DC reveals more digital-first comic books
April 13, 2012
With Smallville Season 11 hitting the DC Comics app today and Marvel upping the digital ante with Marvel Infinite last week, DC Comics was quick to announce their next wave of digital plans. Revealed at USA Today, DC unveiled an all-new digital-first Batman series featuring the likes of some of the best creators working in comics today, each tackling different out-of-continuity stories starring the Dark Knight.
Smallville Season 11: Superman Returns
DC lists the writer/artist teams as: "Damon Lindelof and Jeff Lemire; Jonathan Larsen and JG Jones; Tom Taylor and Nicola Scott; Ales Kot and Ryan Sook; B. Clay Moore and Ben Templesmith; Steve Niles and Trevor Hairsine; Joe Harris and Jason Masters; TJ Fixman and Christopher Mitten; Jeff Parkerand Gabriel Hardman; Joshua Hale Fialkov and Phil Hester; David Tischman and Chris Sprouse." I'd say that's plenty to get excited about, no? The series will start on Thursdays in June, with each weekly chapter clocking in at only .99 cents per installment.
Additionally, DC announced a new digital series called Ame-Comi Girls, based on the hit manga-influenced line of DC Collectibles figures, by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti with art by Amanda Conner, Tony Atkins, Sanford Greene, Ted Naifeh, Mike Bowden and Santi Casas.
DC says, "Initially, there will be five individual character arcs with multiple chapters, leading up to united, Ame-Comi girl series." Each artist will be handling a different character, including Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Power Girl, Duela Dent, and Supergirl. Ame-Comi girls will launch in May, releasing every Monday, also at the .99 cent price point.
You may have noticed that this means that DC Comics will have comics coming out every day of the week in the digital arena: Ame-Comi Girls on Monday, Batman: Arkham Unhingedon Tuesday, the Beyond books (Justice League, Batman, Superman) on Wednesday, the new Batman book on Thursday, and Smallville on Friday. It's a pretty good time to love comic books, I'd say.
"The addition of these new titles and the five-day-a-week digital first line-up reinforce DC Comics' role as a digital leader," stated Hank Kanalz, senior vice president of digital, DC Entertainment. "We're producing high-quality, digital first content at affordable price-points attractive to readers new and existing. We've seen from our top-selling digital titles like Batman: Arkham Unhinged and the Beyond series that these books remain very popular when collected in print form, too. In fact, both print issues of Batman Beyond Unlimited have gone back to press within the week of their release."
What do you guys think? Excited? Will you be trying these digitally or waiting for print?
SOURCE : http://comics.ign.com/articles/122/1222956p1.html
Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator himself. Follow him on Twitter @joeyesposito