This solves the problem I pointed out in December, that with no universal search engine, digital comics were becoming a walled kingdom. However, the search function has a ways to go. Searching on Stan Lee’s Starborn, which seemed like a good test case, returned six different apps that include the comic. However, the search results only lead to the app, not to the comic itself. The user still has to exit the iTunes store, go to the app, and search within the app to find the comic. Extra steps? That is not the sort of elegant user interface we iPad users are accustomed to. In a case like Starborn, where the comic is in multiple apps, readers who are new to comics may be confused by the multiplicity of choices. And it did occur to me to wonder what the logic is behind the order of the search results — why is comiXology first and Stan Lee’s own app in the last row?

Beyond that, the double search means that bad results are a bigger headache. Checking to see if scanlations linked to by bootleg manga apps were included in the search results (they aren’t), I searched for “Fairy Tail,” the name of a Kodansha manga, knowing that it is not available digitally. ComiXology turned up as the first search result, but of course (I double-checked), Fairy Tail isn’t included in comiXology. I’m sure there are comics with the words “fairy” and “tail” in their titles in the comiXology roster, and the result is that the user is led on a frustrating wild goose chase. One obvious way to reduce the incidence of bad results would be for the iTunes search engine to allow users to search on an exact phrase by enclosing it in quotes, as Google does, but that doesn’t seem to be the case (at least, I got the same funny results when I put “Fairy Tail” in quotes).

The new capability has the obvious benefit of drawing in readers who are new to comics. This wasn’t really possible before, but now if someone searches on, say, “Green Lantern,” they get the comics apps. The dedicated Scott Pilgrim and The Walking Dead apps were created precisely to address this problem, and while apps like that will still have some value, the new capability means they will no longer be necessary.

Archie & Friends 156

My friendship and association with Alex Segura dates back to late 2004 when he invited me to join Robot 6‘s ancestor blog (or however you want to call its relation) The Great Curve. I wear my bias on my sleeve for this interview–I’ve always been a supporter of Segura’s work–be it years at DC Comics, or more recently, his current role as Executive Director of Publicity and Marketing at Archie Comics. In addition to discussing what he’s accomplished to date at Archie (and hopes to achieve in the near to long term), we delve into his own writing and musical pursuits (in the band, The Faulkner Detectives).

Tim O’Shea: Before your first stint with Archie a few years back, you worked at Wizard. So I gotta ask, what’s your reaction to the end of the print magazine?

Alex Segura: On a gut level, it’s sad. Wizard was a big part of my getting into comics – or at least, sticking with them – in middle school and into college. There were times when I wasn’t actively buying any regular comic books but would still pick up Wizard to keep tabs on the industry. Working there was also huge. It was my first full-time job in the industry and gave me a crash course in comics and how they work. I also met some of my best friends there – many of whom I still talk to on a regular basis. Hell, I live with Ryan Penagos, who I first met at Wizard. So, yeah. I have a lot of fond memories of both my time at the company and my relationship with the magazine leading up to that.

Professionally, I’m not all that surprised. There was a time when Wizard was a major tastemaker – they had a big part in the rise of Image and for a long while broke major news from the Big Two. But with the rise of comic news on the web, it just seemed like they got left behind. Hopefully this new incarnation can revive the company. We’ll see.

O’Shea: Give me your top three favorite Archie characters?

Segura: That’s tough. I’ll have to say Archie, Jughead and Veronica. Archie was the character I always wanted to be, Jughead was the character I related to most and Veronica was the most fun to read just because she could be really nice and then suddenly mean. You never know where she’s coming from. But I like all of the core characters and even some of the more obscure ones. I was a pretty voracious Archie reader as a kid.

O’Shea: Thanks to your years in the industry, you’ve made a great many friends. Any chance you hope to get some of your creative friends to take a stab at telling Archie tales? On the other hand, Archie already has some great creators telling tales at present. Who are some of the creators that you hope to use your marketing skills to bring more attention to their work?

Segura: That process has begun in some ways – I’ve reached out to a lot of people that I know professionally and that I think have an affinity for Archie and the Archie characters to see if they’d be interested in contributing. I don’t want to name names just yet, mostly because we’re in the initial stages of conversations and anything can change before the book hits stands, so I don’t want to announce stuff and then spend most of my time answering questions about why X or Y didn’t materialize, you know? You’ll see the first product of those conversations this year. I can’t really say much more beyond that. But suffice to say, you’re right in your assumption and it’s going to be very cool.

O’Shea: Your years at DC were marked with an ability to effectively capitalize on the marketing strengths and advantages of social media. Every year there’s shifts in social media trends. Archie Comics already has a presence on Facebook, Twitter and iTunes–any chance Archie will be popping up on Tumblr, or are you looking to maximize Archie’s social media potential in a different way with its existing social media outlets?

Segura: Coming in, one of the first things I wanted to do was take the platforms we have – namely our site, Facebook and Twitter – and amp them up. Fans respond well when you’re engaged and you’re not just spouting the company line. Within weeks, we saw a marked increase in followers, “likes” and traffic. So, that was step one – and will be ongoing. Fans want companies to be interactive and of the moment, not just reformatted links or the same message blasted through different outlets. It’s a process, though. So, as we continue to engage, we’ll do some new things, like contests and more interactive projects. But it has to be done thoughtfully and not just to do it.

I love Tumblr, personally. I use it as my personal site and for most of my link-blogging on my own time. If we can brainstorm a unique and cool way to make it work for Archie, we’ll definitely consider it.

O’Shea: Correct if I am mistaken, but it never seems like Archie has much of a presence at comic book conventions. Are you looking to change that in the near to long term?

Segura: If by “not much of a presence” you mean we’re not at every show, then you’re right. We’re a smaller company and we have to be more thoughtful about what shows we attend. Is this the audience we want to market to? Was this show successful for us last year? Will it be this year? Unlike some of our competitors, we’re not templated in how we do business. We have the flexibility and knowledge to move and adapt to the marketplace, and that also applies to conventions and the like. I do think, though, that in the coming years we will expand our presence at both comic book shows and retailer-centric events, because we want to strengthen our relationships with retailers on the direct market side and the book market as we continue to learn from our new relationship with Random House.

O’Shea: When Heidi MacDonald interviewed you back in December, you said with your new job you will be: “helping show that new things are happening at Archie and that things are moving forward in a unique way.” Care to detail some of the new things that are happening and/or things that are moving forward?

Segura: I think for a long time the publicity mentality here was that people would react to us and then report on the news, but that only works on some levels. If anything, one of the things I’ve brought to Archie is the ability – via contacts and relationships I’ve built up over the years – to reach out to the press and industry in a more proactive way. Instead of having a story come out and crossing our fingers in the hopes someone will notice it, we have the tools to position ourselves in the press and marketplace more effectively. It’s something we’re constantly working on and tweaking, so you’ve only seen the beginning of that process.

I think a lot of people who are immersed in the day-to-day of the industry forget, because Archie doesn’t have an active superhero universe (key word: active – stay tuned) that the characters we do have aren’t recognizable. It’s quite the opposite. Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead and Reggie are some of the most well-known properties in pop culture, much like Superman and Batman. So that familiarity is a great asset in promoting and discussing these stories. A lot of people grew up reading Archie Comics, and a lot of those people are now reporters, editors, writers and so on across the media spectrum. Having that built-in familiarity is huge for us and very helpful when we get the word out. People want to know what Archie and his friends are up to because they have really strong and fond memories about the time they’ve spent or continue to spend in Riverdale. It’s something we’re very grateful for.

O’Shea: In your free time over the past few years, you’ve written a draft of your first crime novel, SILENT CITY, and are working on a second, DOWN THE DARKEST STREET. Care to discuss either?

Segura: Sure. I’m an avid mystery/crime fiction reader – have been for years. And I always wanted to write. It all really kind of gelled for me a few years ago when I first picked up a copy of George Pelecanos’ A Firing Offense, on the suggestion of my friend and Vertigo Editor Will Dennis. It blew me away. The protagonist was flawed, the story – like life – was messy and raw and the characters felt like people I knew. That’s when it all clicked for me and I realized that writing crime fiction was what I really wanted to do. I didn’t start putting pen to paper then – but that’s kind of when it fell into place. Since then, I’ve discovered so many writers that I literally have stacks of to-read piles just in the crime fiction genre. I’m a big fan of Dennis Lehane, Michael Koryta, Greg Rucka, Megan Abbott, Sara Gran, Richard Price, James Ellroy, Henning Mankell, Duane Swierczynski, Charlie Huston, Tom Piccirilli, Laura Lippman, Raymond Chandler, Michael Connelly and tons more.

