In a bit of a surprise move, Scholastic is getting into the weekly comics game.
Publisher’s Weekly reports that Scholastic has come to an agreement with the UK-based all-ages weekly anthology comic The Phoenix to bring it over to North America. The weekly issues will be available on Comixology and twice a year (starting in March 2018) a print compilation will be issued.
This is an interesting development on several levels.
- Scholastic entering into periodicals, even if only in a digital format
- Scholastic clearly sees The Phoenix’s cartoon roster as potential breakout stars in the US market
- While weekly comics have never really taken off as a native format, here’s another another foreign weekly entering the market digitally, to go along with the available digital subscriptions to the U.K.’s 2000 A.D. and the Viz translation of Japan’s Shohen Jump. The question is what happens when Scholastic puts its considerable influence behind a weekly digital?
The first two issues of The Phoenix are currently available at Comixology as a free download, so go see what the fuss is about.
