Tag Archives: comics plus

Beanstack and Comics Plus are now The Joyful Reading Company

The Joyful Reading Company

Beanstsack and Comics Plus have announced they have merged together to form The Joyful Reading Company. It’s described as a “connected ecosystem that inspires reading, expands access, and demonstrates impact, all in one place.”

Comics Plus is a digital comics platform focused on schools and libraries serving over 3,500 of them.

Beanstsack uses competition and gamification to help grow reading communities and reading cultures. Think of it as an engine to drive and track school reading challenges.

Together as The Joyful Reading Company the two tech companies are bringing together a reading encouragement platform with a digital reader with a deep catalogue of choices.

Right now, according to the announcement, is a focus on “strengthening the connection between access and engagement.”

The Joyful Reading Company is dedicated to nurturing the love of reading through engagement, motivation, and pure fun. Beanstack keeps readers coming back with gamification, reading challenges, and community, while Comics Plus delivers engaging stories they can’t get enough of.

Together, we’re building something bigger than a platform. We’re building a movement around joyful reading — for schools, for libraries, and for communities everywhere.

We like to think of success as a kid staying up ten minutes past bedtime to finish a graphic novel. Success is a library buzzing with excitement over a community reading goal. That’s the joy we’re here to build.

Those are the kind of happy endings all of us at The Joyful Reading Company can get behind.

BOOM! Studios’ Digital Editions pulled from Comics Plus and Libraries

BOOM! Studios logo

2025 seems to be the year of bad choices, bad ideas, and drama in the comic industry. The latest being that BOOM! Studios‘ digital editions are being pulled from libraries.

BOOM! was acquired by Penguin Random House last year and with it has moved to them for comic distribution and now due to Penguin Random House’s lack of support of “unlimited engagement models,” Comics Plus will be deactivating digital editions of BOOM!’s titles on May 30, 2025.

Wait, what’s going on? Thankfully Comics Plus has put out an explanation of how it all works (sort of). You can read about that here and here.

Libraries are very limited in their budget and that is a factor in what books they carry along with reader demand and other considerations. This can create an issue where a limited number of books are carried due to cost and popularity, boxing out other titles. Comics Plus has a pricing model where more titles can be offered allowing for long term growth in interest but that needs cooperation, understanding, and interest from publishers.

Read Comics Plus’ announcement below.

(via The Beat)

LibraryPass and Oni Press Announce Digital Access for Libraries and Schools Through Comics Plus

Oni Press and Lion Forge on Comics Plus

LibraryPass, Inc. has announced a distribution agreement with Oni Press to make its digital catalog available to libraries and schools  through Comics Plus, consolidating the existing backlist titles from Lion Forge Comics under one banner. With Comics Plus, readers can access thousands of digital comics,  graphic novels, and manga through their school or library, with unlimited simultaneous  access for online and offline reading.  

Founded in 1997, Oni Press has a 25-year history as one of the industry’s most respected  and acclaimed publishers of award-winning comic books and graphic novels with titles  including Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim, K. O’Neill’s Tea Dragon Society, Cullen Bunn  & Brian Hurtt’s The Sixth Gun, Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer, Ezra Claytan Daniels’  Upgrade Soul, Brenna Thummler’s Sheets trilogy, and many hundreds more. In 2019, Oni  Press merged with Lion Forge Comics – the Eisner Award-winning independent comic  book publisher founded by Academy Award-winning producer and entrepreneur David  Steward II – to create one of the largest, independent libraries of comics content anywhere  in media. The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group now exists as a publishing subsidiary of  Steward’s diversified global media company, Polarity. 

The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group publishes more than 60 original and licensed graphic  novels annually, in addition to an extensive list of periodical comics. Many notable titles  from Oni Press are already available on Comics Plus, like Action Journalism, Gender  Queer, No Ivy League, Puerto Rico Strong, Sheets, and Upgrade Soul, with more to be  added in the months ahead, including the complete Scott Pilgrim.

LibraryPass and Image partner for Digital Comic Access for Libraries through Comics Plus

Image and LibraryPass

LibraryPass, Inc. has announced a distribution agreement with Image Comics to make a range of titles from their digital catalog available to libraries and schools through Comics Plus. With Comics Plus, readers can access thousands of digital comics, graphic novels, and manga through their school or library—with unlimited simultaneous access for online and offline reading.

