Assembled, Zipped, Transferred And Downloaded: News From Digital



By Tom Spurgeon

* it looks like First Second is going to do that serialization on-line strategy thing with the next Astronaut Academy book. I'm not sure which books they've done that with other than the Faith Erin Hicks efforts, to be honest with you.

* I wanted to mention somewhere what a great thing something like comiXology can be if you're a journalist looking for some sample comics for an interview that you've either scheduled in a way that you can't get paper copies or have to do immediately or simply forgot. I knew that there was a role for digital edition of print comics more generally when I felt myself wanting to read comics and having no way to get them -- like issues where something plot-driven happens in a way that brings with it a wider news story -- and this is just a localized-to-me version of that. Anyway, the Mark Waid interview from a week or so ago couldn't have happened without digital comics availability, or at least wouldn't have happened the same way, so I'm grateful.

* Tall Tale Radio is headed for a new on-line home with GoComics.com.

* this looked like potentially pretty big news when it happened over the holidays, although how big and in what direction the story develops still seems up in the air. Tokyopop is coming out of dormancy with a relaunch of their web site that looks like they'll be using that to work a POD angle.

* Brigid Alverson has a couple of other pieces of manga-related on-line news here.

* here's another one that strikes me as a potentially big deal, depending on execution: Universal Uclick has put together a program for short collections. The first thing that pops into my head is how much the curatorial element of all of this content plays a role in keeping it financially viable, so I'm interested in how this does. In other words, as a young comic strip fan I was more willing to try a book collection of a strip because a book collection of a strip was being presented to me more than I was a comic strip fan that was looking to enter into a book-type relationship with that material. I'm not sure if that will make sense to anyone but me.

* finally, Dylan Horrocks is your Creative Commons profilee of the whatever time period these happen. I'm all for cartoonists adopting whatever strategy they believe best suits their interests and fulfills their desire, and am willing to meet those artists on the terms they define. That's the greatest thing about comics being available in all of the new format -- not the superiority of the format, asserted or otherwise, but how they may be specifically suited to individual cartoonists.


 
posted 4:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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