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NEW YORK / BURBANK, Calif., June 23, 2010 – DC Comics, publisher of Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and Fables, is partnering with comiXology and PlayStation®Network for two separate digital comics distribution deals launching today, Wednesday, June 23. In addition, a DC Comics App for the iPhone®, iPad® and iPod® Touch is available allowing consumers an easy way to access DC Comics’ content. The announcement was made jointly today by DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution.
“At DC Comics, it has been a top priority that DC forges a meaningful, forward-looking digital strategy,” said Jim Lee, Co-Publisher, DC Comics. “As both a comic book creator and Co-Publisher, it was incredibly important that our plan includes not only creator incentive payments, but also an innovative component that supports comic shop owners. We see digital as an opportunity to grow our entire business.”
Both the comiXology and the PlayStation Network Digital Comics launch offerings will include classic titles from DC Comics, Vertigo and WildStorm, such as Batman: Hush, Green Lantern: Rebirth, Fables: Legends in Exiles and Planetary: All Over the World and Other Stories. Both programs will share a tiered pricing format, with digital comics priced from $.99 to $2.99 per issue. The Justice League: Generation Lost mini-series will be available through both platforms day and date with each issue’s print edition on-sale date, with both the digital and print editions priced at $2.99. Several comics will be available for free at launch, including the first installment of the ZUDA series Bayou and select stories from Batman: Black & White.
To further promote today’s announcement, DC Comics is offering a free 10-page preview of the 700th issue of Superman available through both platforms, day and date with the issue going on sale in comic book stores. The 10 page story is a prelude to writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Eddy Barrows’ highly anticipated “Grounded” storyline that will be published in Superman which will examine how Superman sees America, and how America sees Superman.
“Grounded is a major turning point in the history of Superman,” said Dan DiDio, Co-Publisher of DC Comics. “This storyline has the potential to generate national headlines and bring new readers the series.”
About the comiXology program: The comiXology program will launch with over 100 issues, from DC Comics, Vertigo and WildStorm, including the first issue of All Star Superman. Beginning with launch, one issue of Neil Gaiman’s critically acclaimed Sandman will be available digitally exclusively through comiXology each week and over 100 additional issues from the company’s diverse imprints will be made available through the comiXology program each month. The digital comics, priced from $.99 to $2.99 per issue, will be available through:
· DC Comics app for the iPhone®, iPad® and iPod® Touch;
· DC Comics-branded storefront, located in the Comics by comiXology app for the iPhone®, iPad® and iPod® Touch;
· DC Comics-branded storefront on the web at Comics.comiXology.com.
· www.dccomics.com, later this year.“Once readers download an issue, they will be able to read it on all DC Comics-branded Comics by comiXology-supported platforms,” said David Steinberger, CEO of comiXology. “DC’s taking a bold approach to platform convergence, and we’re thrilled to be their solution of choice.”
Staying true to comiXology’s support of comic retailers, DC’s partnership with comiXology also includes a first-of-its-kind Retailer Affiliate Program, which will collect a portion of digital revenues to be invested back to and on behalf of comic book retailers in a variety of initiatives.
“The ComicsPRO Board of Directors is looking forward to continuing our dialog with DC Comics to figure out how their digital strategy can lead to new customers for storefront retailers,” said Joe Field, owner/operator of Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff, an Eisner-Award winning comic book shop in Concord, California. “We’re pleased to be part of this important conversation about the future of the comics business.”
About PlayStation Network Digital Comics: The PlayStation® program will launch with over 80 issues from DC Comics, Vertigo and WildStorm, including the first 25 issues of Superman/Batman. Comic book titles based on videogame properties, including Free Realms, God of War and Resistance, will be made available digitally exclusively on PlayStation®Store for the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system. Over 50 additional issues will be made available each month, priced from $0.99 to $2.99 per issue, available through PlayStation Network.
“With the PlayStation Network digital comics available for all PSP models, the user is able to explore a huge range of more than 1600 comics and we look forward to working with DC Comics to continue to add even more titles,” said Susan Panico, senior director, PlayStation Network, Sony Computer Entertainment America. “PlayStation Network is the premiere entertainment destination and we are excited to provide users with exclusive content and continue to expand our growing library of comics.”
About the DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution partnership:
DC Comics is working with Warner Bros. Digital Distribution to leverage its global digital platform expertise and key partner relationships with companies such as Apple, Microsoft and other online distributors. Through these efforts WBDD will help DC Comics grow their digital publishing business.
“We’re very pleased to be working with the exceptionally talented team at DC Comics to help bring digital comics to consumers,” said Thomas Gewecke, President of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. “This innovative offering breaks new ground, and makes some truly great works available in digital form for the first time.”
“Today’s launch provides an additional opportunity to convert new readers and recapture lapsed readers while serving existing fans,” said John Rood, Executive Vice President, DC Entertainment. “We look forward to working with our partners in the industry—the creators, the retailers and the fans—as we experiment with our digital strategy, in a manner that remains additive to our traditional business models.”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Digital comics is clearly going to be the future, since it will allow for 3 great things to happen…
1) It will allow more creative people to get their work out there. Gone will be the days of having to wait in line at the San Diego Comicon, where you hope and pray an editor from one of the bigger companies (Marvel, DC, Dark Horse) will like your work and perhaps let you contact him/her afterward. In the digital age — and thanks to things like the Apple apps store — a creator will be able to do their thing at home and just throw it out there for all the world to see. So, a new age in Independent comics should emerge.
