comiXology
Black Friday sales: Star Wars, Walking Dead, Blackest Night & more
Why fight the crowds today when you can take advantage of Black Friday savings on print and digital comics from the comfort of your own home? Here’s a roundup of online sales kicking off this morning, with discounts on everything from The Walking Dead and The Incredible Hulk to Star Wars and Adventure Time. If you know of any other, please let us know in the comments.
• Dark Horse’s web store is promoting a “Star Wars Black Friday MegaBundle,” with digital editions of 153 Star Wars comics — they include such titles as The Clone Wars, The Old Republic, Crimson Empire, Dawn of the Jedi and Agent of the Empire, 3,772 pages in all — for $100. The sale ends Sunday.
Comics A.M. | DC Comics’ digital move into the ‘mainstream’
DC Comics
Digital comics | Technology journalist Andy Ihnatko discusses the significance of DC Comics’ expansion of its digital-comics availability from comiXology and its branded app to the iBooks, Kindle and Nook stores: “Now, all of the company’s titles have a presence in the same bookstore where hundreds of millions of people worldwide buy the rest of their content.” [Chicago Sun-Times]
Conventions | Steve Morris reports in on this past weekend’s Thought Bubble convention, in Leeds, England, which sounds like it was amazing. [The Beat]
Conventions | Meanwhile, on this side of the pond, Young Lee has an account of Durham’s NC Comicon. [Technicianonline.com]
Conversing on Comics with Ron Perazza
For the past 18 years, Ron Perazza has worked in and around the comics industry in virtually every facet of the medium. He’s best known for spearheading DC Comics’ first major foray into original webcomics content with the celebrated but sadly defunct Zuda initiative, but now he’s in a different place — but still doing what he’s always done: pushing to get comics in front of as many people as possible.
After working for 12 years at DC and briefly at digital-comics platform comiXology, Perazza is pushing innovation in comics formats and delivery systems as a consultant for others and with his own initiatives. One of those is Comic Book Think Tank, an idea incubator of sorts for Perazza and collaborator Daniel Govar to examine and execute comics in a digital world. Their first release was the comic Relaunch, with more planned. I talked with Perazza about the future, and what led him down the path to where he is today.
DC spreads the wings of digital comics, but not flawlessly
Superman and Wonder Woman want to make out all over your NOOK
DC’ Comics’ big announcement last week revealed the digital comics territory has broken out from the in-app fences. The publisher no longer has to hope potential readers makes their way to the comiXology app or the DC Comics app within Apple’s iTunes app store. Now they just need to get to Apple’s iBookstore, Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s NOOK, and search. In one big move, DC has shortened the distance between itself and a potential audience. It may seem like a small hurdle, but in the Internet age of easy distractions, it’s an important and savvy move that’s likely to have a number of effects.
If other publishers follow suit, and I believe it’s all but guaranteed they will, DC has prevented digital comics from repeating the near-monopoly trap that exists in print with Diamond Comic Distributors. comiXology’s comparable dominance of digital distribution has been good for the growth and establishment of digital as a viable channel that doesn’t threaten but in facts supports print. However, it’s too limiting in the long term. By adding the three leading e-book readers to the options of the comiXology apps, it keeps competition alive. It could even help in bringing digital comics pricing more in line with other digital books, which tend to be cheaper instead of matching print. The digital/print pricing parity with comics is frequently cited as a breaking point for people considering digital.
DC and Marvel’s new digital releases available ahead of print editions [Updated]
Digital editions of this week’s DC Comics titles were available as early as last night on some platforms, hours before their traditional release — and before most brick-and-mortar stores open for New Comics Day.
Less than a week after the publisher announced it would offer its full line of periodicals across all major e-bookstore platforms, visitors last night to the Barnes & Noble Nook Store could access new issues of Batman, Batgirl, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Saucer Country, among others. A check early this morning showed the same availability on comiXology, Amazon’s Kindle Store and Apple’s iBookstore. We’ve verified the issues are downloadable and readable.
Previously, DC’s new comics debuted Wednesdays at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT on comiXology, giving direct-market retailers a leg up on sales. We’re awaiting comment from DC to learn whether this signals an official change in its digital-release policy.
Meanwhile, a glance this morning at comiXology’s Same Day As Print page revealed some new issues from other publishers — notably, the debuts of Marvel’s All-New X-Men, Fantastic Four and Thor: God of Thunder, and Image’s Saga #7 and The Walking Dead #103 — are already on sale; the statuses of some titles changed from “Pre-Order” to “Buy Comic” even as this paragraph was being written. According to the comiXology blog, non-DC new releases previously went live “around 10 a.m.”
