Hexed #1

However, just as they did for North Wind (in a very successful promotion), every issue of Hexed will also be available same day online for free.

Today, after 2 PM Eastern time, the first issue of Hexed will be posted at MySpace Comic Books. The other three issues in the miniseries will follow as they’re released online and in stores simultaneously. Here, Mark Waid explains it all.

To assuage retailer annoyance, Boom! is also giving free copies to stores to sell for 100% profit. The top 500 stores in the country will get five extra copies for free. That’s 2,500 copies that the publisher is giving away. That’s a complete print run for a smaller company.

Plus, Hexed #1 will be completely returnable. I suspect that’s to pacify those who complain that they wouldn’t have ordered the book if they knew it would also be given away for free. Only, if history holds, the loudest complainers tend not to have ordered very many in the first place.

Hexed is a decent read. Especially for free. You should check it out.

WONDER WOMAN COMPANION BOOK CANCELLED!
No further news is available. Andy Mangels regrets that the decision was made.

(Here’s the original description via Google cache.)

That’s a shame. I wonder if DC was behind that decision. It wouldn’t be the first time that they pulled a cease-and-desist on a fan project that was more complete than what they were putting out. (Note: this is pure speculation on my part, that it was due to action by DC Comics.)

According to the New York Times,

In a surprise ruling, a federal judge in Los Angeles said he intended to grant 20th Century Fox’s claim that it owns a copyright interest in the “Watchmen,” a movie shot by Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures and set for release in March. … A Warner spokesman, Scott Rowe, declined to comment on the ruling and the studio’s plans.

At an earlier hearing, the judge said he believed that issues in the case could be settled only at a trial, which was scheduled for late January. On Wednesday, however, Judge Feess said he had reconsidered and concluded that Fox should prevail on crucial issues. “Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the ‘Watchmen’ motion picture,” the ruling said.

The judge advised the studios to prepare for settlement or an appeal. However, an appeal would mean that the movie would likely miss its release date.

The big question is what Fox really wants. They sat on this claim for years, not mentioning it, while the project was developed at various studios. If they’re just looking for a payout, similar to what Warner had to do to release the Dukes of Hazzard movie (which had a similar rights obstruction), then Warner will probably cave in order to get their next big blockbuster out on schedule. An unlikely rumor has it that Fox wants to release the Batman TV show and is seeking to trade rights.

To promote the Lego Batman videogame, the developer has released an iPhone/iPod Touch mini-game app. Which makes me wonder … just how many iPhones and Touches are out there?

Maybe I’m just jealous, since I don’t have one. But it seems like an expensive way to promote a product. Or perhaps it’s a very smart way to create an additional revenue stream. Plus, if one assumes that the “tastemakers” all have the new, hottest gadgets, then it’ll get more press.

Here’s some press release excerpts:

• An iPhone / iPod Touch application based on Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s award-winning and best-selling videogame title LEGO Batman
• Features 16 fun mini games that will take fans deep within the heart of Wayne Manor
• Developed by TT Games, the same studio behind the critically-acclaimed console title
• Available now from the iTunes App Store for $5.99 (a limited time holiday price)

Once players master the game to become a True Hero or True Villain, they unlock bonus content including never before seen artwork, trailers, and wallpapers. The wallpapers can then be saved into the player’s iPhone or iPod Touch picture library and used to identify callers or to spruce up the background of their phone.

Her official store features over 1350 licensed products with her image available on them, including figures, clothing, knick-knacks, luggage, and even cosmetics.

Some speculate that it’s her combination of innocence and sensuality that makes her appealing, while others attribute her popularity as follows:

Maybe the appeal lies in her sassy independence, in the fact that she’s the only female cartoon character who’s not a foil for a male. Call it fatale feminism.

Here’s her biography, if you’d like to know more.

The latest incarnation of her character is completely unexpected to me: she’s now available on banking products. Bank of America is offering Betty Boop personal checking accounts. They come with a decorated check card (shown here) and checks.

New customers who open a qualifying new account between December 15-January 15 will receive $25. Use Offer Code WGSBB12008 to open an account.

“Ever since my grandfather created her, Betty Boop has delighted fans of all ages because she’s fun, she’s sassy and she’s always had a mind of her own,” said Mark Fleischer, President of Fleischer Studios. “Today, more than ever, she has proven to be a marketing powerhouse. And, mirroring Betty’s independent-minded spirit, fans will be able to take charge of their finances while making a statement about their own fun-filled personalities.”

there’s really no direct evidence that price has a whole lot of bearing on what [Marvel customers are] willing to purchase.

