Digital Comics

San Diego Comic-Con continues! Here's a look at the announcements made last weekend by Allison Baker and Chris Roberson's digital publisher, Monkeybrain Comics.

Top Cow's talking about their digital plans again. This has all been announced prior to Comicon, but I haven't really commented on it yet and now's as good a time as any. The two major pieces are a Kickstarter campaign to relaunch Cyber Force and moving Pilot Season over to Mark Waid's Thrillbent site.

The last holdout has come in, and it's one of the biggest and best. After years of staying aloof from the digital world, Fantagraphics has announced they are going with ComiXology to release digital versions of the Love and Rockets back catalog, as revealed today on the Love and Rockets panel. We caught up with Fanta's associate publisher Eric Reynolds to get the who how what and why of bringing some of the greatest cartoonsits in the world to the digital platform:

While crowdfunding is definitely more of the headline grabber, iVerse has a couple other announcement that warrant examination with an eye of the future of digital comics. The topic of DRM was a very important one to the development of the digital music industry. It's also a topic that comics have been lagging far behind on.

Well, somebody's upping their game today. iVerse, known for their Comics+ app and partnership with Diamond Digital has just announced "Comics Accelerator" -- a comics-specific crowdfunding platform. "Crowdfunding" is the technical term for sites like Kickstarter and IndieGogo.

Archaia is another company that's throwing its hat in the growing category of "digital release, then print." Certainly, digital comics are an increasingly common thing, but the relationship between digital and print is still evolving. They're taking a direction with a couple titles that I think will end up being fairly common. They're also adapting/remaking a classic manga title.

If you're looking for some great digital comics, Top Shelf is launching a big sale on some of their best titles. Call it their "virtual" comic-con:

Tolja there was more coming from comiXology, as an app for the new-style Windows 8 is also launching.

We can tell you already that comiXology is going to have a BIG show, and here's the first announcement: a new Simpsons-themed app for iOS devices which will roll out tomorrow with a specially chosen selection of Bongo-published Simpsons comics. Interestingly, the comics will NOT be day and date but rather go on sale a month after newsstands.

After a long testing period, and a lot of controversy along the way, Diamond and iVerse are finally going live with Diamond Digital on July 23rd. The program will allow Diamond accounts to set up their own digital storefront, sell download codes and otherwise engage in the digital sales that everyone thought would kill comics but which has, instead, led to growing sales. The program has been in beta for some time now, with some lively feedback from participating retailers. Publishers represented in the program include IDW, Image, Archie, APE, Arcana, Bluewater, BOOM!, Broadsword, Hermes, Sea Lion, Top Shelf, Viper Comics, and Within Temptation—Marvel and DC have yet to opt in.

Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez put Wolverine in the corner

Didn't see that one coming. Whether it was the smartly rolled out launch, the srong opening line-up or just a lack of interest in Anderson Cooper's sex life, the announcement of the new MonkeyBrain Comics digital line caught the imagination of Twitter to the point where it was trending for much of the day; and also smartly, to take advantage of the excitement, comiXology and MonkeyBrain decided to launch early—all five of their comics are available now in comiXology.