Nominees were chosen by an advisory board including such folk as Tim Burton, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Neil Gaiman,
Damon Lindelof, Eli Roth, Quentin Tarantino, and Joss Whedon. The winners are chosen by popular cote, which you can do here, with the Screams to be presented at a two-hour Spike-TV extravaganza on October 16.

Comics categories below, and selected other nominees below that (not even the Scream press release has all the categories!)

Best Comic Book or Graphic Novel
Asterios Polyp
Blackest Night
The Boys
Chew
Parker: The Hunter
Scalped
The Walking Dead

Best Comic Book Writer
Jason Aaron
Darwyn Cooke
Garth Ennis
Geoff Johns
Robert Kirkman
Mike Mignola

Best Comic Book Artist
Charlie Adlard
Darwyn Cooke
Fabio Moon
Frank Quitely
Jill Thompson
J.H. Williams III

Best Comic Book Movie:
Iron Man 2
Kick-Ass
The Losers

THE ULTIMATE SCREAM
·    Alice in Wonderland
·    Avatar
·    District 9
·    Inception
·    Iron Man 2
·    Kick-Ass
·    Lost
·    True Blood
·    The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
·    Zombieland

BEST SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE
·    Avatar
·    District 9
·    Inception
·    Iron Man 2
·    Predators
·    The Road

BEST FANTASY MOVIE
·    Alice in Wonderland
·    The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
·    Kick-Ass
·    Toy Story 3
·    The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
·    Where the Wild Things Are

BEST HORROR MOVIE
·    The Crazies
·    A Nightmare on Elm Street
·    Paranormal Activity
·    Shutter Island
·    Thirst
·    Zombieland

BEST TV SHOW
·    Dexter
·    Doctor Who
·    Lost
·    True Blood
·    V

BEST DIRECTOR
·    Neill Blomkamp, District 9
·    Tim Burton, Alice in Wonderland
·    James Cameron, Avatar
·    Roland Emmerich, 2012
·    Christopher Nolan, Inception
·    Martin Scorsese, Shutter Island

BEST SCREAM-PLAY
·    District 9, written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
·    Inception, written by Christopher Nolan
·    Kick-Ass, written by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman
·    Shutter Island, written by Laeta Kalogridis
·    Toy Story 3, written by Michael Arndt
·    Zombieland, written by Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese

Earlier this week the Borders bookstore chain announced its earnings for the quarter ending July 31 and the results were weak, as expected. Sales fell 11.5%, to $526.1 million, with a $51.6 million loss.

The deep declines in total sales and comp sales at Borders compared to a sales decline of 2.6% at Barnes & Noble’s retail stores in the quarter with comps down 0.9%. In its official release, Borders had little to say about its financial performance, choosing instead to focus on the various initiatives it says will better position it to perform in the digital marketplace and for the holiday season. The company did not breakout results between its Walden specialty group and superstores. During the quarter, Borders opened one store and closed two, but previous closings in its Walden unit resulted in the company operating 679 stores at the end of the quarter compared to 886 outlets one year ago. In its conference call, Borders executives said the sales decline at its stores was due to a poor performance by its core trade book category, while bargain books and cafe segments rose.

Sales were up at Borders.com, however, mostly from actual book sales.

Today PW’s Jim Milliot interviews Borders CEO Mike Edwards and interim CFO Glen Tomasczewski on changes they hope to make in order to survive. With digital books taking over the future model, the stores are redefining their product mix:

Edwards said that since there is little chance that sales of print books will increase through its bricks-and-mortar stores, the retailer “needs to redeploy the space” that it has dedicated to trade books. While transforming the stores will take time, Tomasczewski said that the Borders that customers walk into this fall will be much different than the store of fall 2009. The retailer’s Area e digital section will be in all stores by the end of October, more bargain books will be available and the layout is being remade to make it easier to find books, Tomasczewski said. The makeover will include adding approximately 900 new signs per story to help customers navigate their way in the stores. And as reported yesterday, Borders is adding more children’s educational toys and games, adult games and puzzles and more stationery. In addition, Borders will add more open space to create a more relaxed atmosphere, Tomasczewski said.

The average Borders shopper is a woman, which defines the chain as “a family- and community-based destination,” said Edwards.