Founded in 1992 by a collective of bestselling artists, Image has since become the third largest comics publisher in the United States, publishing comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor, and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. It boasts multiple award nominations and wins across the Eisner Awards, Hugo Awards, Young Adult Library Association’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens, and many more.

Notable series from Image Comics now available on Comics Plus include Invincible, Kick- Ass, Monstress, Saga, and The Walking Dead, with more to be added in the months ahead.

LibraryPass and Yen Press Announce Digital Access for Libraries and Schools Through Comics Plus

Yen Press, Comics Plus

LibraryPass, Inc. has announced a distribution agreement with Yen Press to make a selection of their digital catalog available to libraries and schools through Comics Plus. With Comics Plus, readers can access thousands of digital comics, graphic novels, and manga through their school or library—with unlimited simultaneous access for online and offline reading.

Yen Press will be adding more than 100 titles to Comics Plus, featuring dozens of original titles and popular licenses of interest to readers young and old.

Founded in 2006, Yen Press has quickly risen to become one of the largest and most prolific publishers of manga and original graphic novels in North America, including popular series like Kingdom Hearts, Maximum Ride, and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: The Graphic Novel. JY was founded as a middle-grade imprint in the fall of 2017 and includes the acclaimed Awkward and Brave graphic novels by Svetlana Chmakova, as well as brand new JY releases, such as Kyle’s Little Sister by BonHyung Jeong.

Marketing Monday: Top Comic Apps

It’s Marketing Monday here at Graphic Policy and we’re still tracking various comic apps, how they rank up against each other, and the general app population.

For this report, I felt it best to focus on Wednesday of the previous week, since that should be the busiest day of the week for apps since its new comic day. This report also focuses on the ranks in the United States. I’ll eventually look at the entire week down the road and expand the location. I also wanted to look at the gross income for the apps, so apps included are those where you’d purchase books. So apps like comiXology’s offerings would be included, but Marvel’s AR app isn’t.

This is the fourth week since comiXology removed the ability to make purchases directly through the iOS device as well as use Google’s function.

While comiXology has dropped in in its downloads, and Marvel and DC increased in their rankings in the iOS book category, their overall rank in applications haven’t increased to anywhere near where comiXology was. ComiXology’s possible loss hasn’t translated to massive gains by others.

Over time, it’ll be interesting to see if comiXology moves up in rank for Amazon as the company comes in more under their fold.

iOS

ios 5.28.14

Google

google 5.28.14

Amazon

amazon 5.28.14

For these next two stats, I looked at their download ranks for the iPhone and iPad based on their book rank.

iOS iPhone

iphone 5.28.14

iOS iPad

ipad 5.28.14

And that wraps up this week’s breakdown. I’m still thinking through a good name for this feature, so if you have suggestions, let me know!

Marketing Monday: Top Comic Apps

It’s Marketing Monday here at Graphic Policy and we’re still tracking various comic apps, how they rank up against each other, and the general app population.

For this report, I felt it best to focus on Wednesday of the previous week, since that should be the busiest day of the week for apps since its new comic day. This report also focuses on the ranks in the United States. I’ll eventually look at the entire week down the road and expand the location. I also wanted to look at the gross income for the apps, so apps included are those where you’d purchase books. So apps like comiXology’s offerings would be included, but Marvel’s AR app isn’t.

This is the third week since comiXology removed the ability to make purchases directly through the iOS device as well as use Google’s function. We see the app slipping in the iPhone “books category,” but still remains the top app in comics for Google, though Marvel moves up to first as well in gross.

While comiXology has dropped in in its downloads, and Marvel and DC increased in their rankings in the iOS book category, their overall rank in applications haven’t increased to anywhere near where comiXology was. ComiXology’s possible loss hasn’t translated to massive gains by others.

Also of note, DC Comics moved past Marvel to first place in iPad gross for the week. This is the second time this has happened, and both have coincided with big releases for DC. This past week, it was Forever Evil #7.

Over time, it’ll be interesting to see if comiXology moves up in rank for Amazon as the company comes in more under their fold.

iOS

ios 5.21.14

Google

google 5.21.14

Amazon

amazon 5.21.14

For these next two stats, I looked at their download ranks for the iPhone and iPad based on their book rank.

iOS iPhone

iphone 5.21.14

iOS iPad

ipad 5.21.14

And that wraps up this week’s breakdown. I’m still thinking through a good name for this feature, so if you have suggestions, let me know!

Marketing Monday: Top Comic Apps

It’s Marketing Monday here at Graphic Policy and we’re still tracking various comic apps, how they rank up against each other, and the general app population.

