Justice League #4

Publishing | John Jackson Miller takes apart the December sales numbers and finds that while comics were up for the month, graphic novel sales fell just enough to prevent the direct market from having its first up year since 2008. In fact, trades are down 16 percent from December 2010, and Miller spends some time discussing why that might be — and why next year might be different. [The Comichron]

Publishing | Houghton Mifflin has high hopes for Are You My Mother?, the new graphic novel from Fun Home author Alison Bechdel: The publisher plans a first printing of 100,000 copies. [Publishers Weekly]

Retailing | Diamond’s Retailer Summit will be held the two days before the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, with attendees receiving free admission to the April 13-15 convention. [ICv2]

Saga #1

Creators | Brian K. Vaughan speaks briefly about Saga, his March-debuting collaboration with Fiona Staples that promises “a nice mixture of some bounty hunters, monsters and all sorts of lovely threats.” [USA Today]

Creators | Joe Keatinge (Hell Yeah, Glory) writes about the immutability of Big Two superhero comics and the freedom that independent publishers like Image have to throw dramatic twists into their stories—and make them stick. [Image Comics blog]

Digital | Letterer Todd Klein reads Green Lantern #1 on his iPhone and finds the experience different, but enjoyable. [Todd's Blog]

Graphicly

Digital | HTML5 is in, Windows 7 phones are out: Micah Laaker reviews the past year for digital distribution service Graphicly and hints a bit at what the future may bring. [Graphicly Blog]

Digital | Which platform will survive? Matt Alexander speculates that as tablets get better and cheaper, dedicated e-readers will become a thing of the past. Ironic, no? [The Loop]

Cosplay | Hana, a Muslim anime blogger, discusses the complications of finding characters to cosplay while observing the rules of modest dress: “Clearly, some of you might be wondering what all the fuss was about, and I’m not saying that all Muslim hijab-wearing females are anything as habitually neurotic as I am. However, think of it more as an illustration of how my faith is the filter through which I experience the fandom and everything else. For me, it’s an entire lifestyle that affects everything I do, rather than just being a set of beliefs.” [Beneath the Tangles]

David Steinberger at NYCC 2010

Digital comics were the big story of 2011, and there is no question that comiXology dominated the field. CEO David Steinberger and his crew realized the potential of digital media to transform comics back in 2007, but they didn’t start on the iPhone. What comiXology did first was put comics solicitations online (as opposed to trapping them in a paper catalog, as Previews does) and set up a system for digital pull lists that users could tie in to participating retailers or simply print out and bring to the store.

Now the comiXology brand means much, much more. They were among the first digital comics distributors on the iPhone and then on the iPad, and their digital comics app, simply titled Comics, is one of the top grossing apps in the iTunes store. They also have their own web store as well as an Android app. ComiXology is also behind almost every comics publisher app, including Marvel, DC, Image, IDW (a recent addition), Dynamite and BOOM! Studios, as well as single-property apps such as Scott Pilgrim, The Walking Dead, and Star Trek.

Brigid Alverson: Let’s drop back and look at the big picture first. We all know comiXology is the biggest digital distributor, and with six of the top seven publishers on board, you are starting to be regarded as a digital monopoly. What are the challenges that come with that?

David Steinberger: First, I think that given the beating that Diamond takes in just about every circle in that way, we need to be very cognizant of how we treat people and how we operate. One of the reasons I think that IDW chose to work with us is that we were executing at a very high level and we were providing consumers with really great experiences. I would take issue that we are anywhere near a monopoly when you have players like Barnes & Noble and Amazon selling comics digitally. I think we are a majority of the market, but it’s very early. There is room for several players. We are blessed by having a lot of validation in the marketplace, between IDW switching their apps over to us and our inclusion as a preloaded application for Kindle Fire.

We really believe that when we started putting together comiXology, one reason we succeeded was because there were tools that Diamond could have created that they didn’t, and with all respect to Diamond, getting out that many books to that many retailers every Wednesday is a task. They are very reliable and they pay on time, which is very important, but getting your catalog online—if you are not in a monopoly-like situation, you would be building those tools. If I were Diamond, I would be building those tools.

The most important thing for me is that we continue to make great experiences finding and reading comics. You can’t slow down and say OK, we now own this marketplace and we can just kind of hang back and not innovate. That’s especially not true in digital. It’s not true in print either, but that’s what everybody fears, that somehow we are going to stop listening to our customers, stop taking care of the publishers, and that’s just not how it’s going. We released version 3.0 [of the iOS app] last year, we did the Kindle Fire apps, we are today going into public beta with a HTML-based web store, so we are not sitting still. Consumers worry they are creating a Diamond of digital, they worry that we are not going to continue to innovate and improve the experience, but we are. So I am not worried in that way. I understand where people are coming from because we power both Marvel and DC, but they are available in other channels, and you can’t underestimate the competition from retailers like Amazon.

We still don’t have any social stuff in the app. I’m sure our competitors look at that and say “There’s the opening.” Our whole philosophy is to expand the market. That has been our philosophy from the beginning. That’s one of the cool things about this year: We are a non-disruptive digital force in a market that does not need to be disrupted because of the way it is put together. Suddenly it is 2011, it looks like we are going to have an up year in print, and we certainly had an up year in digital. This will be looked back on as the year comiXology got all the pieces of its programs, including our affiliate programs, some of which are making real money, which is exactly the point of this whole thing—building a platform that is buy once, read anywhere, and giving retailers the ability to be involved with that. So in one way there is an achievement for us that is personally gratifying, we got there. It wasn’t on the exact schedule we projected, it doesn’t look exactly like I thought it would look, yet there are retailers that are happily participating in it, and we are in every platform that I would call a good marketplace.

Alverson: ComiXology is available on a lot of different platforms. Can you give us a snapshot of how popular they are relative to one another?

Steinberger: The iOS has a lead in terms of just being first to have a great product at a good price out in the market, which is the iPad. More and more people actually use our website, once they discover it, to shop and buy, and I hope with the HTML release, more will do that. It’s quicker. You don’t have to wait for approvals like on the iOS and the Amazon app store.

