Comic Book Resources

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.

Slash Print | Following the digital evolution

Hellboy: Seed of Destruction

Digital Comics | Dark Horse announced via press release that both Umbrella Academy and Hellboy: Seed of Destruction are available through the iTunes Store, with subsequent issues available soon. Seed of Destruction is available as four issues at $0.99 each, or as a bundle of all four issues for $3.99. The first issue of Apocalypse Suite is available for free, with issues #2–#6 only $0.99 each, or a bundle of all six issues for $4.99.

Digital Comics | Disney Comics Worldwide shares more details on Disney's DigiComics initiative. They'll eventually be rolled out worldwide, starting in December in English-speaking countries and Italy. They'll be available for the iPhone, iPod and Sony PSP, and eventually Disney hopes to expand to other platforms like Nokia phones and the Wii. The stories will initially come from "the huge archive that The Walt Disney Company Italy has built up in the last 50 years."

Motion Comics | All five episodes of the Spider Woman, Agent of S.W.O.R.D. motion comic are now available for free viewing on Hulu. Because it is "intended for mature audiences," you'll have to register and verify your age.

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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.

Beware my wallpaper ... Green Lantern's light!

"Blackest Night" iPhone wallpapers

If you're a fan of DC Comics' Blackest Night and own an iPhone, writer Geoff Johns points to something that might interest you: fan-made wallpapers for each of the eight Corps.

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 »

iPictureBox?

PictureBox Inc.

It's not exactly Mickey Mouse buying Spider-Man, but it's fascinating news nonetheless: Indie publisher PictureBox Inc. will be selling digital versions of its comics and graphic novels through the iPhone comics app Panelfly. Available titles include C.F.'s Powr Mastrs Vols. 1 & 2, Frank Santoro's Storeyville, Lauren Weinstein's The Goddess of War #1, and Yuichi Yokoyama's Travel. Panelfly's other publishers include indie outfits NBM and SLG.

That even PictureBox — the artiest of the artcomix publishers, known for envelope-pushing material, extremely high production values, and a publishing line that straddles the comics and fine-art worlds — is going digital says a whole lot about the industry's perceived need to get a foot in that particular door, not to mention about PictureBox's willingness to seek out an audience outside of the traditional art/alt/underground comics venues.

'How do you sell a million Spider-Man comics a month?'

Ron Richards at iFanboy posted an entertaining interview with Darwyn Cooke they did in San Diego last month. During the interview, Cooke talks about digital comics around the 16:40 mark, and says that Parker: The Hunter is heading to the iPhone -- it'll be broken into five chapters, with the first one being free:

(Thanks David!)

NBM teams with Panelfly for iPhone comics

Panlefly

NBM Publishing announced via press release yesterday a partnership with Panelfly to publish several of their graphic novels for the iPhone.

I'm not real familiar with Panelfly, but it appears to be an iPhone application that allows you to download comics within it (rather than each comic being a separate iPhone application). The application costs $1.99 to download, with single-issue comics costing 99 cents and graphic novels ranging in price from $3 to $10, (at least in terms of the titles listed on their iTunes page). Per the press release, NBM's graphic novels will cost between $6.95 and $9.95.

“It’s clear this is the future where readers increasingly have a choice as to how they want to read their comics,” said NBM publisher Terry Nantier, “and we consider ourselves purveyors of graphic novels, not pushers of print publications. Any way you want a quality, engrossing novel-length comic, we’ll make that available, whether print or electronic.”

NBM graphic novels that will be added to Panelfly's catalog include Brownsville, Flower and Fade, Unholy Kinship, Lindbergh Child and North Country. Panlefly also carries several SLG titles, like Rex Libris, Chumble Spuzz and Zombies Calling, as well as titles from Picturebox and Sterling Publishing.

Unbound: ComiXology's bricks-and-pixels store

It would be easy to miss the significance of comiXology’s Comics application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. After all, comics apps are, if not a dime a dozen, at least cheap and plentiful.

But Comics isn’t just a comic or a comics reader, it's a portal that offers a possible way out of the death spiral that independent pamphlet comics seem to be locked into.

Consider the problem: Most comics are only available in comics stores, not on the mass market; prospective readers must often pre-order comics sight unseen; and Diamond won’t carry comics that don’t meet certain minimums. The barrier for new comics is getting higher, and readers have fewer opportunities to discover new comics.

ComiXology provides a digital solution to that impasse that keeps the retailer in the loop: It allows readers to sample comics for free and buy them for their iPhone or iPod Touch, but it also helps them find the print comic in a brick-and-mortar store. ComiXology CEO David Steinberger says he hopes to allow readers to preview and pre-order comics before their official release, helping marginal comics to reach Diamond’s threshold.

The iPhone application is an extension of the comiXology website, which features a complete listing of the comics available in Diamond Previews each month and allows readers to create a digital pull list.

Here’s what Steinberger had to say about the new application, which was announced at San Diego Comic-Con:

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What are you reading?

Sequence from 'EmiTown'

Welcome to What Are You Reading, where we talk about all the wonderful comics and other stuff we're currently engaged with and hopefully point you toward some quality material. Our guest this week is Jamie S. Rich, author of the new graphic novel You Have Killed Me and, of course, our guest-blogger for the week.

A bad case of pinkeye kept me from doing to do much reading this week, but thankfully the rest of the Robot 6 team seems to have made up for my lapse. See what they've been reading by clicking on the link below ...

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SDCC '09 | Random news and notes

Lewis Trondheim

Here are a few items of interest I managed to glean from various places on the Interwebs:

• Lewis Trondheim will be doing a 16-page comic for the iPhone that will be available in 18 languages. Not to be outdone, Stan Lee is releasing Stripperella for the iPhone too.

• Stripper's Guide blogger Allan Holtz announced that his "Guide to U.S. Newspaper Comic Strips and Cartoon Panels" is now under contract to be published by University of Michigan Press. "The book is a compendium of the vital statistics about comic strip and panel series that have appeared in American newspapers."

• Also according to Spurgeon: AdHouse will be working on an art book with Rafael Grampa, though it might not see the light of day until 2011 due to Grampa's busy schedule.

• BOOM! will be releasing a hardcover version of Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. Can a complete Carl Barks collection be too far away?

• Del Rey is going to publish a graphic novel version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Um, yay?