DC’s monthly comics come to Kindle, iTunes and Nook
DC Comics is expanding its digital reach by making its full line of periodicals available for download from Amazon’s Kindle Store, Apple’s iBookstore and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Store.
With the move, which begins today, DC becomes the only comics publisher to offer its line of titles across all major e-bookstore platforms. The company previously had sold digital editions of its monthly comics exclusively through comiXology.
“We were the first to offer our entire comic book line same-day digital and now we are the first to offer fans the convenience of multiple download options,” Co-Publisher Jim Lee said in a statement.
The Middle Ground #125 | Everything old is new again, again
Whether it’s re-released previous print work with all-new material included, or using digital to release work that never even made it to the print stage in the first place, this past week has been one that has suggested that, yet again, old indie comics could find themselves resurrected by digital.
NYCC | A round-up of news from Friday
Trillium
After a late afternoon opening to the general public on Thursday, the New York Comic Con kicked into high gear today with panels, announcements and the usual con craziness we’ve come to expect from big shows. Here’s a round-up of comic-related news and announcements coming out of Friday. If you missed anything from Thursday, I’ve also got your back. I’d also point you to Brigid Alverson’s rundown of the ICv2 sessions before NYCC that go deep on comic sales in 2011 and 2012 thus far, if you’re into that.
• Keith Giffen returns to the stars next year with Threshold, a new DC Comics series that features Blue Beetle, Space Ranger, Star Hawkins, the original Starfire and other space heroes, with a Larfleeze back-up. Giffen also seemingly confirmed that the current Blue Beetle series is coming to an end.
• Vertigo announced several new projects today, including The Wake by Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy, Trillium by Jeff Lemire and an Unwrtten/Fables event that will see the Unwritten characters wander into the Fables comic. Snyder said that American Vampire will go on hiatus after issue #34 so he and artist Rafael Albuquerque can catch up on it. When it returns, it’ll jump ahead to the 1960s.
NYCC | comiXology adds pre-order feature to site, Marvel webstore
If you’re like me (and Chris and Michael), you sit down each month, look through Previews and order your comics from your retailer of choice well in advance of their publication. That’s not something you could do if you bought your comics through comiXology’s digital comics store … until now.
comiXology and Marvel have developed and added a new pre-order feature to the Marvel webstore and comiXology website, allowing fans to buy a few titles in advance — with plans to possibly offer all comics and graphic novels for pre-order in the future.
The two companies kicked it off earlier this week just before the release of Uncanny Avengers #1. Currently Issue 2 is available for pre-order, along with He-Man and the Masters of the Universe #3, The Walking Dead #103, Transformers: Robots in Disguise #10, Prophecy #4 and Godstorm #1. Once customers makes a pre-order, they will be notified by email at the time of release and the comic or graphic novel will appear for download in the Purchases section — which is when they’re charged for it. No word yet on whether they’ll offer this service through their various apps just yet, but I’m sure they have their eye on that as well.
You can find the complete press release below.
NYCC | A round-up of news from Thursday
Superman by Jim Lee
The New York Comic Con officially kicked off this afternoon, with fans eager to get inside and publishers eager to begin releasing news into the wild. So let’s see if we can’t herd some of those announcements together. Here’s a round-up from today:
• DC Comics Co-Publisher and artist extraordinaire Jim Lee will team with Batman scribe Scott Snyder on a new Superman title next year, just in time for the Man of Steel’s return to the silver screen. “This will play along with the other Superman books in the sense that it’s in continuity, but we really wanted to carve out our own territory,” Snyder told CBR. “This really is sort of the biggest, most epic Superman story we could do together while having our feet planted firmly in continuity and making sure that everyone had enough room.”
DC also unveiled a Kia Optima that features a Batman design by Jim Lee.
• Marvel announced three more Season One graphic novels: Iron Man, written by Howard Chaykin with art by Gerard Parel; Thor by writer Matthew Sturges and artist Pepe Larraz; and Wolverine, written by the team of Ben Blacker and Ben Acker, with art by Salva Espin. Also, Cullen Bunn returns to Deadpool with Deadpool Killustrated, a miniseries that pits the Merc with a Mouth against Moby Dick, Sherlock Holmes, Beowulf, Don Quixote and more. Spoiler alert: he’s gonna kill them.
