Over the weekend at Heroes Con, Rantz Hoseley, the editor behind Image’s “Comic Book Tattoo†anthology of comics inspired by Tori Amos, unveiled Longbox, a digital comics platform that Hoseley thinks will be the iTunes of comic books. Hoseley is using a similar model, hoping to sell digital comics for 99-cents each. Already on board are Top Cow Productions and Boom! Studios.
“Everyone’s been talking now for half a decade about the holy grail of digital comics, and how do you solve that problem: How do you make something that everyone gets on board with?†Hoseley told CBR. “And rather than just kind of jump into it willy-nilly, we’ve done a lot of research and actual development on the platform prior to even discussing it with any publishers.â€
While iTunes allows you to activate five system to listen to your MP3s, the Longbox software will only allow you to read your digital comics on three devices. If you are interested in becoming a beta-tester, you’ll need to attend the San Diego Comic-Con panel for the low down.
From the screen shots I’ve seen, and the passion Hoseley has for the project, I hope it works. I also hope the company eventually opens the program to other applications beyond the PC, Mac, and Linux systems, because as soon as those eBooks come in color, it might put Longbox Digital Comics out of business.
5 Comments
I’d be interested if I actually get to download and keep my comics and can use whatever reader I want. (and if it doesn’t suck like Itunes)
I use ComicRack when reading digital comic books
http://comicrack.cyolito.com/
This is great news
Yeah, given how unfriendly I (personally) find iTunes, I hope this is nothing like that. :) iTunes is the LEAST useful software on my computer, literally. :) I even use Winamp to manage my “music library” instead of iTunes. *lol* In short? I hope this is NOT the iTunes of comic books, but something I’d actually use. ;)
I don’t think they mean the UI of iTunes (though I personally love it…) it’s more about what the iTunes marketplace did for digital music distribution, which for comics, there really isn’t anything.
Right now, all publishers are in a fantastic situation where they can leapfrog the mistakes the music industry has made in terms of quality portable digital music. Comic publishers are lucky there aren’t colour E-readers commonly found or the illegal digital comics would be WAY out of hand. Price them honestly (¢50-¢99) come up with a ubiquitous file type and license it to E-reader manufacturers and I would be all over it.