SLG Publishing has announced that it will no longer publish individual comic book issues in the traditional paper pamphlet format. SLG’s President and Publisher Dan Vado explained: “The market has been pushing us away from serialized comics and more towards books and graphic novels for some time.  However it is difficult to publish a 200 page graphic novel from an unknown artist without having some sort of lower-cost entry point like a comic book series to help build an audience, so going digital first seems like a good way to introduce readers to new creators and build an audience which we can build on for potential book releases.”

 

SLG will endeavor to make digital versions of its new series available in lots of different venues including via app-based stores such as ComiXology and iVerse, the iTunes store, BN.Com (for Nook and Nook Color owners), and SLG’s own Website.  The first issue in each series will be available for a free download from iTunes and SLG’s site, with subsequent issues selling for 99 cents each. 

 

SLG has already begun digitally serializing two series that would have gone to print in previous years, Stephen Coughlin’s Sanctuary, a sort of combination of Lost and The Jungle Book, and Chris Wisnia’s Monstrosis, the sequel to his Doris Danger: Giant Monster Adventures, which was published as a floppy last year. 

 

Upcoming series that will receive the “digital first” treatment include Snow White: Through a Glass Darkly by Van Jensen and Robin Holestein, Knights of the Living Dead (an Arthurian zombie saga) by Dustin Higgins and Ron Wolfe, and Peabody and D’Gorath by M.D. Penman.

 

Vado understands that digital comic book sales remain “minuscule,” but he notes that the trend that has swept through conventional book publishing is heading for comic with lots of built-up momentum, “Digital has the virtue of being a great way to market and see if new creators and concepts can gain any traction and also has the potential to be a real growth area for the medium.”