Today, Chris Roberson of MonkeyBrain Comics made a couple of big announcements. The digital comics initiative press release will be coming along shortly, but for now, take the jump for the rundown of what MonkeyBrain Comics has in store for everyone moving forward.
Chris Roberson kicked off the press conference by explaining why he decided launch MonkeyBrain Comics – a new line of creator owned comics to be distributed exclusively through comiXology.
Roberson did state that all deals were done long before the creator owned debacle with DC Comics blew up a few months ago.
Joining New York Times bestselling author Chris Roberson (iZombie, Memorial, Cinderella) under the Monkeybrain Comics umbrella with their own independent titles will be a who’s who line up of creators, including; Grace Allison, Nick Brokenshire, J. Bone, Chad Bowers, Wook-Jin Clark, Colleen Coover, Kevin Church, Dennis Culver, Matt Digges, Ming Doyle, Curt O. Franklin, Ken Garing, Chris Haley, David Hahn, Phil Hester, Joe Keatinge, D.J. Kirkbride, Adam Knave, Axel Medellin, Jennifer L. Meyer, Michael Montenat, Ananth Panagariya, Thomas Perkins, Adam Rosenlund, Chris Schweitzer, Brandon Seifert, Chris Sims, Matthew Dow Smith, Paul Tobin, J. Torres, Josh Williamson and Bill Willingham, among others.
The good news is the first line-up of books arrives this week (July 4th).
Those of you who have listened and read our interviews with Chris in the past know he has been looking for a way to spin-off MonkeyBrain Books into the comic realm, and with digital comics hitting it off in a big way made it possible.
“What MonkeyBrain Comics are trying offer the reader is diversity in creators, stories, and titles,” said Roberson during the press call.
“The prose book trade has been constrained for the last decade. The possibility for small independent presses to remain viable have shrunk, making it harder and harder to survive. The advantage of digital is that we don’t have to cover the printing costs, but only the creator costs, which makes new titles much more viable.”
Individual issues will run between 13 and 22 pages and sell at “an affordable price point for all readers.” This is being left up to the individual creators, but MonkeyBrain will be working with them to help with the price point and page count.
In addition to the kick-off titles, MonkeyBrain has roughly 30 other projects in the works that will be announced in the coming weeks and months. Speaking of other announcements, on Friday, July 13, 2012 Chris Roberson will be hosting a MonkeyBrain Comics panel that will announce more titles and creators.
7:00-8:00 MonkeyBrain Comics— Co-publishers Chris Roberson (Memorial) and Allison Baker reveal all about MonkeyBrain Comics, a creator-owned digital comics imprint. Joining them are moderator Bill Willingham (Fables) and creators Chris Schweitzer (Crogan’s Adventures), D. J. Kirkbride (Popgun), Brandon Seifert (Witch Doctor), Joe Keatinge (Hell Yeah!), Colleen Coover (Small Favors), and Paul Tobin (Gingerbread Girl). Room 4
The good news for the indie creator is that this is a digital only agreement with the creators, so the creators can work their own print trades later. The agreement seems to beneficial for all, as Roberson did say this was the kind of contract he would like to have as a creator, as MonkeyBrain Comics holds no copyright on any title – in other words, no work for hire, and the projects that do come to the company are truly creator owned. If one were to create a comparison with what Image Comics has done but with digital comics, you probably wouldn’t be too far off.
There is no open submission policy for new creators right now, but that may change in the future.
As far as marketing these comics, Roberson said because the company is all digital and doesn’t follow the same cycle as the print, marketing of titles can happen when the book is available instead of months ahead and hoping readers remember to go and purchase the title.
I’m interested to see what Roberson does with Monkey Brain comics. That, and I like the name.
– Ryan Sohmer (Least I Could Do, via Twitter)
There is something refreshing when a new publisher (even a digital one) appears on the scene and I hope this will bring a new venue for smaller publishers to be seen but comic readers around the world.