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WC12: ComiXology: Everything Digital – Comic Book Resources

Posted by :Michael Nimmo On : March 17, 2012

This report from Comic Book Resources

ComiXology CEO and co-founder David Steinberger was scheduled to head up the company’s WonderCon 2012 panel, but a personal emergency kept him away. In Steinberger’s place was Marketing VP Chip Mosher, who described himself as a poor substitute but filled in ably. Mosher began by touting the digital comics company’s recent achievements, including passing the 50 million-downloads mark and becoming the highest-grossing iPad app on Wednesdays (aka: New Comics Day), beating out even “Angry Birds.” “Who would’ve guessed five years ago that comics would be the killer app for tablets?” Mosher asked.

After his brief intro, Mosher quickly opened the floor to questions. One of the first queries was about how comiXology would be working with Apple’s latest tablet. “We’re excited about the new iPad,” Mosher said. “We’re excited about supporting the new screen resolution.”

After fielding a few more questions, Mosher got Steinberger on the phone and filtered the remaining inquiries through him. Steinberger offered more info on the company’s transition to HD for the new iPad, noting that anyone who bought comics previously will be able to upgrade to the new HD versions for free. “It will be an automatic upgrade,” he said, explaining that comiXology has an application review in with Apple for converting all existing comics to HD. “We have 20,000 different comics available, so it takes time.” Customers will receive notices when any of their comics have been upgraded.

Steinberger dismissed notions of his company entering the world of motion comics, or other kinds of video or audio. “ComiXology is run by traditionalists,” he said. “I guess never say never,” he added, explaining that those features would change comic reading from an active to a passive experience. “Right now, we’re continuing to focus just on great storytelling.”

At this point, it is unlikely comiXology expand the functionality in its Double Feature app, which allows for users to turn off the colors, inks and lettering on comics pages, to its other apps. “We have to decide, are we going to expand the audience for comics, or are we just going to serve the existing fans?” Steinberger asked, saying that functions like that seem to have limited appeal. “We want more people to be into comics.”  Along with upgrading to HD for the new iPad, the other big project Steinberger emphasized is the effort to get more independent and webcomics creators involved with comiXology via a self-authoring open platform. “It’s very hard to scale up,” Steinberger said. Mosher noted that the company had grown from 14,000 to 20,000 available comics in the last six months. “Our intention is to make [our platform] open and available for anyone to use,” Steinberger said.

Steinberger encouraged fans to let publishers know that they want to see their titles in comiXology, whether it’s European books or small-press titles, both of which were specifically asked about by panel attendees. On the issue of pricing, he said, “I would love to tell you that I have great, incredible influence on Marvel and DC and everyone else,” but allowing companies to set their own pricing is one of the reasons the company has succeeded, along with working with brick-and-mortar stores.

Retailer Chris Brady of Southern California’s 4 Color Fantasies was in the audience and vouched for his store’s success in offering digital comics through its website. When Mosher asked for people in the audience who exclusively buy digital comics and no longer read comics in print, only two people raised their hands, with many more responding that they read comics both digitally and in print.

via WC12: ComiXology: Everything Digital – Comic Book Resources.

DC/Bandai: New ThunderCats Digital Comic Preview

Posted by :Michael Nimmo On : March 17, 2012

Category: Comic Notes, Comic Previews, Digital Comics

Tags:free, link, pdf, preview, thundercats

I remember reading the old Thundercats comics – good times, I hope these measure up!

DC and Bandai will be launching a new ThunderCats digital comic soon…

Bandai is hosting a sneak preview of the upcoming ThunderCats digital comic. You can download the pdf preview here:

http://www.bandai.com/thundercats/upload/Thundercats_01_final.pdf

DC is also making available a free flyer at their WonderCon 2012 booth promoting upcoming new episodes starting March 24, 2012. Of oourse the Bandai toyline is also advertised on the flyer (pictured below).

Comics, cartoons, and toys!

via DC/Bandai: New ThunderCats Digital Comic Preview.

Does reading comics on a mobile phone break the idea of comics? | Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources

Posted by :Michael Nimmo On : March 17, 2012

Category: Comic Notes, Digital Comics, Links

Tags:cbr, comicbookresourses, link

I quite enjoy guided view on the phone as it make some comics more interesting with suspense!