Which is the problem right there… you can’t bitch about superhero comics being $3.99 if it doesn’t cause you to change your behavior.

Unfortunately, Brian’s crystal ball doesn’t see much good. The likely results of stapled comic prices going up include

• purchasers cutting back to only what they really want (decreasing sales)
• even if they don’t, more complaints about comics that don’t satisfy at that price due to lack of substantial content
• more people “waiting for the trade” collection (a particular bugaboo of Brian’s)
• unless prices on collected editions go up as well, depressing sales of the one successful comic format

Brian does provide one potential reason for Marvel’s choice to do this so aggressively now that I hadn’t seen anyone mention:

[The possibility is that] this is being done in an effort to make Marvel’s digital initiative that much more attractive. With the price of a single new periodical now getting closer to an entire month’s “subscription” to everything they have on line, it certainly makes the digital program look a whole lot better.

Write Now!, the professional “how-to” magazine on writing for comics, animation, and sci-fi, concludes its six-year run with TwoMorrows Publishing this February. The final issue, #20, is solicited in the December issue of Diamond Comic Distributors’ PREVIEWS catalog, and is available for ordering now.

Six years and 20 issues? Maybe frequency was an issue; that works out to just over 3 issues a year. This is the second magazine to cease publication in as many days. Comic Foundry said money wasn’t the issue, but a lack of time to maintain quality; in contrast, sales also appear to be a factor here:

“… while our readership has been fanatically loyal during its run, both Danny [Fingeroth, editor] and I [John Morrow, publisher] feel the magazine has reached a point where the economy is taking a toll on its circulation, and the increasing amount of time involved in its production might be spent more productively elsewhere. So we’ve jointly decided that #20 will be the last issue.”

The last issue will ship in late February; I hope people are still interested in the Spirit movie by then, after it’ll have been out for two months. There’s also a Best of collection available.

Subscribers will be informed that they can receive a refund or a credit towards other TwoMorrows publications.

I’m sorry to admit that I’ve reached the unfortunate point where my career no longer allows enough time to do the magazine. “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well,” my high school journalism teacher used to say. In this case, I’d rather cease publication than put out issues we don’t have time to devote to fully.

I can sympathize — it’s a feeling I’m sure any writer/blogger/journalist with a day job has struggled with. The last issue is due out in February, and (refreshingly), they promise

If you have a subscription with pending issues you’ll be reimbursed. (Again, finances are not the reason for our early departure).

Now, Scott Cederlund has interesting news: Show creator Bryan Fuller is quoted as saying that if the show gets canceled, he’d want to wrap up the storylines in comics. DC comics, to be precise, since the show is produced by sister company Warner Bros. Television.

But he’s planning further ahead than that. “Fuller then said that doing so would clear the slate for a movie.” And he knows whereof he speaks: He previously created Dead Like Me, which is releasing a Complete Series Giftset in February that contains the two seasons of the show and a new, original to video movie called Life After Death.

Scott isn’t very happy with the news that PD might continue in comics, pointing out that several recent similar efforts (such as Fringe) have been unsuccessful or aborted. Plus, he hates the idea of comics being seen as a fallback. I can’t say I disagree, but I love his idea of a Good Eats comic cookbook.

I can no longer use outside talent for the news space. Some will do so on a pro bono basis but for the foreseeable future, it’ll be me doing the news, reviews, and interviews.

Wow, that’s a lot for one person to take on (speaking as someone who knows). I hope, even with other cutbacks, that Bob is being fairly compensated for his additional work on the site. Bob continues:

A frustrating element has been that some of the stories and interviews I’m really proud of, have gone with barely any notice or comment which is [a] shame.

I can think of one possible reason for that: the site had no RSS feed. People these days (especially those who put link posts on traffic-sending big sites) need an easy way to know there’s an interesting reason for them to visit without having to remember to do so on their own. (Which won’t happen — there are too many other distractions.)

According to Bob, there are still plans in place to move forward:

The technical delays behind Phase 3 have been very time consuming and daunting but when it launches, should change the playing field a bit and we hope in positive ways. Of course, it should have been live months ago along with a home page redesign but I remain hopeful.