Borders’ teetering state has been a huge drain on the graphic novel industry this year. It was, arguably, Borders’ aggressive investment in manga, led by then buyer Kurt Hassler, that set the stage for a lot of the expansion of the graphic novel market in the last decade. While publishers have already been preparing for a Border-less world, a huge round of book returns from the chain earlier this year sent many comics publishers into maintenance mode for all of 2010. GIN general, graphic novel sales were one of the few bright spots in bookstore sales over the last decade, with steady growth while other categories remained flat. However, the dwindling of the bookstore environment itself is forcing big changes to every publisher.

But, see also.

DC has released a few pages of SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE, the much-anticipated Superman reboot graphic novel by J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis. The book goes on sale next month.

This is a Superman for the 21st century.

With SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE, Straczynski and Davis inject the folk tale and legend that is Superman’s origin with a modern, vital and forward-looking energy that makes for a refreshing, epic and challenging super-hero adventure.

In SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE – the first original graphic novel retelling Superman’s origin — Clark Kent is a man looking for meaning in a new city and an age of failing newspapers, hand-held devices and instant gratification. But when you can fly through the sky and burn objects with a glance – things become a tad more complicated. Doubly so when a fleet of alien ships arrive on your doorstep.

SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE channels the best tales of Superman with a look toward the future, by two of the brightest talents the industry has to offer.

§ Yesterday Arrant chatted with Hope Larson, who recently revealed the first piece of art for her comics adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time (Meg Murray, above) and talks about the “magical girl” project she’s been hinting about for a while:

I watched a ton of Sailor Moon and Magic Knight Rayearth and read a bunch of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld as inspiration. I’ve been fascinated by girls’ books and silly genre stuff for a long time, and I collect antique girls’ series–the Marjorie Dean books, the Radio Girls book — and I’ve wanted to play with a longer story for a while. Partly that’s because it’s a different type of storytelling than what you get when you sit down and write one complete story, and partly it’s because people often tell me they wish my stories were longer. (Mercury is 240 pages long, and I hear on a regular basis that people want more of that story.) And another reason I want to do a series is because I’m hoping it will enable me to get books out more quickly and more regularly. Keep things rolling.

§ After a long hiatus , an internet jibe prompts Brian Hibbs to finally post to The Savage Critic again. Given that fact that its all-star lineup of critics have mostly moved on to other things — folks like Joe McCulloch, Douglas Wolk and David Uzumeri are busy on other blogs — it’s understandable that TSC has grown quiet of late, but it should stick around if just for the podcasts and Abhay — not to mention Brian. Please!

§ Speaking of podcasts, Brian Heater and Sarah Morean of the Daily Cross Hatch and former Rocketship owner/part time cartoonist Alex Cox have launched one, and it is bound to be worth a listen.

§ The new issue of The Believer has a comics section edited by Alvin Buenaventura , former publisher of the art comix landmark Buenaventura Press, andcontain many fine, fine cartooners, like Charles Burns, Johnathan Bennett and Matt Furie.

§ The Fantagraphics blog begins a series of pieces about cartoonists doing album covers and kicks off with Gilbert Hernandez and Kristen Hersh talking about their various collaborations, including the cover of Limbo:

Janice: So, the expression on his face… How would you describe his emotional state?

Gilbert: Oh jeez, boy. Y’know, I never considered that. I just drew a guy who’s seen a lot of life. That’s pretty much it.

Hersh is also interviewed:

And, my favorite was Gilbert. When we lived in and made records in L.A., I remember reading Heartbreak Soup over and over again, and having that get me through the terrible recording of The Real Ramona, which was a nightmare to record, personally and professionally. It was sort-of an interesting nightmare, but still. L.A. plus nightmare does not equal a happy girl. Heartbreak Soup somehow embraced the hell and the heat, and yet spun it in this beautiful, gutsy fashion that I think allowed my record The Real Ramona to not suffer the affects of the horrible recording process that it was. And I was always grateful to Beto for that.

§ Also at Flog, Anne Ishii interviewing Johnny Ryan about Detroit Metal City, the popular satirical heavy metal manga:

AI: What do you think is more offensive: Krauser’s casual threats to “rape filthy sows,” or the thought of the lead singer of a popular metal band being a virgin?

JR: I feel like I’m one of the regular members of the DMC audience, in that no matter what pathetic thing Krauser does it must have some super-malevolent purpose. So, that said, the reason he’s a virgin is because he’s far too evil to engage in sex with a human woman.