I don’t want to say too much about SILENT CITY itself just because a lot isn’t really nailed down. Y’know, little things like a publisher, etc. It’s the story of Pete Fernandez, a Cuban-American journalist who’s returned to Miami after his dad’s sudden death. He’s drinking himself to death slowly and in a job he hates. When a coworker he barely talks to asks him to find his daughter, he foolishly sees the opportunity to bring some excitement to his life. Bad idea. When that turns out to be much more than he bargained for, things get interesting. It’s a story of fathers and sons, relationships, battling your inner demons and growing up – with guns, violence and a Miami backdrop.

SILENT CITY was very much a learning process, and continues to be one. After a fitful start, I finished a third draft around July of last year and then took some time to network a bit. I went to BoucherCon in San Francisco and met a lot of people in various stages of the writing process and the industry (thanks to the wonderful Jon and Ruth Jordan for making that possible!), which was a huge help and very informative.

DOWN THE DARKEST STREET is still a ways away from being done. I’m finishing up the third act of the first draft now. It’s a much darker novel than SILENT CITY and that’s been tricky – as a writer I’m learning how tough it is to literally torture your characters. And while first drafts are universally terrible, I’m hoping that by the third or fourth pass on this one, it’ll be in decent shape.

As for publication and those kind of details, nothing’s really final yet. But once I have anything to announce, you’ll know.

DC Halloween Special

O’Shea: Right before leaving DC, you had one of your stories run in a DC Halloween Special. Are you hoping to write more comics in the near to long term?

Segura: We just announced that I’ll be writing ARCHIE AND FRIENDS #156, with Bill Galvan on art. Basically, Archie and the gang get to attend the first-ever Riverdale Comic Con. I’d written some comic stuff before, most notably the Flash/Frankenstein story in last year’s DCU HALLOWEEN SPECIAL – hat tip to the incomparable Mike Marts, Janelle Siegel, Harvey Richards, Dan DiDio, Ian Sattler, David Hyde and Austin Trunick for helping that come to life. But this was my first full-length comic. It was a lot of fun to write and our president, Mike Pellerito, was really helpful and patient with me. Most of my personal writing deals with guns, murder and the like, so shifting gears and trying to be funny and all ages was a challenge. But one I’m hoping I can keep trying! I got a real kick out of it and had a few “pinch me” moments – like writing dialogue for Jughead or sneaking in a few exciting cameos. The issue hits in June. I’m excited to start seeing some of the art, doubly excited to start on the next one.

I’d love to do more Archie work as time permits. As you know, Archie has a fairly impressive stable of talent already, so it’s not just about wanting to do it – it’s about doing it well. Hard to compete with guys like Dan Parent, Alex Simmons, Tom DeFalco and Fernando Ruiz. In my head, I think I can probably do a script a month. Famous last words, eh? But seriously, yes. I’d love to keep the comic book writing as a regular part of my time here. So long, social life!

O’Shea: In terms of all your prose novel pursuits, what’s the biggest challenge in garnering focus to write after a long day in the office?

Segura: Making time is the hard part. My writing took a bit of a hit when I switched jobs just because with any new job there’s a transition period where you get acclimated to your workflow, commute, etc. But things seem to be settled now so I’m cranking on DOWN THE DARKEST STREET again. I find I do my best writing in the mornings on weekends, or on weeknights when I manage to get home at a decent hour. The key is to get in front of the computer and avoid distractions. Stuff like Twitter, Facebook, email, Tumblr, your telephone – even if it takes you away from the writing for a moment – can be dangerous. And it’s tough – because I enjoy social media as much as the next guy. But your time writing has to be very solitary, otherwise you’re just writing a few paragraphs in bursts and not getting much of a flow.

O’Shea: As if your writing did not demand enough of your free time, you also sing and play guitar in the band, The Faulkner Detectives, along with Elizabeth Keenan: bass; Meg Wilhoite: vocals/keys; and Vanessa Lopez: drums/vocals. Any intention to go into the studio eventually–or do you prefer the adrenaline rush of playing at venues, more than recording?

Segura: I think our big goal is to learn the 10 songs we do have so we can play live. I’ve only played two shows with my last band, so I definitely want to make playing live around the city a regular thing if we can swing it. Considering we’ve only been together as a four-piece for a few months, I’m really pleased about our progress. We don’t really sound like anyone else, which is a good sign. We all get along really well and are like-minded about what we want to do with the band, so I think we’re in good shape.

O’Shea: When do you sleep?

Segura: Believe it or not, I’m usually in bed by 11. Thrilling, right?

O’Shea: Any parting thoughts to share with your Robot 6 Archie Comics fans?

Segura: I’d just like to let fans know that we have a lot of exciting stuff in store – Kevin Keller’s own mini-series, Mega Man in April, Sonic Genesis and a few things that’ll be announced in the coming months. It’s a very cool time to be an Archie Comics fan, so they’re in for a treat.

Dark Horse Digital

Dark Horse has announced it will offer a first look at its somewhat-delayed digital comics app this weekend during the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo.

Announced in October at New York Comic Con, the planned January launch of the publisher’s digital comics program was put on hold because because of Apple’s stricter enforcement of a prohibition on in-app purchases outside the iTunes store (something Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson confirmed earlier this month).

But now the beta version of the app is ready to be shown off at booth #601, with Dark Horse staff on hand for demonstrations, to answer questions and allow fans to take it for a test run.

Check out the official press release after the break.

Dark Horse to unveil digital-comics app at Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo

Convention attendees can swing by booth #601 to experience the new frontier of Dark Horse Comics!

March 15, 2011, MILWAUKIE, OR—Dark Horse Comics welcomes all C2E2 attendees to stop by our booth for the first look at the beta version of our highly anticipated digital-comics app. Dark Horse staff will be on hand to demonstrate the app, provide an overview of the program, and answer questions. Fans will also be able to try out the app for themselves, enter to win prizes, and receive other promotional giveaways.

At the time of the announcement, Dark Horse president and publisher Mike Richardson said, “We are excited by the opportunities offered through this new channel of distribution.”

The Dark Horse comics app will launch with hundreds of downloadable comics. It will soon be available for all iOS platforms through the iTunes store. Comics can also be purchased and read on modern web browsers at Digital.DarkHorse.com. New features and platforms—including Android support—will follow shortly.

Mike Richardson

Publishing | In a wide-ranging interview with retail news and analysis site ICv2, Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson discusses the state of the market, the potential impact of Borders’ bankruptcy, digital comics, the decline in manga sales, the success of Troublemaker and more. Of particular note is Richardson’s confirmation that Apple’s stricter enforcement of a prohibition on in-app purchases outside the iTunes store was behind the delay of the planned January launch of Dark Horse’s digital comics program. He also says that Frank Miller is working on the third issue of his 300 prequel Xerxes, which is expected to be “roughly six issues, but he hasn’t exactly decided yet.” [ICv2.com]

Publishing | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson provides an overview of recent changes to BOOM! Studios’ kids’ line, from the loss of the Pixar licenses to a new imprint name — changed from BOOM! Kids to kaboom! — to the announcement this week of a Peanuts original graphic novel. “BOOM Kids! was designed to publish children’s comics — kaboom! is designed to be a true all-ages imprint, and for that reason Peanuts is the perfect launch title, the sort of material that adults and kids read alike,” CEO Ross Ritchie said. “Roger Langridge’s Snarked! is along these lines, as is Space Warped and Word Girl.  I put the Word Girl announcement on my wall on Facebook and immediately there were a zillion adults commenting, ‘My child loves this show but I’m buying this comic book for myself!’  The title mix will be broader for kaboom! than it was for BOOM Kids!” [Publishers Weekly]

Publishing | Atish Patel offers a snapshot of India’s “new wave of graphic novelists,” from creators like Adhiraj Singh and Sarnath Banerjee to publishers like Vimanika Comics and Campfire. [Reuters]

Matt Fraction

Creators | Tom Spurgeon kicks off an interview with Matt Fraction about Casanova: “There’s nothing about Casanova that goes easily or well, on any conceivable level. For whatever reason, it has this sort of light whiff of curse about it that just takes longer to produce. It is the hardest thing I write. It took me literally a year to produce the first script. That wasn’t a year of working on it all day every day, but I started October of 2009 and finished October 2010 on the first issue of the third series. For whatever reason, it’s the book where we go crazy.” [Marvel.com]

