We lead off our round-up of recent events in the digital comics space with news of Mark Waid’s provocative post, “Truly Digital Comics” at In Media Res.  It leads off with, “After a 25-year career in the print comics industry, my passion for the ink and paper of my youth is waning.”  He no longer sees the economics of designing for print-first as viable, and is developing Webcomics for launch this summer. 

Waid goes into some detail about the process of experimenting with new Webcomics formats, and the process describes his limits on what a comic is in the digital space, something that people are going to be talking about more in the coming months and years.  “The only place I stop short,” Waid says, “is at the addition of voice, music, or anything else that takes the full and total control of time away from the reader; that’s the one essential element of comics (the consumer’s ability to decide the rate at which s/he wants to absorb the story_ that I feel is inviolate.”  This is obviously not where all draw the line in the definition of where a comic ends and something else begins, but it’s where Waid has chosen to set the boundaries of his work. 

Sony announced that it’s shutting down its PSP digital comics service at the end of September, according to Andriasang.  The hacking of the PSP network was a near-fatal blow, and the service had been largely moribund since early last year (see “Digital Comic Sales Double in First Half of 2011”).  Those who owned comics will be able to continue to read their content, but content will no longer be available from Sony.  The company is exploring offering comics through other Sony platforms. 

The trend is more comics in more places, and the last few weeks have had a number of announcements illustrating that trend. 

Aspen is beginning to offer its collected editions on the Nook via Graphicly.

The fifteen The Walking Dead collections are now on sale on Apple’s iBooks stores, the first Image comics to be offered in that venue.  Image Comics plans to add more titles to iBooks in the coming weeks, beginning with Chew.   

Archie has begun offering its digital comics on its Facebook page via Graphicly.  Archie has over 100,000 fans for its Facebook page, so this could be a significant sales venue for the company.

NTT Solmare, which began distributing digital manga in the U.S. in 2010 (see “NTT Solmare Begins U.S. Manga Distribution”) has launched ComicFriends, a Facebook app that combines social features with a digital manga store.  The store offers 60 titles in English at launch, which can be purchased using Facebook Credits.  Social features include reader comments by page, features to share those comments with friends, and the ability to view friends’ bookshelves.  There’s also a program through which users can earn “Comic Power,” a virtual currency that enables free comic reading, by visiting daily, introducing the app to friends, and making comments.