It’s a shame that the site’s history has been so choppy. In order to complete with established players, a news and review site needs something different, and ComicMix had that with its original online comics. But insistence on doing things their own way — like hand-coding software when there were established packages that could be used and customized much more quickly and easily, without the bugs that bedeviled things like comments — often made observers wonder.

The site also had a very large group of contributors and workers from the beginning, even before it was generating any revenue. Maybe not all of them were being paid, but showing up to conventions with a staff of 10 and a con suite made some wonder how they could afford it all. They were a great group of people, but whenever I spoke with them about plans, they were long on aspirations (we’re going to provide a new blogging platform!) but short on details (why would anyone want to choose you over established players, and what do they get out of it?).

Once again, I’m reminded of a lesson I first learned on Usenet. The world doesn’t work like Field of Dreams — they won’t come just because you build it.

Heidi MacDonald reports on cutbacks at ComicMix. The columns have all ended, leaving only the news (which under editor Robert Greenberger is much more pop-cult widespread than comic-focused, and not particularly unique to the site) and the online comics. Under his last column, Editor-in-Chief Mike Gold says that

the decision came after months of conversation. Simply put (if that’s at all possible), the columns didn’t reach as big an audience as some of us had hoped for. Really, it’s that simple. We need to put our attention elsewhere.

They’ve also experimented with print-on-demand book versions of some of their online strips, which didn’t come near to selling out at the one convention they were offered. They have since been offered on their website. Todd Allen analyzes the changes and concludes that they have major income problems:

No ads, no merchandise, no collected edition. Those are standard revenue streams and without any of them (100 print copies in Baltimore doesn’t count), I cannot call ComicMix serious about monetizing their comics.

The first announcement included these two images:

Sure, Iron Man is popular because of the movie, but comic fans know that in continuity, he’s an authoritarian leader who doesn’t believe in civil rights.

Howard the Duck, on the other hand, won’t be familiar to many current readers, but older ones know that he was chosen because he once ran for President himself, back in 1976. However, since then, he’s best known as the subject of a legal case over creators’ rights. Which makes him an odd symbol for Marvel Comics to promote, especially since he’s rarely been published recently.

(Not to mention that that’s an odd choice of image in terms of position and framing. But maybe it’s what they had easily available.) Since the announcement, they’re adding new buttons for more heroes, including Thor, a Norse God who presumably doesn’t really care much about who Americans vote for, or maybe even a system of democracy, and Wolverine, who last I remember, was Canadian.

Still, I support the message. Don’t forget to vote tomorrow!

Note that the version now posted on their website (first link above) corrects some of the issues Heidi and her readers point out. The version on her site is as it was originally distributed, where the actual name of the comic being promoted wasn’t at all clear. Just to spell it out, your press release should have the name of the product clearly featured in the first line. It’s not a game, where you want the readers to have to figure it out. The more they have to think about what you’re trying to sell them, the less they’re going to buy it.

I think Bluewater would quit featuring so prominently in my lists of what not to do if they’d just slow down for a moment and have someone re-read their press material before sending it out.

However, its odd format — not manga-sized, but half that length, for $6 a book — was, in my opinion, a major detriment to reaching any audience. It’s more expensive than a typical comic, but it doesn’t appear at first glance to be a better value to justify the price. (It’s similar to the Oni format that didn’t work for me either.)

Anyway, once I reached the end and found myself wondering what was intended to happen, I decided to ask author Alex de Campi about it, and she was kind enough to share her thoughts on the title, working with Tokyopop, and whether we’ll ever see the conclusion. Here’s a short interview with her about the book.

Q: How did Kat & Mouse come to Tokyopop? Who came up with the idea?

A: I just cold-emailed Tokyopop when I was starting out and they were beginning their OEL initiative. I’ve always loved teen/high school drama, and I wanted to write stories that had the appeal of Nancy Drew, but felt modern… and didn’t shy away from portraying just how awful kids can be to each other in 7th and 8th grade. I also wanted to write about girls, as there were so few good comic books for/about girls. I wanted to write the stories the 12-year-old me wanted to read. And I was furious about that Harvard president’s comment about how girls were genetically no good at science and math. Dude, Marie Curie is so going to come back from the dead and salt your Viagra with radium for that, you sad old git. (I am a feminist. GO TEAM X CHROMOSOME!)

