Comic Book Resources

Slash Print | Barnes & Noble's nook goes head-to-head with Amazon's Kindle

Tablets | Kindle, meet the Nook ... or nook, as it looks like Barnes & Noble are spelling it with the lowercase "n," which is really annoying. But yes, the bookseller has launched their own e-book tablet, which retails for $259 (the same as the Amazon Kindle 2), has a color touchscreen and comes out in November. Check out the product comparison chart (it's a PDF) from B & N for more information on how it compares to Amazon's device.

Google, meanwhile, isn't working on a device, but they do plan to launch an e-book store in order to deliver electronic books to "any device with a web browser." Time will tell what any of this means for the comic industry, but with a color tablet coming out soon, you can see the possibilities.

Webcomics | Writing for PBS's Mediashift blog, Simon Owens writes about what newspaper cartoonists can learn from web cartoonists. He spoke with both Richard Stevens and Howard Tayler for the piece.

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Tumor

Publishing | Writer Joshua Hale Fialkov explains the decision to syndicate his graphic novel Tumor on Amazon's Kindle: "The Kindle represents a seamless method to purchase and read content. You buy the book, and it magically appears on your screen a second or two later. The playing field becomes quite a bit more even. People will still be drawn to bigger authors or titles, but, for the people who want to seek out your work, they actually can. The same can't be said of most comic shops, or, for that matter, most bookstores. In effect, by removing the physical commodity, we've opened up the marketplace to endless options. It's no longer a question of whether to stock Batman OR Tumor, because they're both there, all the time, waiting to be downloaded. [The X-Change Files]

Publishing | In response to reader complaints, Tokyopop has upgraded the paper stock on its books. [About.com]

Bokurano: Ours

Publishing | Deb Aoki speaks at length with Hideki Egami, senior editor of Japan's IKKI, about the manga magazine's new North American counterpart, Viz Media's SigIKKI.com: "We have a slogan for IKKI, something like 'We are still at the dawn of the manga era.' This kind of explains our philosophy. The spirit of this tagline is that the dawn is still approaching; meaning that if you assume that the history of manga will continue for 200 years or longer, we are still at the very beginning." [About.com]

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Truth Serum joins the Kindle revolution

Truth Serum, meet Kindle

You already heard about Archaia releasing Joshua Fialkov's Tumor on the Kindle. Now Jon Adams emailed us to announce that his second Truth Serum book, The Lonely Parade, is available for the ebook reading device as well. Here's the short press release:

You need no longer risk the threat of paper cuts and the jeers of those more technologically advanced than you. Truth Serum: The Lonely Parade is now available on the Kindle. What it may lack in a color section and a perforated form that folds out of the book, it makes up for in half-the-priceness. We had to make a few changes for this version, and managed to include the phrase "Suck it, Kindle!"

Slash Print | Following the digital evolution

Longbox

Digital Comics | Rantz Hoseley posted some additional information and answered questions on the Longbox digital comics in the comments section of the iFanboy article Kevin linked to yesterday.

Those updates include:

• Although only BOOM! and Top Cow have been announced so far, Hoseley said seven publishers have signed on for the launch, and the other five will be announced in the next few weeks leading up to the San Diego Comic Con.
• The software will include a "Manga Mode" that flips the left-to-right reading order. That's pretty damn clever.
• The software will also allow for "age-restricted sub-accounts," so your kids can read the Muppets but can't get to your Black Kiss comics.
• Hoseley says that "while we certainly welcome DC and Marvel's participation, the entire system was designed to have a business model that would be successful and profitable for all involved if they chose not to participate."

There's more at the link, so click over and read. This gets more interesting by the day ...

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Heroes Con + Wizard World Philly | Catching up on the weekend's news

Longbox

This past weekend Philadelphia welcomed Wizard World, while Charlotte hosted HeroesCon. Two East Coast conventions, separated by more than 500 miles and a couple of states. If you were away from your computer, then you may have missed some of the announcements that sprang from both venues:

• For years people have been asking for an "iTunes for comics." Well, it looks like we might actually get one. Rantz Hoseley's Longbox will be a free download available later this year for PC, Macs and Linux. Comics can be download for a suggested price point of $.99 per issue, with the potential for block and subscription pricing. BOOM! and Top Cow have already signed on.

• Marvel had a lot of announcements at the show. Spinning out of the Uncanny X-Men/Dark Avengers crossover that kicks off any day now will be a series of one-shots that fall under the heading of Dark Reign: The List. Basically Norman Osbourn starts making a list of everyone standing in his way who he needs to do dirty, nasty things to.

