Min Kim of Tapastic, Mark Waid of Thrillbent, Josh Wilkie of Madefire, Felix Kiner of ComicsFix and Doug Lefler of Scrollon. Together they’re some of the folks behind the digital comics landscape. Last week the group announced the Digital Comics Coalition. Today, they are discussing the future of digital comics, live from Meltdown Comics.
Min Kim of Tapastic, Mark Waid of Thrillbent, Josh Wilkie of Madefire, Felix Kiner of ComicsFix and Doug Lefler of Scrollon. Together they’re some of the folks behind the digital comics landscape. Together, they have launched the Digital Comics Coalition, and interesting new group that we’ll know more about next Friday at an event being held at Meltdown Comics.
The email release announcing that event had little on details as to what this coalition will actually be doing other than this quote from Mark Waid:
Traditional print publishers have build their businesses on competition and closed doors. The Coalition is instead eager to conduct transparent, honest discussions between some of digital’s biggest, most dedicated creators and publishers. We not only plan to work together to promote this new medium, we also encourage others who feel that passion to freely join our conversation and be heard.
But, being a comic fan, being a tech geek, and having worked with and formed coalitions, I wanted to learn more. Following the email releases’ instructions, I emailed the address provided…. and it bounced. It didn’t exist. Well, ok email is tough to do at times, so I decided to head to their website to find out more. Using the domain listed with the contact email provided, I went to their website and found the below captured in video. The site was a shell, a beautiful shell. Instead of finding out about goals, and how to get involved, I found Lorem Ipsum, and image placeholders.
A rather weird way to announce a coalition, and death before starting in the political/non-profit world. If you’re going to be taken seriously as a “Digital Comics Coalition,” you need to have your email addresses working, and a website up and running with the basics when you first step in the spotlight.
According to the release, the group is a diverse group of comics creators, programmers, businessmen and filmmakers joins together regularly to share ideas on the innovations happening today in digital publishing. The event promoted is the first time their frank discussions will be open to an outside audience. “Each company has its own unique business model, but all share a passion for combining art and technology in new ways that can benefit the comic reading community.”
Technology and comics is still in the infant stages, and a coalition is more than needed. This one will have to answer some tough questions when they get going, and hopefully some of those will be answered when they officially launch.
Update: A little after two hours of our posting, about 10 hours after the announcement, the website was updated to include the bios of its members, a repeat of the quote from the release, and an email sign up form. You can check out the Tweet to us from founder Min Kim:
Of course I signed up, and turns out, the email list is run by Comicsfix. There’s possible legal questions that might arise of sharing that email system if the coalition is a nonprofit or trade organization, but with it unknown as to their legal status…
The Nerdist Showroom at Meltdown Comics will host “Off The Page: Creating and Marketing Digital Comics,” a roundtable discussion and demonstration of today’s cutting-edge digital comics Friday, February 27th at 3:00 p.m. Award-winning comics author Mark Waid of Thrillbent.com will join other innovators from ComicsFix, Madefire, Scrollon, and Tapastic to announce the world’s first Digital Comics Coalition and to demonstrate the secrets behind some of today’s most forward-thinking digital comics and graphic novels. The presentation will be moderated by Meltdown’s own Gaston Dominguez, livecast on Twitch, and recorded for later viewing online via YouTube and other platforms.
The Digital Comics Coalition is the brainchild of Min Kim (Tapastic). Members include Mark Waid (Thrillbent), Josh Wilkie (Madefire), Felix Kiner (ComicsFix) and Doug Lefler (Scrollon). This diverse group of comics creators, programmers, businessmen and filmmakers joins together regularly to share ideas on the innovations happening today in digital publishing. This is the first time their frank discussions will be open to an outside audience. Each company has its own unique business model, but all share a passion for combining art and technology in new ways that can benefit the comic reading community.
In the release, Waid said:
Traditional print publishers have build their businesses on competition and closed doors. The Coalition is instead eager to conduct transparent, honest discussions between some of digital’s biggest, most dedicated creators and publishers. We not only plan to work together to promote this new medium, we also encourage others who feel that passion to freely join our conversation and be heard.
The Nerdist Showroom is located at Meltdown Comics, 7522 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90046. Tickets for the event are available online.
MONO #3
STORY BY: Liam Sharp
ART BY: Ben Wolstenholme
COLORS BY: Fin Cramb
COVER BY: Ben Wolstenholme
PUBLISHER: Titan Comics/Madefire
PAGECOUNT: 32
COVER PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE DATE: Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Allied ape-man assassin Mono’s mission into the black heart of Nazi-occupied France has taken a deeply disturbing turn when he faces the savage stormtroopers of the Nagazi!
CAP STONE #3
STORY BY: Christina McCormack, Liam Sharp
ART BY: Liam Sharp
COVER BY: Liam Sharp
PUBLISHER: Titan Comics/Madefire
PAGECOUNT: 32
COVER PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE DATE: Wednesday, February 18, 2015
The world’s only superhero has vanished! Seemingly an unstoppable force for good, Captain Stone’s strength and bravery matched only by his compassion, what weakness triggered his catastrophic fall from grace? Now’s your chance to find out!
