Digital Comics

A story from the Boston Globe captures the mood of comics retailers who are sitting on the porch sipping an iced tea while the digital tornado comes right for them. Some sip their cool drink knowing that no matter what happens, they had a good run:

Only a few days ago, SLG announced they would be selling digital comics via iVerse, and, in a sign of the continuing difficult of selling small comics periodicals, they have announced that the final issue of ROYAL HISTORIAN OF OZ by Tommy Kovac and Andy Hirsch will only be available as a pdf download. Although low orders scuttled the final print issue, it will be available in the collected edition, which is due in September.

Meanwhile Slave Labor, the long-running quirky comics publisher which has survived against all odds for over 20 years, has just teamed with iVerse to offer digital comics. We'll vouch for MIDNIGHT SUN by Ben Towle, one of those Antarctic comics we're so fond of, and the other initial offerings are sounds, as well, including the popular REX LIBRIS.

Comixology's iOS app hit one million downloads last year, and now their Android app has done the same, we're told. PR below:

Graphicly, the digital comics distributor, announced a big redesign and some new features for its browser-based comics yesterday -- including the ability to embed comics anywhere, a YouTube-like interface that Micah Baldwin discussed with Kiel Phegley:

Good news! Turns out DC isn't trying to destroy the direct sales market with their "Flashboot" -- or whatever it's called -- relaunch after all! And it is a relaunch, not a reboot, according to a letter sent by SVP of Sales Bob Wayne to retailers, announcing a pricing strategy that will see digital comics at the SAME price as print comics for their first four weeks of release. Wayne calls this "price parity" -- " No DC digital comic will be cheaper than its physical counterpart at launch." The Johns/Lee JLA #1 will be available with a digital download for $4.99, in print and digital only for $3.99 each.

Back in October, at the ICv2 digital summit, there was a lot of talk about whether digital comics would kill brick-and-mortar stores -- one way to stave off that dire future vision was the idea of digital store exclusives -- things that you can only download from a store. The video game industry has been doing this for a while. When Dark Horse announced their own digital initiative, retailer exclusives were part of the mix. (DC has also announced their intentions to offer retailer incentives, but they have yet to be made official.) Anyway, Dark Horse has just announced they will be making exclusive 8-page stories from their hottest titles available only through comics shops -- via the print-out-a-code-and-hand-it-over method. Wow. So simple. First titles involved include B.P.R.D.,  Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Mass Effect. PR below and a sample page from B.P.R.D. Casualties above.

Back when they were signing and selling licensed comics, Tokyopop put out some World of Warcraft manga-sized graphic novels. Unlike other material lost in the diaspora of the company (which is officially closing down next week) these comics are still owned by Blizzard, and are being released digitally by Cryptozoic, the newish entertainment company headed up by Cory Jones, formerly of Blizzard, and John Nee, formerly of DC. Two Warcraft GNs and one Starcraft GN are available on Cryptozoic's app for free for right now.

Comics and the iPad were made for each other. The screen, although slightly smaller than a comic page, works nicely to display comics. Panels look great on it's glossy screen, even with the backlight turned down. Even the iPad with the smallest capacity can hold 20 longboxes worth of comics, no problem, and that's just what I can carry with me. Comics folks are classically unwilling to accept change (why do you think no one ever dies in comics?) but it's time. Comics are going digital and we should embrace that, so here's a quick look at some of the best digital comics readers for the iPad.

With screenings unfolding around the globe, all the buzz on X-MEN: FIRST CLASS has been great (100% on Rotten Tomatoes), and last night the film had its world premiere in NYC, with Marvel's own John Lowe doing some red carpet commentary. Releasing studio Fox has just added to the fun with a new iPad app X-Men EXTRA which plays into the whole conspiracy angle of the film, which follows Xavier and Magneto as young allies in the 60s. As you can see the app has some fun with the historical record, ala Boilerplate, imaging Emma Frost standing beside Jackie Kennedy in a fetching go-go booted ensemble. Check out the byline for another in-joke.

It seems that standalone apps for authors and imprints and licenses are now the way to go on digital devices, BOOM! has just announced a new Stan Lee app for iOS devices that will includes the digital version of Stan's BOOM! books, including SOLDIER ZERO, THE TRAVELER, and STARBORN. As the PR mentions, this is part of "BOOM! Studios’ aggressive digital comics strategy to offer their entire frontlist and backlist of titles for download across multiple mobile and desktop platforms." So there.

It's funny how something that has been around forever can still get a blog boost -- as we reported yesterday, some 6500 pages of ELFQUEST comics are online, to read, for FREE -- but they have been up for more than two years. Our post got Boing Boinged, and Richard Pini, WARP graphics co-everything, wrote in to answer some questions in that thread, especially complaints about the Flash interface (one wag posted a link to the complete Elfquest on a bit torrent site.)

First, thanks for putting this "old news" back in the news.