Creators | Brian Truitt spotlights The Flash artist Francis Manapul, who talks about collaborating with writer Geoff Johns: “”It just feels like with every new script I get, we’re continually getting closer to almost having the same brain in how we like to tell the story. Honestly, after I finish this book, If I’m not working with Geoff, I don’t even know who I’d want to work with. I’d probably just write a story for myself.” [USA Today]

The New Brighton Archeological Society

Creators | Writer Mark Andrew Smith chats about using Kickstarter to fund a sequel to his all-ages book The New Brighton Archeological Society, and the challenges of creator-owned work: “The creative part comes easily. I think that the biggest challenge is the stress of putting so much work into a project and getting high hopes, only to see that work be for nothing. With each new book we put in energy and so much work, and think, ‘Okay, this is going to be it. We’re going to get to where we can turn this into a career’ and it never happens. We’ll work on a book sometimes for three years and it will come out and only 2,000 or 3,000 people will read it. Doing creator owned comics is a very Sisyphean task and you get your hopes up just to get knocked back down each time to where you started from with only a printed book to hold in your hands. I think that’s very hard to take on an emotional level. You’ve got to do your best to soldier on, keep a good outlook, and not let those things bother you.” [GeekDad]

Creators | Alex Robinson talks briefly about nostalgia, television and movie adaptations, and his Fantastic Four contribution to Marvel’s Strange Tales anthology: “A friend of mine pointed out, though, that the story takes place when Reed Richards, Doctor Doom, and Ben Grimm were all in college, so I don’t even have any superhero things in it. I got a chance to do superheroes, and I fell back on a bunch of people sitting around talking about their feelings. Maybe no matter what, I can’t shake that inclination. ” [The A.V. Club]

Creators | Ethan Nicolle talks about Axe Cop, his collaboration with his 6-year-old brother Malachi. [io9.com]

Creators | Shanghai artist Liu Chong, who uses the pen name L-Dart, discusses breaking into Japan’s competitive manga market with Killin-ji. [Reuters]

Pop culture | William Hollingsworth looks at the influence of Japan’s kawaii (“cute”) culture in England. [The Japan Times]

Marooned: Out of Orbit, one of the comics in new The Illustrated Section store

At Publishers Weekly Comics Week, Todd Allen does the math on digital comics to see if it is possible for publishers or creators to actually make $1 per issue. Most publishers are going with a distributor such as comiXology and sales through the iTunes store, who between them take 65% of the cover price, leaving the creator/publisher 35 cents on a 99-cent download. The other extreme—publishing comics as downloadable PDFs and accepting micropayments through PayPal, the “not .99 method”—nets the publisher up to 89 cents for the same comic, and there are several alternatives in between.

Allen acknowledges that digital sales are only a fraction of print, and these numbers matter more if readers start migrating away from print to digital—in that case, you want to make the same amount of money from your comic in either channel. On the other hand, if your print sales stay the same, digital is added revenue, and maybe it’s less important to make a dollar a comic.

However, Allen looks strictly at the yield per comic sold, without considering the question of whether cover price affects the overall number of comics sold. A high-selling comic with a low per-issue yield could bring in as much as a lower-selling comic with a higher yield if that is taken into consideration.

As it happens, there’s a new site out there selling comics downloads as PDFs: The Illustrated Section, which seems to focus on webcomics (Nathan Sorry, Ellie Connelly) and includes some former Zuda titles (In Maps and Legends, Marooned). The site has a nice, calm interface and an interesting collection of comics, so if you’re interested in trying an alternative digital comics store, give it a whirl.

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.

Brigid: First of all, the most important question in an interview like this is: What is the comic about?

Mike: In Maps & Legends is about a young woman caught between this world and another, and her attempts to save them both. It starts off as a contemporary fantasy, as our hero Kaitlin Grayson and her friends get caught in the web of a mysterious man named Bartamus who shows up at Kait’s place one night. Bartamus tells Kait she’s the only one who can save his dying world. As you can guess from the title, cartography, history, and stories play a key role in the unfolding mystery of our comic.

Brigid: How long do you plan it to be?

Mike: This first story arc is ten issues. I can see a lot more stories in this series, but we’re starting with this arc to see if it sparks interest in readers who’d like to read more.
 
Brigid: Why did you choose to enter it in the Zuda competition?
 
Mike: It’s all Niki’s fault! She put out a call for writers via Twitter, and I sent her half a dozen ideas, and this is the one that stuck. I’d never heard of Zuda before, but when I found out it was an imprint of DC, I sat down and started reading all the comics available at the site. All of it great stuff, and while I felt a bit daunted by the quality of the other contest winners at the site, I thought ours added a new take, a strong female protagonist, and a great cape-and-tights-free story.

Niki: As Mike said, I’d been musing “aloud” on Twitter about entering the Zuda competition last fall—a few writers tossed out ideas, but I really liked Mike’s—it had the most potential *visually*, I thought. A map carved into the walls of a room? There was definitely potential to show something Zuda readers hadn’t seen.

Brigid: What was that experience like? Are you glad you did it?

Mike: The month of the competition, November 2009, was pretty heinous. Lots of checking and double-checking of our numbers, and the twice-weekly ranking updates were particularly nerve-wracking. And spamming everyone we knew to get them to vote! Though we led all month, I was convinced by the last day of November that we’d lost. But we didn’t, and I’m really glad we did it, in spite of all the chaos of the year since. It was a crash course in marketing, what to do to get the word out and what not to do. Plus, getting contracts and checks with the DC logo on it? Priceless!

Niki: Stress. My wife made me promise I would never submit again. It was a tight race start to finish. You can’t just sit back and hope people like you—you have to get the word out and bring in new readers. Comics are always in need of new readers!

Brigid: How did working for Zuda shape the way you made the concept—the format, the storytelling, the pacing? Is there anything you would do differently?
 
Mike: I think Niki would agree with me that we’d adjust the size and orientation of the page—Zuda used a horizontal format, which is great for reading online, but not so great for reading on a Kindle or Nook or iPad. And so many comic distributors are set up for vertical, not horizontal, that we’ve had to do some jury-rigging to make our comic fit at certain sites. But I’m not sure I’d change anything else, and I actually like the horizontal aspect.

Niki: I don’t know if I would go standard comic vertical, actually. Horizontal works perfectly for screens; you just have to rotate how you hold it. We may have tried to squeeze less action onto each page, though, if we had originally intended it for the smaller screens of phones and ereaders. Pacing-wise, Zuda’s deal is always for a “season” of 60 pages—and conveniently enough, that’s exactly where we are now! One year to the day from winning Zuda, we’ve released the third issue, and those who have read it will know just how much of a cliffhanger our Zuda season would have ended on—with no definite say on whether or not it would continue! Releasing In Maps & Legends independently means we can tell the full 10-issue story without our readers having to worry they’ll never get to see the end.

Brigid: How did you find out that Zuda was shutting down, and what was your immediate reaction?
 
Mike: I got an email from Zuda, and then sat back in shock for a while. Then I watched the twittersphere blow up as other creators reacted to the end of Zuda. I wasn’t completely blindsided, as there were rumors flying already, and I had a bad feeling about it in my trick knee, but still… it stung. I got on IM immediately to chat with Niki and commiserate.

Niki: All Zuda creators got the same form email, with not a lot of information. We had no way of knowing who was cut free and who they’d decided to continue—or where and how they would survive. So far at least one other ex-Zuda series (War of the Woods) has released independently on Comixology, and I hear a few others have plans, but by now I think many have simply moved on to their next projects. It’s a shame, because I’d enjoyed following their series on Zuda.

Brigid: Why did you decide to present your story on so many platforms?
 
Mike: It didn’t make sense to limit ourselves to just one distributor (though it would’ve been a lot easier on us!).  There still isn’t one distributor that hits ALL the various platforms and devices (some are getting closer and closer, however). Also, people are going to start choosing their favorite app for getting their comics—I know I don’t want to go through five or six different comic apps on my iPhone or computer to get to the comics I want to read. So we figured the best route was to do some research and find the big players as well as the smaller players that we felt had lots of potential and reach, and get on board with all of them.

