On Tuesday, DC announced a new deal with GlobalComix, a digital platform that aims to optimize digital comics for mobile devices. Through use of vertical scroll, a format that makes comics feel more like a social media feed, the platform aims to change the face of digital comics in the United States, bringing them more into line with a webtoon-style presentation. The deal, which launched immediately, currently features around 400 titles from DC’s library. This, along with a just-announced line of all-ages comics and vertically-remastered titles for DC Universe Infinite, suggests a shift in DC’s approach to digital comics.
For years, DC worked exclusively with ComiXology, now owned by Amazon. ComiXology’s de facto monopoly on American digital comics has been in doubt since Amazon folded the ComiXology app into Kindle, drawing backlash from longtime customers. GlobalComix executive Christopher Carter recently appeared at an ICv2 event extolling the virtures of vertical scrolling for comics.
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The GlobalComix titles available will include best-sellers and stories featuring A-list names like Batman, The Joker, and Doom Patrol, according to Wired. There will also be a number of free-to-try titles.
The initial crop of original DC GO! titles will include Harley Quinn in Paradise from writer CRC Payne (Batman: Wayne Family Adventures) and artists Siobhan Chiffon and Cathy Le (Archie Comics: Big Ethel Energy), Nothing Butt Nightwing by writer Patrick R. Young (Red Hood: Outlaws) and artist Moy R. Marco (West Coast Avengers), and Renaissance of Raven by writer Sina Grace (Superman: The Harvests of Youth) and artists Nico Bascuñan (Red Hood: Outlaws), Katherine Lobo (The Vampire Slayer), and Carola Borelli (Avengers Academy: Marvel’s Voices Infinity Comic). Sneak peeks of both Harley Quinn in Paradise and Nothing Butt Nightwing are currently available to read on DC Universe.
“The legacy American comic publishers seem to have reached the limits of new customer acquisition through media,” says Milton Griepp, publisher of ICv2. He told Wired that verticals scroll comics “are bringing in tens of millions of new, mostly younger readers worldwide.”
That’s a valuable market, considering how much the American comics audience seems to be aging. Since the full-time transition to direct market comics sales and the death of newsstand comics, it’s a lot harder for casual fans to find comics. You have to be heading into the comic shop already to discover a new title, which makes building
“The mobile reading experience on a phone is just better with vertical scroll,” GlobalComix co-founder and CEO Christopher Carter told Wired.