It’s kind of an unfair look, because Apple has had so much time to be ahead, and we have been building the audience for almost two-and-a-half years. July 2009 was the iPhone, and the iPad came out 2010, so it’s only a year and a half old, but it’s ahead of everyone. The Android market has a lot of devices, but you buy an iPad to consume stuff, watch movies, read comics, unlike the phone. We have a ton of downloads on Android but more purchases on iPad.

Alverson: So you think of the Android platform as a phone, as opposed to a tablet?

Steinberger: Yes, although the Kindle Fire is an Android device. I think it has a tremendous amount of promise in tablets; we have more Android sales on tablets. With the Kindle Fire, now you have this gorgeous screen, $199 price point, and a device that was created to consume media. Amazon has made a real consumption device. Everything about the interface is about getting to your media and purchasing it. And at an incredible price point, so they are going to sell a ton of them. It’s really amazing—you just go to the app area and there is our icon. That means somebody doesn’t have to search for us. So that is going to change the pie quite a bit over the next six months.

That doesn’t mean they are taking away share from Apple; they are adding share. Apple continues to grow at a very, very rapid rate, and the device market continues to grow at a very, very rapid rate. Our job is to make our app discoverable. The Kindle Fire preload is the ultimate in discoverability, and on our roadmap this year very heavily is customer acquisition, letting people know about it, people who are not just comics people.

Alverson: With the IDW acquisition, you at least doubled the number of stand-alone apps you have for specific properties, such as Star Trek. How well do these perform compared to the publisher-specific apps and the general Comics app?

Steinberger: We will do them as appropriate. It is still a discoverability issue in the app stores. Having the Walking Dead comics app—iTunes did a whole AMC area of their store, and as part of that they had a Walking Dead section. There’s a Walking Dead page where they have the current season, past season, music, and apps, and there is our Walking Dead app, and books, audiobooks, podcasts. If we had simply left The Walking Dead in the comics app, iTunes wouldn’t have featured it alongside the TV show. So yes, as the opportunities come up and as media properties are comic connected, we will do that as necessary.

I did an interview with someone who wanted a job here. I said “Do you read comics?” and she said “Only recently. I started reading The Walking Dead after watching the TV show.” That’s a great example of a comic that is a media property introducing somebody new. Without having a top-level visibility in the store, we wouldn’t see that as well.

Alverson: Are you planning to do a lot more of that?

Steinberger: No more than we have been doing.

Alverson: Have you considered adding any type of subscription model so people could automatically get new comics added to their devices, or some sort of digital pull list that actually puts the comics on your desktop, ready to buy?

Steinberger: I think that is a great idea.

Alverson: Is it in the works now?

Steinberger: I don’t have anything now. It’s certainly something we have been thinking a lot about it. It’s a no-brainer.

Alverson: For some reason, the manga publishers are not going with comiXology. Why do you think that is? Are you going to try to capture any manga publishers?

Steinberger: I would love to have more manga. We talk about it; it’s something we have discussions with publishers about. I would love to have a ton of manga. I would love to do a specific app for it. Getting the content is a little more complicated than dealing with U.S. publishers, but certainly that is a shingle we have out and are discussing with different players.

In the iTunes 2011 Rewind, there were three comics apps: comiXology, Marvel, and DC. Those three apps were in the top 100 grossing iPad apps. We would have been in the top ten had it been just the last few months, easily. I think that says a lot about where we stand in terms of how many consumers we are reaching, comparatively. Doing your own app is great, otherwise we wouldn’t support and improve the white-label app experience. DC and Marvel have apps that speak to their audience. But it’s no requirement of mine for anyone to transfer all their existing apps to us. It was a wonderful experience with IDW, we are proud of that, but we are now a pretty good market unto ourselves. I’m very proud that we power the three apps that are the top grossing iPad apps that are about comics. That gives you some sense of where everyone else stands in comparison and as an opportunity for those publishers who haven’t joined us. I would love to have tons of manga, I would love to be selling Dark Horse comics. We are all about just selling comics, and we have miles to go on being better at that.

Alverson: There has been a lot of conversation about price, particularly for comics that are released the same day in digital and print. How much input, if any, do you have into prices?

Steinberger: There are different forms of contract, and with some of them we choose and some of them we don’t. Of course, we have data and trends and lots of information about how people behave to help publishers make decisions. Again, one of the reasons we have succeeded is we are very friendly to publishers, and when they came in five years ago, when we first started putting together our business plan, they were all running scared of digital, that digital was going to collapse print. Part of that is, for some publishers, price equivalency. Archie has less to lose in the direct market, so they can take that risk and determine whether they are selling a whole lot more.

Most publishers did price at 99 cents to start, and a few of them still do, except for the brand new stuff—like Red 5, most of their stuff is 99 cents. When we got The Walking Dead, Kirkman said, “I think the material is worth more than this, I think people think it’s worth more than this,” and that’s when the switch started happening. There is a value to a comic book. I agree that for most it is more than 99 cents. The big complaint is day and date, with the price the same in digital as in print. Publishers are still rightly concerned about whether retailers are going to buy their product. That’s what happened with Dark Horse—they had a couple of retailers threaten not to buy their books.

Alverson: Some people argue with digital media that you make more money selling a lot of units at a lower price than a few units at a high price. Have you seen that phenomenon with comics?

Steinberger: I think that there is a perceived value issue. If you throw everything at 99 cents, the perceived value is very low. We have had instances where we move comics from 99 cents to $1.99 and we sell more units, so the price is an indicator to the consumer that this is a valuable thing. This is not the standard, but we have examples of that happening.

Alverson: Can you give me an example?

Steinberger: No, the publisher would tie me up. It wasn’t just one. One did it and then another one did it, partially so you could have sales. Who knows what the magic number is, but $1.99 is still an inexpensive purchase. But it says something, the 99 cents vs. 1.99 says OK, this is higher quality. It doesn’t say I’m ripping you off. Some people would argue that the $3.99 books are too expensive.

Alverson: I would argue that. I won’t pay $3.99 for a digital comic.

