It’s been a big week already in the digital comics space, with news from Diamond, Alan Moore, Graphicly, and Madefire.Diamond and Trajectory
Diamond Comic Distributors has signed a multi-year agreement with Massachusetts-based Trajectory, Inc. for distribution of digital comics in ebook format. Trajectory will produce digital comics in its Beijing facility and distribute them through eBook retailers (including Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Chapters Indigo, Google Play, and others), library and school distributors on six continents.
Diamond VP Purchasing John Wurzer described the rationale. “We are committed to providing the highest level of service to our comic publishing partners and digital distribution is a natural extension of their existing business models,” he said. “Trajectory is an ideal partner considering its vastly efficient production capabilities and its global eBook distribution network. It’s a simple one stop shopping solution for our publishing partners.”
Alan Moore is developing Electricomics, a new publicly funded app that will serve as a comic and as an easy-to-use open source tool kit. The comic will be published by Moore and Mitch Jenkins as Orphans of the Storm, and funded by the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts, a partnership between Arts Council England, Arts and Humanities Research Council, and Nesta.
The app will be developed by Ocasta Studios, and the research team will be led by academics Dr. Alison Gazzard and Daniel Merlin Goodbrey.
The 32 pages of comics in Electricomics will be:
- Big Nemo, in which Moore revisits the Winsor McCay strip.
- Cabaret Amygdala, modernist horror written by Peter Hogan (terra Obscura)
- Red Horse, a WWI story by Garth Ennis and Peter Snejbjerg
- Sway, science fiction by Leah Moore and John Reppion
Indie book and magazine publishing platform Blurb has hired "key members" of the former Graphicly team, including founder Micah Baldwin, to "significantly accelerate the company’s development of ebook and graphic publishing." Graphicly had exited its digital comics business in favor of authoring and distribution services (see "Graphicly Ankles Apps").
Madefire has added publishers Seraphim, Archie, Lion Forge, and Aracana to its digital comics platform, joining DC, IDW, Dark Horse, and original IP (see "Digital Comics Round-Up").
Sharp-eyed readers may note that this article does not carry the disclaimer we’ve included in digital comics stories over the past few years, disclosing our business and advisory relationship with comiXology. That’s because with the acquisition of comiXology by Amazon (see "Amazon Acquiring comiXology"), those relationships have ended, and the disclosure no longer needs to appear.