§ Finishing up our FBI linkage, here’s Shaenon T. Garrity on Shary Flenniken

§ This piece by Chris Sims about a ’90s card set spotlighting future stars is full of shocking revelations about the past and future.

§ One more for the podcasts: Marvel’s Joe Quesada celebrates his 10-year-anniversary with an interview and a cool painting by Alex Maleev.

Mark Waid has reconstructed his controversial Harvey night speech and made what he was getting at much clearer:

“Yes, Professor Waid, you hippie freak, sharing is all well and good, but how does that pay my bills?”

I know. I know. We all still should be financially compensated for hard work so we can keep doing this and make a decent living. No argument. And that brings us back around to filesharing. If you’re genuinely morally indignant about this issue, I understand and respect that. But I worry that a lot of the moral indignation I hear over filesharing is just a way of trying to mask our panic over how our ability to make a living with our art is quickly eroding under the current business models. And I understand that fear. I really, truly do.

Look, if you are in comics just to make money, I can respect that. Honestly, no sarcasm. But if you are here to create a sustainable living for yourself while at the same time finding some way to give back to the world, then filesharing is not a problem…it’s an opportunity.

Like it or not, downloading is here. Torrents and filesharing are here. That’s not going away. I’m not here to attack it or defend it–I’m not going to change anyone’s mind either way, and everyone in America at this point has anecdotal evidence “proving” how it hurts or helps the medium–but I am here to say it isn’t going away–and fear of it, fear of filesharing, fear of illegal downloading, fear of how the internet changes publishing in the 21st century, that’s a legitimate fear, because we’re all worried about putting food on the table and leaving a legacy for our children, but we’re using our energy on something we can’t stop, because filesharing is not going away.

Much more in the link. Perhaps if Waid had said all this on Saturday, there wouldn’t have been any confrontations, just nodding.

See also David Brothers’ essay on digital comics today on Comics Alliance: Please, Just Kiss Digital Comics On The Mouth Already.:

Here’s the problem with that: Digital comics are not there to support retailers. They are a competitor. They are the new gunslinger in town to blow the head off the old gunslinger. They’re the person trying to break up your marriage. Netflix doesn’t hold back on content, let publishers set ridiculous prices, or send customers to Blockbuster, so why should digital comics do the same?

It’s a common talking point precisely because digital comics are a huge threat to retailers, and since the Direct Market depends on retailers to sell comics, they don’t want to anger their biggest business partners. That’s totally fair; you don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you, and you don’t want to count your digital distribution eggs before they hatch. But at the same time, (and to continue the increasingly ill-advised New Girl In the Building comparison): if you keep holding back and selling yourself short, you’ll eventually be left with nothing. If the digital effort continues to be a half-effort, the failure of digital comics will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. At some point, you need to either make your move or give up.

In the meantime, comics creators were still feeling vaguely uneasy about the entire landscape of comics selling, as writer Chris Gage showed in a few twitters earlier today:

Man, I just looked at the July comics sales numbers and they’re depressing. The economy is a huge part of that but piracy has to be too… I don’t wanna get into a big debate about illegally downloading comics, don’t have the time or energy, but I’ll say this: if you illegally download a comic, especially a low or mid seller, you are voting for it to END. That’s all. Back to work.

With comics sales back to the same levels as the dark days of 1999, it’s fair to ask if piracy is to blame — even though comics were being scanned and downloaded 11 years ago, it probably wasn’t as widespread or socially accepted as it is now.

Developing…

When Harvey Pekar died on July 12th, he was revealed in death to be a figure more influential and revered than he would ever have dared hope in life. He left a literary legacy as well as a wealth of projects in the pipeline. And he also left some awkwardness, as Dave Itzkoff in the New York Times writes in a revealing piece entitled The Unsettled Afterlife of Harvey Pekar:

His obsessive drive combined with the sheer number of his collaborations produced a two-dimensional record of his shaggy life, rendered in varying styles by numerous illustrators. Now only his widow and the artists he worked with are left to narrate his final chapter, a tale of bruised feelings and allegations of opportunism, with nothing more at stake than the writer’s modest legacy. But no matter how it plays out, Mr. Pekar is bound to emerge as enigmatic as ever.

Part of the problem stems from a personality conflict between Pekar’s soulmate and artistic collaborator, Joyce Brabner, and Tara Seibel, one of the artists on the webcomic, The Pekar Project. There’s also some discussion of the matter of the day, as The Pekar Project was done under the no money upfront/book deal back-end project.

