Digital Comics

Disclosure: Todd Allen is a long-time contributor to this site, so read the following as advanced log-rolling if you will. That said, the book he kickstarted over the summer, Economics of Digital Comics is out. I have an early digital copy and this is really a book everyone in the comics business should read, especially people going into various digital models, from crowdfunding to subscription to pay what you want. Allen casts a cynical eye on most of this stuff, and runs numbers to show what works and what doesn't. But he also looks at print costs, and the economies of other channels to give a strong overview of what we talk about when we talk about selling comics in 2014. The book has new interviews with digital players and statistics on what webcomics earn from advertising, how much it costs to print books, what the big players take out of various delivery methods and more. All footnoted. And an introduction by Mark Waid, who has become something of the spokesman for Generation Digital.

The whole Humble Bundle move to selling comics and e-books worked very well, Calvin Reid reports:

Ah yes and here is the other shoe dropping: all of DC's monthly comics will now be available on iVerse and backlist is coming....

As we first reported after New York Comic-Con, iVerse, the other guy in the digital comics landscape, is planning a HUGE update of their app. And ComicsPLUS 8.0 is here. It's available now in the iTunes store, and for Android and the web. Now, the big question is what publishers are going with them. Amazon recently started sending out renewal contracts to various publishers, and the terms are not as favorable as Comixology's were—they are more like Amazon's. Well, if you look at the above graphic, you get a big clue—DC Comics are prominently shown

Okay not maybe the most chipper reading, but you'll be thankful for you life after you read it> Dave Sim's Judenhass (literally "Jew hate")...

Last May, Alan Moore announced he would be involved with a new line of digital comics called Electricomics. Given that Alan Moore is to computers as Daryl Dixon is to soap, this seemed counter intuitive, but it turns out his daughter Leah was very much involved in it. A line of comics was announced:

"Where is the Netflix of comics?" you ask. Unlimited streaming of everything from Blondie to Urasawa. That remains only a pipe dream, but a site called Comicsfix (get it?) is trying to be the streaming service we want. For $9.95 you get unlimited comics on various apps, and 24 hour access. But access to what? It's just been announced that Dynamite is the first company Top 10 publisher to sign up with them. You don't get everything, but some good starter stuff:

Americans can't get enough Tezuka! Well sort of. The Japanese comics pioneer was as prolific as he was influential and recently we've recently seen a pretty ambitious attempt at getting a bunch of his works into print here in the US from DMP. But a lot of primo Tezuka's work was already published here via a series of very attractive volumes published by Vertical which ranged from Black Jack—perhaps his most accessible series and one of the best known—and standlone volumes like Ode to Kirihito. Sadly many of these books are out of print, but not to worry, Vertical is bringing them back in digital form:

Koyama Press is making many of its current and past graphic novels available in digital editions via the Sequential app. The titles available...

In the local cable show covering diversity in comics linked to earlier today, Ms. Marvel editor Sana Amanat was interviewed and she mentioned that "she's our #1 digital seller." It's been mentioned publicly a few times that it's among Marvel's best selling digital titles, and over the summer at a Marvel summit it was announced that the first issue had sold more digitally than in print.

F YEAH!!!!!! If there is one Halloween tradition in comics that must be kept is a new digital comic by Emily Caroll! Her previous uses of the digital palette to create horror has made her one of the few true autuers of "future comics"—and the print iteration, Through the Woods is one of the best graphic novels of the year. Her previous horror comics like His Face All Red, Margot’s Room, Out of Skin and The Hole the Fox Did Make are all classics of terror and digital storytelling.

The Thrillbent digital comics imprint created by Mark Waid and John Rogers is coming to print from IDW, home to many a comics imprint. Starting next year, IDW will bring out print collection of Thrillbent titles, starting with Empire Volume Two and Insufferable, “I love print comics,” said Waid in a statement. “While we have always proudly been digital-first, print was always in Thrillbent’s business plan--but for a start-up company like ours, it was cost-prohibitive. Once we proved our commitment to ongoing content--Thrillbent currently hosts literally hundreds of new comics, with more added every week--we were courted by several print publishers looking to partner. IDW was the clear choice--its track record for i