Part Time Fanboys and digital comics

Artist Alley Comics was sort of mentioned in the most recent episode of the Part Time Fanboy podcast. The idea behind the series is that hosts Kristian and Paul are more or less lapsed comics fans. They still enjoy the medium, but aren't part of the regular crowd that heads to the comic shop every Wednesday for new comics. The topic for Episode 20 was what comic shops could do to get readers like them back into the store every week.

Digital comics came up as part of that conversation, because they're more convenient than traveling to a physical location every week, but neither host much likes the idea of paying print prices for a comiXology comic that you don't even really get to keep. I use comiXology quite a bit and understand the advantages of that model, but PTF's Kristian points out the disadvantages pretty clearly. Though he doesn't mention Artist Alley Comics by name in the podcast, he refers to it (and links to it in the show's notes) as what he's looking for in digital comics: affordable (99 cents!) installments that you can keep forever and ever.

It sounds like they may talk more about AAC on the next show, so stay tuned for that.

What do e-book fans do at signings?

Urban fantasy author Dianna Love brings up an interesting problem concerning readers of digital books. What do they do at author signings?

In a press release for her new Keeper Kase product, Love mentions that e-book fans can feel alienated at appearances because they have nothing for her to sign. Sometimes they'll offer her a piece of paper or let her sign their e-readers, but she imagines that many want a better solution.

Her answer is Keeper Kase, a line of 4x6, signable book covers that fit easily into a photo album, but I'm really not posting this as an advertisement. I mean, if you're a fan of Dianna Love and prefer digital books to print, then obviously this is good information for you, but the reason I'm bringing it up is because I'd never thought about it before. As a reader, I haven't converted to digital books yet, but I imagine that I will before too long and Love made me stop to wonder how I'll handle book signings.

My first guess is that if I like an author enough to attend a signing, I'll want to buy a physical copy of her book and have her sign it. Even if I've already got a digital copy, I'll want the memento of the meeting and won't mind finding some shelf space for it in my overcrowded library. Others will feel differently and Love's solution may be exactly what they're looking for. As a fan of great cover art, I can see the appeal in having an album full of attractive, signed covers of my favorite books.

That's why I'm posting this. If you're a fan of digital comics or books, how do you (or do you imagine you will) handle signings?

Kill All Monsters! and digital formats

Four Colors and the Truth wrote a nice Digital Comics 101 article called "The World of Digital Comics" that breaks down the various ways that digital comics creators make money. Kill All Monsters! is mentioned in the first group, the “Why Buy The Cow, When You Can Get The Milk For Free” model. That's been the standard model for most webcomics for a while now with the idea being that you give away the comic and then charge for the print collection and merchandise. It's a good model, but as FCatT points out, it's not the only one.

In fact, since we've joined Artist Alley Comics, KAM is really no longer under that model. Like drug dealers, we've offered the first issue for free on AAC, but subsequent issues will be a buck each, putting us into FCatT's second category, the “I Am Buying Milk. You Can Keep The Cow” model. With more and more people reading comics on mobile devices as well as computers, there's less resistance to paying a small charge per issue. Not that's there no resistance, but that's one of the risks.

FCatT does an excellent job of laying out the pros and cons of each model - including the third, “You Can’t Actually Buy This Cow, But Its Milk Is Gamma-Irradiated And Will Give You Superpowers” model - and it's an article worth reading.

KAM was also mentioned is in a brief post about AAC on Bleeding Cool. The really interesting part of the post to me is the discussion in the comments about AAC's model of offering DRM-free PDFs instead of going through comiXology. Though it's not a polite discussion, two of Bleeding Cool's commenters do an accurate job of outlining the advantages and disadvantages of buying direct from the creators and buying through comiXology. I understand both points of view, so I'll simply say that while I'd love for lots and lots of people to buy our DRM-free PDFs, I don't want people to purchase things in a format that's not for them. If this isn't your thing, Jason and I are already working out details to get together the first volume of a print collection.

My point in bringing all this up is that people are still working very hard to figure this out. Maybe the solution is to offer comics in ALL formats: free webcomics, DRM-free PDFs, comiXology, and fancy enhanced versions that move. There are probably disadvantages to that idea as well. It's a fascinating time to be a comics reader and/or a creator and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all shakes out.

In the meantime, if you'd like a free PDF of the first issue of Kill All Monsters!, you can download it at Artist Alley Comics.

Here I am at the Monkeybrain Comics panel in San Diego

This is a recording of the Monkeybrain Comics panel from San Diego. It's a great presentation and worth watching, but you can also see me on the front row taking notes for the CBR article I wrote on it. Very cool of Laid Back Comics to record it and of my pal and fellow Robot 6 contributor Tim O'Shea to point it out.

If you watch it, you'll know why I'm about to say:

Monkeybrain
Monkeybrain
Monkeybrain

Kill All Monsters returns: Artist Alley Comics

It's finally happening, you guys. Kill All Monsters is coming back and it'll start June 22 at Heroes Con. We'll unveil more details later, but the gist of it is that Jason and I were invited to join a creator-driven digital comics initiative called Artist Alley Comics. It was created by some folks you may have heard of: Rich Woodall (Johnny Raygun), Craig Rousseau (The Perhapanauts, Impulse, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane), and Kelly Yates (Doctor Who, Amber Atoms).

Rich and Craig's Artist Alley comic will be the previously teased Kyrra: Alien Jungle Girl; Kelly's is an awesome looking deal called MonstHer. Other creators participating in the launch are Richard Case (Hunter: The Age of Magic), Chris Kemple (Negative Burn), and Randy Green (Tomb Raider, New X-Men). Richard's comic will be called Annie Ammo, Chris' is Red Vengeance, and Randy's is Dollz. Kill All Monsters! is the sixth title in the initial launch and I'm extremely proud and pleased to be associated with this group. I'd give you brief descriptions of each series, but there's a preview PDF that gives a great peek at them, including six, never-before-seen pages from Kill All Monsters!

Next steps for the group are to launch a color preview at Heroes and I imagine we'll be releasing details about the full, digital launch at that time. In the meantime, here's one of KAM's six preview pages (there are actual monsters in the other five), so please check out the PDF and see everything that Arist Alley has to offer.