Steinberger: They are selling quite well, I am sorry to report. The question is, would you sell more than twice as much if you drop the price in half? That is an experiment that hasn’t happened yet. DC has a public policy of dropping their day and date prices a by dollar a month after the comic comes out.

Alverson: Do you see a sales bump on that day?

Steinberger: Not as much as much as you might expect, but sure.

We do sales practically three times a week. They are very effective. It depends on the content, and at the end of the day, this is about great content. We have a really good experience—we can improve in some ways but we have a good experience in buying and reading comics. All we need to make that work well is good content. Price, how things do when they are on sale, all that depends on the content.

Alverson: How is your Comics 4 Kids app doing?

Steinberger: Not as well as I want it to. It has amazing content at this point.

Alverson: How many titles do you have on there?

Steinberger: A couple of thousand at least. We have Charlie Brown on there now, Bone has been on there, lots of really great content.

Alverson: Do you think the problem is that it’s an app branded for kids?

Steinberger: Yeah, probably. We have been rethinking that, trying to make a determination what we can do to stimulate that. It’s a good app. It has a lot of great content. People should be finding it.

Alverson: One of the problems we heard about a lot in the early days of comics on the iPad was Apple’s content restrictions. Is that still an issue, and if so, how do you deal with it?

Steinberger: I think they have lightened up a little bit. I don’t see it as much of an issue at all. We haven’t tried to distribute Lost Girls or anything, but in general I think we put out 300 and some books a week right now, and first of all, it’s not reasonable for them to look over everything, but also they have gotten to the point where they trust us. And we are a 17 and over app, so they have parental controls.

Alverson: On the IDW move: You were already carrying IDW comics in your Comics app. How does this change things from the reader’s point of view?

Steinberger: From a user’s point of view, you went from this kind of lock-in to a single app—you couldn’t even read a comic on the IDW app if you bought it on the Transformers app. I think we had tens of thousands of people create accounts in the first five days. Suddenly they are untethered to the single app. There are a lot of people that really love guided view, and now they have guided view. That alone for our production staff was a herculean effort between NYCC, when we announced IDW was coming to our app in general, and last week.

Alverson: What about the retailer storefronts? There was a lot of skepticism when you first rolled them out, but how are they working out?

Steinberger: We just released a new version of our terms of service with retailers, and the retailer storefronts will also benefit from the HTML store. That’s on the roadmap. We are continuing to communicate and expand those relationships. We have done very well with ICv2 helping us be the customer-facing part of the relationship. And over-deliver. Everybody was really cautious and saying there is a threshold meaning they have to make a certain amount of money before we pay them and that we are getting the customer information. Both those things are untrue. They [the retailers] are being paid on a monthly basis no matter how much they make, and we are continuing to nurture those relationships and improve the tools we are making for them.

Alverson: What can we expect from comiXology in the coming year?

Steinberger: There are lots of improvements to the store that we will be making over the next 12 months. There are improvements to the app still to be made. We haven’t finished a real 3.0 build for Android yet, so that is a big deal. We are focused on making the partner apps, the white-label apps, a great branded experience for our publishing partners, continuing to add on functionality for spreading the word about comics. Finding new readers for comics is a huge priority. Continuing to expand the market continues to be a big deal, probably forever for us. We do think that we will have a couple of announcements for some new hires, people we are bringing in to help us make better tools for digital comics, help people to get onto the platform more easily.

Being here and having the achievements we have had, I feel very lucky to be a part of it and help comics come into a digital age. It is a very gratifying experience, and I hope we continue to make people happy over the next few years.

The big digital-comics news this week was that the publisher IDW, an early iVerse partner, migrated to comiXology for support of its apps. Where iVerse seems to be hanging tough is in the kids’ market—they also run the Pocket God app, and when I spoke to iVerse CEO Michael Murphey a few weeks ago, he said that their biggest selling properties were not adult comics on the iPad but children’s comics on the iPhone/iPod Touch: “Our largest selling products are kids’ products,” he told me. “Kids get the hand-me-down phones and iPod Touches. As they start getting the hand-me-down iPads after Christmas this year, that will evolve.”

In that context, a stand-alone app makes a lot of sense; Strawberry Shortcake is easy to discover in the iTunes store, and you don’t have to download a separate comics reader or create an account to use it. I do think some extras would really send this app over the top, though. A separate Strawberry Shortcake game app already exists, but it would be nice to see some puzzles, coloring pages, even music or videos, to bump up the fun content even more.

Warning: Pretty much every image in the linked article is flagrantly, joyously NSFW. If your eyeballs disintegrate and hair grows on the palms of your hands when you click the link, well, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Underground comics are by their nature transgressive, so it comes as no surprise that the Comix Classics: Underground Comics app produced by Toura, an app platform often used by museums, and Comic Art Productions and Exhibits, ran afoul of Apple’s content guidelines. As Kim Munson, who designed the app, explained to Michael Dooley of Imprint Magazine, the app is not a digital comic but “more of an interactive art exhibit.” It’s based on James Danky and Denis Kitchen’s book Underground Classics: The Transformation of Comics into Comix, and it contains all the comics from the book and the exhibit plus some new graphics.

Oddly, when the app was submitted to Apple, the iPad version was accepted as is (with a string of warnings to potential consumers about sex, nudity, etc.) but the iPhone version was rejected for “excessively objectionable or crude content.” Munson removed 16 images, which apparently shifted the ratio enough to make the Apple folks happy. (For those who like to skip straight to the good stuff, the deleted images are at the link.) Munson noted that “The deletions were plainly based purely on the visual representation, not the context of the pieces.”

Munson commented

I felt a sense of déjà vu when I saw that one of the works that had been rejected – censored – was a 1983 page from The Adventures of Omaha the Cat Dancer that showed Omaha waking up naked in bed after a festive evening. Omaha had been the focus of a 1986 obscenity case that eventually led my biz partner, Denis Kitchen, to found the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. And here we are censoring Omaha again in 2011.

And by a weird coincidence, my husband, IP attorney and law professor Marc Greenberg, had just finished writing an in-depth article about cases of the CBLDF, so all summer I had been hearing horror stories about people having their lives wrecked for happening to own, sell, or transport the “wrong” comic book.