Digital comics have been heralded as the next logical step for the comics medium, but with them comes the challenges of transitioning from one medium to another. Over on the blog Levin/Albright, Matt Levin argues that the “Guided View” functionality in digital comics readers fundamentally changes and “breaks” the comics medium, specifically when looking at a comics page as a whole.

“When reading a comic with Guided View or a similar technology, we’re losing a number of elements,” Levin explains in his blog post. “We don’t see the construction of the whole page, which would peripherally influence our understanding of the current panel. We also lose the sense of relative size of each panel, which is the most basic way that creators imply pacing. Reading the same comic on and offline would leave markedly different impressions.”

To better understand what Levin is getting at, it’s important to step back and take a look at a comics page. When reading a comic book in its natural form, we’re reading it in two different ways simultaneously. We’re taking in the story one panel at a time (a ‘montage’ view as Levin calls it), but also digesting the story in the larger context of the page those panels share (in a ‘collage’ view). For an example, Levin shows a page from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns in both its original comic book presentation:

and then a simulation of how it’s read on a mobile device:

Levin is careful to say that he’s not dismissing the consumption of comics on mobile devices, but simply noting the changes going on and how it affects the reading experience. Reading digital comics on tablet devices provide an experience closer to that of the printed page, but there’s still a leap from A to B. It’s important to remember that when comics first jumped from newspaper strips to magazine format they were simply repurposing the newspaper strips to fit in the magazine page, but only later when comic creators created comics specifically for the dimensions and depth of comic books did comic books come into their own.

Does reading comics on a mobile phone break the idea of comics? | Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources – Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment.

Mark Waid At WonderCon – Free Digital Comics

Posted by :Michael Nimmo On : March 17, 2012

Category: Digital Comics

Tags:Digital Comics, free, mark waid, wondercon

Mark Waid is at Wondercon and via ComicBook Resources and Bleeding Cool, we had this from the digital front!

“Digital comics should be 99 cents. END OF STATEMENT.” stated Waid. He e0xplained that the biggest reason that the big publishers are matching their print prices for digital comics is “because they don’t want to undercut the 1800 Diamond retailers. I don’t want to undercut them either. Marvel and DC can afford to do floppy comics every month.
They’re funded by big giant corporations, they’ve got the momentum of years of publication, the large print runs.” Waid continued to explain that the economy of scale for printing means that smaller companies end up paying so much more to physically print a book when it sells in the 5,000 to 7,000 range, which is sadly not a bad sale for something not from the biggest publishers. At that range, you are almost guaranteed to lose money on making individual issues. “It’s not that I don’t want to give comic shops a comic by me that they can sell. I can’t give it to them in that format. Three issues, then I’ll vanish, nobody wins.”

Digital files that could be converted into print is where his current plans lie. If a traditional printed comics page is letter format, you can quickly create one from a digital comic by stacking two landscape panels, one above the other. Doing so means that you lose full page spreads, but you will gain other tricks to compensate. Waid asked the audience to check out the Marvel Infinite Comics that he helped design, as many of the techniques and ideas used there will be appearing in his creator-owned work. This is still a work in progress, as Waid was done between six to nine digital comics total so far, and working with different artists with different approaches has lead him to discovering new ideas and concepts with every collaboration.

Then – over at his blog we got this:

Hi. Mark Waid here. As promised if you were paying attention at WonderCon today during my spotlight panel, here’s a free PDF download of a short digital-comics story I did as proof-of-concept with the talented artist Jeremy Rock. It’s a little zombie story called “Luther”, and it’s a sample of the approach I’m taking to my long-promised–and now imminent–series of Digital Comics.

Download it for free. Open it in whatever program you use to read PDF files. A simple right-click or page-tap takes you through, screen by screen, dead simple. For best results, view it full-screen, landscape format, so each image reads as a separate “page.” And enjoy. Free from Jeremy and me to you.

If you like it, we could use your assistance. Send the link to your friends. In fact, I encourage you to share “Luther” with as many people as you like. Help us spread the word. Help us show off what we think Digital Comics can be. Help point the audience here. It’d be much appreciated.

Then come back here April 2 to see what else I have in mind for the future of webcomics and find out how you can participate.