Digital Comics

A common comment often heard around the con floor is "Why doesn't Marvel Studios do more to promote the COMICS with all those movies?"...

As digital comics have become a cornerstone of comics reading, several companies have offered their own version of a technology which allows the panels to transition for digital reading. Comixology has "Guided View," Marvel has its Unlimited technology; iVerse offers uView. The iVerse systems can be applied by users to comics viewed through their platforms, and Comixology also allows publishers to adapt their own comics. Yugoslavian software developer Zoran Bosnjak writes to inform us of a new open source software that allows you to apply this kind of technology to any comic. It's called Comic Smart Panels Creator & Viewer (available for Windows for now) which allows fluid panel animations and scaling for any kind of comic. Balloon sequence can also be defined, as seen with the Thrillbent comics and other "ecomics" platforms.

Quick, which publishers are the pioneers of digital comics? You might think IDW or Marvel, but the UK's Rebellion, publisher of 2000 AD, has been selling digital editions of its book since all the way back in 2005 with great success—it's the fastest and cheapest way to get Judge Dredd if you don't live in the UK after all. Now they are making their downloads DRM free. All comics purchased—past and present—via any method—web, Android, iOS—will now be available in DRM-free PDF and CBZ files.

Welcome to MATT CHATS, a weekly interview with someone working in the comics industry. This week that person is Cory Casoni, and his job...

Dynamite is the King of Bundling—huge collections of comics in digital form for a low, usually pay what you want price. Yhey're so good at it that they've actually persuaded MORE COMPANIES TO START BUNDLING COMICS. This time it's BitTorrent, which is now a totally legit place to download content. They've done music in the past but this is their first comics bundle. This is a mega-bundle of 200 comics, with a minimum payment of $6. So between all the other bundling that Dynamite has been ofering, you can pretty much catch up with their entire oeuvre in no time. This bundle runs through Friday, April 17, 2015.

NOTE: the below is me spitballing at 3 in the morning just to get some dialog going. I invite your comments and corrections. I've...

Another new line of digital comics? Yes. Comicker, founded by Saori Adams and Sean E. Williams (Fairest) as a plat form to serialize digital comics. Collections can be purchased at DriveThru and eventually Comixology and a subscription mobile app, developed by The Horizon Factory. Adams:

WHO will be the Netflix/Spotify of comics? Several companies have been trying to offer all you can eat comcis buffets, but a lack of top content has been holding them back. But Scribd just made a major play announcing a $8.99 a month plan that allows you access to 10,000 comics, including top titles from Marvel, IDW/Top Shelf, Archie, Dynamite and Valiant. Scribd has been around for a while as en embeddable pdf reader, and already offers over a million ebooks and audiobooks on a subscription basis, so this makes a lot of sense.

Well, this is interesting. Although Dark Horse sells its periodical comics exclusively through its own app, and has never been available on Comixology, they've just signed a deal with Sequential, the stand alone graphic novel app—making it the first the first third-party digital comics app to distribute Dark Horse. UPDATE: Todd Allen has reminded me that Dark Horse GNs were available for a while on Comixology a few years ago but aren't any more.

Comixology's Submit portal is a way for independent and self published digital comics to get onto the largest digital comics service out there, and many people have taken advantage of it. While no one seems to have gotten rich off it, a sale is a sale. And COmixology has just released a list of the top 25 sellers for 2014, topped by Gail Simone and Jim Calafiore's Leaving Megalopolis. This superheroes with a twist story was originally Kickstarted. The impressive Testament Omnibus by Douglas Rushkoff and a bunch of awesome artists was second, and Joe Benitez's Lady Mechanika was #3. Severl anthologies Kickstarted by the tireless C. Spike Trotman were also on the list...she is a powerhouse.

In the post Amazology world. many digital comics apps and companies have sprung up trying to stake their claim in this growing world. Farrago Comics is an app for iPad and android that offers a range of free comics. As suggested by their motto "Comic Book Freedom!" the idea is to provide a manageable app for sampling and reading—which isn't a bad one given today's crazy quilt of digital platforms. Revenue is provided by ads, as it is with many apps. Up until now they were offering mostly Golden Age and indie comics, but they've just sign up with IDW to offer some fan fave #1 from the likes of Steve Niles, Ben Templesmith, Jonathan Maberry, Chris Roberson, Ashley Wood, etc.

By Bruce Lidl Lost somewhat in the initial burst of news from last week’s ImageExpo was the announcement of a new Image Humble Bundle offering,...