With a few surprisingly quiet announcements last week, comiXology made two moves that give the company a significant advantage in the digital comics marketplace.
And the company made a huge impact in September. Four Wednesdays in a row, “Comics by comiXology” was the top-grossing iPad app in the entire App Store.
On October 11th, the company revealed that Marvel was finally signing up with comiXology to deliver its digital comics to Android devices. The move means customers who by a Marvel comic on comiXology’s apps elsewhere can finally view those comics across all their platforms.
It also removes the last bit of resistance that Marvel appeared to still have in its relationship with comiXology.
The next day, the digital distributor announced an expanded partnership with IDW, offering the publisher’s entire digital comics library across all platforms.
The comiXology deal with IDW is significant for two reasons: First, it finally gives comiXology the fourth largest publisher’s digital archives — a former gaping hole in its significant list of participating publishers. IDW recently bragged that it had more than 4 million downloads and 900 digital titles.
Second, IDW formerly had an exclusive partnership with iVerse Media, one of comiXology’s competitors. All of the IDW apps, powered by iVerse, remain available in addition to the new distribution through comiXology.
The relationship with IDW began in June when the publisher tried out comiXology’s apps for its Transformers comics. Apparently, the partnership worked well enough that IDW ended up adding comiXology as a full-fledged distributor.
It’s also impressive that, earlier this month, the distributor revealed that almost half the comics that come out each week in print are also available digitally on comiXology — on the same day.
As the company grows and continues to add partners, including their current relationship with the “big two” in DC and Marvel, it’s not hard to imagine a majority of the comics offered in print might soon be available on comiXology apps.
Newsarama caught up with comiXology CEO David Steinberger at the company’s booth in New York Comic Con this weekend, and we talked about these quiet yet significant announcements.
Read the interview at:Â
Newsarama.com : COMIXOLOGY Quietly Solidifies Its DIGITAL Market Lead.
