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Slash Print | Following the digital evolution

comiXology

Digital comics | Kiel Phegley talks to Ira Rubenstein, Marvel's executive vice president of digital media, about their partnerships with comiXology, iVerse, ScrollMotion and Panelfly. comiXology, meanwhile, has added another Marvel title to their catalog this week -- Civil War.

Digital comics | Don Reisinger over at CNET reviews several comics applications for the iPhone, including comiXology, Clickwheel, iVerse Comics and Comic Envi.

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Marvel Comics now available via comiXology, iVerse, Panelfly and ScrollMotion apps [Updated]

Marvel on Panelfly

Users of the comiXology, Panelfly and iVerse digital comics applications on the iPhone can now download and read titles from Marvel Comics.

It looks like as of midnight Eastern time all three sites posted updates and added Marvel to their libraries. Here's a breakdown of what each app is offering:

Panelfly

Amazing Spider-Man #1-25
Amazing Spider-Man #519-523
Astonishing X-Men #1-24
Invincible Iron Man #1-16
X-23 #1-6
X-Men: Age Of Apocalypse #1-6

comiXology

Astonishing X-Men #1–24
Captain America #1–30
Marvel Zombies #1–5
X-23 #1–6
X-Men: Age of Apocalypse #1–6

iVerse

Amazing Spider-Man #519–524
Astonishing X-Men #1–12
Captain America #1–7
Invincible Iron Man #1–6
X-23 #1–6
X-Men: Age of Apocalypse #1–6

iVerse and comiXology are offering Marvel's comics for $1.99. Panelfly has them for $.99 each for the first few issues, then $1.99 for later ones.

Update: CBR's Kiel Phegley is working on a piece for the main site now, and sent me this tidbit ... per Marvel, there's a fourth partner as well, ScrollMotion. There's no mention of it on their site yet, however. ScrollMotion has published a large number of books for the iPhone, including titles by Stephen King and Stephanie Meyer, among many others. If you do a search in iTunes for ScollMotion or Iceberg Reader, you can find all the books they've released.

Also, Marvel has posted more information on their website.

Apple to allow purchases within free iPhone apps

Apple told iPhone application developers yesterday that they can now sell content through free iPhone applications. Previously any application that offered stuff for sale, such as the comics applications developed by companies like iVerse and comiXology, couldn't be offered for free in iTunes, per Apple's policy.

"Apple makes us charge $0.99 for our app," comiXology CEO David Steinberger told me last week. "We'd give it away if we could, but it's against their rules to give away an app that then ‘up-sells’ users to buying content within the app. That presents us with the challenge of getting people to purchase the app."

With this change, both comiXology and iVerse began offering their applications for free.

"This afternoon Apple dropped a bombshell on developers – Applications with In-App-Purchase can now be FREE," iVerse wrote on their blog yesterday. "This is a phenomenal move on Apple’s part that allows us to finally offer our digital comics store with no entry price. Sure, we’ve been able to offer over 35 free comics (which we will still continue to offer), but to no longer HAVE to charge $0.99 for the App allows us to open the experience up to anyone who wants to give it a try."

Box 13 debuts on the iPhone today

As I type this, my iPhone is downloading Box 13, the new made-for-the-iPhone comic by David Gallaher, who guest blogged with us not long ago, and his High Moon partner Steve Ellis. The comic itself is free via comiXology's iPhone app, which costs 99 cents.

David Steinberger with comiXology, who I interviewed earlier this month for a story on Box 13 for the main CBR site, sent over some additional artwork from the comic:

You can check out the press release on it after the jump ...

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Digital Interface: the id.ego interview

Recently, it was revealed that id.ego and Tim Smith III would be collaborating on X: THE UNKNOWN a digital series for comiXology's COMICS app. Earlier this week, I took some time to talk to the project's author about pen names, digital distribution, and kung-fu!

Welcome, id.

For starters, what is the high concept or premise behind this new series?

This is a tough one, because X: The Unknown is ultimately, a mystery and I want to preserve the big reveal for readers. Basically, this kid, Xerxes, gets dragged into a clandestine struggle over something that if it became public knowledge would throw the entire planet into bloody war. And I know that sounds pretty standard, but seriously, if people knew this secret, the world would go to hell in a hand-basket really, really fast in a very sad way.

Sort of like the novel, Blindness, where if you take away or introduce one element into polite society, they turn into savages. It becomes very apparent early in the story that it is exactly what would happen, but keeping this secret is tricky. What would you be willing to do to save the world by preventing this secret from coming out?

I know, I am being vague.

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comiXology brings BOOM!'s Irredeemable to the iPhone

Irredeemable

comiXology and BOOM! announced today that the first four issues of the Mark Waid-written Irredeemable is now available via comiXology's iPhone application. The individual issues can be downloaded for $1.99, and there's also a free preview available as well.

Irredeemable is the first BOOM! book available via comiXology's application. BOOM!'s Farscape, Eureka and Hexed comics are all available from iVerse.

What's Inside Box 13?

Developed specifically for comixology's COMICS iphone app, BOX 13 is a serialized digital comics neo-noir thriller created by myself, Steve Ellis, & Scott O. Brown.

Of course, we'll be talking a lot more about it in the coming weeks.

But, for now, I thought I'd give you an exclusive sneak peek of the cover.

The series is scheduled to launch on October 13th.

Unbound | Unwrapping the apps

I thought that I might be writing about reading comics on Apple’s revolutionary new tablet, a much-rumored expanded version of the iPod, by now, but their September meeting came and went with no news on that front. So I’m still reading on my iPod Touch, which has the virtues of clarity and portability and the vice of tininess.

iVerse's comics store

Even with the small screen, though, my iPod is evolving. Back in the Stone Age (six months ago), each comic or section of a comic was a single app, which led to a lot of little icons cluttering up the screen. Now a reader can use a single app such as comiXology’s Comics app, iVerse, or Panelfly, to buy, download, and organize comics, which is a more elegant solution. ComiXology has just released a free version of its app, which allows readers access to all the free comics in its app store, and it also has a Lite version that is 12+, as opposed to 17+, presumably for younger readers.

I assume the hidden hand of Apple has something to do with the fact that these apps have similar design and functionality: You pick your function from a navigation strip across the bottom, with icons for the store, featured items, etc., and you move from a list of comics to catalog listings by tapping and swiping, just as with other apps.

These apps solve a glaring problem, which is that there is no obvious way to find comics in the iTunes store. Continue Reading »