cramp (Gattaca, Lord of War) and stunningly illustrated by Marcus To (Huntress, Red Robin) and Ian Herring (Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand), Archaia and Ishimori Productions are proud to present this incredible new take on one of the most famous manga titles of all time.

But the big surprise coming along with Cyborg 009: Chapter 000 is its special and innovative variant cover. Archaia Entertainment has teamed up with Ishinomori Production Inc. and Comixology to deliver the first “truly digital” variant comic book cover. Created specifically for Comixology’s Guided View reading technology, the cover to Cyborg 009: Chapter 000 celebrates the 75th birthday of Shotaro Ishinomori in a very awesome way.

“We can’t think of a better way to celebrate the innovative work of manga legend Shotaro Ishinomori than debuting the groundbreaking ‘truly digital’ variant of Cyborg 009: Chapter 000 by Archaia,” said co-founder of Comixology, John D. Roberts. “We knew that comiXology’s Guided View would play a big role in the evolution of comics storytelling but this ‘truly digital’ variant is an exciting leap into a whole new direction. Here’s to the first of many!”

This is a very innovative idea indeed, and I for one hope to see it applied to more digital comics in the future. What better way to distinguish digital comic releases from physical print releases than by actually taking advantage of the technology in hand. Archaia Editor-in-Chief, Stephen Christy, had the following to say about the digital variant cover, “After changing the way people think about printed books the past few years, one of our missions at Archaia for 2013 is to change the way people think about digital storytelling. What we’ve produced with Comixology for Cyborg 009: Chapter 000 is almost a digital ‘flip book’ cover for the 21st century, with Marcus To and Ian Herring brilliantly bringing to life a fight between Cyborg 009 and an unnamed agent of series villain, The Black Ghost. I can’t wait for comics fans around the world to see what Marcus and Ian have created.” Thankfully fans wont have to wait long, with Chapter 000 already available for digital download on Comixology today. Cyborg 009: Chapter 000 previews Archaia’s full-length hardcover graphic novel before its release this summer, featuring the first 17-pages of the Archaia Cyborg 009 graphic novel, as well as the first 61-pages of the original Cyborg 009 Volume 1 manga, which, along with other works by Ishinomori, are also available for purchase on Comixology. Check out Chapter 000 here, and don’t forget to pick up the full length Archaia Cyborg 009 when it releases this July at San Diego’s Comic Con International.