So everything about Kat & Mouse was entirely my idea, except for the character designs which are obviously Federica’s. The pitch went to Mark Paniccia first, and while he was keen on it, he didn’t think it could get approved without it being more “manga”. Yeah, I know - teen school drama/romance/mystery, already a MASSIVE manga genre in Japan. Like Tokyopop had never shifted many copies of a book called Mars…. But I swear to God, they were pushing me so hard to put a talking cat or a vampire in it, as that was what “manga” meant to them. I was like, “uh, thanks, interesting idea but NO.” I stuck to my guns, found Federica as an artist, and the project was finally approved on the basis of (shock!) it being a good story.

Mark left during the process to go to Marvel. I later had interesting adventures with him choosing a desperately inappropriate artist for a mooted Marvel teen-girl series for me, which resulted in me walking off the series…. and Marvel realising that Paniccia had forgotten to get me to sign either a contract or an NDA for the series so I still owned the script. That was fun.

In any case, back at Tokyopop on Kat & Mouse, I then inherited Tim Beedle and Carol Fox as editors and I couldn’t have been happier. What a wonderful pair of people they were. Intelligent, hardworking, and not afraid of the dirty business of telling me (or Federica) “you could do better”. I think I stayed with Tokyopop so long because of Tim and Carol. I just can’t say enough good things about them as human beings and as editors.

Q: Kat & Mouse appeared in a kind of hybrid format, shorter than the manga digest Tokoypop popularized, at a $6 price point. Was that format planned from the beginning? Do you think it helped or hurt the project?

A: Oh heavens. It killed the project stone cold dead in the market. It looked too wimpy and kiddie for its audience, and if you racked it spine-out, it just vanished. Plus, the usual Tokyopop no-marketing-support-unless-it’s-Princess-Ai. And no, it wasn’t planned from the beginning. When they told me they approved the project, they then sprung the whole 90-page thing on me. Considering my plot outlines had written for 160-180 pages, I was shocked and disappointed — but I didn’t feel like there was anything I could do.

Here it is: Tokyopop always felt like it was flailing around with no sense of purpose or long-term strategy, and they would spin out these silly jelly-at-the-wall ideas on a regular basis rather than just knuckle down and focus on great stories, well-marketed. When they launched Manga Readers or whatever that little format was called, they were all “we will get this in the YA section of bookstores!” Um, did they? Did they heck. They also didn’t follow up with any marketing outside the comics world. I remember speaking to one of their marketing people and going, hey, have we tried to get this reviewed in some newspapers’ kids book sections? Can you show me what reviews you’ve managed to get for the book? And they were completely flummoxed. They ummed and ahhed and then asked me if I wanted a free pass to Bristol Comic Con in the UK as if it were a big deal. “No, we didn’t get a single mainstream review of this book but that’s OK, we’ll give you this great opportunity to go to Bristol!” Look, if you do comics in the UK, you know Mike (who runs Bristol Comic Con) on a first-name basis. You don’t need a company in Los Angeles to get you that as the sum total of its big marketing push for your book.

Directly after the rather perfunctory launch of Manga Readers, Tokyopop were off onto some other new shiny toy… and so its old toys withered on the shelves. I just so wish I’d been able to write a normal 160 to 180 page tankubon as I had intended. That probably also would have failed, but at least I would have felt better about the series being in its original, intended format. Of course, there’s always the huge heaving possibility my writing just sucks and that’s why the series didn’t sell!

Q: The setting of a private school where mysteries occur has a long history, with many varied appearances. Which are some of your favorites/influences?

A: Oh, clearly, Nancy Drew! I’m a sucker for a good mystery romp. I also grew up glued to American teen school-drama TV, like 90210 (I always thought, why does the West Coast have all the fun? East Coast schools are much more interesting…), Square Pegs, Saved by the Bell, and of course John Hughes films. Genre is genre because people love it. It doesn’t matter if the setup is old and hoary. If you write good characters with experiences and feelings that connect to readers, that readers feel are true, then it doesn’t matter that there are a lot of other school mystery stories.

Q: I loved how you featured a strong theme of class distinctions based on money. What was behind that choice?

A: I went to a private East Coast day school — much of what I wrote was based on my own experience or observations. There was a girl who was the math teacher’s daughter at my school…. she had it really tough. And I and my girlfriend Ellen totally got called “lesbi-friends” when we were in fifth grade. I had to go home and ask my mom what that meant! There was also a lot of upper-middle-class posturing going on: who got invited to cotillion, who had the hot new sweater from The Limited, who had a boat, who had a Porsche as their first car. My family was scrimping and saving to send me to that school (thank heaven I was an only child), so I sort of felt like an alien.

