Digital Comics

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.

Have you heard? Sex sells. Specifically a book called Stuff About Sex... For Guys Who Are Not Like, Total Idiots, a digital-only books of sex tips by cartoonist David Mellon that in only a few days has become one of comiXology's top 20 graphic novels. Published by Top Shelf, here's a sneak peek at the first two pages—it's basically a bro-to-bro sex guide for the uninitiated. The author is a self-confessed hippie and it shows....but you know, maybe we need more hippies!

OK, last post about Order of the Stick for awhile. The Kickstarter drive closed at $1,254,120. When Double Fine Adventure (currently at $2M+) closes, Order of the Stick will officially be the #3 drive of all time. Until then it's holding the place at #2. Rich Burlew lists some of his accomplishments with this:

It sounds a little strange when you say it out loud: "Will Order of the Stick hit $1 million on Kickstarter?" But it is NOT a strange thing to ponder.

I just got off the phone with Michael Murphey from iVerse Media, and the real details about Diamond's digital comics distribution program bear minimal resemblance to how this was initially portrayed by early accounts from the ComicsPro meeting. Moreover, and this will be the first time I've said this about a Diamond Digital project, it seems like a very reasonable plan.

So let me get this straight; comics pirates have been tapping directly into Marvel's servers to get the pristine digital copiesthat they post like clockwork every Wednesday?

Dropped into this little item about BEYOND THE FRINGE, a digital tie-in to the popular TV show, is the news that Jhonen Vasquez, the incredibly popular creator of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, will be doing some digital comics for DC, along with Becky Cloonan. SWEET.

Digital comic downloads are a bit of a strange market. (Note: I'm talking about paid/legal downloads.) The big thrust, thus far, has been the battle of proprietary formats. Comixology has their own format. iVerse has a format. Graphic.ly has a format. Apple has a format. Amazon has a format. If you're from New Jersey, you'll probably want to tell me my mother has a format. Well, as of the ComicsPro meeting, the focus has changed a little, because now Diamond officially has a comics app.

We have a new winner for largest Kickstarter-funded comic... and there's still 22 days to go on the pledge drive. The "Order of the Stick Reprint Drive" is about a webcomic not acting like Marvel. That is to say, a few of the print collections of the Order of the Stick webcomic were out of print and creator Rich Burlew needed to get some cash up to afford the printing bill on some large full color books. $235K worth of pledges in a week? Yeah, I think it's working.

First Amazon tweaked their Kindle Fire file format from some (very basic) navigation to service comics and children's books. Then Apple's slightly controversial self-service app came along, making it even easier (depending on how you view the legal string attached to that app). Now Graphicly's starting to roll out their self-service app. Graphicly has a slightly different twist than what we've seen with the self-serve apps, thus far. They're emphasizing their service as creating a digital comics storefront and branding it yourself (presumably with an eye on the publisher's website and social media like Facebook), as opposed to being listed in the catalog for Amazon / iBooks / Nook / comiXology / Graphicly, etc. De-emphasize the app, emphasize the publisher.