CAP STONE #2
STORY BY: Christina McCormack, Liam Sharp
ART BY: Liam Sharp
COVER BY: Liam Sharp
PUBLISHER: Titan Comics/Madefire
PAGECOUNT: 32
COVER PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE DATE: Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Charlie’s life has just taken an unexpected turn–she’s learned that she’s Captain Stone’s half-sister. What other bombshells does the Captain’s mother, Ada, have in store?
MONO #2
STORY BY: Liam Sharp
ART BY: Ben Wolstenholme
COLORS BY: Fin Cramb
COVER BY: Ben Wolstenholme
PUBLISHER: Titan Comics/Madefire
PAGECOUNT: 32
COVER PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE DATE: Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Mono is closing in on his target but must first viciously fight his way through a surprise German attack. Even if he survives can Mono overcome the formidable keeper of “The Old Curiosity Shop”?
Madefire has announced that its comic book Android app is one of an exclusive set of apps that Google will deliver as part of the newest streaming device for TV – Nexus Player.
This gives readers and viewers the ability to interact with Madefire’s digital storytelling experience on TV.
Madefire is also the first app from the comics/reading category offered via Nexus Player. Madefire’s Motion Books are suited to the big screen, with a combination of art, sound and interactivity that expands the possibilities of digital storytelling.
Google’s Nexus Player allows the Android experience to come to home entertainment centers through apps, services and content accessible through televisions.
This isn’t the first way for digital comics to come to television screens. There’s many options available including streaming technology, television web browsers, and syncing televisions with computers. It’ll be interesting to see how the comics look as televisions provide a reading surface much larger than the available computers, tablets, and phones.
Aspen Comics has announced the launch of over 350 new and classic titles from the publisher’s digital library available starting on October 23 on Madefire. Madefire delivers Motion Books, an interactive audio-visual reading format that combines art and sound for a new style of digital storytelling. The new titles will be available on both the Madefire iOS and Android apps for tablets and smartphones. Madefire Motion Books & Comics has been a 5-star rated app since launch and recently recognized in the iOS App Store as an Editors’ Pick, Best New Apps and Best of July (2014).
The Madefire Motion Book Tool was also recently launched to the public in July and has been continuously developed with the creator in mind. Taking static art a step further by incorporating movement, sound and depth to visual reading, the platform continues to push the limits in digital storytelling. New features have been introduced to allow for a more streamlined creative process like creating covers with a click of a button and animating art in a few simple steps. Publishing to the web has never been easier and can take as little as 5 minutes. The ease of sharing your story on a website or blog is also more fluid now with an embed code automatically created when the book is published, giving the creator control of where and how their story is told.
The first wave of Aspen Comics’ books on Madefire will cover a large variety of titles including Michael Turner’s Fathom and Soulfire, Executive Assistant: Iris, Lola XOXO in addition to a majority of the publisher’s past library of books. New releases such as Aspen’s upcoming The ZooHunters will also be available day and date on November 5. Aspen Comics plans to include titles from their all-new Big Dog Ink imprint soon as well.
Issues #1 of both Cap Stone and Mono – Titan Comics new publishing partnership with innovative digital comics publisher Madefire – don’t hit comic stores until December 17, but attendees of New York Comic Con get the first glimpse at both series.
Titan is giving away an exclusive ashcan flip-book at Titan Comics booth #2142 throughout the show!
See below the first pages of each title, as well as covers for both series.
CAP STONE #1
Writer: Liam Sharp & Christina McCormack
Artist: Liam Sharp
Pagecount: 32
Price: $3.99
On sale: December 17, 2014
The world’s first and only superhero has disappeared after undergoing a cataclysmic fall from grace in the eyes of the world. Middle-aged and unable to support his operations he had made a preposterous claim that the world was in danger, a notion derided by the media and the public at large.
But what if the claim is true?
Outcast writer and infamous murderess Charlie Chance, AKA The Pet, finds herself searching for the one man who was able to bring her to justice– Captain Stone.
MONO #1
Writer: Liam Sharp
Artist: Ben Wolstenholme
Color: Fin Cramb
Pagecount: 32
Price: $3.99
On Sale: December 17, 2014
“From the Boer War, through the First and Second World War, the Cold War and beyond, Mono was there…where no one else could go…”
The ape-human hybrid secret agent and Queen’s assassin, possessed of a deadly prehensile tail and ‘the strength of twelve men’, made his debut in the pulps of the 1930s and enjoyed a brief revival in the late 1960s and 70s.
But can it be that the fiction is closer to historic fact than was ever previously guessed?
Now a series of tales, told in hand-written journals and reported first-hand by those that knew him, reveal Mono as a dual-natured and conflicted adventurer–savage and noble; civilized, but ultimately untamable.
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