Although I always sort of feel like an alien. There’s part of me that’s always at a remove, just watching and recording. I desperately want to get a dictaphone so I can covertly tape sounds and strangers’ conversations I overhear in public places but my family are fairly sure that will result in my getting beat up.

Q: Given how much was left hanging at the end of book three — we don’t know who stole Chloe’s necklace or who the Artful Dodger was, and the “next time” blurb also promised revenge and a teacher’s secrets — will you reveal the answers? What was intended to happen in book four? Who was the Artful Dodger?

A: Book 4 is complete — drawn, lettered and toned. It was complete before Tokyopop “restructured”, and it is just mired somewhere in the swamp of despair that is that company. Tokyopop have not communicated with me since… hang on, Gmail search ahoy… June 16th of this year. They say they’ll release it online at some point but I have a standing $20 bet with another comics writer that Tokyopop will declare bankruptcy and/or totally shut down within the next 12 months, so I’m not holding my breath. This is NOT a company that can survive as a purely marketing entity — oh, the irony! If/when they go under, I’ll of course throw the book up online for all to read. All plot lines are resolved in Book 4; that’s all I’ll say.

Q: What was your planned conclusion to the series? How many volumes would it have run if things had gone perfectly?

A: The series really could have spun out as long as I wanted it to. I was planning mini-arcs of about 4 books each with maybe a complete stand-alone or two in between. I mean, Kat & Mouse mysteries are pretty much always stand alone but certain groups of mysteries also deal with a larger story arc, e.g. the Artful Dodger. I was going to do a stand-alone about a hidden treasure over Christmas…. then the next arc would have dealt with the arrival of the Princess (who is a bit different than everyone might imagine), and major upheavals in the social structure of Kat’s class. Then a stand-alone about summer in Maine and a “trap war” (where lobster fishermen start cutting each other’s traps over perceived territorial infringements). Although given the current economy, I might have done a story or two about kids having to leave Dover Academy due to their dads losing their investment banking jobs! The stories just run and run with Kat & Mouse…. it’s so easy to think up fun things for them.

Q: Are you working on any comics now?

A: Mm, no. Vaguely contemplating a couple things but I’ve been non-stop with the music videos of late, and I need to finish a feature screenplay I’m working on. If I do anything, I’ll find an artist who’s just willing to go ahead and do it, and we’ll keep control of the project ourselves. It will obviously thus happen VERY slowly. So I feel a little like a fraud being interviewed about comics — I don’t know if I “count” as a comics writer any more.

Q: If you could do it again, would you do anything differently?

A: I think I would have been more stroppy about the whole Manga Reader thing (and Manga Chapter, the other random spin-off format that they shoved my Agent Boo series into). I would have said no, this must be a proper tankubon, or nothing. But I don’t really regret anything. I know I’m seen as this loose cannon who speaks truth to (and about) power and is thus persona non grata at a couple publishers but I don’t care. If I cared, I’d STFU. I don’t feel for a second that I’ve missed any opportunities — and, most importantly, I’ve kept my soul and I’ve had a heckuva good time.

How convenient that Eureka co-creator Andrew Cosby (who doesn’t look at all as I expected) is also a co-founder of comic publisher Boom! Studios. And how nice of Ed Quinn, who played Nathan Stark, to join in for the announcement. Cosby talks about how he’s going to be able to do things they wanted to do on TV but didn’t have either time or budget for. Issue #1 is supposed to be focusing on Deputy Jo. It’s due out in December with these two covers:

Cosby is co-writing with Brendan Hay (who’s worked on The Daily Show), and art is by Diego Barreto. I hope he’s good at the likenesses. The comic can be ordered from your local comic store with the code OCT08 3922.

Also dropped in the video clip: Colin Ferguson, who plays the sheriff, is going to write an online series. I’m not sure what that means, exactly, but given how involved he is in the podcasts and other supplemental material, I’m looking forward to it.

In response, the exhibition Out of Sequence: Underrepresented Voices in American Comics will feature “the work of women and minority artists and small press and webcomics creators” and “explore alternate histories of American comics and suggest some of the limitless possibilities for the medium in the past, present, and future, from early newspaper strips to the Internet”. It will also consider the writer as well as the artist as key to the creative process. Damian Duffy and John Jennings, the co-curators, describe it as

a broad survey of women, small press, minority, independent, gay & lesbian, self published mini, underground, web, and/or gallery comics creators.