The Android version, meanwhile, flew through without a hitch.

On the one hand, it’s regrettable that Apple, having loosened up quite a bit, still balked at putting this app on the iPhone. On the other hand, if you put a giant penis on the cover of your comic, you have to expect some pushback — and with underground comics, outrageousness was always part of the point. If nobody is outraged, you might as well be drawing Baby Huey.

SuperGay & the Attack of His Ex-Girlfriends

Barcelona-based developer Klicrainbow has launched SuperGay & the Attack of His Ex-Girlfriends, an app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch billed as “the first video game about a gay superhero.” I didn’t look into the assertion, but I can’t think of any other gay-superhero video games.

The comic book-inspired storyline follows Tom Palmer, an idealistic young scientist who works at Genetic Corp. with his beautiful fiancée Ilsa Himmler and her father Dr. Arnold Himmler to develop a cloning project for humanitarian purposes. But when he discovers that Ilsa and Arnold have been secretly negotiating with foreign leaders to sell their work for military purposes, Tom searches for an escape. When a failed experiment transforms the young scientist into SuperGay, “the greatest superhero of all modern times,” he uses his newfound abilities — including Gay Power and Rainbow Ray — to try to stop his evil ex-girlfriend and her clone army.

In the game, SuperGay races, fights and … dances … his way through 32 levels to stop an imminent nuclear war. Check out the trailer and additional game art after the break.

SuperGay & the Attack of His Ex-Girlfriends

SuperGay & the Attack of His Ex-Girlfriends

Individual stories are 99 cents, with themed bundles available for $3.99 through In-App Purchase. The app debuts in the United States and will be available in more than 80 countries. It will be available in additional markets later this year.

Disney boasts that the app offers “a new, director-style reading experience,” with readers allowed to choose portrait or landscape mode, automatic or manual smart paneling, and double-page spreads. Readers also may preview titles before purchase, share their stories on Facebook and save content for offline reading. There’s also a feature that automatically updates readers when stories relating to their favorite characters become available. Also: sound effects!

“Comics are a tremendous part of our heritage and we see great potential and interest in bringing our extensive catalog of Disney Comics to mobile devices,” Russell Hampton, president of Disney Publishing Worldwide, said in a statement. “We create over 25,000 original comic pages each year and it’s critical that we deliver this content to our readers around the world. We have over 1 billion Disney comic readers today, and our Disney Comics App will further broaden that audience.”

Read the official announcement after the break.

Disney Publishing Worldwide Launches Disney Comics App for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch

Over 80 Years of Disney Comics Are Now Available to Readers Digitally, Including Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, Cars 2 and More

Fans can Tweet the Release Using the #DisneyComics Hashtag

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.–Disney Publishing Worldwide announced today its new Disney Comics App for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch is now available on the App Store. Disney Comics gives readers instant access to one of the most extensive collections of comics, short stories and graphic novels ever created, ranging from classic adventures starring Mickey Mouse to brand new comics from Toy Story and Cars 2.

The launch collection includes more than 50 comics for readers of all ages and features Disney classic characters like Donald Duck; Disney-Pixar comics featuring Toy Story’s Buzz and Woody; Disney Channel-inspired content including High School Musical; and feature film-based comics based on Tron: Legacy and Tangled. Disney Publishing will release two new titles each week following the launch.

The Disney Comics App will launch in the U.S. and will also be available on the App Store in over 80 countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Additional markets will launch Disney Comics later this year.

“Comics are a tremendous part of our heritage and we see great potential and interest in bringing our extensive catalog of Disney Comics to mobile devices,” said Russell Hampton, President, Disney Publishing Worldwide. “We create over 25,000 original comic pages each year and it’s critical that we deliver this content to our readers around the world. We have over 1 billion Disney comic readers today, and our Disney Comics App will further broaden that audience.”

The Disney Comics App offers a new, director-style reading experience; readers can choose portrait or landscape mode, automatic or manual smart paneling, and can view double spreads. Disney Comics also enables readers to preview comics before making a purchase, share their stories with Facebook friends, and save all content to their iPad, iPhone or iPod touch for offline reading. An added feature lets readers receive automatic updates when stories relating to a favorite Disney character become available.

The Disney Comics App is available for free from the App Store on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, or at www.itunes.com/appstore. Individual stories are $.99 and themed bundles are available for $3.99 through In-App Purchase.

For more information, visit www.disney.com/disneycomics and www.facebook.com/DisneyDigitalBooks, or follow @DisneyDigiBooks on Twitter.

Comics4Kids

comiXology today officially announced that their Comics4Kids application is now available on the various Apple devices, including the iPhone and iPad.

The app includes comics from the Archie line, Secret of Kells, Atomic Robo and more. I haven’t had a chance to download it yet, but according to the release it includes comics from Image, NBM, Antarctic Press, Arcana Comics, Bluewater Comics and Dynamite, among others. Several of comiXology’s partners are missing from the list, including DC, Marvel and BOOM! — all of whom have content that would feel right at home on an app like this.

Upon seeing the name, I was reminded of something BOOM!’s Chip Mosher said at the BOOM! panel this weekend at WonderCon: “We did some marketing research, and we found out that kids don’t really like to pick up something that says ‘kids’ on it.” Still, if this makes it easier for parents to find kid-friendly comic material and keep it in an app that’s separate from their non-kid-friendly material, it will have done its job.

You can find the complete press release after the jump.

*****

comiXology Brings Digital Comics to the Youth Market with Launch of Comics4Kids App
Archie Comics’ Archie, Sonic the Hedgehog, Secret of Kells, Atomic Robo and dozens more in kid-friendly, parent-approved digital format for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

New York, NY / April 6th, 2011 – comiXology, the leading distributor of digital comics, announced today the availability of their Comics4Kids app for the iOS. Specifically designed for young readers, Comics4Kids features titles from acclaimed publishers including Archie Comics, Image Comics and GKids (publishers of Secret of Kells) in addition to dozens of other classic comic titles.

