Fantagraphics Goes Digital With ComiXology ' All Major Pubs Now Available

• Posted by Johanna on July 17, 2012 at 6:27 pm
• Category: Digital and Webcomics

Fantagraphics announced a digital distribution agreement with comiXology, beginning with the first four issues of Love and Rockets: New Stories. Fantagraphics co-publisher Gary Groth also said that issue #5 will debut digitally on the same day as its print release in September. Following that, additional Fantagraphics publications, both current and backlist, will roll out.

As far as I can recall right now, Fantagraphics was the last major comic publisher not available on comiXology, making them the new monopoly distributor, replacing Diamond in the digital arena. And they're still on a distinctly upwards curve. From the press release:

In early May, comiXology revealed they had crested 65 million comic and graphic novel downloads since the beginning of the platform, with 15 million of those downloads happening in 2012. ComiXology recently unveiled that only one month later in June they had hit 77 million downloads '- an addition of 12 million downloads '- continuing on a trajectory of record-shattering growth.

Pretty good for a service that prices higher than the pundits think they should and only 'rents' comics in their proprietary format.

Heidi MacDonald interviewed Fantagraphics associate publisher Eric Reynolds and got more background on the deal. As he says,

I would say that I probably resisted ComiXology at first, just because of their dominance in the market. Much in the same way we were probably the largest publisher in the industry to not go exclusive with Diamond until long after the dust had settled and there really was no other competition. I like there being access to the marketplace for the little guy. But the more and more I researched, the more I realized that simply put, ComiXology really was the standard-bearer for digital comics processing AND distribution. They have the most intuitive guided view software I've seen and they are well-positioned to get the books out there on the most popular platforms. It's not an exclusive deal and I am definitely continuing to keep our options open, but I'm excited to see what ComiXology can do.

Similar Posts: IDW Dumps iVerse for ComiXology, Goes Same-Day Digital at Full Price § Archaia Backs Away From Digital Exclusivity, Releases Days Missing on Comixology § Digital Exclusivity Returns, With Marvel Singles Exclusive to Comixology § ComiXology Announces Authoring Beta to Increase Digital Comic Diversity § Warner Movie DVDs Will All Have Blu-Ray

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