While 2025 is turning into the Year of Comics Distribution Changes, other businesses are springing up. Kenny Meyers is a software developer and comics lover who was formerly with the digital comics app Omnibus. But since that app shut down, he’s been launching new comics products as a steady clip, including Bindings, a comics marketing app for creators.
This week he’s got TWO new apps: Sweet Shop, a new digital comics sales platform that will launch later this year, and Find Your Comic Store, a new digital platform for….finding local spots to buy comics. The guy is busy! All three are products of Sweet, a tech company founded by Meyers, Ben Carr and Tom Carmony, three tech veterans with extensive experience at Shopify, Adobe, AirBNB and Reddit. Their announced goal: to make everything a little less shitty for people in comics.
Sweet Shop first: the app will be rolling out for Android, iOS and web this year. Features include:
- In-App Purchases: Purchase your comics in the app itself. No going to websites, no signing up for a subscription.
- Reading Lists, Wishlists & Reviews: Curate your collections. Pick your next purchases. Share your thoughts.
- Day & Date Releases: Get your comics when they come out. Something rare these days!
- International and all ages: Parental controls allow you to add your kids and share your comics. Age gating for age appropriate comics
- DRM Free Backups: We want our readers to enjoy our experience, not be trapped by account lock-in
- Retailer Affiliate Program: Shipments not coming in? Out of a comic? Send folks our way and we’ll share in the spoils.
Details are a little sparse, and we’ve seen many digital comics platforms come and go here at The Beat. We asked Meyers a few questions. He was out of comics, but now he seems to have dragged himself back in. Why? “For sure there was a brief moment where I was like ‘well what the hell should I do?’” he told us. “I looked into my other hobbies, like gaming. Then I just sent creators I loved emails thanking them for their support, and just asking if I could help them in anyway. That lead to Bindings (http://bindings.app), and then we got more ambitious.
“Everyone has been great. We’re all here for the love of it. I love this community. I have great partners at Sweet. I feel insanely lucky to work in comics and running a comic store feels good for my bones.”
And of course, what about publishers for Sweet App? Who will they carry?
“The cream of the crop! We’re looking for the top 20. Manga, YA and all,” says Meyers. “Then we’ll expand to add more and more. We have a publisher first approach. Getting day and date comics has been a real struggle and we want to make sure readers can get their books. That being said, if you have beautiful compelling books at any size, we want to chat.”
And so, another hat is tossed into the fray.
As for Find Your Comic Store, it was announced on BlueSky with some screenshots:
Sweet is profoundly excited to launch our new comic shop locator. findyourcomic.store. FYCS works worldwide and everywhere and even right behind you. It’s community-driven, meaning you can report bad listings, contact us for new ones, as well as we are going through our paces reviewing them like we did Seattle recently.
FYCS lets owners claim their store if they want to gussy them up a bit with photos, events and probably other cool things in the future.
You can really deck this thing out, shop owners (I used my local favorite store as an example @outsidercomics.com)
Of course, there is already an app for finding the closest comics shop, the venerable Comic Shop Locator service, which is run by Diamond, sooooooooo. CSL was at first a toll free number – which I guess might not exist any more because I couldn’t find it with Google’s shitty search. Obviously, no one is going to call a phone number to find anything any more, but CSL exists as a website, and the URL is included when anyone wants to aid new comics readers in finding a place to buy comics.
We gave FYCS a test run and it did indeed spit out a mostly complete list of my locals: missing a few, some that are closed, but some I forgot existed. But it got the Manhattan ones right and included places like BookOff that sell a lot of comics but aren’t exactly comic shops, and looked nice doing it.
I also gave CSL a test and it gave me a much more tightly localized list of stores, but hit the high points. Both apps also include extras like social media feeds for the shops and so on.
The Comic Shop Locator service is a true comics stalwart, but now Find Your Comic Shop has entered the chat.
Obviously a lot is happening at Sweet….and we hear even more might be coming from the company, perhaps very soon.