Niki: Digital reading devices are growing so fast it’s hard to keep up. The iPad was released something like 6 months ago, and a wave of tablets are soon to come—all running on different operating systems and needing different programming. There’s no single distributor available on all of the platforms we’re on. We have a different partnership for Kindle, for Nook, for Android phones, iPhones, Windows phones… the list goes on. By limiting ourselves to one distributor exclusively, we would have cut out a huge percentage of our readers. EReader sales actually make up the majority!
 
Brigid: How do you handle the nuts and bolts of formatting it for all these different apps?
 
Mike: Niki does a lot of the behind-the-scenes work, and I’ve got notes and spreadsheets for the different issues and all the distributors. We’re still fine-tuning the process, but it’s getting better with each issue. Thank goodness for the wonders of Dropbox, which helps Niki and keep our files synced up between North Carolina and Ohio.

Niki: I do a lot of Photoshop work. Kindle and Nook take longest because their smaller screens means all the lettering needs to be made larger and more legible. For the “guided view” panel-to-panel stuff for iPhone and Android, the distributors handle that.

Brigid: Do you plan a print edition?

Mike: A print edition is definitely in the plans. We’re considering a couple different publishers, but haven’t settled on anyone just yet. I’m looking forward to it.

Niki: We plan on querying a few publishers soon, but the hard-core print thinking may come closer to the end of the 10-issue run.
 
Brigid: What have you learned since leaving Zuda?
 
Mike: I think I have a pretty good feeling of what it’s like to own your own business! I went from scripting 3 issues a year (with Zuda) and doing some minor marketing for each new page (Zuda did 1 page a week, while we’re doing 22 pages every six weeks) to running what’s essentially a small digital publisher. I’ve gotten really good at reading contracts. I think I’m getting better at writing press releases. And I’ve learned that you get exactly out of creating a comic what you put into it. It’s been a rush.

Niki: Agreed. Time management is huge. I’m drawing, inking, coloring, lettering, formatting 22 pages in 6 weeks… it’s exhausting but I’m actually getting the hang of it!

Brigid: Do you like being independent comics producers, or would you prefer to be working for a publisher?
 
Mike: As I said above, it’s a lot of work, and the marketing side of it can be really draining, especially when I’m trying to get an issue scripted and keep in touch with our distributors and discuss the art with Niki. Ideally, I’d love to have it both ways—work on indie comics as well as work with a publisher.

Niki: I’m still actively trying to find a publisher for a few graphic novel projects of my own, so in the end I would say I’m probably inclined to lean that way. There’s no safety net when you go independent—no advance, no page rate, just your own meager skills as an artist and marketer. I would also love to work with a good editor, particularly on the comics I write.

Brigid: What’s next once this comic is done?
 
Mike: With seven issues to go, it’s hard to see that far ahead at times, but I’d love to do another graphic novel or maybe a shorter one-shot kind of comic, and then do another story arc for Maps. I also have some non-graphic novels out there to publishers, and if those get picked up I’d love to get a series going there for one of my novels. My five-year-old son and I just finished the most recent Wimpy Kid novel, and I think there are a ton of stories waiting to be told for that audience, especially for boys ages 5-12—we loved the mix of stories and line art in those books, and as my wife would attest, I haven’t completely left behind my junior-high-school mentality…

Niki: I actually just won a grant to work on a graphic novel I’ve been writing for the past few years, so I’m hoping something comes out of that! It’s a story I would love to get out there, and it’s MUCH different from IM&L in both style and tone.

Ulysses "Seen"

It has been quite an odyssey, so to speak, for Rob Berry, Mike Barsanti, Josh Levitas and Chad Rutkowski, the partners in Throwaway Horse and the creators, in one sense or another, of the webcomic Ulysses “Seen.” Berry and Levitas started out doing a fairly straightfoward adaptation of James Joyce’s Ulysses, with extensive notes and translations by Mike Barsanti just a click away from each page. Then the iTunes store picked up their comic for the iPad, but Apple asked them to censor some of the content (ironic, in light of the novel’s history) and then reversed itself after the issue drew public attention. And now the creators are closing the circle by bringing the comic into print: They have signed a deal with independent publisher Atlas & Co. to bring out a print edition of Ulysses “Seen,” which will hopefully be on bookstores shelves by BloomsDay (June 16) 2011.

I talked to Berry, Atlas and Rutkowski about the new project and the challenges involved in bringing an interactive webcomic into print.

Brigid: Was making a print edition of the Ulysses comic part of your plan from the beginning? If so, what role did you feel the webcomic would play in creating and promoting the comic, and if not, at what point did you start thinking of a print edition?

Rob: Most of my plans about making comics instead of paintings (as I used to do) revolve around the notion that I wanted to make stories and books instead of one-of-a-kind objects. So everything I’ve been doing these past couple of years has been seeing where the web and print models are alike yet different. We always knew there’d be a desire to see this kind of a project through to print, so it’s designed with some of that potential in mind, but as an educational or social platform we wanted to make sure Ulysses “Seen” was something completely different on the web or iPad.

Brigid: From a purely technical point of view, one of the features of the webcomic right now is that you can click on a panel and go directly to Mike’s notes. How will that work with the print version?

Rob: Yeah, that’s a great example of one of the differences about the shape of web content versus print. And there are a lot of nuances in Joyce’s work that I can keep somewhat enigmatic in my comic adaptation so that Mike can explain further through the Readers’ Guide. I really happy to say that Atlas & Co wants to preserve that kind of scholarship approach to the project. This means Mike will be adding a new version of his Readers’ Guide notes to fit the print model. Really, really happy about that.

Brigid: Another format question: The webcomic is formatted horizontally, to fit a computer screen, which can be awkward in terms of shelving in bookstores and libraries. Are you going to keep that or reformat the comic vertically?

Rob: I designed the comic adaptation in the “landscape” format because I felt that there’s a different kind of interface going on in entertainment platforms these days. We’re being given a choice for reading books and watching movies seeing family photos all in one presentation arena; the monitor, and the monitor is, for the most part, horizontal.

But the design choices I made to keep in line with this trend will remain when we move to print. The comic is horizontal, so it makes sense that the book would be as well. Comix is a language of design to a large part, so changing the page design would be like starting over from scratch. We’ll be working right alongside the people at Atlas & Co to put together an attractive design that I think any bookstore or library would be happy to feature on their shelves.

Brigid: On a more philosophical level, how do you think the experience of reading the comic as a print volume (like the original novel) will differ from reading it digitally? Do you think it’s purely a mechanical difference, or does print add gravitas?

Rob: Well, I think that in comix as it stands at the moment there’s a certain truth to that as it’s relatively easy for cartoonists to get their work out in the world as a webcomic. There’s a certain perception about art and literature in general that one’s talents are measured in whether or not a stranger would pay money for them and that an unpublished author or unpaid blogger is “merely an over-ambitious hobbyist.” I’ve never really had much patience for that kind of thinking, however.

With Ulysses “Seen” I and my partners set out to use our combined talents to give people a new way to look at a really great novel and we took that goal very seriously whether it was for free on the web or as a book in the neighborhood library. It’ll feel great, believe me, to feel the book in my hand, to hold the physical product. There’s a feeling there that I suppose is much like “gravitas”. But it’s always really about the work you do behind the product, not the product itself, right?

Brigid: Will you be altering the pages to remove any of the nudity or other potentially problematic content?

Rob: Oh, absolutely not! It is a valuable point, however. A friend of mine is the comics librarian at Columbia and we had a conversation once about Moore and Gebbie’s Lost Girls, a beautiful book that is a “must have” for any collection, but where do you put it in a public library? The Rare Book Room so people have to wear gloves when touching it?

Our Ulysses “Seen” is meant to have and respectfully portray all the earthiness of Joyce’s 1922 edition of the novel. But to see it filed in a certain category or on a certain shelf because of that would, I think, be just as sad as placing it next to Witchblade in the “graphic novel” section by sheer alphabetical order. It’s a tricky business, that sorting out of content, and not something I’d be particularly good at. But would we even have these same questions come up if we didn’t some how still believe that in America comicbooks are for kids? Would we even have a “graphic novel” section?

Brigid: Your first volume covers the first chapter of the book, Telemachus, and also Calypso, which is the fourth chapter. Are you rearranging it?

