Digital Comics

After braving the (for Southern California) biblical rain storms in getting from San Diego to Anaheim, I rushed past the bewildered cheerleaders and volleyball players to make what was promised as a panel full of pyrotechnics.  Mark Waid versus David Steinberger of comiXology over the appropriate price point for digital comics.  Same as print?  An iTunes like $0.99 flat price for everything?  Somewhere in between?

Andy Ihnatko has a new iPad and he also has a beta of comiXology's new app optimized for the new retinal display and he says it rocks. Not only that, but comiXology will be upgrading all of its offerings to the HD format...FREE.

Mark Waid has been teasing his upcoming webcomics project(s) for a little while now. The same stuff that got him involved with this digital Nova comic Marvel's putting out in relation to Avengers Vs. X-Men. As of today, you can download a free sample of his upcoming format.

This is a pretty good deal: you get a free digital copy of THE WALKING DEAD VOLUME 1 just for showing up at the booth.

While Marvel's corporate policies don't allow for too much investment in their print business, they have been really ramping up the digital side of things. Why? Rob Salkowitz looks at the meta side of the new online comics line and AR experiments in terms of how it positions the company:

Marvel's SXSW panel has started and Twitter is going berserk. (Remember, Twitter was launched at SXSW.) There's also a reporting from CNET who seem to have gotten a heads up, even if the reporter doesn't seem to be aware Jack Kirby and Jerry Robinson are dead (or that the Joker isn't a Marvel character).

Following on what seems to have been a successful run with the Ultimate line, starting in June, Marvel will include a digital download code with ALL its books selling for $3.99. Marvel's moving ahead in this regard is interesting, since DC's John Rood has indicated that redemption of their combo packs has been "astonishingly low." In contrast David Gabriel says Marvel's program has been a big success.

When DC launched their comics app, these many months ago, a lot of people wondered why there wasn't a Vertigo app to go along with it. Well, wonder no more. Today Vertigo announced you can download a standalone Vertigo app from the App Store/iTunes. You can also get some 99-cent Sandman issues while you're there.

The other day it was announced that Jonathan Hickman was leaving FF in October, after a very successful run there. With his other Marvel work also winding down, there was mucho speculation about what this "architect" would be up to. One thing is his new series (on sale today) THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS (with artist Nick Pitarra) which will be released digital day and date. To make ready, Hickman is also releasing TEST PATTERN, a digital anthology of his previous five collections, THE NIGHTLY NEWS, PAX ROMANA, TRANSHUMAN, A RED MASS FOR MARS, and THE RED WING, available exclusively via comiXology for $34.99. An affordable way to keep Hickman's body of work readily available for those discovering his new book? Sounds like it.

Just to finish our "digital news Monday," Marvel's recently teased "Infinite" something-or-other will be revealed this Saturday as part of SXSWi's Screenburn video game conference. Despite the gaming setting, it's expected this will have something to do with digital comics, as indicated by the panel description:

Twin press releases today that Dark Horse's digital comics offering are coming to B&N's Nook and the Kobo Vox, a lesser known but respected platform. Popular titles like MASS EFFECT,HELLBOY, STAR WARS, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, SERENITY, and SIN CITY will all be available for both platforms. DH was already on their own store and via various Apple platforms.

Since debuting in 2009, Comixology has sold more than 50 million comics, CEO David Steinberger told ICv2. 5 million of those came in December alone. That's 1.4 millino less than the 6.4 million comics sold in the same period, ICv2 notes. However, a significant portion of the digital comics were free, so it's not a direct comparison.