COMIXOLOGY ACQUISITION Q & A WITH TIM GIBSON OF MOTH CITY ON THE COSMIC TREADMILL AT FORCES OF GEEK

Moth City (Thrillbent) is one of our favorite and innovative digital comics, so when we heard of the pending merger between ComiXology and Amazon we had questions!

Who better to ask these to than Moth City’s own Tim Gibson?

We get into the nitty gritty of the pinch, swipes, scans, payments and tablet wars with our favorite Kiwi after the jump!

FOG!: Have you ever read a comic on the Kindle app? Kind of atrocious, right?

Tim Gibson: Hah, I’ve only read one comic on my Kindle, and that was Tumor by Joshua Fialkov and Noel Tuazon many years ago. It was a great comic but I haven’t been back to try another comic on that platform.

What’s your initial reaction? Glee, excitement? Disappointment?

Cautious optimism.
  
Do you think creator percentages for something like the ComiXology Submit program will stay the same? How does this affect creator owned projects?

Amazon has always been open about the royalty rates they offer authors, 35% if you sell your work for less than $1.99 or more than $10, and 70% if you sell between $2.99 and $9.99. I believe our royalty rates via ComiXology are locked behind a T&C wall, but they aren’t bad.

There would probably be more comics on Amazon right now taking advantage of that 70% rate if they didn’t also have a strange ‘Delivery Fee’ that cuts into the author’s proceeds for supplying high resolution art at larger file sizes.

I have no idea if ComiXology’s rates will change, but I would like to see our books integrated into Amazon’s store at either rate.

ComiXology seems to be forward thinking and has good customer service (these days). Do you picture a total absorption of the company?

I hope not, and I doubt it. Everything said to date implies that they will keep being the great company they are. Hopefully Amazon just gives them a new audience, and they give Amazon some comic selling tips!

Do you see the iPad comics Apps: iBooks vs. ComiXology going after each other’s throats? At least the competition is healthy, right?  I’d imagine Amazon stops developing it’s various comics properties and shifts all comic attention to the ComiXology app, yeah?

I’m not sure that any independent creators are using iBooks or Amazon in anywhere near the same capacity as they are using ComiXology. But yes, I would hope that Amazon would follow ComiXology’s lead when it comes to technology and systems for comics. I imagine they’ll continue publishing their own stuff through their imprint Jet City Comics.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

EARTH PRIME TIME: PEACEFUL TOMORROWS WITH SHANE W. SMITH

Shane W. Smith is an Australian independent comics creator with a successful sci-fi series The Lesser Evil under his belt. The sequel books Peaceful Tomorrows Vol. 1 & 2are now available on Amazon. Volume 2 was released just this week. Shane joins Earth Prime Time to tell us about the rich world he has created, with a galaxy at war and corrupt politicians pulling the strings.

DIGBOSTON: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us about The Lesser Evil and Peaceful Tomorrows. Care to tell new readers a bit about the world you’ve created?
SHANE W. SMITH: Thanks for having me here, Clay! Centuries of racial hate have kept a bitter conflict on the verge of engulfing the galaxy for as long as anyone can remember, even though the reasons for the hatred have long since ceased to matter.

Corrupt bureaucrats have been stoking the fires of fear and prejudice to strip their citizens of their rights.

That’s the macro story. The backdrop.

The story in my books, however, tends to focus a little more tightly on individual characters, attempting to navigate the moral pitfalls of a galaxy gripped by terror, and trying to carve out for themselves a place where they feel they belong.

[READ MORE at DIGBOSTON.COM]

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EARTH PRIME TIME: IMAGE, BOOM! AND AMAZON COMIC INDUSTRY NEWS

The comic market hashtag on twitter is really a discussion of the ever-changing landscape of opinions, cancellations, creator-owned titles tying to get off the ground, and musings on ComiXology and other digital formats. Two of the bigger independent companies, Image Comics and Boom! Studios have redesigned their digital presence and commerce leader Amazon steps in with a huge announcement this week, the launch of it’s own Jet City Comics imprint. Earth Prime Time re-introduces you to these websites and shows you what digital offerings they have to offer.

Scans and PDFs of comics have been in existence for years now, especially since digital files have been used to produce the books. Before the age of iPads/Kindles/smartphones, reading digital comic meant reading a poorly formatted .CBR/.CBZ archive file on your computer monitor. Likely, these files were scanned in by pirates or those wishing to give access to out of print books, and hosting the files on torrent sites. Our world has changed, and with it the comic market.

ComiXology offers a Guided View that animates panel to panel on your computer or your device, as well as the traditional full page layout. Amazon offers a similar experience to some of it’s graphic novel selections for reading on your computer or Kindle Fire, but the experience is not as great, but serviceable. After watching Man of Steel, I caught up with Mark Waid’s Superman: Birthright as the cheapest digital option on the Kindle app for iPhone and Mac. Not bad, but not great.

Though more expensive, ComiXology would have offered a better experience for my devices.

I do not have a color Kindle. Comics are also available on the Apple iBooks store, and are locked into the Mac ecosystem, but the store does provide an option for publishers. iBooks expands to the Mac from being tablet or phone exclusive with the next version of OS X, Mavericks.

Satellite Sam - Howard Chaykin Art | Image Comics

IMAGE COMICS / imagecomics.com
Last week at Image Expo 2013, the publisher revealed a new website and web store for both it’s current and expanding back issue catalog. Image recently tapped Ron Richards, formerly of the comic book podcast iFanboy, as the Director of Business Development. Richards gave a great interview to Comic Book Resources last week that goes into Image Comics’ view on piracy and the digital comic market.

The creator owned and creator driven publisher has opened up a direct to the consumer store, at full cover price on Wednesdays new releases available in a variety of formats, with no copy protection.

.PDF, ePUB, .CBZ, and .CBR are all available for the taking when the book comes out. Image Comics even provides you with the resources to read your books. There is no restriction on the files, so you own these comics just like you are comforted by your collection in a longbox. Save ‘em, back ‘em up, let a friend borrow. Yours to keep. By not restricting the files or buying into a particular digital file ecosystem, Image has once again become an industry pioneer.

[READ MORE at DIGBOSTON.COM]