2) You can now cut out the middle man. Something like Diamond Distributors, which essentially controls “what” comics will reach the market and shelves, will be pushed aside in the age of digital download. Printers and the costs they incur…which was always the make-or-break point for independent comics…will likewise be made irrelevant. Now, anyone with talent to make a comic and willing to invest a few hundred bucks in Photoshop for coloring can artistically go toe-to-toe with the majors, and then the market can decide which books should survive.
3) The only thing that will still have to shake out is price. I laughed when I saw that DC will still be charging 2.99. Yes, the article says there will be a price range of .99 to 2.99 — but let’s be honest: that’s simply marketing press release code for “It will be .99 for the really old stuff we throw out there (old “reprint” material that companies love to re-pimp). But if you want something new and current, that will cost you the full 2.99″
To be fair to DC, other companies are experimenting with price as well. But speaking as a former comics professional at one of the major companies, given the old profit splitting equation between the publisher, the creators, the distributors, and the printers, the old argument for making a comic 2.99 was to cover ALL of those people.
But as I said above, with digital comics, if you’re cutting out the distributor and printer — which accounted for OVER half of the money — and yet you’re STILL going to charge the same 2.99 cover price, then companies like Marvel and DC (and whoever else) are obviously hoping to REALLY bring home the financial bacon now.
Seriously — charging the exact SAME price for a digital download comic as the printed and distributed version which incurred such higher costs? Shame on them for not cutting prices a bit, to give something back to the fans and, more importantly, to broaden the appeal of comics and to make them, in these hard times, more economically affordable to a wider audience.
$3? That’s hilarious. They’ll sell one copy before it is stripped and put on torrent for free download by the few people who still care about comic books.
To be honest, the pricing for new comics has to be in line with print. At least at the beginning.
Part of that is to coddle Diamond, which is demanding unique print-only content to protect it’s market. Part of it is to protect the thousands of comic stores coast to coast who would otherwise die if Wednesday sales start to drop.
In the end though, digital comics will become the preferred form. I liked reading them before I started collecting them.
And the thought of Diamond getting screwed in the end….Oh please, let it be true. Diamond has stifled creativity and killed the fan market altogether.
How is Diamond, a distributor, stifled creativity? Marvel, DC, Image and Dark Horse (and others) are the producers. They control their portions of the catalog, or do I have it wrong? Do they not simply broker what the offerings from the publishers to the retailers? Or do I have it backwards? Do they tell Marvel, DC, et al what to publish?
Hey, Comic writer, artist & editor – $2.99 is $1.00 cheaper than the average DC print title. Just FYI.
Actually DC and Marvel now have comics that retail for 3.99 so some price cutting (if the report is accurate) will occur.
I just wanted to say that I am a huge fan of comics on the iPad and have already bought a bunch of DC stuff, Geoff Johns’ first issue of ACTION COMICS being the most expensive at $1.99. Also, the free offering of JMS’s first story as soon as I woke up was a real treat and pushed me over the edge into stopping by the shop to pick up SUPERMAN #700. Money and other things have all but ended my trips to the LCS, but boy am I glad I got this issue. The Jurgens story was fantastic! I am very excited, not only about the joy of reading all these great stories on my iPad, but about the massive explosion in distribution and growth that is hitting this great industry!
Get ALL the Marvel Masterworks volumes into the itunes bookstore and I’ll get an ipad the same day. If they can deliver new titles the same way I may even become a regular reader again and not just cherry pick one offs from fave creators.
Ah, Comic writer, artist & editor. Pie in the sky much? Here’s the fact: talent needs validation by a big-name publisher to be successful. Period. Nobody will pay attention to your work if it’s not Marvel/DC/Dark Horse/Image/IDW/Oni/Fantagraphics, etc. A big kahuna in your corner matters. Your comic sure as hell won’t get made into a movie if you’re not under a big publishing umbrella (“Surrogates” notwithstanding, but there’s an exception to every rule).
Digital will NOT usher in some kind of indie golden age where creators can “get their stuff out there.” It’d be out there, but it would sink like a rock. They said the same thing about music, until they realized that record companies a) made people famous, b) paid people money, and c) sorted trough the crap so you wouldn’t have to. Now it’s all crap in the music business. And nobody gets paid.
Agree about the price structure, though. Charging full price for product without the overhead of physical production/distribution is a rip-off.
@Elgon Thayer: Diamond has stifled creativity by turning down indie titles for distribution, making it necessary to go begging to the big publishers to get noticed. If Diamond ran the market 25 years ago like it does now, we may not have seen the likes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (which was a B&W low-budget indie comic originally) get out there. Nor seen the rise of now-legends like Steve Rude or Matt Wagner who first came from the B&W indie scene.