Ex Astris: Homecoming Story on myebook

In addition to publication of Ex Astris on ROK Comics and Clickwheel.net, a web version Ex: Astris Homecoming, a 10-page strip which first appeared in the British comic in Bulletproof Comics #2, is now available via myebook. Click on the image on the right to view the comic or follow this link.

This standalone story written by John Freeman and drawn by Mike Nicoll links with the strips published on ROK Comics and Clickwheel.net.

Included in this myebook is a one page article with some background on the origins of the strip.

myebook aims to revolutionise the way you can create, publish and share ebook content online. Built on a feature-rich social platform, complete with free-to-use powerful, browser-based, builder software, and a slick reader environment, it's an easy way for anyone and everyone to 'get it out there', and several independent publishers are using the platform to promote their projects. You'll find books such as new Garth by Huw-J, The Fat Man by Thomas Cochrane, previews of Marksoia titles, and comics from Orang Utan Comics, Insomnia Publications, Unico Comics and many others.

If you want to read Ex Astris: Homecoming in print, then head over to the Bulletproof web site and order a copy of #2, an 80-page anthology which also features strips such as Slumbertown by Rik Hoskin & Thomas Crielly, Simba Khan by Paul Birch & Jon Haward, Love Hurts by David Hailwood & Stuart Giddings, Sideburns by Jim Alexander & Jon Haward and Redstitch by Lee Langford & Klaus Belarski.

• Bulletproof Comics: www.bulletproofcomics.co.uk

• Read Ex Astris: Homecoming on myebook.com

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Ligeia Goes Rock!

Comic artist Rodrigo D. Ricci, creator of the vampire horror comic Ligeia which first appeared on mobile on ROK Comics (www.rokcomics.com/ligeia.php), has just released a video single based on the strip via YouTube.

Edgar the Cat is a joint production from Rodrigo and his brother Paulo Diaz Ricci and is the first single inspired by the Ligeia The Vampire comic.

You can download the first full series of the comic - 40 chilling episodes - via www.ligeia-the-vampire.com


• LIGEIA THE VAMPIRE and EDGAR the cat is copyright RD.RICCI. Edgar the cat song: Lyrics and Music by All Rights Reserved.

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Robot Comics Launches Creative Commons Comics

Robot Comics has launched its new Creative Commons line of mobile comics for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Google Android.

Following the macroeconomics practice of releasing free products to extend the use of any given platform, Robot Comics hopes to increase the awareness, use, and natural enjoyment of mobile comics worldwide by releasing professionally produced mobile versions of open source comics media.

First out of the gate is Cory Doctorow's Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now. This is the Creative Commons comics adaptation of six short stories by the award-winning Boing Boing website editor and science-fiction writer, originally published in print by IDW Publishing. Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now has been adapted from its traditional print version to mobile comic edition, offering eight Creative Commons mobile comics specifically designed for iPhone, iPod touch and Android devices. Combined, the mobile Futuristic Tales have been downloaded more than 30,000 times in less than two months.

Cory recently covered the Robot Comics release of his work on his Boing Boing blog, including a reference to the somewhat controversial rejection of his the first issue of FTotHaN by Apple.

Robot Comics have also launched Ubunchu, the unnofficial manga of the world’s cutest Linux distro, worldwide on Apple’s mobile phones. Two editions are offered: the original Japanese right-to-left version and the Western left-to-right adaptation. And, like its inspiration Ubuntu, it can be downloaded for free.

Created by Hiroshi Seo and originally published by ASCII Media Works Inc. under a Creative Commons license, which has allowed its translation and adaptation into multiple languages and formats, Robot Comics has created a remix of the comic specifically designed for Android, iPhone and iPod touch devices.

Ubunchu Issue #2 (also Creative Commons) was recently released in Japan and will be released next month by us.



Also in the final title of the first tranche of Creative Commons Comics is Misery Depot. In the story, an anomaly causes an elderly mother to awake undressed inside a humid capsule. The voice of her daughter echoes in her memory, the intent of her words forgotten. Was she sharing the completeness of their unity, or hatefully wishing her mother’s demise?

A free mystery/science fiction one-shot intended for mature audiences, it's available in two editions: Misery Depot Redux and Misery Depot Finite.

• For the full list of Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now titles and links for readers to directly find the stories on the Apple or Google marketplace, go to www.robotcomics.net/2009/06/cory-doctorows-futuristic-tales/#more-754.

• For more information about the Ubunchu Manga for mobiles visit www.robotcomics.net/2009/06/unofficial-ubuntu-manga-ubunchu-arrives-iphone.

• For more information about Misery Depot visit: http://www.robotcomics.net/2009/03/misery-depot-redux.

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Uclick's Eisner Award App Launched

Digital entertainment provider Uclick has announced the release of a new Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards app for iPhone and iPod Touch, providing details on the 2009 Will Eisner and the Eisner Awards, as well as the entire list of award categories in a tap-and-swipe menu, with information on each creator and title, and images from their nominated works.