For this report, I felt it best to focus on Wednesday of the previous week, since that should be the busiest day of the week for apps since its new comic day. This report also focuses on the ranks in the United States. I’ll eventually look at the entire week down the road and expand the location. I also wanted to look at the gross income for the apps, so apps included are those where you’d purchase books. So apps like comiXology’s offerings would be included, but Marvel’s AR app isn’t.

This is the second week since comiXology removed the ability to make purchases directly through the iOS device as well as use Google’s function. We see the app slipping in the iPhone “books category,” but still remains the top app in comics for Google, though Marvel moves up to first as well in gross.

Since last week, comiXology has slipped a bit in its books ranking, but has generally leveled off, same with Marvel and their ranking as well.

Over time, it’ll be interesting to see if comiXology moves up in rank for Amazon as the company comes in more under their fold.

iOS

iOS 5.14.14

Google

google 5.14.14

Amazon

amazon 5.14.14

For these next two stats, I looked at their download ranks for the iPhone and iPad based on their book rank.

iOS iPhone

iphone 5.14.14

iOS iPad

ipad 5.14.14

And that wraps up this week’s breakdown. I’m still thinking through a good name for this feature, so if you have suggestions, let me know!

Marketing Monday: Top Comic Apps

It’s Marketing Monday here at Graphic Policy and we’re still tracking various comic apps, how they rank up against each other, and the general app population.

For this report, I felt it best to focus on Wednesday of the previous week, since that should be the busiest day of the week for apps since its new comic day. This report also focuses on the ranks in the United States. I’ll eventually look at the entire week down the road and expand the location. I also wanted to look at the gross income for the apps, so apps included are those where you’d purchase books. So apps like comiXology’s offerings would be included, but Marvel’s AR app isn’t.

This is the second week since comiXology removed the ability to make purchases directly through the iOS device as well as use Google’s function. We see the app slipping in the iPhone “books category,” but still remains the top app in comics for Google, though Marvel moves up to first as well in gross.

This is also the second week we look at the app’s activity and comiXology has slipped a little since the previous week, now ranking between 10th and 20th for that ranking. Marvel has moved up in the same rank, moving in the opposite direction from 20th to the lower teens.

Over time, it’ll be interesting to see if comiXology moves up in rank for Amazon as the company comes in more under their fold.

iOS

ios 5.11.14

Google

google 5.11.14

Amazon

amazon 5.11.14

For these next two stats, I looked at their download ranks for the iPhone and iPad based on their book rank.

iOS iPhone

ios iphone 5.11.14

iOS iPad

ios ipad 5.11.14

And that wraps up this week’s breakdown. I’m still thinking through a good name for this feature, so if you have suggestions, let me know!

Marketing Monday: Top Comic Apps

It’s Marketing Monday here at Graphic Policy and we’re still tracking various comic apps, how they rank up against each other, and the general app population.

For this report, I felt it best to focus on Wednesday of the previous week, since that should be the busiest day of the week for apps since its new comic day. This report also focuses on the ranks in the United States. I’ll eventually look at the entire week down the road and expand the location. I also wanted to look at the gross income for the apps, so apps included are those where you’d purchase books. So apps like comiXology’s offerings would be included, but Marvel’s AR app isn’t.

This is the first report since comiXology pulled the ability to purchase comics directly on the iOS app, and removed the ability to pay through Google Play. That app is still included in our iOS report, but like Marvel Unlimited, it’s not ranked by gross like the rest of the apps.

I’ve also included a second ranking by day of downloads on iOS. If there’s massive issues with comiXology’s plan, we’ll see it’s download rank drop over time, we don’t see that this past week, but individuals were forced to update the app, so those numbers could be skewed a bit. We’ll see how it plays out.

What we do know is the Google rank has not been impacted much in ranking, if at all. The app is still number 1 for comics, and it only slipped a little for all apps and the overall ranking.

iOS

ios 5.5.14

Google

google 5.5.14

Amazon

amazon 5.5.14

For these next two stats, I looked at their download ranks for the iPhone and iPad based on their book rank. We see, even after comiXology’s change, they’re still dominating in this category, indicating most likely solid health post changes.

iOS iPhone

ios iphone 5.5.14

iOS iPad

ios ipad 5.5.14

And that wraps up this week’s breakdown. I’m still thinking through a good name for this feature, so if you have suggestions, let me know!

« Older Entries