Tag: Digital Comics

Today's Kindle app update for both iOS and Android has received little notice inside the comics world, but it now includes comics and children's books.

It's been reported that Diamond has laid off three technical staffers: "Dave Bowen (Director of Digital Distribution), Jeff Dillon (Web Development Manager), and Lev Schneider (Programmer)." Bowen's presence on that report, raised the question of what's up with Diamond Digital, so I asked iVerse's Michael Murphy, since iVerse is the engine Diamond Digital runs on.

by Serhend Sirkecioglu

--          My common complaint with the current wave of interactive/digital comics is the lack of ingenuity, risk, and execution, which fall into three camps. The first is the artist-centric camp where the person who made the comic is a competent cartoonist but has no knowledge of programming and is unconscious of interactivity, so the function feels gimmicky and not worth my time. The second is the program-centric, where the design is strong but the story is not much of a looker or read, and can feel more like a proof of concept than a whole-hearted piece. Finally, the third camp is the ones that peter out because the time and energy put into it outweighs the pay off, leading to burnout and an unfinished story.

Classics Illustrated, the comics Cliff Notes series that has been around in various iterations for over 60 years, making the line a classic in and of itself—they've just gone digital with ebook publisher Trajectory. Over 120 titles will be launched from both iTunes and the iBook store, selling for $4.99 each. These look to be the '50s original Classics Illustrated, celebrated in rhyme and song.

As any parents out there know, the iPhone/tablet as babysitter is a rapidly growing tradition among harried moms and dads. And as reported in Variety, DC is launching a DC Nation app to take advantage of this market—and grow future readers.

On Monday, digital distributor iVerse announced a new initiative that would allow libraries to download books from their digital library on a cost per checkout basis.

Mark Waid has posted the audio of his Thrillbent announcement panel from C2E2. He has more general comments here.

INK is a digital comics magazine put out by the kids at the School of Visual Arts—New York's all-purpose art school that's a hotbed of cartooning talent. We told you about the fall issue when it came out, and the new spring edition is now here, with comics and features. Although you can read the entire contents in PDF form, it's been optimized for the new retina display iPad. It's also a free download for all iOS devices.

At the C2E2 comiXology panel it was confirmed that DC graphic novels are no longer being sold through Kindle Fire's comiXology app, and CEO David Steinberger said it was intentional. However the reasons are hidden behind many layers of NDAs. This is all odd because you can certainly still buy DC books via Amazon and their Kindle store. You can purchase tons of DC comics from comiXology, on the web and their IOS app. Apparently, you just can't buy DC Comics through the Kindle Fire comiXology app (we don't have a Kindle Fire handy to check).

Marvel and Barnes & Noble have teamed up to offer $30 off the purchase of a Nook Tablet when you buy two Marvel digital graphic novels from the Avengers collection. Titles available include various New, Mighty and Dark flavors of Avengers, but also classic flavor, The Kree-Skrull War, and Avengers Assemble from the Busiek/Waid/Perez run.

Best known for his hectic DRAGONBALL series, Akira Toriyama is probably one of the most successful cartoonists of all time. His first big hit was DR. SLUMP, a slapstick humor strip about an inventor who creates a little girl robot who is hopelessly naive about the world. Hijinks ensue. Hijinks that anyone who likes FAMILY GUY will appreciate. This is not sophisticated humor but it is energetic, wildly imaginative cartooning at the highest level. It's also world building in the classic McCloudian-approved way, with the setting of Penguin Village, like Springfield or Mr Roger's Neighborhood, a friendly place filled with colorful characters.

At his panel tonight at C2E2, Mark Waid revealed the details of his ambitious new Thrillbent digital comics portal. It's a new entrant in the original digital comics race, but one with some heavy hitting talent behind it—in addition to Waid, John Rogers is a founder, and artist Peter Krause, who previously teamed with Waid for IRREDEEMABLE, will be collaborating on a new strip with him.