Digital Comics

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.

If we're reading this right, hitting "popular" on the Apple bookstore page for comics reveals what's hot at that very instant, and based on the placement of AVENGERS #1 and WALKING DEAD, we'd guess this has some relationship to sales velocity—not necessarily numbers, though.

You know how we always wondered what would be the iTunes of comics? It has turned out to be iTunes. Apple has just launched a separate comics/graphic novels section for its iBookstore. It's a full feature sub-section includes an impressive Marvel bookstore, a "Comics Page" promotions for comic strip books, a Walking Dead section, and most impressively, separate promotions for CLEVELAND by Harvey Pekar and Joseph Remnant and Lela Lee's FAIRY TALES FOR ANGRY LITTLE GIRLS.

As you may recall, Graphic.ly recent re-positioned their main product offering to be a little bit more like Smashwords is in the world of eBooks. The idea is to be a little more transparent on the branding, let the company market itself as a digital product (as opposed to the brand of the digital app/format) and then concentrate on getting the material on as many different platforms as possible. Amazon/Apple/Barnes & Noble, etc. One of the more interesting applications has been integrating the comics reader into Facebook, as shown here with Archie's Facebook page.