The arrangement was different from what Mr. Pekar and Ms. Brabner were used to. “People think that they should get paid up front especially when they have a history of getting paid up front,” said Mr. Haspiel, who runs his own Web comics site, act-i-vate.com. But Mr. Pekar agreed to it because “he understood that you have to promote yourself, and you have to be out there constantly,” Mr. Haspiel said. “Not only working with Joyce.”

The piece paints a rather unsettled picture of Pekar’s affairs, which includes a wealth of material yet to come out. In addition to a projected Pekar Project collection, there’s Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland, illustrated by Joseph Remnant; Huntington, West Virginia, ‘On the Fly’ and Harvey and Joyce’s Big Book of Marriage, which will be published by Random House. Brabner herself is finishing Not the Israel My Parents Promised, to be illustrated by JT Waldman, which FSG will publish.

Please note, The Beat is an official sponsor of the event, and we’re proud to be involved with what looks to be an informative symposium on the biggest issue of the day. A new day has dawned, and no one wants to be left in the dark. More info here and official pr below:

ICv2 has announced the ICv2 Comics & Digital Conference at New York Comic Con, a half-day event where industry executives and thought leaders will discuss the impact of the rapidly growing digital channel on the comics and graphic novel medium. 
 
“This year, it seemed critical to offer an event to look at the fastest-growing part of the comics and graphic novel business—digital—to examine where it is, where it’s going, and what it’s going to do to print,” ICv2 President Milton Griepp said.  “Everyone in the industry, from creators to publishers to retailers and librarians, has an interest in this topic.” 
 
The Conference, to be held at the Javits Center on Thursday, October 7th, on the eve of New York Comic Con, will kick off with a preview of the 2010 ICv2 White Paper, looking at the comics and graphic novel business so far this year, including digital sales. 
 
“Digital Comics and Graphic Novels” will bring together a panel of digital comic and graphic novel companies to discuss the present and future of digital comics and graphic novels.
 
In “Print vs. Digital—War, Co-existence, or Collaboration,” publishers, retailers, and others talk about how the digital revolution will impact print sales.   
 
A fourth session will be announced soon.
 
Speakers will include the CEOs of all four major digital comic companies (Comixology, Graphic.ly, iVerse, and Panelfly), comic and graphic novel publishers, retailers, and more.
 
Affordable ticket prices give the Conference a high return on investment.
 
Transcontinental Printing returns as the event sponsor of the ICv2 Conference, joined by Publisher’s Weekly and Heidi MacDonald’s Beat. 

Transcontinental, in addition to sponsoring the event, will host its signature Transcontinental Printing Cocktail Party at 5 p.m., a time when attendees, speakers, and panelists can meet, mingle, network, and talk about the events of the day. 

 
For More Information
For more information about the conference, or to contact us to inquire about speaking or sponsorship opportunities, click here, or e-mail Mgriepp@ICv2.com.  For general information about New York Comic Con, please contact Roger Bilheimer at bilheim@aol.com. 

More information available here!

Following lengthy discussion and behind-the-scenes debate, Diamond has announced that street dates are available for all retailers now: comics will be shipped Tuesday for a Wednesday on-sale. Stores who don’t want to participate can stick with Wednesday delivery.

Larger stores have had the option of Tuesday delivery through Diamond for several years.

UPDATE: The idea of a $5 a week charge for “mystery shoppers” to police street dates is still under review.

We’ll have more on this story with industry reactions in today’s PW Comics Week. PR below.

Effective in January, 2011, Diamond retailers in North America and the UK will have the option of “day-early” delivery of weekly product shipments on Tuesdays for sale on Wednesdays.

Day-early delivery – which was outlined to retailers in the form of a Q&A following Diamond’s Retailer Summit in April — will take effect with shipments delivered on Tuesday, January 11, that have a scheduled on-sale date of Wednesday, January 12.

Please Note: The current industrywide Wednesday new release day will remain unchanged, and retailers who do not wish to use the new option may continue to receive their shipments on Wednesdays.

“Our decision to proceed with day-early, Tuesday-for-Wednesday delivery resulted from positive discussions with leading publishers and vendors, from retailer requests and feedback, and from retailer responses to our recent survey on the topic,” explained Diamond Vice President of Sales & Marketing Roger Fletcher.