The comiXology Comics4Kids app offers a creative outlet for kids to develop critical reading skills while challenging their imaginations. Established to provide parents with a trusted and kid-friendly application for digital comics, Comics4Kids will offer a distinctive set of classic and modern titles including Archie, Sonic the Hedgehog, Secret of Kells and Atomic Robo.

“Comics were a staple of my life growing up. I lived and breathed Archie as a kid, so I know how big of a role these books can play in children’s development. Now, as an adult, I’m doing everything I can to ensure that today’s generation of tech-oriented kids has the same opportunity through comiXology,” said Jon Goldwater, CEO of Archie Comics.

Comics4Kids is one of the largest digital libraries of kid’s comics available on mobile devices, marking comiXology’s newest pursuit in engaging resources for child development.

“Comics4Kids is specifically designed for a new generation of tech-savvy kids and teens,” said David Steinberger, CEO of comiXology. “We have parents writing us all the time that they love our apps, and want to share comics with their kids, but they’re afraid they’ll pick up one of our mature titles. I couldn’t even hand my iPad off to my own young niece so I knew we needed to make an app for the kids who want to explore comics in an environment that makes their parents comfortable.”

Available for free download in the iTunes store, the app will enable kids to explore a new realm of possibilities in reading with the availability of nearly 175 comics from 15 publishers.

Publishers on board:

* Alterna Comics
* Antarctic Press
* Arcana Comics
* Archie
* Bluewater Comics
* GKids (Secret of Kells)
* Devils Due
* Dynamite
* Eigo Manga
* Image
* Keenspot
* Markosia
* NBM
* Red 5
* Shadowline

About comiXology

Since 2007 comiXology has been developing the technological infrastructure to bring comics into the digital mainstream and expose new audiences to the rich history and culture of the industry. Through partnerships with top comic book publishers including Marvel Comics, DC Comics, BOOM! Studios, Image Comics and TOKYOPOP as well as their own mobile and web apps which hosts over 7,600 digital titles, comiXology has become a leader in digital comic book proliferation. Also focused on creating strong ties with retail stores through its technology solutions, comiXology continues to transform the previously fragmented comic ecosystem into a vibrant and cohesive marketplace.

Yes it can.

In an article in the April 2011 edition of Wired UK, reporter Tom Cheshire goes in depth with the founders and principal people behind Rovio, the company that created Angry Birds. The article  describes how co-founder Mikael Hed wrote a webcomic series called August Jessor prior to Angry Birds’ success — and surprisingly, the archived webcomic is still online, although not updated since 2007. The company he founded with his cousin Rovio developed art for several game companies before they struck gold in 2010  Angry Birds.

And although the success of Angry Birds has taken away from any comics work as of late, the entrepreneurial company has plans for the concept to reach out to TV series, movies, cartoons … and even comics.

“Look at how Disney got started,” Hed says in the Wired UK article. “Steamboat Willie created Mickey Mouse, then they added more characters. You can see the same pattern today, but everything is happening much, much faster. Other brands used to build recognition over the course of decades. We’ve done it in one year.”

Akamatsu's legit manga download site

A blog called Welcome Datacomp has translated a discussion of manga piracy between manga creators Ken Akamatsu (Love Hina, Negima), Minako Uchida, and Kazumi Tojo that took place on the Japanese social media site Togetter about the prevalence of scanned and fan-translated manga on the internet. Akamatsu is experimenting with his own free manga site, but even so, he sounds pessimistic: “Am I too late? I get the feeling that [my project to release free manga PDFs] won’t be enough at this point.” He goes on to say

Hasn’t illegally scanned manga, propagated so casually like this, fallen into the category of “property of the Internet”? You won’t be able to eliminate it. The only thing we can do at this point is [launch our own free websites with the] “advertising model”. (Because charging people would be difficult.)

The most recent illegal scans are very high quality, and the translations are exceedingly accurate. (^^;) If there’s no respect for original authors on the net, then obviously the official versions will lose out.

The creators express dismay that people who would not shoplift from a physical store have no compunction about reading pirated manga; as Tojo says, “It seems like people will pay for things they can touch like vegetables, but they think it’s a waste to pay for intangible data.”

It seems like the creators are talking about both scans in Japanese, which are read locally, and fan-translated manga for other markets; they cite one example of a publisher being told by fans to change a name to the one selected by a scanlator. And there’s an interesting side discussion on the decline of the cell phone, which was once a popular platform for yaoi and erotic manga. As people switch to smart phones, the options dwindle: Apple doesn’t allow adult manga in the iTunes store, and Akamatsu says Kindle doesn’t either (I’m not so sure about that), but the fans reassure him that Android allows it, making that the platform of choice for ero manga fans.

The Archie App

Verizon users will get their long-awaited iPhones beginning on Feb. 10, and the Archie folks want to make sure they get a piece of the action from the get-go, so they will be marking down all their digital comics to 99 cents as a way to say hello. The sale applies only to comics bought through Archie’s iVerse app, and prices go back up again at midnight on Feb. 14.

This chiefly affects newer titles, as 99 cents seems to be the default price for older comics on the Archie app anyway. They also have a dozen free comics, including the first issues of the Archie: Freshman Year series and Chuck Clayton’s Cartoon Life. But the sale would be a good time to snap up Veronica #202, which marks the first appearance of Kevin Keller, Riverdale’s first openly gay character, and the Life with Archie magazines, which follow the dual Archie-marries-Veronica and Archie-marries-Betty storylines, for short money.

Also, for those who truly cannot have enough Archie in their lives, the Archie News blog is now updating daily with vintage panels and covers from days of Riverdale past, as well as their usual barrage of information about new releases (including generous previews).

Robot 13

The big news in the e-book world this week was the Digital Book World convention in New York, and the big news for Robot 6 is that Robot 13 (no relation) won the Publishing Innovation Award in the comics category.