Diamond Digital video explains details of the program
Diamond Digital has released a video for retailers that explains how to use its program. Retailers have two ways of selling digitally through Diamond: They can print out digital codes that they sell and the user then redeems for a digital comic, and they can also set up a digital comics storefront and keep a cut of the sales. The video does a nice job of explaining how to do that. And for the rest of us, it’s a peek behind the digital curtain.
One revealing detail is that retailers keep 33 percent of the cover price of any comic sold digitally. It’s safe to say that’s less than they would make from the sale of a printed comic, but they don’t have to worry about ordering inventory or ending up with unsold comics on their hands. On the other hand, it’s more than they would get from comiXology, which has a similar program; comiXology gives retailers 15 percent of the sale price if they use a standard comiXology storefront and 30 percent if they use the DC storefront. (On the other hand, comiXology offers a wider range of comics for sale, so there you go. Nothing’s perfect.) Retailers take in the full amount for each sale, then Diamond bills them for 67 percent on their weekly invoice.
Customers can redeem the codes at the website digitalcomicsreader.com or on a special Digital Comics Reader app, which is available for Android and iPhone.
What Are You Reading? with Alex de Campi
Megillat Esther
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? This week we’re joined by music video director and comic book writer Alex de Campi, whose works include Smoke, Kat & Mouse, Valentine and the in-production Ashes.
To see at Alex and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
ComiXology nears 100 million downloads, JManga adds Kodansha
Two digital comics distributors are celebrating some major coups with freebies for their readers.
Let’s start with comiXology, which is about to reach a significant milestone — 100 million comics downloaded. The company was at just about 50 million at the beginning of the year, which means the number of downloads (both free and paid) will have doubled in just about 10 months. And to reach that milestone just a bit faster, comiXology is offering a free comic every day. Yesterday’s selection was Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft #1, and today’s is Reilly Brown and Kurt Christenson’s Power Play #1. Check the top of the company’s blog every day for the spotlight title.
Meanwhile, the digital manga site JManga has added Kodansha manga to its lineup. This is a pretty big deal for that company, insofar as Kodansha is the largest publisher in Japan. In typical JManga fashion, they load it up right away with a lot of books; their first set is all older titles that were released in English under the Del Rey imprint before Kodansha set up its own North American arm, Kodansha Comics, and took over the Del Rey titles. None of these books is being published by Kodansha Comics, so they are only available via digital (or secondhand copies). And they are giving away a free volume: If you sign up with JManga and Tweet the Kodansha news (instructions are at the link above), they will give you 500 points, which is what a typical volume of manga costs on JManga.
What makes this interesting is that Kodansha Comics has its own app, although it hasn’t been updated in quite a while. Their app carries newer series such as Fairy Tail and Arisa (which launched as Del Rey titles) and Cage of Eden (which launched as a Kodansha Comics title). Will the two digital services merge, or will JManga keep the old-but-good stuff and Kodansha update its app? We’ll be watching to find out.
A Wave Blue World introduces Epics creator-owned anthology
In the wake of Steve Niles, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Justin Gray’s Creator-Owned Heroes, it’s nice to see other creators establishing informal studios to take a stab at the ongoing-anthology format. Anthony Marques, Fernando Ruiz, Bob Hardin and Fabio Redivo are graduates and current staff instructors of the Kubert School who have teamed to produce Epics, a quarterly comic that serializes four pulp-inspired stories. Marques is creating Katyusha, Ruiz has The Iron Ghost, Hardin’s making A Racy Story and Redivo presents Drake.
The first issue was paid for by fans via Kickstarter and released Sept. 15 during a special signing at Dewy’s Comic City in Madison, New Jersey, but subsequent issues will be published by A Wave Blue World. The publisher has the first issue for sale right now (it’s also available digitally through comiXology) and promises that Issue 2 will be released in March. There are also plans for Katyusha and Iron Ghost spin-off series next year.
Check out previews of all four stories after the break.
Wondering what the fuss is about? Download Daredevil #1 for free
If, for some reason, you haven’t been reading Marvel’s relaunched Daredevil series and were puzzled by all of those Eisner Awards and Harvey Awards for the comic and for the creative team of Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera and Joe Rivera, and yet still hadn’t checked out the title — well, now you have no excuse: Marvel and comiXology are offering Daredevil #1 for free in digital form.
No grousing about how you don’t like to read on the screen; just go download the comic and enjoy.