In that survey, retailers were asked how they thought the day-early option would affect their business and the Direct Market. “Of more than 1,000 retailers who responded to the survey,” Fletcher said, “75% believe day-early delivery will benefit their business, while 72% believe it will benefit the entire Direct Market.”

The survey also asked retailers: “If given the choice between Monday delivery for Tuesday on-sale, and Tuesday delivery for Wednesday on-sale, what would be your preference?” Retailers could choose between the two options, or for “Either Monday for Tuesday or Tuesday for Wednesday.”
 
“The number of respondents who selected Tuesday delivery for Wednesday on-sale and the ‘Either’ option totaled 63%,” Fletcher said, “while those selecting the Monday-for-Tuesday alternative and the ‘Either’ option totaled 38%. This encouraging consensus has convinced us that moving forward with day-early delivery for Wednesday on-sale holds considerable advantages for vendors, retailers, and the industry.”

With the implementation of day-early delivery, Diamond will also initiate a “mystery shopper” program to ensure that participating retailers abide by the industrywide Wednesday release date for books received on Tuesday.

Fletcher urged retailers to “stay tuned” to Diamond Daily and Diamond Dateline for more details about registering for the day-early delivery option.

Additionally, Diamond has announced that — working in concert with vendors — Diamond will deliver product on its normal Wednesday schedule in December.  The first shipment of 2011 will arrive after the New Year’s holiday on Wednesday, January 5. Day-early shipping will commence the following week.

“During the holidays, our retailers and their customers depend upon Diamond to keep the newest and hottest product flowing into stores, and we’d like to thank our vendors for working with us to maintain our regular schedule,” Fletcher said. “We’d also like to thank our vendors and our customers for working with us to get 2011 off to a great start by making the day-early shipping option a reality. We look forward to a smooth transition to what we feel will be a highly beneficial and profitable service.”

BEST WRITER — Robert Kirkman, “THE WALKING DEAD”, Image Comics

BEST ARTIST — Robert Crumb, “BOOK OF GENESIS”, W.W. Norton

BEST CARTOONIST — Darwyn Cooke, “RICHARD STARK’S PARKER: THE HUNTER”, IDW

BEST LETTERER– David Mazzucchelli, “ASTERIOS POLYP”, Pantheon


BEST INKER — Klaus Janson, “AMAZING SPIDER-MAN”, Marvel Comics

BEST COLORIST — Laura Martin, “THE ROCKETEER: THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES”, IDW

BEST COVER ARTIST — Mike Mignola, “HELLBOY: THE BRIDE OF HELL”, Dark Horse Comics

BEST NEW TALENT — Rob Guillory, “CHEW”, Image Comics

BEST NEW SERIES — CHEW, Image Comics

BEST CONTINUING OR LIMITED SERIES — “THE WALKING DEAD”, Image Comics

BEST ORIGINAL GRAPHIC PUBLICATION FOR YOUNGER READERS — “THE MUPPET SHOW COMIC BOOK”, BOOM! Studios

BEST ANTHOLOGY “WEDNESDAY COMICS”, DC Comics

BEST ORIGINAL GRAPHIC ALBUM — “ASTERIOS POLYP”, by David Mazzucchelli, Pantheon

BEST PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED GRAPHIC ALBUM — “MICE TEMPLAR VOLUME 1″, by Bryan J.L. Glass and Michael Avon Oeming, Image Comics

BEST SYNDICATED STRIP OR PANEL “MUTTS”, by Patrick McDonnell, King Features Syndicate

BEST DOMESTIC REPRINT PROJECT — “THE ROCKETEER: THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES”, by Dave Stevens; edited by Scott Dunbier,

BEST AMERICAN EDITION OF FOREIGN MATERIAL — “THE ART OF OSAMU TEZUKA: GOD OF MANGA”, by Helen McCarthy, Abrams ComicArts

BEST ON-LINE COMICS WORK — “PVP”, by Scott Kurtz, http://www.pvponline.com

SPECIAL AWARD FOR HUMOR IN COMICS — Bryan Lee O’Malley, “SCOTT PILGRIM #5″, Oni Press

SPECIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRESENTATION — “THE ROCKETEER: THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES”, by Dave Stevens, edited by Scott Dunbier, IDW

BEST BIOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL OR JOURNALISTIC PRESENTATION — “ART OF HARVEY KURTZMAN: THE MAD GENIUS OF COMICS”, by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle, Abrams ComicArts

BEST SINGLE ISSUE OR STORY — “ASTERIOS POLYP”, by David Mazzucchelli, Pantheon

It was mostly pep talk, partly an entreaty “not to be afraid of the future when we can still affect it.” On that part, it was hard to find fault.