Rob: Right you are; “Calypso” is the fourth episode (Joyce didn’t like the word “chapter”) in Ulysses and the next one we’re covering. These episodes depict events that happen more or less simultaneously on Bloomsday and I made a decision about a year or so that I was going to go chronologically through the day to make things a bit easier on new readers. There are echoes between the main characters’ lives that are easier to showcase this way and I feel it moves people a bit more into the meat of the drama by highlighting those similarities right away.

And it opens the door for something I wanted to do with episodes 2 and 5 (“Nestor” and “The Lotus Eaters”). Those two chapters will be drawn by me at the same time and presented together chronologically as well, jumping every couple of pages from one to the other. A bit more cinematic approach, perhaps, but will still get them all in there. Promise.

Brigid: How many volumes do you anticipate the finished work to be? Will it be longer than the original?

Rob: There are 18 episodes to Joyce’s novel and all of them present unique structural problems for translating into the language of comix. It’s difficult to say exactly then how many pages of the comic each episode might yield, but the plan is for me to draw two episodes a year for the next eight years. And two episodes seem to give us a nice size print volume with the Readers’ Guide.

But the first episode, “Telemachus,” is 21 pages in the novel and it took me 68 pages to carry it off in the comic. James Joyce’s Ulysses is 732 pages. Does this mean it’ll take me 2,360 pages to translate into comix? I certainly hope not, but this may be why some of my peers look at me like I’m crazy. It’s a very big book.

Brigid: Can you tell me a bit about the creation process—how you and Josh divide up the story into pages, and how you create each one. They look like watercolor paintings—is that right? And about how long does it take you to do a page, from start to finish?

Rob: All the adaptation work from novel to comic book storyboard is done by me, usually after the four of us have had a chance to get together and talk about the particulars of a given chapter. After those storyboards are done we all sit down together to edit. Josh then does what we call a “floorplan,” putting in the hand-lettered text and key-lining the panels, so I’m actual putting my drawings back in around the lettering. We make a black & white file first from my ink work and then I do a watercolor version. Josh steps in again then enhancing the rougher watercolor through Photoshop. He’ll be doing a lot of free-hand drawing in the coming chapters as well with sets, props and patterns we’ll be using throughout the book.

Brigid: Here’s a technical question for Chad: Who owns the copyright on this? Is Ulysses in the public domain?

Chad: We are using the 1922 version of Ulysses which our research indicates is in the pubic domain in the United States. You’ll notice, for example, that Project Gutenberg is treating the ’22 as public domain in the U.S.

Throwaway Horse, of which Rob is a member, owns copyright to Rob’s illustrations, the arrangement of the text and the Reader’s Guide, among other things. We do not own the underlying text of Ulysses or the words themselves.

Brigid: OK, James, I just lost an hour of my life browsing the Atlas & Co. website. How would you describe your company’s focus, and how does Ulysses “Seen” fit into it?

James: Thanks so much for spending some time on our site, Brigid. We are publishers of quality nonfiction, focusing on memoir, biography, and long-form reportage. Our primary concern is the quality of the prose; the works we publish have a distinctive voice, a sense of literary tradition, and a consciousness of craft. What really interests me is story-telling; i’m a biographer (Delmore Schwartz, Saul Bellow) and journalist as well as a publisher, so it’s all part of the same narrative impulse.

Brigid: Is this your first graphic novel, and if so, what sort of challenges do you anticipate that a prose book does not present?

James: We have not been publishing fiction; my feeling is that other publishers are adept at finding the new novelists, and have more experience, so we’ve focused our energies on what we do best. But I am obsessed with the graphic form, and avid reader of Daniel Clowes, Art Spiegelman, the late Harvey Pekar, R. Crumb and other graphic artists.

Ulysses fits our mandate as a publisher: it’s a literary classic, unabridged and in its original form. What’s exciting to me is that the entire book is there; the illustrations are an enhancement, not a simplification. The technical challenge will be to include the scholarly commentary that’s part of the package; we will find a way.

Brigid: How did you first become aware of Ulysses?

James: My father, a physician by trade, was a Joyce freak, and loved to read the book aloud; I heard a lot of it before I ever read it, in high school. Forty years ago, as a graduate student at Oxford, I studied with Richard Ellmann, author of the definitive Joyce biography, and I’ve considered myself an amateur Joycean—very amateur—ever since.

Brigid: Who do you see as the audience for this book, and how will it be marketed?

James: This is a Ulysses for a large and diverse audience: The young reader wanting an introduction to the book; the college student who knows the book and can enjoy it in this new form; and readers like myself, for whom Joyce is a familiar presence and who want to read the book in a readily accessible form that will allow them to linger over the words — to give the words a new dimension — without having to embark once again on the long march through the whole book. It’s a way of savoring Joyce.

We intend to market the book to these audiences in a targeted way, through course adoption; and to a trade readership. It’s going to be beautifully packaged, most likely in paperback, not as a “fine” book but as a book to carry around—not just to own but to read.

• Apple is getting in on the Comic-Con pre-show hype by highlighting all their comic book applications within iTunes. In their “App Spotlight” newsletter, they wrote: “We’re dusting off our Klingon costumes — it’s time for Comic-Con. From Marvel Comics favorites to more recent releases such as Twilight: The Graphic Novel, you can now enjoy comics and graphic novels from past and present right on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.”

• The Comic-Con International site this year introduced a scheduling feature that allows you to pick and choose the panels, films, etc. you’d like to attend, and then export them to your mobile device of choice. In addition, it also shows you how many people have indicated which panels they plan to attend, which is a fun way to see how popular certain panels are.

My wife used it over the weekend; it took her about half an hour to set up, browse the extensive schedule, make her selections and subscribe to it so she gets updates directly on her iPhone calendar (the bulk of that time was going through the schedule and deciding what she wanted to attend). At the time, it looked the Glee and Joss Whedon panels were the most popular.

• Top Shelf Comix has posted information on the new books they’re bringing to the show, as well as who will be at their booth. Their guest list includes Jeff Lemire, Kathryn & Stuart Immonen, James Kochalka, Matt Kindt, Jeffrey Brown and more. New books include Ax Vol. 1, The Playwright and Fingerprints.

• Sparkplug sent details on what will be going down at their booth:

Lemon Styles

Sparkplug Comic Books is headed to the San Diego Comic-Con July 21st-25th with two new books:

Lemon Styles by David King
The Heavy Hand by Chris Cilla

Both are for sale on the Sparkplug on-line bookstore.

We’ll be bringing them and hundreds of other new and old comics to San Diego for our typical flea market style approach. Sparkplug will be carrying tons of of great self-published comix and zines including work by Noah Van Sciver, Benjamin Marra, Carrie McNinch, Steve Ditko, Aron Steinke, Jason T. Miles, Annie Murphy, Katie Skelly, Matthew Thurber and hundreds more. We’ll even have some old comics.

Our booth number is 1630, right next to Drawn and Quarterly and Last Gasp. We are sharing it with Tom Neely, Shawn Cheng, Levon Jihanian, Landry Walker and Eric Jones as well as more people!

Chris Cilla will be at the Sparkplug booth on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday 2-6pm. David King will be at the booth Thursday through Sunday 10am-2pm. We also have Shannon O’Leary and Tim Goodyear there.

• Here is the signing schedule for Oni Press:

Mondo Urbano

Thurs
10:00 – 11:20 Bryan Lee O’Malley, Rafael Albuquerque, Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt
12:00 – 1:00 ONI PRESS PANELMONIUM 2010
1:20 – 2:20 Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt, Marc Guggenheim & Justin Greenwood, Joe Harris
2:30 – 3:50 Nico Hitori De, Jeff Wamester, Phil Gelatt, Robbi Rodriguez, Greg Rucka & Matthew Southworth
4:00 – 5:20 Rick Spears & Chuck BB, Lars Brown, Matt Loux, Ray Fawkes
5:30 – 6:50 Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir, Christopher Mitten, Ross Campbell, J. Torres

Fri
10:00 – 11:20 Bryan Lee O’Malley, Rafael Albuquerque, Brian Hurtt & Cullen Bunn
11:30 – 12:50 Christina Weir & Nunzio DeFilippis, Jeff Wamester, Greg Rucka, Ande Parks
1:00 – 2:20 Marc Guggenheim & Justin Greenwood, Joe Harris, Lars Brown, Robbi Rodriguez, Hunter Clark
2:30 – 3:50 Rick Spears & Chuck BB, Ross Campbell, Brian Hurtt & Cullen Bunn
4:00 – 5:20 Phil Gellat, J. Torres, Ray Fawkes, Matt Loux
5:30 – 6:50 Bryan Lee O’Malley, Nico Hitori De, Rafael Albuquerque

