top_shelf_prod_kids.jpg
Top Shelf has just announced a team-up with comiXology that includes their own iOS app, and a separate app for the Kids Club line. Books from LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN to O

  • WLY will be available across various platforms.

    Interestingly, Top Shelf is the first “alt.comix” type publisher to go whole hog with digital. D&Q and Fantagraphics and most of the smaller indies have remained remained aloof to the ecomics world. Although most art comics are best suited to the paper medium — and are, indeed the very type of objects that will keep print books alive for quite some time — a lot of indie cartoonists read just fine on the screen — we’ve found some of the “panel grid layout” types even look great on an iPhone. It seems like only a matter of time before everyone has their own app and storefront…but how long?

    Top Shelf Productions, the publisher of critically acclaimed and popularly beloved graphic novels, and comiXology, the leading distributor of digital comics, are proud to announce the launch of the official Top Shelf Productions iOS App and Top Shelf Kids Club iOS App today. Purchases on these apps will sync across the Comics by comiXology platform — iOS, Android and the Web!

    To celebrate, Top Shelf and comiXology are offering five keystone graphic novels at reduced prices for the next week. Fans will now be able to own all of these classic books for only $9.95:

    $1.99 for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1910 by Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill
    $1.99 for Owly book 1 by Andy Runton
    $0.99 for Johnny Boo book 1 by James Kochalka
    $1.99 for Clumsy by Jeffrey Brown
    $2.99 for The Surrogates by Robert Venditti & Brett Weldele

    Additionally, Wednesday will see the comiXology debut of the newly remastered Top Shelf edition of Lost Dogs, the Xeric-award-winning first graphic novel by Jeff Lemire (Essex County, Sweet Tooth, Animal Man).

    “I’ve long been a personal fan of Top Shelf’s catalog, so it’s very gratifying that comiXology can help bring Top Shelf’s great graphic novels to a larger audience through the Top Shelf Productions iOS App, the Top Shelf Kids Club App, and our own Comics by comiXology platform,” said comiXology co-founder and CEO David Steinberger. “And really, who’s going to pass up getting League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1910 for only $1.99?”

    “We at Top Shelf are very excited to partner with comiXology to launch this pair of apps,” said Top Shelf Productions publisher Chris Staros. “We’ve all worked hard to create a digital reading experience that’s a worthy companion to the high-quality physical books we’re known for, and that suits the sophisticated comics that our artists create. With these new apps, we’re offering a really easy and affordable way for people to read Top Shelf books – both hardcore fans and casual folks who just enjoy creative stories with depth and richness.”

    In addition to those titles listed above, the Top Shelf apps feature such contemporary classics as From Hell by Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell and Essex County by Jeff Lemire, new critical darlings like Infinite Kung Fu by Kagan McLeod and Lucille by Ludovic Debeurme, and stellar full-color kids’ books like Incredible Change-Bots by Jeffrey Brown and Okie Dokie Donuts by Chris “Elio” Eliopoulos, along with over a dozen more titles.

    3 COMMENTS

    1. Wake me when comics publishers start offering ebooks to libraries in Adobe ePub DRM.

      Publishers announcing apps is like ten years ago when publishers announced book trade distribution.

      Overdrive serves “more than 15,000 libraries, schools, and colleges worldwide.” Remember when it was rare to find comics in libraries, usually shelved next to the drawing books? That’s what’s digital libraries are like now, not because of library bias, but because the publishers are hesitant to offer titles.

      That’s what will happen next year, I hope, as the Fire and Nook battle it out. Some publishers are announcing e-books now, but I think we will ll hit critical mass this holiday season with iPads, Fires, and Nooks looking for content.

    2. I wonder if it will simulate the death throes of emo comics kid kulture branding ™ that the dead tree editions of “Top Shelf” did..

    Comments are closed.