The eight one shots and the creators working on them are:

Dark Reign: The List – Daredevil by Andy Diggle and Billy Tan
Dark Reign: The List – Wolverine by Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic
Dark Reign: The List – Hulk by Greg Pak and Ben Oliver
Dark Reign: The List – Amazing Spider-Man by Dan Slott and Adam Kubert
Dark Reign: The List – Avengers by Brian Bendis and Marko Djurdjevic
Dark Reign: The List – Uncanny X-Men by Matt Fraction and Alan Davis
Dark Reign: The List – Secret Warriors by Jonathan Hickman and Ed McGuiness
Dark Reign: The List – Punisher by Rick Remender and John Romita Jr.

The project was announced at around the same time both in Philadelphia and in Charlotte. For more info, check out CBR's interviews with Bendis, Fraction and Remender, as well as Pak, Hickman and Aaron. Also, Aaron talks a little bit about his Wolverine one-shot on his blog; it will feature both Marvel Boy and Fantomex, as well as a new Weapon XVI.

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Slash Print | Following the digital evolution

The Iraq War Stories Anthology

Webcomics | Starting this Sunday, the webcomics collective ACT-I-VATE will run The Iraq War Stories Anthology, edited by Nick Bertozzi. Per the press release, Bertozzi asked the students in his Comic Book Storytelling Workshop at The School of Visual Arts to adapt stories that took place in Iraq during the War.

"The majority of the stories were found on blogs, a few were adapted from stories told to the students by friends, and one student, himself a veteran of the Iraq War, wrote and drew a story based on his own experience," the release says. One story will appear each Sunday for the next 13 weeks.

e-Devices & Webcomics | Here's a fun case of sibling rivalry -- Peter Timony has released The Complete Sir Roland, previously available on the web, as a comic for Amazon's Kindle device. Not to be outdone, his twin brother Bobby has released a 24-Hour Comic, The Ballad of Basil the Bunny, for the Kindle.

Webcomics | Daryl Cagle discusses the pluses and minuses of allowing other sites to easily embed political cartoons from his site -- something that's becoming the norm in the world of Web 2.0 and YouTube. [Hat tip: The Comics Reporter]

e-Publishing | Range Murata, the creator of anime like Last Exile and Shangri-La, has released his self-published magazine Throw Line dōjin on iTunes.

Slash Print | Following the digital evolution

Kindle DX

e-Devices | Amazon.com this week announced a larger version of their Kindle device, called the Kindle DX. The e-book reader is two-and-a-half times the size of the current Kindle and will retail for almost $500. The New York Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe, however, will offer "subsidized on-contract Kindles to customers who can't get at-home delivery when the DX ships this summer."

So, the natural question for comic fans -- is it big enough to show a comics page? Kelson at the Speed Force blog has the same question: "Unless I’ve got my numbers wrong, that makes it larger than the standard manga page, though not quite as big as the standard American comic book page," he said about the 9.7 inch screen. "And it’s only 1/3 of an inch thick, comparable to a typical trade paperback." The BBC has more on the specs.

Social media | Ypulse, a teen marketing blog, wonders if teens would follow Twitter feeds for characters from young adult novels. Apparently teens haven't embraced Twitter (which surprises me ... I figured they'd been using it and dropped it when all the old people showed up, kind of like Facebook), and the post wonders if they'd start using it if, say, the sparkling vampires from Twilight had their own feeds.

"Protagonists, antagonists and supporting characters (the latter might be especially intriguing) would continue to gain depth and dimension in the intermittent period between books and meanwhile, readers would feel more connected to the world that the author created," writes Meredith, who blogs for the site. "Or, as connected to them as they choose to be depending on whether they simply read the tweets or actually respond to them and engage in dialogue." She also notes that characters from Mad Men showed up on Twitter last year, which everyone assumed was a marketing ploy for the show, but turned out to be more along the lines of fan fiction.

BOOM! Studios recently launched a Twitter feed for one of their fictional characters, the talking teddy bear who thinks he's James Bond, Mister Stuffins. Is it a marketing ploy, an extension of the story, or maybe both? And would comic fans follow the Twitter feed for, say, Batman, Luke Cage or Scott Pilgrim, if their tweets were written by Grant Morrison, Brian Michael Bendis or Bryan Lee O'Malley, respectively?

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Slash Print | Following the digital evolution

Fujitsu's color e-book reader

E-devices | Fujitsu has unveiled Japan's first full-color e-book reader, the FLEPia.

