The British publisher 2000AD has upped their game by adding Judge Dredd Megazine to their iOS Newsstand app, along with a major revamp that makes their comics easier to find and sort.When I first took a look at the app, last November, I found it to be “pretty basic”—really, just a grid of comics that you can buy, arranged in numerical order, and a subscription page. The new … [Read more...] about Judge Dredd Megazine Comes to the iPad
Digital Comic News
Ted Adams on Marketing Digital Comics to New Readers
The hobby and comic retailer site ICv2 has posted a three-part interview with Ted Adams, the CEO of IDW Publishing, in which he talks about his company’s digital strategy. IDW was a pioneer in digital comics—they started publishing Star Trek comics to the iPhone back in 2008, before there was a comiXology app, an iPad, or even in-app buying. The success of that first comic took … [Read more...] about Ted Adams on Marketing Digital Comics to New Readers
Digital Comic Review: Female Force: Tina Fey
Bluewater Comics is famous for doing biographies of famous people. They make other comics as well, but the bio-comics get a lot of press, often showing up on websites far removed from the comics blogs. This has, over the years, become kind of a schtick. Bluewater makes a comic about a wrestler, say, and the wrestling websites run the press release with a bit of breathless … [Read more...] about Digital Comic Review: Female Force: Tina Fey
New ComiXology iOS Update Makes Landscape Reading Viable
ComiXology is one of the leading digital comic companies in the world. They have licensed properties for most of the big companies, such as DC, Marvel, GI.Joe, Archie, and many more. Today, the company has revised their seminal iOS app to make landscape e-reading extremely viable.There are two major features that have been introduced today: Fit to Width and Show Two Pages. … [Read more...] about New ComiXology iOS Update Makes Landscape Reading Viable
Digital Comics: 40 Million Served (This Year)
John Jackson Miller, who does superb analysis of hard-copy comics sales in comics stores, makes a good run at figuring out the size of the digital comics market in a post at his blog, Comichron.Of course, there are a lot of assumptions. While sales of print comics are well documented (by Diamond, the distributor to comics shops, and BookScan, which reports on bookstore … [Read more...] about Digital Comics: 40 Million Served (This Year)
Auryn Releases Children’s eBook Apps for Summer Reading
Parents and teachers fret over the summer months about the potential for the “summer slide,” a documented drop in reading comprehension and word recognition scores in students who spend their summer vacations without the daily reading time they are accustomed to in school. At the same time, summer break is supposed to be a vacation from the drudgery of assigned readings and … [Read more...] about Auryn Releases Children’s eBook Apps for Summer Reading
Marvel Launches Original Graphic Novel Line with Avengers: Endless Wartime
Marvel makes comics. Single-issue comics that you buy every month at the comics shop, or, if you’re a digital type, on comiXology. Sometimes they gather those comics into trades, but until now, Marvel has mostly shied away from the original graphic novel format. The standard model in comics is to have a monthly comic that both brings in the dollars and keeps readers engaged … [Read more...] about Marvel Launches Original Graphic Novel Line with Avengers: Endless Wartime
Scrollon iPad App Lets You Travel Through Your Comics
Just as the movies once looked like stage plays projected on a screen, digital comics often look like print comics transported to a somewhat smaller screen. Although writers like Scott McCloud and Mark Waid have called for creators to push the medium beyond the constraints of print comics, there hasn’t been too much motion in that direction.Now a new iPad app, … [Read more...] about Scrollon iPad App Lets You Travel Through Your Comics
DC Unveils Two New Digital Comics Lines
The vast majority of digital comics still either start out as print comics or are destined to become print comics at some point in their lifetimes, but that’s likely to change as the medium matures. DC Comics pushed that maturation a step further this week with the announcement of two new digital comics lines that both use digital-friendly techniques.In fact, it’s hard to … [Read more...] about DC Unveils Two New Digital Comics Lines
Apple Deems 55 Digital Comics Too Hot for In-App Buying
Remember a couple of weeks ago, when there was a fuss about Saga #11 not being available in comiXology's iOS apps because of some sexy content? And then it turned out that comiXology, not Apple, had rejected the comics, because they felt that they didn't comply with Apple's content guidelines so Apple would have rejected them anyway?Turns out they may have been on to … [Read more...] about Apple Deems 55 Digital Comics Too Hot for In-App Buying
Digital Comics: Hunter Gorinson on Valiant’s Digital Strategy
Valiant Entertainment is the newest incarnation of a legendary comics publisher that was founded in 1989 by former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, drew in fans with strong, character-driven stories, and then fell on hard times and ceased publication in the early 2000s. The current owners bought the company in 2005 and began launching comics based on updated versions of the … [Read more...] about Digital Comics: Hunter Gorinson on Valiant’s Digital Strategy
Morning Manga Magazine Goes Same-Day Digital—but Only in Japan
Kodansha's Morning magazine is one of the most interesting manga magazines in the Japanese marketplace. It's pitched at young adults, and the stories tend to be somewhat more sophisticated than the genre magazines aimed at young teens and pre-teens (Shonen Jump, Ribon, etc.) Many of the Morning series that have been licensed in English have been critically acclaimed, if not top … [Read more...] about Morning Manga Magazine Goes Same-Day Digital—but Only in Japan
Digital Deals: Kevin Keller and Archie Comics
Three years ago, the Archie Comics folks startled the world by introducing the first openly gay character in Riverdale, Kevin Keller. Kevin made his debut in Veronica #202 and soon got his own mini-series.This week, Kevin's creator, Dan Parent, accepted the Outstanding Comic Book award at the GLAAD Media Awards, saying, "Many people thought it would be a challenge to … [Read more...] about Digital Deals: Kevin Keller and Archie Comics