If there was every any doubt that comics have arrived, brush it away: There were only five awards categories, and comics made the cut alongside fiction, non-fiction, children’s, and reference. And the list of nominees was quite diverse:

• Clown Commandos #1 (Big Red Boot Entertainment)
• Disney Epic Mickey Digicomics (Disney Publishing Worldwide)
• Motion Comic SUPERARE (Amo Tarzi)
• Operation Ajax (Tall Chair, Inc.)
• Robot 13 (Robot Comics)
• Tumor (Archaia Studios Press)
• Valentine (Robot Comics)

The nominating judges clearly favorited individual comics over publishers: comiXology, iVerse, and Graphicly are all absent from this list, despite the fact that they have been doing quite a bit of genuine innovation. And it’s worth noting that for the judges, iTunes isn’t king. The finalists for the awards were Robot 13, Operation Ajax and Tumor, and two out of these three are not iPad comics: Robot 13 is available for iPhone but was originally developed for Android, while Tumor is distributed via Kindle. In the eyes of these judges, at least, there’s still quite a bit of diversity in the digital world.

You can pick them up through the Comics+ or IDW apps, both of which are free and really should be on your iThing anyway. And if you like what you see, check out the subsequent issues for 99 cents each—Issue #7 just went up this week.

Here’s a bit of background on Del Col and McCreery from their college newspaper.

The Marvel app for the iPad

Apple has released a list of the top apps for iPhone and iPad in its iTunes store, and three of the top five grossing book apps for the iPad are not just comics readers, they are all from comiXology: Marvel Comics, Comics (their multi-publisher reader), and DC Comics. This reflects not just the quality of the iPad as a comics medium for comics but also the large numbers of comics that must be selling through those apps (the apps themselves are free). The top grosser in the book category is The Elements, a visual exploration of the periodic table, which probably doesn’t have a lot of mass appeal but sells for $13.99, and the number five app is The Cat in the Hat, which does have a lot of appeal and sells for $3.99. That three comics apps can match that tells me that people are buying a lot of comics through them.

The pattern is the same for the rest of the top ten book apps—all but the comics apps are single-book apps (as opposed to an e-reader like Stanza), and none are free: Alice in Wonderland, the Bible, a Toy Story read-along, and two more Dr. Seuss books.

The Marvel and DC apps are number three and six, respectively, on the list of most downloaded free apps.

Comics by comiXology is also the top-grossing book app on the iPhone, and the only free one in the top five; the others are a free-book app (pay for the app and the books are free—the opposite of comiXology’s model), a free-audiobook app, and two versions of the Bible. None of the comics readers makes it into the top ten most downloaded free apps for the iPhone.

What all this indicates is that comics readers are buying a lot of product through the iPad, and they are buying it from Marvel and DC. That doesn’t mean that the non-superhero readers aren’t there, but the readership for any one comic (Scott Pilgrim, say) doesn’t match the number of Marvel and DC fans.

Missing from all these lists is iVerse’s Comics+ reader, which has a smaller selection of Marvel comics. It is also slower and a bit harder to use than the comiXology apps, although I suspect readers are making their selection based on the comics available rather than ease of use. Panelfly, which started as the artier of the iPhone comics readers, is also not on the list and doesn’t have an iPad app at all. Graphic.ly, available for iPad and iPhone, got a late start this year and is still building an audience; it does carry Marvel, but again, the selection is small.

(Via ICv2.)

The list includes many of their top titles, including Hellboy, BPRD, Umbrella Academy and Conan; the only thing I noticed that was missing that kind of surprised me was the current Buffy series (Fray, which starred a future Slayer in the Buffyverse, will be available) but maybe they have bigger plans for it at some point.

Individual issues will be available for $1.49 each, and they’ll also bundle series together (ComicsAlliance has the price list). Dark Horse also noted that in February you can “expect to see select issues of your favorite comics appearing online the same time they’re released in stores.”

It’s also worth noting that comics bought via one client can be viewed on all of them. “Once you buy a DH digital comic, whether on the web or on any mobile device, you may access that title from any client,” Dark Horse Chief Information Officer Dale LaFountain told us back in October. “In other words, the purchase is associated with your account, not the device.”

Check out the list of launch titles after the jump.

*****

Baltimore: The Plague Ships Issue #1 through #5
Bundle of all five issues

Beasts of Burden Issue #1 through #4
Bundle of all four issues

BPRD: Hollow Earth Issue #1 through #3
Bundle of all three issues

BPRD: Plague of Frogs Issues #1 through #5
Bundle of all five issues

BPRD: The Dead Issue #1 through #5
Bundle of all five issues

BPRD: Dark Waters One-Shot

BPRD: Night Train One-Shot

BPRD: Soul of Venice One-Shot

BPRD: Something Under the Bed One-Shot

BPRD: Dark Waters, Night Train, Soul of Venice and Something Under the Bed Bundle of all four issues

Conan Issue #0: Free
Conan Issues #1 through #15
Bundle of issues #0 through #3
Bundle of issues #4 through #7
Bundle of issues #8 through #11
Bundle of issues #12 through #15

Criminal Macabre Issue #1 through #5
Bundle of all five issues

Dr. Horrible One-Shot
Dr. Horrible TPB (includes 5 stories)

Empowered One-Shot Special
Empowered Volumes 1-3

Falling Skies installments #1 through #7

Fallout: New Vegas-All Roads Preview

Fray: Future Slayer (by Joss Whedon) Issue #1 through #8
Bundle of issues #1 through #4
Bundle of issues #5 through #8

The Goon/Hellboy crossover One-shot

The Goon Volume 6: Chinatown

Grendel: Behold the Devil Issue #1 through #8
Bundle of issues #0 through #4
Bundle of issues #5 through #8

The Guild Issue #1 through #3
Bundle of all three issues

Hellboy: Almost Colossus Issues #1 and #2

Hellboy: Box Full of Evil Issues #1 and #2
Hellboy: Almost Colossus and Box Full of Evil Bundle of all four issues