It would seem like a major leap forward for comics, but CNET UK points out that the FLEPia only supports XMDF and .book format e-books. Plus, the device is now only available in Japan, where it sells for ¥99,750 -- or a little over $1,000.

Publishing | At ICv2.com, retailer Steve Bennett returns to the "collectibility" well to argue that the urge to bag, board and sort will save the printed comic from being replaced by the digital version.

E-devices | At Publishers Weekly, Ada Price talks with a handful of publishers about their early experience converting titles to Amazon's Kindle.

Conventions | The program schedule has been released for the New England Webcomics Weekend, being held March 20-22 in Easthampton, Mass.

Copyright | At Reason Online, Henry Jenkins examines how illegal copying and distribution helped anime to succeed in the United States.

E-publishing | IDW Publishing has made available the first two issues of its sold-out Star Trek: Countdown at the iTunes app store.

E-publishing | Uclick and Tokyopop are making the first volume of Svetlana Chmakova's Dramacon available as a free app on Apple's app store.

Webcomics | Joey Manley looks at the use of webcomics as promotional tools for TV shows and print comics.

Multimedia | From SXSW, Wired.com considers the "deep media" approach Electronic Arts used for marketing the video game Dead Space, an effort that included comics, animation and interactive web features.

Blogosphere | David Brothers talks e-devices, webcomics, digital comics, and more.

Slash Print | Following the digital evolution

"Watchmen" on the Kindle

Conventions | Registration is closed for New England Webcomics Weekend, the March 20-22 event in Easthampton, Mass., that some already are calling "Webcomicstock."

What's Webcomics Weekend? It's not really a convention, organizers say; it's more a gathering -- a free one, at that. It will feature panels, livedraw events, book signings, and guests such as Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes (Unshelved), Danielle Corsetto (Girls With Slingshots), Rene Engstrom (Anders Loves Maria), Meredith Gran (Octopus Pie), Scott Kurtz (PvP), Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics) and R. Stevens (Diesel Sweeties).

E-devices | At Gearlog, Brian Heater tries out Bone, Jimmy Corrigan, New X-Men and Watchmen on Amazon's new Kindle: "In my humble opinion, the best device for reading comics at the moment (besides, you know, old-timey comics themselves) is the iPhone."

Webcomics | The Floating Lightbulb and The Comic Chronicles' John Jackson Miller try to figure out what to make of GoogleTrends data showing a steady decline of unique visitors for many of the most-popular webcomics.

E-devices | Jason Ankeny lays out why mobile devices are the future of comic strips: "Few forms of creative expression are better suited to that kind of brief consumer engagement than comic strips. Life in Hell -- a crudely illustrated but consistently sharp and insightful black-and-white strip  -- would seem like a natural on a Kindle or on an iPhone, as would any number of classic daily efforts including Calvin & Hobbes, The Far Side, Krazy Kat or Doonesbury."

Blogging | To mark the second anniversary of Super Punch, John Struan offers some good tips about blogging, with special attention to increasing traffic.

Social media | Gay & Lesbian Times looks out how artists are using DList, a social-networking site for gay men, to promote their work.

Podcasting | The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette profiles local comics podcasters.

E-publishing | Fictionwise, the e-book retailer recently purchased by Barnes & Noble, has sold an estimated 5 million digital titles since its launch in June 2000. (via GalleyCat)

Slash Print | Following the digital evolution

Twitter

Scans Daily | Glenn Hauman chats with a couple of moderators from Scans Daily about LiveJournal's closing of the community, copyright, fair use, and whether the site helped or harmed comics.

In related news: "Hand of God Suspends Homoerotic Scans Daily Comic Book Community." (via Christopher Bird)

Social media | iFanboy has begun compiling a list of Twitter accounts of comics publishers and creators.

Social media | Someone has formed a webcomics Twitter group.

Webcomics | Michael Sisk is looking for beta testers for the WebComic plugin and InkBlot theme for WordPress.

E-devices | ComicXP is offering its online reader as a free download.

E-devices | Amazon has released a free iPhone application that allows users to read Kindle books on mobile devices. The top iPhone-app companies apparently aren't too concerned.

This morning a Morgan Stanley analyst predicted Amazon will sell 1 million Kindles by Thanksgiving.

E-publishing | Warren Ellis points to the success actor-author-online personality Wil Wheaton has had with the PDF version of his new book Sunken Treasure.

E-publishing | Barnes & Noble has acquired Fictionwise, one of the largest independent e-book retailers. Although Fictionwise will operate as a separate business unit, B&N makes it clear the retailer is part of its larger digital strategy, which includes launching an e-bookstore later this year.