ElephantmenclickwheelsmJust to show that several downlodable comics services are still going strong, we got this press release just the other day:

Clickwheel LTD is proud to announce a new addition to its premium roster in ELEPHANTMEN. Written by industry mainstay, Richard Starkings with art by Moritat and Ladronn and published in print by Image comics, ELEPHANTMEN tells the story of the ‘Unhumans,’ The result of genetic engineering, the Unhumans have since served their wartime purpose and must now find new ways to survive in society. True to it’s Sci-Fi themes, ELEPHANTMEN and Starkings are eager to help Clickwheel push the boundaries of comics as we know them:

“I’ve been interested in CLICKWHEEL since Tim set up the site,” says ELEPHANTMEN and HIP FLASK writer/creator Richard Starkings. “Of all the sites that approached COMICRAFT with the whole ‘iTunes for comics deal’, it seemed clear that CLICKWHEEL had the cleanest, best designed user interface, and as ‘Purveyors of Unique Design and Fine Lettering’ the presentation of a download site is obviously going to be important to us. Plus — Tim didn’t even approach me, he got my attention just by doing a good job, what a concept! When Tim added 2000AD to CLICKWHEEL I realized that we were more than a perfect match — I’ve often said in interviews that ELEPHANTMEN is the strip I would have contributed to 2000AD had I ever had the opportunity. 2000AD’s founding fathers, John Wagner and Pat Mills were a huge influence on me and we even share cover artist Boo Cook from time to time!”


“Tim and I have been working out the logistics of posting ELEPHANTMEN on CLICKWHEEL for the last couple or three months but now the contracts are signed, the ink is dry, the hands have been shaken, the tees crossed and the eyes dotted and… I’m sorry, I’m drifting… ELEPHANTMEN will be available for download every month on CLICKWHEEL for just $1.99 an issue. Every ad, every letters page, all the back up features and indicias will be included — everything except the staples, and Tim tells me he’s working on making small pieces of bent rusty metal downloadable even as I speak.”

Tim Demeter, Clickwheel Editor in Chief adds:

“I lettered my very first comic with Comicraft fonts and it’s a true honor to be working with Rich. I’m really excited about this for a lot of reasons, none the least being that ELEPHANTMEN is a great book. It’s the type of quality we want people to think of when they think of Clickwheel. I’m also happy to announce that ELEPHANTMEN is the first of many, many new comics to come at Clickwheel in the coming weeks.”

ELEPHANTMEN is available monthly at Clickwheel.net. One $1.99 purchase earns three formats: PDF, CBR and iPhone formatting. (Via the Clickwheel iPhone reader available free on the Apple App Store.)

1 COMMENT

  1. Congrats to Clickwheel and Richard Starkings.

    $.99 is too expensive for a song.
    $1.99 is WAY too expensive for a comic book.

    I hope lots of people buy Elephantmen on Clickwheel.

  2. I disagree, sir.

    Sorry for being picky, but gas doesn’t come out of the ground. Crude oil does, and it requires some effort to become gasoline. Regardless, gas is way too damn expensive. If most people didn’t need to use it and hadn’t already built their lives around $1/gallon gas prices years ago, I doubt the demand would be high which would drive the prices down. Even if everyone wanted more efficient cars, I don’t think the car dealerships would be willing to accept such a high volume of trade-ins and/or offer way less than those cars are worth thereby making a trade-in a big starting loss of cash for the consumers. Sorry for the rant.

    I don’t drink coffee, but the amount of money people spend at places like Starbucks makes me laugh. Of course to most of them, paying $2.99 for a comic book would probably be more laughable…. even paying $1.99 for a downloaded comic book would be.

    $1 per song is still ridiculous. Trent Reznor doesn’t even charge for his. Now THAT’S a bargain.

    $1.99 for a comic, cool as it is? Doesn’t SLG offer theirs for $0.69? Now THAT’S a bargain.

    I hope you make a mint, sir, but I will either buy the heavily discounted hard copies or read it for free. Not sure which, yet, but I like what I’ve seen so far.

    Best of luck.