Hellboy: Christmas Underground One-Shot

Hellboy: Corpse and Iron Shoes One-Shot

Hellboy: The Wolves of St. August One-Shot

Hellboy: Wolves, Corpse and Christmas Bundle of all three issues

Hellboy: Seed of Destruction Issue #1 through #4
Bundle of all four issues

Hellboy: Wake the Devil Issue #1 through #5
Bundle of all five issues

Kull: The Shadow Kingdom Issue #1 through #6
Bundle of all six issues

Mass Effect: Redemption Issue #1 through #4
Bundle of all four issues

Serenity: Float Out one-shot

Serenity: Those Left Behind Issue #1 through #3
Bundle of all three issues

Serenity: Better Days Issues #1 through #3
Bundle of all three issues

Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale TPB

Solomon Kane: Castle of the Devil Issue #1 through #5
Bundle of all five issues

Joss Whedon’s Sugarshock (one-shot)

Terminator: 1984 Issues #1 through #3
Bundle of all three issues

Terminator: 2029 Issues #1 through #3
Bundle of all three issues

Troublemaker Volume 1 TPB

Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite Issue #1 through #6
Bundle of all six issues

Umbrella Academy: Dallas Issues #1 through #6
Bundle of all six issues:

Umbrella Academy: 14-page Free Comic Book Day story

Usagi Yojimbo: Yokai

As Kevin noted earlier today, Dark Horse Comics is supposed to have some news today at the New York Comic Con about their digital comics initiatives — in fact, the panel is going on right now, so we should know soon what they have planned.

Unlike Marvel, DC and the other major publishers, they haven’t aligned themselves with one (or more) of the third-party companies like comiXology or iVerse (Although I should note they released three titles on comiXology’s app earlier this year). Instead, they’ve continued to release individual applications for their titles. So will today bring news of their titles going to one of the existing apps, or will they continue to offer titles individually, but for the lower cost that Kevin noted? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

In the meantime, they’re handing out flyers (see above) at the New York Comic Con advertising that Serenity: Better Days #1 is free in the iTunes application store, both for the iPad and the iPhone, this weekend. And a quick search on my iPad reveals that there are several other free comics out there as well — Beasts of Burden, Troublemaker and several of the other titles shown on the flyer. So head over to iTunes to start downloading now.

Apple

Digital comics | Following more than two years of complaints, Apple has given developers the guidelines it uses to determine which programs can be sold through its App Store, and relaxed some restrictions on content and tools. The company recently was criticized for forcing the creators of a comic adaptation of James Joyce’s Ulysses to remove nonsexual nudity from some panels — Apple later changed its stance — and for initially rejecting an app from Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Mark Fiore because his animated political satire contained “content that ridicules public figures.” Alan Gardner notes that the revised guidelines specifically exempt “professional political satirists and humorists” from a clause prohibiting defamatory or offensive material. [The Associated Press]

Comic strips | After 60 years with United Feature Syndicate, Peanuts will move in February to Universal Uclick. The news isn’t totally unexpected, as Iconix Brand Group partnered with the heirs of Charles M. Schulz in April to buy the rights to the comic strip from United’s parent company E.W. Scripps. The $175 million deal was for the entire United Media Licensing division, which includes Dilbert. [Comic Riffs]

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Video games | Warner Bros. has hired video-game industry veterans Martin Carrier and Reid Schneider to head WB Games Montreal, a new studio established in March to focus largely on developing titles based on DC Comics characters. [Gamasutra]

Conventions | Citing time constraints and a lack of sponsors, organizers of Scotland’s Hi-Ex announced they have postponed the next installment of the comic convention, initially scheduled for March 2011 in Inverness, until 2012. The event has attracted about 600 attendees for each of the past three years. [BBC News, The Press and Journal]

Digital comics | Adam Ostrow profiles digital-comics distributor Graphic.ly, whose number of app downloads has grown about 275 percent per month since January. [Mashable]

Organizations | The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is looking for a full-time, salaried development manager, as well as several for several volunteer positions. [CBLDF]

Afrodisiac

Comics | Heeb counts down the best comics of the Jewish year 5770 — among them, Rafael Grampa’s Mesmo Delivery, Jim Rugg’s Afrodisiac, and Vanessa Davis’ Make Me a Woman. [Heeb.com]

Creators | John Romita Jr. talks briefly about collaborating with Mark Millar on Wolverine and Kick-Ass, and with Brian Michael Bendis on Avengers: “I get to work with Mark, and with Brian, I’ve worked with Neil Gaiman and Frank Miller. I’ve had blessed luck when it comes to working with writers.” [Den of Geek]

Creators | Francis Manapul discusses his comics work and his new role as co-host of the television series Beast Legends, which debuted this week in the United States on Syfy. [Pop Culture Zoo]

Creators | David Harper looks at Kody Chamberlain’s creative process for his new crime miniseries Sweets. [Multiversity Comics]

Reviews | Dorian Wright on the first two volumes of Smurfs from Papercutz. [Postmodernbarney.com]

Image on the iPad

Image Comics and comiXology launched a dedicated Image application for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch tonight, which is available now on iTunes.

The application includes comics from Top Cow, Shadowline and Robert Kirkman’s Skybound imprint, as well as titles like Chew, Haunt, Savage Dragon, Youngblood, Wanted, Fell, Elephantman and Jack Staff, among others. Overall it looks like it contains 60 different series that have been published by Image. And while most of the titles, I believe, are already available on the comiXology application, it looks like they’re offering more than 30 free comics for download on the app right now.

With the launch of the app, comiXology now has created dedicated applications for four of the top seven comic publishers, as Image joins DC Comics, BOOM! and Marvel. They also created the dedicated Scott Pilgrim application.

The press release emphasizes “unparalleled access to digital distribution” for independent creators:

“With the launch of the Image Comics app, we have an opportunity to provide our creators with the digital support that, for many of them, was unattainable before,” says Image Publisher Eric Stephenson. “comiXology has established a very impressive track record of bringing independent content into the digital world. Today represents a milestone in our growth as a company and enables us to increase the availability of the fantastic titles we publish.”

“Our partnership with Image is indicative of our shared vision to help independent creators thrive in the traditional print community as well as the explosive digital marketplace,” adds David Steinberger, CEO of comiXology. “The demand for creator-owned content is at an all time high, and we are thrilled to be able to provide fans with what they want. We’re lucky now to work directly with Image and to offer the creators a clear path to the digital market.”

Check out the full press release after the jump.

