Tag: Digital Comics

Twin press releases today that Dark Horse's digital comics offering are coming to B&N's Nook and the Kobo Vox, a lesser known but respected platform. Popular titles like MASS EFFECT,HELLBOY, STAR WARS, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, SERENITY, and SIN CITY will all be available for both platforms. DH was already on their own store and via various Apple platforms.

Since debuting in 2009, Comixology has sold more than 50 million comics, CEO David Steinberger told ICv2. 5 million of those came in December alone. That's 1.4 millino less than the 6.4 million comics sold in the same period, ICv2 notes. However, a significant portion of the digital comics were free, so it's not a direct comparison.

If we're reading this right, hitting "popular" on the Apple bookstore page for comics reveals what's hot at that very instant, and based on the placement of AVENGERS #1 and WALKING DEAD, we'd guess this has some relationship to sales velocity—not necessarily numbers, though.

You know how we always wondered what would be the iTunes of comics? It has turned out to be iTunes. Apple has just launched a separate comics/graphic novels section for its iBookstore. It's a full feature sub-section includes an impressive Marvel bookstore, a "Comics Page" promotions for comic strip books, a Walking Dead section, and most impressively, separate promotions for CLEVELAND by Harvey Pekar and Joseph Remnant and Lela Lee's FAIRY TALES FOR ANGRY LITTLE GIRLS.

Have you heard? Sex sells. Specifically a book called Stuff About Sex... For Guys Who Are Not Like, Total Idiots, a digital-only books of sex tips by cartoonist David Mellon that in only a few days has become one of comiXology's top 20 graphic novels. Published by Top Shelf, here's a sneak peek at the first two pages—it's basically a bro-to-bro sex guide for the uninitiated. The author is a self-confessed hippie and it shows....but you know, maybe we need more hippies!

So let me get this straight; comics pirates have been tapping directly into Marvel's servers to get the pristine digital copiesthat they post like clockwork every Wednesday?

Dropped into this little item about BEYOND THE FRINGE, a digital tie-in to the popular TV show, is the news that Jhonen Vasquez, the incredibly popular creator of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, will be doing some digital comics for DC, along with Becky Cloonan. SWEET.

Over the holidays we kept referring to that day in the late '90s when everyone got a modem* for Christmas, and the next day you could barely get AOL on dial-up because it was so busy as everyone tried out their new toy. That was what we predicted for Boxing Day as far as tablets go. And sure enough, ownership has doubled over the last month, to the tune of 1 in 3 Americans now owning some kind of tablet.

by Matt Demers

— [Yesterday's Apple announcement about a self-authoring tool to get books into the iBookstore sounded like a boon to comics creators and part of the whole DIY movement. However, as Matt Demers writes, it's not all as rosy as it looks.] —

In one of their much-hyped press events yesterday, Apple unveiled a new version of their iBooks with a specific focus on educational texts. When viewed on students' iPads, these once-boring textbooks would come alive with video, animations and graphics. There would also be the ability to annotate and create interactive glossaries, possibly bringing a bit of future flair to the medium.

Well now the circle is complete. Former DC online VP Ron Perazza has joined comiXology as Vice-President – General Manager of Publisher and Creator Services. At DC, Perazza was responsible for the ambitious Zuda imprint and behind many other forward-looking initiatives. Since leaving DC last year he's been a bit of a free agent, but presumably his non-compete is over, and comiXology is the perfect place for him and furthers their place as the driver of the digital comics era.

You wanted 99 cent comics? You got 'em. Digital comics, that is. In what's a first for the Transformer series, IDW is making one of it's premiere licensed comics available first as a digital-only 12-part series selling for 99¢ for an 8 page chapter. The chapters will be released every two weeks starting today.

Everyone is figuring out new ways to get their stuff out there. Halo-8 is a multimedia company that just funded the OCCUPY COMICS anthology via Kickstarter -- but it's being released a little differently. People who purchased the book via Kickstarter get a digital subscription until the printed version comes out. They're using a similar system for GODKILLER, a comic written by Halo-8 head Matt Pizzolo and illustrated by Anna Muckcracker Wieszczyk, previously known for LUCID (Archaia) and the OCCUPY COMICS promo image.