"We're honoured to work with the Eisner organization to bring the first ever Eisner app to the iPhone," said Uclick CEO Douglas Edwards. "This app is an excellent way for fans and industry professionals to navigate the entire list of Eisner-nominated creators and works. It's an interactive showcase that allows readers to familiarize themselves with the nominees for the industry's most distinguished award."

The Eisner Awards app is available now for free in the App Store and on iTunes and will update with icons indicating the winners in each category shortly after the voting results are announced on Friday 24th July.

"There's a great deal of anticipation and excitement within the industry leading up to the announcement of the Eisner winners," said Edwards, "and this app gives everyone the chance to be engaged and informed. The popularity of the iPhone allows us to bring even more attention to the comic industry and the awards that celebrate some of the very best work in comics."

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards were established in 1987 and have been a part of the San Diego Comic-Con since 1990. Named for pioneering cartoonist Will Eisner, creator of the Spirit and several award-winning graphic novels, the Eisners are given to recognize outstanding achievement in graphic storytelling. The nominees are selected by a five-person committee and voted on by industry professionals. The winners are announced during a gala event each year at San Diego Comic-Con.

Eisner himself was excited by the potential of digital comics - I had the chance to speak with him briefly about it back in 2003 at the Raptus convention in Norway, one of his last convention appearances outside the US before his death in 2005. I think he'd be impressed with the way many creators are continuing to developing the comics form for mobile and web.

• To get the Eisner Awards app for iPhone and iPod Touch, search "Eisner" in the App Store or click here.

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Naruto, Dragon Ball, Arrive on Mobile in Europe

Japanese firm Docomo has announced that its wholly-owned European subsidiary Docomo Netherlands B.V. will launch Europe's first susbcription-based mobile-phone service for downloading Japanese manga, beginning today in France.

The service, called Manga Mode, is expected to appeal to a wide range of manga fans.

Customers of French mobile operator Bouygues Telecom S.A. will be able to use the service to download French translations of famous manga into their mobile phones and view them panel by panel using a dedicated reader.

Manga titles to be provided by Japanese publisher Shuesha Inc. will include international hits such as Naruto, Dragon Ball and Death Note. Content will be distributed via Bitway Co., Ltd., a Japanese firm operating content-distribution servers.

A Manga Mode mobile website where customers can sign up for the service will be accessible from Bouygues Telecom's mobile web portal, with manga will be downloaded in sections in exchange for prepaid points. New customers who maintain their subscriptions beyond the first month will recover 30 points for free in the first month, and then purchase 30 points for three Euros in the second month and 35 points for three Euros in each month thereafter.

Docomo and its overseas subsidiaries say they will consider opportunities to expand the manga-downloading service into other countries.

Docomo's Dutch subsidiary, originally set up as Docomo i-mode Europe B.V. to promote the overseas expansion of the Japanese company's mobile Internet platform, was renamed Docomo Netherlands B.V. on 1st June, to reflect its involvement with a broadening scope of services.

NTT Docomo is the world's leading mobile operator and provider of advanced mobile services with over 54 million customers in Japan, including 48 million using i-mode, regarded as the world's most popular mobile e-mail/Internet platform which however hasn't really taken off outside the country (other than in Germany).

49 million also use Docomo's Foma, the world's original 3G mobile service based on W-CDMA.

As a leader in the development of cutting-edge mobile technologies, Docomo is continually expanding the role of mobile phones as versatile and highly personalized "lifestyle tools" for everyday life, including with a wide range of innovative services for mobile payments, GPS, mobile TV, multimedia content and much more.

• For more information, visit www.nttdocomo.com or www.docomo-nl.com

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IDW goes for iPublishCentral

IDW Publishing, now the fourth largest comic book publisher in the US, has announced it's selected iPublishCentral, a self-service e-content platform from Impelsys, to help broaden its e-publishing strategy. Using iPublishCentral, IDW plans to digitize 25 issues from its classic Transformers series, and use the iPublishCentral tool suite to market and sell the content online.

Under the agreement, IDW will utilize the full iPublishCentral tool suite, including ViewInside and iPublishWidget, viral marketing tools that help publishers promote their brand and market books on the internet. As with online eBook services like MyEBook.com, ViewInside enables readers to browse pages from a book or a comic series before they decide to buy, allowing prospective customers to sample an issue of a comic book series.

"E-publishing is a great way to make our comics more accessible to a new audience, enticing them to eventually try the print versions," said Ted Adams, CEO of IDW. "iPublishCentral's self-service model has an elegant, easy-to-use approach to digitizing content and engaging our online community. We're looking forward to the opportunity to experiment with iPublishCentral's suite."

In addition to ViewInside, the iPublishCentral suite includes iPublishWidget, which enables readers and authors to participate in spreading information about a title of their interest on social profile pages like Facebook and MySpace. Readers and authors can also easily add book widgets to their personal blogs. This viral marketing tool enhances visibility, sustains interest and enables sales conversions for any title.