*****

Image Comics enters the digital market today with the launch of the Image Comics app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. The app, developed on the leading digital comic book platform by comiXology, allows fans unprecedented digital access to the creator-owned comics that Image proudly publishes.

The partnership between Image and comiXology offers Image creators a direct line to digital distribution. Among the independent content now available digitally are Image’smost popular titles, including SAVAGE DRAGON, CHEW, BATTLE POPE and Rob Liefeld’s YOUNGBLOOD. The Image Comics app will also be the first to feature work from Todd McFarlane with the inclusion of HAUNT, created in collaboration with Robert Kirkman (THE WALKING DEAD, INVINCIBLE).

“With the launch of the Image Comics app, we have an opportunity to provide our creators with the digital support that, for many of them, was unattainable before,” says Image Publisher Eric Stephenson. “comiXology has established a very impressive track record of bringing independent content into the digital world. Today represents a milestone in our growth as a company and enables us to increase the availability of the fantastic titles we publish.”

“Our partnership with Image is indicative of our shared vision to help independent creators thrive in the traditional print community as well as the explosive digital marketplace,” adds David Steinberger, CEO of comiXology. “The demand for creator-owned content is at an all time high, and we are thrilled to be able to provide fans with what they want. We’re lucky now to work directly with Image and to offer the creators a clear path to the digital market.”

The Image Comics app is now available for free download from the iTunes App Store. In addition to individual issues for ongoing series, which are priced for $1.99, Image will also offer fans issues of several popular Image titles, sneak peeks of upcoming titles, and other exclusive content for free.

Marvel.com has a trailer for a new Spider-Man game that’s hitting the iTunes store Sept. 2 Sept. 1. The game features a storyline “inspired by the Ultimate Spider-Man series” and features Venom, among other villains.

Tokyopop's Priest app

Tokyopop’s big San Diego news is that the long-delayed film Priest, based on the manhwa (Korean comic) by Min-Woo Hyung, will finally be released in May 2011, with Paul Bettany in the lead.

At this afternoon’s Priest panel at Comic-Con International, Tokyopop staffers introduced a Priest iPhone/iPad app and showed off a sneak peek of the full-color comic prequel Priest: Purgatory, available exclusively at the convention — oh, and here, where we have the cover and a three-page preview after the cut.

Priest: Purgatory will debut in comic stores on Aug. 1.

DC Comics App on the iPad

With DC Comics revealing its digital strategy yesterday, all of the major players now have some sort of digital comics plan, allowing folks who have an Apple devices (iPad, iPhone, etc.), a PlayStation Portable or even just access to the web to read at least some of their comics in a digital format.

I’ve had an iPhone for a while now, and I’ve downloaded free comic apps from distributors like comiXology, Panelfly and iVerse. I’ve used them to download free samples of comics they were offering (sampling Jersey Gods on the iPhone, for example, led to me purchasing the trades). But I never actually bought comics on it. And there’s a big difference between downloading something because it’s free, and actually becoming a paying customer and spending real money on it.

So what held me back? Part of it was because of what was available — most of the material I would have been interested in downloading I already owned in print, and I couldn’t justify buying it again. And part of it was that I just didn’t enjoy the experience of reading a comic on my iPhone as much as I did a print comic, mostly because of the size restrictions. The app developers, of course, tried to make it easy to adjust, offering zoom features and panel-to-panel scrolling, but there’s just something about not seeing the whole page of a comic at a time, versus just seeing each panel, that was the hump I couldn’t get over. I need the forest, and I need the trees.

Two weeks ago, the FedEx guy blessed my household with the delivery of an iPad. After loading it up with several comics apps, I started downloading some of the free titles. And it was while reading Runaways #1, which was offered for free in Marvel’s app, that I got over that second hump. I remember instinctively reaching for the corner of the comic so I could feel the pages I hadn’t read yet flip through my fingers.

Have you ever done that? While reading a comic, maybe taking a finger or thumb to the corner of the book and feeling the pages you have yet to read flip against your skin? It’s not anything I ever really noticed I did until that moment, when I was reading Runaways and the pages weren’t there for me to touch … but I realized at that point that I had forgotten I was holding an electronic gadget and not a paper comic. I was just laying in bed, reading a comic and not really noticing there was anything different about this experience I’d had a million times before. And that’s probably the biggest compliment I can give the iPad or the comiXology folks or anyone else involved in getting comics onto these devices.

So last week I made my first digital comics purchase: Dark Horse’s Grandville, from the comiXology app. And yesterday I bought all four issues of Justice League: Generation Lost via the DC app, and IDW’s Mystery Society #1, which the publisher began offering this week on their app. All three of these titles were books I actually wanted to read, but I decided for one reason or another I was going to wait for the trade on them (with Grandville, an original graphic novel, I’d planned to wait until I had some Amazon credit or a birthday or something, and get it then). In the case of JL:GL, the first issue was sold out by the time I made it to the comic shop the week it came out, so I decided that instead of hunting down a copy I would just wait for the trade. But then DC gave me the opportunity to read it now, so I don’t think they could have picked out a better title to start offering day-of-release, at least from my perspective.

So I had comics I actually wanted to read that I didn’t already own, and device-wise, I had my iPad, which makes it way easier to read comics in a way that I was used to — a page at a time versus a panel at a time. So I had a blast last night reading JL:GL, Grandville, Mystery Society and the free download of Bayou from DC. (Seriously, Zuda, as you continue to redefine what you are after ending your contests, please make it part of your strategy that you’ll either make all your strips available on the iPad or that you’ll drop the Flash interface on your website so I can read them on my iPad’s browser. Because Bayou looks awesome on the device).

Now I’m certainly not the first person to note that it’s pretty friggin’ easy to read comics on an iPad; Chris Sims called it “the perfect way to read comics” earlier this month. But it’s one thing to read how great it is, and another to experience it for yourself. I think the one thing I’ve been afraid of in the whole digital transition is that I would lose something going from print to digital, that something I couldn’t really define in words would be lost … and while it’s probably still too early to know for sure, I feel a lot better about the prospects than I did two weeks ago.