But at least one other attendee, namely Sergio Aragones, a cartoonist whose name is regularly preceded by the word “legendary,” took issue with Waid’s idea that ideas should be free. After the speech, according to witnesses, Aragones went over to Waid and the two had a heated exchange. While we heard several reports of various folks storming out and slamming doors, we also heard that after all was said and done, Aragones and Waid literally hugged and made up.

We had a chance to talk to Sergio later on — it was an off the cuff conversation in the middle of a rather chaotic night (the Hyatt bar was shut down early and everyone was in a tizzy). Paraphrasing here a bit, but Sergio was advocating more for the idea that the spread of free content has devalued content, making it harder for people to make a living at it. He said a couple of things that I tried to jot down, one that (I’m paraphrasing) “quality has to be considered again” and the one I tweeted “If you give everything away for free, you have ruined everything.”

This wasn’t a real hard and fast pronouncement, but rather a reflection, I think, of the devalued media world of content farms, user-generated content and “doing it for the exposure,” — anti-income-generating measures that leave many of the creative types I know scrambling for 20 different ways to make a living.

Which isn’t to say it’s bad. It just is. Aragones and Waid are both right. It’s part of a conversation I’ve been having with many people this weekend, and most people seem to think that we’re living in a world where IP is the only sure currency — the Waidian view, as it were. The Aragonesian Principle is more that you have to be aggressive about valuing your IP – and getting paid for SOMETHING.

Dirk Deppey and Lea Hernandez, among others, got into a late night discussion of the Aragones quote, which, given the out of left field context it was presented in, was more of a webcomics-centric argument. Deppey wrote:

I’d go so far as to say that, right now, giving it wawy and selling merchandise at the back end…..is the de facto method for self-supporting, self-published cartoonists in ANY medium.

….true as far as it goes. But we live in a world where popular, loved cartoonists can’t make a living just selling comics for people to read. It may be SOP for all creative people, but it’s infinitely more complex than Jack Kirby’s world: Make a good comic, get it seen by a movie company or ad agency or whatever and get them to pay you a lot of money to do something, go back and do another free comics, rinse and repeat.

More later.

Forget about THE LOSERS or IRON MAN 2 or SCOTT PILGRIM or any other 2010 comics movie, TAMARA DREWE is the comic book movie event of the year — at least for indie comics snobs. Based on Posy Simmonds’ much-admired graphic novel, the film debuts in the US on October 8th, courtesy of Sony Classics in the US. (It opens in September 10th in Simmonds’ native UK.)

Based loosely on Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd, the film stars former Bond girl Gemma Arterton and was directed by Stephen Fears.

PR below:

Image Comics enters the digital market today with the launch of the Image Comics app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. The app, developed on the leading digital comic book platform by comiXology, allows fans unprecedented digital access to the creator-owned comics that Image proudly publishes.
 
The partnership between Image and comiXology offers Image creators a direct line to digital distribution. Among the independent content now available digitally are Image’s most popular titles, including SAVAGE DRAGON, CHEW, BATTLE POPE and Rob Liefeld’s YOUNGBLOOD. The Image Comics app will also be the first to feature work from Todd McFarlane with the inclusion of HAUNT, created in collaboration with Robert Kirkman (THE WALKING DEAD, INVINCIBLE).
 
“With the launch of the Image Comics app, we have an opportunity to provide our creators with the digital support that, for many of them, was unattainable before,” says Image Publisher Eric Stephenson. “comiXology has established a very impressive track record of bringing independent content into the digital world. Today represents a milestone in our growth as a company and enables us to increase the availability of the fantastic titles we publish.”
 
“Our partnership with Image is indicative of our shared vision to help independent creators thrive in the traditional print community as well as the explosive digital marketplace,” adds David Steinberger, CEO of comiXology. “The demand for creator-owned content is at an all time high, and we are thrilled to be able to provide fans with what they want. We’re lucky now to work directly with Image and to offer the creators a clear path to the digital market.”
 
The Image Comics app is now available for free download from the iTunes App Store. In addition to individual issues for ongoing series, which are priced for $1.99, Image will also offer fans issues of several popular Image titles, sneak peeks of upcoming titles, and other exclusive content for free.