Madefire and DeviantArt launch exclusive indie channel on iOS and Android app; new features added to Motion Book Tool for creators
NEW YORK COMIC-CON 2014 – October 9, 2014 – Madefire continues to dominate the creator-first revolution and announced today – timed with New York Comic-Con – an exclusive DeviantArt channel on the Madefire iOS and Android app — free for independent creators. DeviantArt is the largest creative social network in the world with over 65 million monthly unique users. Madefire Motion Books & Comics has been a 5-star rated app since launch and recently recognized in the iOS App Store as an Editors’ Pick, Best New Apps and Best of July (2014).
Madefire continues to push the boundaries by providing a new medium for digital storytelling. With the recent release of its Motion Book Tool in July made available to all members of the DeviantArt community, indie creators all over the world now have a chance to share the shelf with top properties at the forefront of digital comics and gain access to the same exposure as popular publishers like DC Comics, Dark Horse, IDW, Valiant – and more. Meanwhile, all of Madefire’s publishing partners continue to scale entire libraries and back-catalogues within the Madefire app.
“We’re thrilled to be leading the charge in the creator-first movement by opening up our platform to new creators,” said Ben Wolstenholme, CEO and Co-Founder of Madefire. “The response has been overwhelming in the creator community and with our major publisher partners as well — sharing in our vision to bring forward new creators and new myths to the world.”
The Milk For The Ugly Motion Book – also released in July on DeviantArt – generated a groundswell of enthusiasm with over 700,000 reads. It received an overwhelming amount of feedback creating a committed following for the property. It is a prime example of how talented indie creators have been discovered on a global scale and now have a full audience.
“Our collaboration with Madefire is like nothing else out there. Storytellers connecting directly to their readers is a very powerful mechanism,” said Angelo Sotira, CEO and Co-Founder of deviantART. “The recent, massive success of the Milk For The Ugly Motion Book is a prime example of the scale and exposure now offered to independent creators through the Madefire and DeviantArt partnership placing the authors in control of production and distribution simultaneously in a brand new medium. The 4,218 comments on the authors’ Motion Book page in just over two months are a bonus for any publisher or creator by providing real-time response from the audience.”
Quote from DeviantArt “deviant” Nikolai-King on the Milk For The Ugly Motion Book: “Everything down to the animation had me captivated from beginning to end. The music was especially good to me, reminding me of the old SNES game ‘Clue.’ Thank you very much for this horrific and amusing treat.”
Milk For the Ugly was written, illustrated and produced by Anna Podedworna (akreon.deviantart.com) & Kate Redesiuk (vesner.deviantart.com).
The Motion Book Tool was recently launched to the public in July and has been continuously developed with the creator in mind. Taking static art a step further by incorporating movement, sound and depth to visual reading, the platform continues to push the limits in digital storytelling. New features have been introduced to allow for a more streamlined creative process like creating covers with a click of a button and animating art in a few simple steps. Publishing to the web has never been easier and can take as little as 5 minutes. The ease of sharing your story on a website or blog is also more fluid now with an embed code automatically created when the book is published, giving the creator control of where and how their story is told.
About Madefire
Founded in 2011 by Ben Wolstenholme, Liam Sharp and Eugene Walden, Madefire is a media and technology company. Madefire has built the Motion Books publishing platform that provides artists, writers and publishers tools for creating a new reading format called Motion Books. Madefire is backed by Toni Schneider at True Ventures, The former CEO of Automattic, makers of WordPress, as well as Bill Woodward (Anthem Ventures, former Chairman of Macromedia). The Advisory Board also includes industry leaders Mike McCue, CEO and Founder of Flipboard, angel investor Sina Tamaddon, former Senior Vice President of Applications for Apple Inc, Dave Gibbons, co-creator of Watchmen, the bestselling graphic novel of all time, and Bill Sienkiewicz, widely recognized as one of the greatest innovators of sequential art. For more information go to madefire.com.
About DeviantArt
DeviantArt (deviantart.com) was created to entertain, inspire, and empower the artist in all of us. Founded in August 2000, DeviantArt is the largest online social network for artists and art enthusiasts with over 32 million registered members, attracting 65 million unique visitors per month. The DeviantArt platform allows emerging and established artists to exhibit, promote, and share their works within a peer community dedicated to the arts. Work and styles range from traditional media, such as painting, drawing, photography and sculpture, to digital art, pixel art, films and anime.