Sat
10:00 – 11:20 Hunter Clark, Greg Erb & Jason Oremland, J. Torres, Marc Guggenheim & Justin Greenwood, Rafael Albuquerque
11:30 – 12:50 Bryan Lee O’Malley, Jarrett Williams, Robbi Rodriguez, Joe Harris, Ross Campbell
1:00 – 2:20 Brian Hurtt & Cullen Bunn, Greg Rucka & Matthew Southworth, Ande Parks, Nico Hitori De
2:30 – 3:50 DJ Lance Rock, Matt Loux, Ray Fawkes
4:00 – 5:20 Brian Hurtt & Cullen Bunn, Chuck BB & Rick Spears, Phil Gelatt, Rafael Albuquerque
5:30 – 6:50 Bryan Lee O’Malley, Jarrett Williams, Christina Weir & Nunzio DeFilippis, Jeff Wamester, Chris Mitten

Sun
10:00 – 11:20 Bryan Lee O’Malley, Jarrett Williams, Christina Weir & Nunzio DeFilippis. Jeff Wamester, Chris Mitten
11:30 – 12:50 Brian Hurtt, Greg Rucka, Lars Brown, Joe Harris
1:00 – 2:20 Chuck BB & Rick Spears, Rafael Albuquerque, Ray Fawkes, Matt Loux
2:30 – 3:50 Jarrett Williams, Hunter Clark, Brian Hurtt, Robbi Rodriguez

• Smith Micro Software, Inc. (who I should point out is one of this blog’s sponsors) is bringing Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons to Comic-Con to greet fans at booth #5238 for exclusive signings. Gibbons creates his characters and storylines using Smith Micro’s Manga Studio software, and he will use Manga Studio to design an all-new, limited edition poster created specifically for Comic-Con 2010 attendees. Here’s a tease:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight

A free trailer has debuted on Apple’s iTunes store for the motion-comic adaptation of Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight. The first episode apparently will be available later today; a “season pass” costs $14.99.

The motion comic will cover the first 19 issues of Season Eight, a canonical continuation of Joss Whedon’s cult-hit television series. The comic, which debuted from Dark Horse in 2007, has featured work by Whedon, Georges Jeanty, Brian K. Vaughan, Drew Goddard, Jane Espenson, Brad Meltzer, Jeph Loeb and others.

You can read the iTunes Store description for Season Eight after the break:

Proving once and for all that you can’t keep a good Slayer down, Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight picks up where the smash-hit TV show left off! Based on the award-winning Dark Horse comic book series, these eye-popping motion comic adventures breathe new life into the Buffyverse for longtime fans and new “watchers” alike. The Hellmouth may have been destroyed, but the world still needs saving, and Buffy Summers is back at her butt-kicking, demon-slaying best to do the job. She’s relocated her base of operations to a castle in Scotland to lead the Scooby Gang, including hundreds of newly activated Slayers scattered around the world to battle the supernatural forces of evil. But in the wake of Sunnydale’s destruction, the U.S. government thinks Buffy and her legions of followers have grown too powerful and are now terrorist threats. Meanwhile, a seemingly unstoppable group of Japanese vampires hatch a nefarious plot, while the biggest, baddest Big Bad of them all, Twilight, is on a mission to destroy every Slayer on Earth!

Black Panther: Who Is the Black Panther?

Marvel’s Black Panther: Who Is the Black Panther? motion comic has mysteriously disappeared from iTunes, the PlayStation Network and other outlets after just three episodes. It’s also been removed from the motion comics section of the publisher’s website, which now only features listings for Iron Man: Extremis, Astonishing X-Men: Gifted and Spider-Woman.

Marvel declined comment. However, there’s speculation the company may not have had the rights to digitally distribute the 12-episode Who Is the Black Panther?, which was produced in partnership with BET Networks.

Announced in April 2008 as an animated adaptation of the story arc by Reginald Hudlin and John Romita Jr., Who Is the Black Panther? was set to debut on BET in early 2009. Despite boasting an all-star cast that includes Djimon Hounsou, Jill Scott, Kerry Washington, Alfre Woodard and Stan Lee, the series never aired on BET. It had its world premiere in January 2010 on Australia’s ABC 3.

The project had seemingly fallen off the map until last month, when Marvel announced the release of Who Is the Black Panther? as a motion comic under its Marvel Knights Animation banner. The series was heavily promoted online and with ads in Marvel comics.

The first episode debuted on June 23 on iTunes, Xbox LIVE, Microsoft Zune and the PlayStation Network, with new installments promised weekly. However, the fourth episode, which should’ve been released last Wednesday, never materialized.

Apple

Technology | Apple said it is adding new security measures to its iTunes store after a developer reportedly hacked into numerous customer accounts to boost the ranking of his comic apps, which briefly dominated the book category. The company claims the weekend incident was an isolated — about 400 of its 150 million iTunes users were affected — but customers tell The Wall Street Journal that hackers have hijacked accounts before, with Apple doing little to stop them. [The Wall Street Journal]

Conventions | Heidi MacDonald looks at the tug of war between San Diego, Los Angeles and Anaheim for Comic-Con International, and the tough decision facing event organizers. “This has been by far the most challenging thing we’ve ever done,” said David Glanzer, the convention’s director of marketing and public relations. “Nobody thought we wouldn’t have a decision by June.” The board hopes to make a decision before this year’s event kicks off in two weeks. “If we don’t [make an announcement],” Glanzer said, “a lot of the focus is going to be on that.” [Publishers Weekly]

Publishing | Rich Johnston uncovers some more details on DC Comics’ digital-royalties plan. [Bleeding Cool]

Marvel Comics app

Digital publishing | Devin Faraci offers some criticisms of the Marvel Comics app: “The inability to access your Digital Comics Unlimited on the iPad wouldn’t be so bad … if the Marvel app itself wasn’t so lacking in content. I don’t know how the decisions were made when launching this app, but they were all made wrong. 500 books were available on launch, and there are apparently 600 or so on there … but it feels like a sparse collection of almost random books. Part of this comes from the fact that titles relaunch semi-yearly now, so there could two or three different Avengers titles in there. But even if you figure out which series of Avengers is which, and then figure out which issues go where, the content remains spotty.” [CHUD.com]

Legal | Tomomichi Amano takes a look at the issues surrounding the defeat last month of a controversial bill in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly that would have tightened regulations on the sexual depictions of minors in manga, anime and video games:  “Every prefecture in Japan has a juvenile protection stricture which describes what defines an ‘unwholesome book,’ and rules that govern where and how such books can be sold. Industry groups such as the Japan Book Publishers Association (JBPA) say they have asked publishers to place voluntary constraints on the material they publish –- such as labeling manga with ‘not for minors’ logos and toning down sexual content. But the stakes are potentially high for publishers. Once a manga is labeled as an ‘unwholesome book,’ it can no longer be carried in Japan’s ubiquitous convenience stores. And non-bookstore purchases account about 60% of total sales of comic magazines, says Tamio Kawamata, an official at the JBPA.” [Japan Real Time]

Afrodisiac

Awards | Afrodisiac, by Brian Maruca and Jim Rugg, has been selected by the professional design association AIGA as one of the 50 best designed books/book covers of 2009. [AdHouse Books]

Creators | St. Louis Magazine profiles DC Comics Co-Publisher Jim Lee, who grew up in the city: “It wasn’t abundantly clear that I was going to become a guy who would make a living drawing people running around with their underwear outside of their clothes. I thought of comics as a hobby for a long time.” [St. Louis Magazine]

Creators | Denis Kitchen talks about his career, self-publishing and his upcoming BOOM! Studios collection Denis Kitchen’s Chipboard Sketchbook. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | Michael Cavna spotlights the personal and professional relationship that developed between Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and Lincoln Peirce (Big Nate). [The Washington Post]

Man of Steel #1

Creators | Matt Price marked John Byrne’s 60th birthday (July 6) with a rundown of 60 Byrne comics we should read. [Nerdage]

Creators | STORM interviews Forgetless artist Marley Zarcone, who’s illustrating an issue of Vertigo’s Madame Xanadu. [Stormantic]

Creators | Love and Capes creator Thom Zahler explains what it’s like to work behind a table at Comic-Con. [Pop Candy]

Creators | David Brothers spotlights Amanda Conner’s masterful use of facial expressions and body language in DC’s Power Girl. [4thletter!]