"iPublishCentral is the perfect solution for publishers such as IDW which heavily rely on print sales of comic books, but which also want to sync print publishing with e-publishing in order to attract new customers," said Sameer Shariff, CEO of Impelsys. "With iPubishCentral's sampling and viral marketing tools, IDW is able to expand its reach to audiences online, innovating along with their tech-forward audience, all without altering the authenticity of their titles."

iPublishCentral enables publishers of any size to digitize their content for sale online and promote their brands and titles across the Web through strategic viral marketing. Publishers can sign up for iPublishCentral's basic, no-cost package to access standard features and functionalities, drastically reducing the cost and risk of initiating an e-publishing strategy.

• For more information visit www.ipublishcentral.com

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Amar Chitra Katha on iPhone

Indian media company ACK Media has announced the launch of Amar Chitra Katha, a collection of illustrated classics that retell stories about Indian mythology, on iPhone and iPods for the international market.

The comics are now available on iRemedi's ‘Ether Media', a media content delivery solution for the iPhone platform. (Search the Apple iTunes store for Amar Chitra Katha or iRemedi, or try following this link). The company says most titles are available for purchase at $1.99 along with free previews for some titles, which include Krishna, Tales of Sai Baba, Shakuntala, Panchatantra Tales and Bheeshma.

The ACK iPhone/iTouch app boasts features such as full color high resolution comics, panel by panel page view, slider for fast page navigation and over seven color backgrounds among others.

Headquartered in Mumbai, ACK Media is India's leading entertainment and education company for young audiences. In addition to Amar Chitra Katha it owns some of India's most-loved brands including Tinkle, Karadi Tales and well-known proprietary characters like Suppandi.

Several Indian comics publishers are ramping up their mobile portfolio, with Raj Comics soon to launch their own range, including not just classic comics but newer titles such as Doga and Naraj: however, their plans are so far directed primarily at the Indian market, and are not being distributed internationally as yet.

• Official Amar Chitra Katha web site

• Amar Chitra Katha on iTunes

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Infurious Creates Heroes Comic Reader for NBC

Things may have been looking pretty quiet at Northern Ireland-based iPhone app producers Infurious Comics - creators of the banned iPhone app Murderdrome (see downthetubes blog news story), who've seen more sucess with their childrens' App, Eye Candy - but they’ve been busy on a top secret project: developing their iPhone App for US TV channel NBC Universal to create a Heroes Comic Reader, adapting previously published Heroes TV drama comics for iPhone.

Currently available only in the US, over 130 Heroes web comic-style strips are available from the NBC website, but the app allows you to download iPhone compatible versions and read them while on the go.

"The Heroes Comic Reader combines a pretty cool iPhone comic reader, allowing full sized comic book content to be displayed and read, along with an easy to use web based interface allowing NBC to upload content which is then published to the comic reader," say Infurious.

The reader downloads a list of available comics from NBC’s servers, displaying each title in a simple chapter list, allowing the user to click a single button to download the comic content.

Once downloaded the user can rate the comic, read it or remove it from the phone (if storage becomes a problem!)

Comics are displayed in landscape mode, using the full width of the phone - a surprisingly readable format. Of course, if you need to see the lettering larger there’s also a simple zoom mode; double tapping will zoom you in to the comic - making the text much larger. Using a fixed zoom keeps the emphasis on the reading experience rather than using a pinch and zoom which is more appropriate for looking for detail in photos.

NBC upload comic book content to their web backend, which is sent to a staging area - allowing them to test the comic content with a special ’stage’ version of the comic reader. Once everything is checked, the content is then moved into a ‘live’ area.

Infurious came to the attention of NBC after its Murderdrome comic was rejected last August by Apple on the grounds of "objectionable content".

2000AD artist PJ Holden said it was inspired by "incredibly violent" 1970s boys comics like Action! and Battle.

"The humour was very dark but very funny, and the level of violence was like Itchy and Scratchy in The Simpsons - it wasn't meant to be taken seriously," he told the BBC.

"After Apple rejected it, we put out a press release which attracted the attention of news media like the Wall Street Journal, and three days later a video on YouTube demonstrating the comic got 40,000 views."

The exposure gained them attention of NBC and, along with developing Eye Candy the company have also been busy with their Heroes app. They also have several other titles in development and are looking at licensing the app to other firms.

Comics are a labour of love for many artists who often find it difficult to get paid for their work, but Paul told the BBC the potential for distribution on devices such as the iPhone or eBook readers was enormous. But as a creator, he's still more interested in the form than the delivery.

"Whether the artwork ends up on a page or a mobile device, as long as I get to draw that's all that matters," he said.

• You can access the Heroes Comic Reader on iTunes from here, USA download only at the moment

Web: www.infuriouscomics.com

Infurious' EyeCandy App in action:

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