Fantagraphics Announces First Digital-Only Release: Violenzia, From The Cartoonist Richard Sala



Fantagraphics has announced its first digital-only comics project earlier today, via Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds. It will be a project by the veteran cartoonist Richard Sala called Violenzia. It will come out on November 20.

I asked Reynolds for background on the project, and what it might mean for Fantagraphics' future plans. He responded at some length, despite a busy week at the publisher.

"Violenzia happened somewhat organically but it made sense to at least Richard and I, right from the get go. He has been interested in our digital comics plans since before we started actively releasing books digitally in 2012. He was one of the first cartoonists to approach me about releasing some of his backlist digitally, so it's been on his mind for awhile." He added, "I believe he proposed Violenzia to me originally as a 24 or 32-page digital one shot --- it eventually became 50 pages --- and it was just a perfect opportunity for both of us to experiment with a digital-only release."

Reynolds indicated that to not do print in this case was to focus on the digital side of things, to see the unique challenges that might present themselves without print informing those decisions in any way. "I don't pretend to think it's a better model, just a different model," he told CR. "The biggest difference, which presents challenges as well as opportunities, is in the marketing, and in making sure both the intended and potential audiences know it exists."

He also said that this was likely not a precursor for a digital-only comics line from the publisher, as much as he looked forward to seeing how this project went.
 
posted 11:30 pm PST | Permalink
 

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