This week saw the release of two side projects to the Assassin’s Creed universe — one a monthly comic book, the other what appears to be a motion comic or possibly even an animated film or series. Of course, the game Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is mere days away from hitting store shelves, so the time is ripe for Ubisoft to expand its bestselling empire.

Assassin’s Creed: The Fall is a comic book from Wildstorm, an arm of DC Comics. This 3-issue miniseries follows the story of a Russian Assassin named Nikolai Orelov. Unlike Altair and Ezio Auditore, Nikolai is not an ancestor of Desmond Miles. Instead, he’s the ancestor of another modern-day Assassin named Daniel Cross, who witnesses Nikolai’s memories thanks to the “Bleed Effect” as seen in the second game. The historical story is set in late 19th Century St. Petersburg. The Fall, which just released its first issue this week, is written and drawn by both Cameron Stewart and Karl Kerschl.

Assassin’s Creed: Ascendance is a project with quite a bit more mystery about it. All that’s been revealed about this title is the trailer below, by UbiWorkshop, which shows just the briefest of glimpses of an unknown Assassin running along the rooftops of an anonymous city. It’s impossible to tell if this is true animation or just a “motion comic,” like what DC Comics did with Watchmen, and Dark Horse is currently doing with Buffy – Season 8. There is no timeframe for the debut of Ascendance, or any other information on what it really is, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

If you happen to be in Paris, you should consider stopping by the Galerie d’Art Yves Laroche between November 15th and 27th for “Assassin’s Creed: The Exhibition,” a look at more than 20 pieces of the amazing original artwork created by Ubisoft Montreal when developing the three console games in the series.

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I’ve been collecting comicbooks since I was a young teen and I have never lost my love for the superheroes that I have grown up with. Even though I would sometimes stop collecting (the pressures of fatherhood can sometimes be a sobering jerk towards reality and practicality) I never lose track of what is happening to my favorite titles.

What got me surprised though is a new way of presenting comics — and no, it’s not the comic scans that are proliferating on the net right now. Marvel has pioneered the presentation of comics that move. Yes, you read it right — Marvel now offers motion comic books.

The new comics “format” will be made available on both the iPhone and iPod Touch. Basically the presentation here is just like scanned comic but with certain animated frames and also voiceovers for the text. Kids will probably fall in love with this format. But I don’t see the appeal. Marvel, there’s nothing wrong with READING and IMAGINATION.