Tag: Digital

In a follow-up to his hit post on the economics of print comics, Jim Zub is back with a look at digital comics metrics, including the percentages taken by each step in the pipeline...

At the start of the year, comiXology had recorded 50 million downloads. And in 9 months they're barreling towards 100 million. That would be more than 5.5 million downloads a month. How does that...

Classics Illustrated, the comics Cliff Notes series that has been around in various iterations for over 60 years, making the line a classic in and of itself—they've just gone digital with ebook publisher Trajectory. Over 120 titles will be launched from both iTunes and the iBook store, selling for $4.99 each. These look to be the '50s original Classics Illustrated, celebrated in rhyme and song.

Mark Waid's been threatening to go digital for quite some time. He's also had a history of exploring options outside of DC and Marvel. Waid spent some time at Crossgen, launched his creator-owned Empire with Barry Kitson over at Image under the tragically short-lived Gorilla imprint, did Hunter/Killer with Marc Silvestri for Top Cow and spent some time as E-I-C at BOOM!, where he launch a few books with Irredeemable as his flagship title. Now he's finally combining those longstanding threats and his independent work with "Thrillbent."

INK is a digital comics magazine put out by the kids at the School of Visual Arts—New York's all-purpose art school that's a hotbed of cartooning talent. We told you about the fall issue when it came out, and the new spring edition is now here, with comics and features. Although you can read the entire contents in PDF form, it's been optimized for the new retina display iPad. It's also a free download for all iOS devices.

At his panel tonight at C2E2, Mark Waid revealed the details of his ambitious new Thrillbent digital comics portal. It's a new entrant in the original digital comics race, but one with some heavy hitting talent behind it—in addition to Waid, John Rogers is a founder, and artist Peter Krause, who previously teamed with Waid for IRREDEEMABLE, will be collaborating on a new strip with him.

And so the orphan comics begin...one of the three most prominent comics reading apps is getting out of the app business, as Graphicly has just announced they're focusing on transitioning all kinds of material— not just comics—into ebook format for tablets. You can read the whole announcement below, but basically all of the books your purchased through Graphicly apps will still be readable—you just won't be able to download the apps any more. That leaves comiXology and iVerse in the comics app business...for now. Ebooks are a huge and growing market and lots of print publishers are trying to get their products into the new platforms. Graphicly has been moving more and more into offering self-authoring tools, so it all seems like a natural progression. And where does this leave such comics-centric acquisitions as iFanboy? Developing...

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.

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.

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.