Reviews | Brian Heater on Weathercraft; J. Caleb Mozzocco on the first volumes of Dorothy of Oz and Toto! The Wonderful Adventure; Gavin Lees on Children of the Atom; and Greg McElhatton on Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites.

Stephen Perry

Crime | Florida authorities are trying to determine whether human remains discovered Wednesday in Pasco County are those of Stephen Perry, the 56-year-old ThunderCats writer who’s been missing for more than three weeks and presumed murdered. Zephyrhills police are still awaiting the results of DNA testing on the severed arm found in a trash bin on May 16 near Perry’s abandoned van.

Tampa Tribune reporter Howard Altman, who’s been covering the Perry case from the beginning, notes police revealed the latest discovery on the same day that Warner Bros. Animation announced it is producing a new version of ThunderCats. [The Tampa Tribune]

Anaheim Convention Center

Conventions | A coalition of Anaheim business and community leaders has launched a website to counter a local labor union’s recent efforts to “intimidate” Comic-Con International organizers to discourage them from moving the event to the city. Unite Here Local 11, which represents about 2,100 workers at Disneyland resort hotels, is embroiled in a bitter two-year dispute over a contract proposal that could increase healthcare costs for some employees. Union representatives dressed as Marvel superheroes delivered a letter last month to the Comic-Con offices warning that a move to Anaheim could jeopardize the success of the convention.

A letter on the Anaheim coalition’s website, signed by the city’s mayor and more than two dozen others, states the individuals were “shocked and deeply disappointed” by the union’s actions. “As a community, we have respected Local 11’s right to protest,” the letter reads. “However, when their actions adversely impact the livelihood of workers, sustainability of local businesses and funding for city services, we must speak out.” [The San Diego Union-Tribune, Los Angeles Times]

NewsToons

Digital comics | Wired.com’s Ryan Singel isn’t buying Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ “bit of revisionist history” concerning the iPhone store’s rejection of cartoonist Mark Fiore’s NewsToons app: “… Jobs says the real story is that in the interval between the rejection and Fiore’s award, Apple had changed its policy because it realized that blocking Fiore was dumb. But despite that supposed change, the company never contacted Fiore and asked him to try again.” [Epicenter]

Business | The purchase of Peanuts and United Media Licensing by Iconix Brand Group and the heirs of Charles M. Schulz became official on Thursday. [press release]

Creators | John Martz chats with Graham Annable about The Book of Grickle, animation, process and more. [Drawn!]

Barney & Clyde

Creators | Michael Cavna interviews writer Gene Weingarten, whose syndicated comic strip Barney & Clyde (with co-writer Dan Weingarten and artist David Clark) debuts Monday from The Washington Post Writers Group. [Comic Riffs]

Creators | Taylor Maurand profiles cartoonist Kristen Caven, creator of the recently released memoir Perfectly Revolting: My ‘Glamorous’ Cartooning Career. [San Jose Mercury News]

Comics | Frank Santoro points to the $1 reprint of Jonah Hex #1 as an example of “how photo-referencing has taken all the fun, gesture and action out of comics.” [Comics Comics]

Comics | Ethan Kaye counts down “The 10 Most Ridiculous Comic Book Nazis.” I protest the inclusion of the indisputably awesome War Wheel from Blackhawk. [Topless Robot]

Pop culture | It turns out that Patrick Boivin, the guy behind that Iron Baby parody video, started out as a horror-comic artist. [Guelph Mercury]

Mark Fiore's NewsToons

Digital comics | Michael Cavna reports that Apple CEO Steve Jobs essentially accused cartoonist Mark Fiore of lying about the rejection of his iPhone app, telling attendees at a tech conference the Pulitzer Prize winner “never resubmitted” NewsToons after the company’s initial brush-off. “We’re doing the best we can, we’re fixing mistakes,” Jobs is quoted as saying. “But what happens is — people lie. And then they run to the press and tell people about this oppression, and they get their 15 minutes of fame. We don’t run to the press and say ‘this guy is a son of a bitch liar!’ — we don’t do that.”

Fiore seems baffled, telling Cavna: “My NewsToons app was, in fact, rejected. … The reason I never resubmitted the app was because I wasn’t about to make the changes Apple sought and remove any ‘content that ridicules public figures.’ Ridiculing public figures is what I do and is an essential part of journalism.” Tom Spurgeon offers some commentary, pointing out how strange Jobs’ accusations are. [Comic Riffs]

Legal | The Democratic Party of Japan, which holds 54 of the 127 seats in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, and several smaller groups are threatening on June 14 to vote down a bill to tighten restrictions on the sexual depictions of minors in comics, animation and video games. Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said Tokyo could come up with a new bill if the current one is defeated. [The Japan Times]

WOWIO

Business | WOWIO, the long-struggling ebook publisher, announced it has raised $1.7 million in private financing and acquired WEvolt.com, an online community for creators to share and promote their work. The new financing follows a $1-million seed round completed in October. [press release]

Business | GeekChicDaily, the pop culture e-newsletter co-founded in October by Wizard CEO Gareb Shamus, has received an investment in “the mid-six figures” from former AOL Time Warner executive Bob Pittman and his partner Andrew Russell. They’ll join GeekChicDaily’s advisory board. [Variety]

Sales charts | The fourth volume of Kanoko Sakurakoji’s Blackbird, from Viz Media, topped BookScan’s list of adult graphic novels sold in bookstores in May. Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s Kick-Ass hardcover was No. 2, while Daniel Clowes’ Wilson debuted at No. 15. Manga accounted for 15 of the Top 20 spots. [ICv2.com]

Events | Host registration is open for the seventh annual 24-Hour Comics Day, set for Oct. 2. [ComicsPRO]

Creators | The University of Cincinnati student newspaper spotlights cartoonist, and adjunct professor, Carol Tyler. [The News Record]

Mark Chiarello

Creators | DC Comics Art Director Mark Chiarello talks about Wednesday Comics and the possibility of a follow-up: “It did very well financially and creatively.  I …  I sort of …  It was so labor intensive to put the project together that I’m having a ‘Nam flashback just thinking about it.  But I think the machine is built now so it would be easier to do a sequel. [...] I think the real key is that we’d only do it if it could be as good or better than the original series.” [Big Shiny Robot]

Creators | Jeff Lemire discusses his Vertigo series Sweet Tooth and his upcoming stint as writer of DC’s relaunched Superboy title. [AICN]

Creators | Raina Telgemeier talks about her autobiographical webcomic-turned-graphic novel Smile and Del Rey’s cancellation of the second volume of X-Men: Misfits: “It’s licensed and it was work-for-hire, so we got paid to do the work. And that’s how any work-for-hire job is: you can hope that the books will come out, but if they don’t, you kind of just have to shrug your shoulders and hope for the best next time.” [Playback:stl]

Chew #1

Creators | Benjamin Bailey briefly interviews Chew artist Rob Guillory. [Earth 616]

Creators | Von Allan chats about his graphic novels the road to god knows … and Stargazer. [Seattlest]

Comics | Ben Morse looks at the history of Robin the Boy Wonder: “I think the turnover rate of Robin as well as the aging of the mantle’s former holders all ties back to this idea of the original fan service character and how creators have been quite diligent in evolving him as the audience has grown, changed, regressed and done it all over again.” [The Cool Kids Table]

Alex Ross iPhone app

Alex Ross has released a free iPhone app that allows fans to browse the artist’s galleries, view video interviews, receive updates on his personal appearances and more. In short, it’s Ross’ website for iPhone owners on the go.

Yen Plus

Manga | Following up on Wednesday’s announcement that Yen Press will move its Yen Plus manga magazine online after the July issue, Gia Manry gets a few more details from Publishing Director Kurt Hassler — among them, that the web version will utilize a dedicated browser designed to emulate the print edition.

Digital publishing | In its White Paper presented last week at C2E2, ICv2 estimates that digital comics sales in North America last year totaled between $500,000 and $1 million. Naturally, it’s expected that sales in 2010 will “expand dramatically.”

iTunes | After Apple CEO Steve Jobs weighed in on the issue, the company has approved for its App store the NewsToon app from Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Mark Fiore. Apple had rejected the app in December, stating that Fiore’s Flash-animated political satire, “contains content that ridicules public figures,” a violation of its iPhone Developer Program License Agreement.

