It's a detective story set in 2076, when everyone in the United States has a secret identity. Our protagonist is a member of the paparazzi, outlaw private investigators who dig up the kind of personal dirt no longer readily available through search engines. It's a mystery with lots of masks, but no superpowers. We know how the story ends, and we think it will take about 10 issues to get there.

All thirty-two pages of The Private Eye by Brian K Vaughan and Marcos Martin, their new comic, is available bow, digitally, in CBR, CBZ or PDF form, without DRM, in English, Spanish or Catalan, as an instant download, and you may pay as much as you are willing to. You can also include a message to Vaughan and Marcos when you do so.

Welcome to their new digital publisher, Panel Syndicate. No payment to Apple, no payment to ComiXology, just to the money collecting services. They recommend 99 cents, but I'm going to hold the line and pay $2.99. In English, PDF. Your mileage may vary.

Is this a new game changer for digital comics? Could Saga ever move here?

UPDATE: About ten minutes after we ran this story, we started getting reports of payment problems on the site. A sudden rush of traffic… maybe it is just the same as ComiXology then.