It opens at the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on October 24 (this Friday) and runs until January 4, 2009. It will move to Colorado afterwards and is available for future travel. (Please, someone, bring it to the East Coast.) Included are works by Kyle Baker, Alison Bechdel, Denys Cowan, Colleen Doran, Kris Dresen, Shaenon Garrity, Nicholas Gurewitch, Keith Knight, Hope Larson, Jackie Ormes, Stan Sakai, editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes, and many many more.

This isn’t the first such response show, by the way. The same curators in 2007 launched Other Heroes, about African-American creators.

are comics starring superheroines in trouble? Is it the Minx effect?

She goes on to answer her own question in the negative. No, it’s probably not.

I am also willing to see this or that book go (or to be reconfigured or have the characters move on to other titles), and not feel it was a “sexist” thing that they were canceled.

I agree with her eventual conclusion. Yes, superhero books starring women have an uphill battle in reaching the mostly male core market. But these books weren’t singled out because they feature females. In my opinion, they’re getting canceled again because they’re doing the same things that got them canceled before.

All superhero serial comics have a declining readership over time. Many of the customers are easily distracted by whatever’s new, different, or a big event. By returning with the same premise, characters, and creative teams, there’s no reason to think that the end result — not enough sales — would be any different. The promotional bump from “you get one more chance — better make sure more people buy it this time” doesn’t work as a strategy, especially once you’ve gone to that well four or five times too many.

If you select Other, please leave your reason in the comments.

Marvel Entertainment is launching more never-before-seen digital comic titles exclusively for Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited subscribers. The Marvel Digital Comics Exclusive titles launch with the first issue of Marvels Channel: MONSTERS, MYTHS and MARVELS: Galactus on Wednesday, October 22.

That’s quite a title. Written by Frank Tieri (he’s still around?) with art by Juan Santacruz.

This new digital comic initiative comes after the recent success of two exclusive digital comic tie-ins to the Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk movies. Digital-only exclusives will be published regularly on Wednesdays at the pace of three or more comics per month, adding to the ever growing collection of over 5,000 digital comics already online.

I hadn’t realized Marvel had done this before with movie tie-ins. I’m very curious to know how retailers react to Marvel reaching out and selling directly to readers, even if it’s not technically the same product. DC’s Zuda webcomic program, focuses on new products, not existing characters, in part to avoid that problem.

This is also the first time I’ve looked at their subscription fees. They’re not exactly user-friendly. $10/month, or a half-price yearly subscription of $60, paid up front and non-refundable. Plus, “All subscribers get the hassle-free advantage of the Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited Automatic Renewal Program.” That means that Marvel will keep billing you, at whatever rates are then in effect which they might change at any time (and non-refundably, remember) unless you remember to cancel.

I did find it interesting that Marvel is promising, in addition to “top Marvel characters and creative teams” and “fan-favorite holiday-themed specials”, some diversity in what they’re presenting, including “explorations into science fiction, martial arts and Western genres”. Titles mentioned so far are a Halloween Special by Dean Haspiel featuring Frankenstein and Werewolf by Night; an American Eagle story by Jason Aaron and Richard Isanove; five Fin Fang Four stories by Scott Gray and Roger Langridge; a four-part Kid Colt tale by Tom DeFalco (no artist listed); and yet more Amazing Spider-Man. This description, in its wishful thinking, made me giggle:

Peter Parker’s life is very involved and even with three issues a month, there’s just not enough time to touch on everything or everyone. So to help solve that, Spidey Brain Trustee Bob Gale brings you an ongoing collection of stories taking place within and around current Spidey continuity, exploring his supporting cast and missed adventures.

I’m moderately interested in some of this, the non-standard stuff mostly, but a digital subscription where you only rent the comics is of no interest. You have to be connected to the internet to read the comics and you can’t download the ones you want to reread. I suspect that if the material is any good, it’ll wind up in print eventually — and then I can read it for free at my library.

Note also that they’re promoting at least three new titles a month, and their subscription fee is $10/month, which means they’re roughly maintaining the $3/issue print price point. I suspect, with their traditional fanbase, they would get more interest if instead of putting out yet more Spider-Man, they created comics with truly fan-favorite characters and creators that have followings that aren’t quite big enough to support the costs of a print book.