Digital comics | At Extreme Tech, Jim Lynch provides a lengthy overview of comics on Apple’s iPad: “Marvel and the other publishers have taken some important first steps, but they still have a way to go. The iPad has solved the problem of storage and readability, but now publishers must provide the app features, subscriptions, and digital delivery that will fully take advantage of the iPad and make reading comics on it as easy and as much fun as reading them in traditional book form.”

Copyright | A response to a brief post about the Manga Rock 1.0 app is a contender for quote of the day: “This is awful. You’re PAYING to use OneManga, which illegally hosts copyrighted materials! This is such crap.”

Mass Effect #1

Dark Horse released the first issue of their four-issue Mass Effect: Redemption comic book on iTunes today. The story occurs between the first Mass Effect game and the second one, which came out last month.

And if you download it today, it’s absolutely free. So if you’re interested in checking it out, act quickly — this link will take you directly to iTunes.

I myself have not played Mass Effect, as I don’t have an Xbox 360, but I have been very addicted to another BioWare-created game, Dragon Age, on the Playstation 3. If it’s half as much fun shooting up aliens in Mass Effect as it is fighting Darkspawn in DA, then it’s probably worth checking out as well.

Speaking of which, HarperCollins is talking to Apple about the tablet, according to the Wall Street Journal, and I thought this article on how Apple does controlled leaks was kind of interesting, in light of all the attention a device that doesn’t officially exist yet is getting.

Digital comics | If you’ve been wanting to check out Robot 13, Robot Comics released it on the iPhone last week. Check out a trailer here.

Digital comics | Disney has launched Italian and British websites for their Digicomics application.

Twitter | Congratulations to everyone behind the Twitter feed Fake AP Stylebook, who have landed a book deal with Three Rivers Press. Their line-up includes several former and current comics bloggers, including former Robot 6 contributor Lisa Fortuner, former Meanwhile… columnist Shane Bailey, retailer/blogger Mike Sterling, CBR reviewer/artist Benjamin Birdie and many more.

Mike Ploog's Perhapanauts cover

With the Halloween-themed fun we’re having this week at Robot 666 (aka Robot 6)–it seemed like the perfect time to talk to Todd Dezago about the recently released Perhapanauts Halloween Spooktacular One-Shot (featuring stories drawn by the likes of Craig Rousseau, Rich Woodall and Fred Hembeck). Normally in an interview with Dezago, I would characterize him as one of the nicest folks in comics. But in the spirit of the Halloween season, I instead choose to characterize him as the most paranormal-fascinated person in comics. In addition to the one shot (with three stories in it)–we discuss other spooky topics like volleyball and iTunes. You are warned!

Tim O’Shea: Is it apt to say that Halloween is about your favorite time of the year, given your affinity for the paranormal?

Todd Dezago: Oh, Halloween definitely holds a special place in my heart, both for memories of Halloweens past and for the spooky, scary, creepy haunted element!

And I love that we were able to put together this fun and, hopefully, frightening anthology featuring very different artists on very different stories!

O’Shea: What’s the story behind the blog’s PERHAPANAUTS SCARY HALLOWEEN CONTEST?

Dezago: Craig and I have a very loyal following on the Perhapa-Blog–our Perhapa-Family–and it’s always a treat to get a chance to see them bringing their talents and creativity to the stage! The Perhapanauts Scary Halloween Contest is a chance for others to play with our team, to write or draw or do a comic page or two with the characters and show everyone else their stuff! And we have some very talented friends!

O’Shea: Do folks have to be regular Perhapanauts readers to enjoy this Halloween issue or can folks new to the characters enjoy it just as much?

Dezago: No, I think you can jump right in and don’t need to know anything about the team or the characters or the continuity to enjoy this. Hopefully, if you’re not familiar with The Perhapanauts, this issue will pique your curiosity enough to swing by the website and check them out.

O’Shea: Were there certain story shifts you were able to take with the characters in this Halloween setting that you would not normally attempt in the regular book’s continuity?

Dezago: Just doing separate stories apart from the continuity was refreshing. I’ve been so focused on the story arcs so much, building to finally be able to tell these kind of separate, solo, or side-stories–case files–that I now feel that the stories can finally take off from there! It’s more liberating! And more fun!

O’Shea: In terms of art, is this the first time you’ve worked with Fred Hembeck? Also how did the Mike Ploog cover come about?

Dezago: Fred and I have been friends for, like, forever! We’d played volleyball together for years and always wanted to work on some things together! This was our first chance to actually do a story together and, even though we’re pals, it was just so exciting to see him bring his own brand of magic and squiggly knees to the ‘Haps!

My pal, Roger Ash, hooked me up with Mike Ploog while he was interviewing Mike for his Modern Masters book. When Roger suggested we ask Mike for a cover, Craig and I were floored at the prospect, both of us being such huge fans of Mike’s work–Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night, Abadazad, The Stardust Kid…Mike was so very nice to talk with and exceeded our expectations with his wonderful cover!

O’Shea: How many comic pros do you play volleyball with?

Dezago: Back in the late 90s/early 2Ks, I played volleyball with a legendary group of comic book artists and writers every Tuesday night in the town of Woodstock. I had been at a small comics convention in Kingston and had been befriended by Ron Marz, Fred Hembeck, and Terry Austin and invited to join the group. When I got there I was stunned to see heroes like Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson were part of the gang too! We’d always play hard for a few hours and then go out and have dinner! It was great fun–fast-paced games and good times! I still play every Monday night with Jim, but the rest have all been scattered around the country now.

O’Shea: Other than this issue, of course, care to rank your favorite Halloween comic stories?

Dezago: Well, I’ve gotta go to that early 70s Batman story that was based, I’ve heard, mostly on a trip that a bunch of the young DC writers and artists (Bernie, Len Wein, Glynis Oliver, Denny O’Neil, I think…) took to Vermont for the Rutland Halloween Parade. It’s one of Denny and Neal’s stories–the one with the guy that dresses like the Grim Reaper–and it’s just so dark and moody! I also just love Keith Giffen and Ben Roman’s “i luv halloween” book that came out a couple years ago from Tokyo Pop. It’s both fun and creepy!

O’Shea: What’s the biggest challenge of orchestrating a project like this–with three different stories for one issue?

Dezago: Ha! It should have been a lot easier than it was! I initially had hoped to have this issue out last Halloween and thought it was gonna happen. But it ended up conflicting with our own schedule and continuity, so we pushed it to this year. The coordination was, in many ways, easier as we had three different artists working at once–it just meant having to shepherd each one along at it’s own rate. It all went relatively smoothly and, now that we’re shifting to a mini-series schedule, Craig and I intend to get the books out faster by bringing in more great artists for more great side-stories!

O’Shea: How long has the Perhapanauts been available through iTunes–and what’s response been like for the app?

Dezago: The Haps app (as Craig and I call it here in the Perhapa-Studios… : ) has been available for a few weeks now and we really haven’t heard about numbers on downloads and such. We’re just thrilled to have it out there and hope people will pick it up and show their friends! It–and Tellos–both look absolutely fantastic on the app and, as the issues play out, hopefully we can get more and more people showing their friends.

O’Shea: Unlike some creators, you seem to encourage folks to do fan fiction with the Perhapanauts-why?

Dezago: Our whole plan for the Perhapanauts from square one was to create a team of characters and a paradigm where we could tell really any kind of story we wanted. And, after 14 issues or so, we’ve finally maneuvered things to be able to do just that. In our last story arc, the Perhapanauts became the guardians of the Perhaps, our version of the nexus of all time and space and the doorway to every conceivable alternate reality, what if or elseworld. You wanna story where the Perhapanauts are in the old west…? We can do that! You wanna see the team visit medieval times…? That can happen! They have access to EVERYTHING! And so should YOU. We love to see other people’s versions of our gang and read other people’s stories to see where their imaginations want to take the Perhapanauts! It’s fun!

O’Shea: What’s ahead for the Perhapanauts series?

Dezago: We have a one-shot coming out in February or March called “Molly’s Story” which tells the tale of how our ghost became a ghost, written by Scott Weinstein and me and art by Jason Copland. It looks great! And then, a few months later, we’ll be kicking off the first official miniseries and the next story arc, The Perhapanauts: Fourshadowing, which will be both a great jumping on point and the revelation of quite a few of our long-standing mysteries. And that will be quickly followed by a three part anthology series called Tales From the Perhaps, full of fun short tales of this reality and beyond.

“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.”