Broken Frontier

Well, I didn’t intend this to be a three parter, but here I am continuing my closer look at what it would take for small publishers to make comics for the iPhone (and similar devices such as the iPod Touch and the new Google Android).

Two columns ago (12/17 Making It Right), I presented the argument that if any publisher seriously wanted to break into the iPhone market with their comics, they’d stand a much better chance if they created comics actually designed to be read in this format. Then in my follow-up column (12/31 Adapting Comics for iPhone), I took a practical look at what it means to tell a story through the process of screen shots rather than paneled pages.

And I could continue to discuss either of these topics ad nauseum. I don’t know if I’ve sold anyone on the idea yet, but I would guess the factor that will ultimately sway publishers will be if it can actually succeed where many print and web formats have failed; turning a profit.
So far things have been looking good. iVerse media, which is only one of the companies turning comics into iPhone applications, has issued a report stating that things are off to a fast start. It states, “iVerse Media is pleased to ring in the new year with some good news about the future of comics on the iPhone and iPod touch. In less than two months after launching its first wave of titles from top Independent comic book publishers, comics released through iVerse Media have surpassed 100,000 downloads.”

“People are definitely interested in comics on Apple’s mobile devices,” said iVerse founder Michael Murphey. “We’ve seen an amazing level of interest, and have been getting some great feedback from new readers as well as long time comics fans.”

I haven’t been able to get my comics up quite yet so I can’t attest to any numbers. Also, I have no way of predicting this market, but I don’t see this as a fad that will die off. It’s much more likely that this market is going to continue to grow as more people catch on to this new technology (I haven’t gotten one yet) and more companies begin manufacturing their own devices (competition between brands will only improve conditions for the consumer).

But for those skeptics out there, and you’re smart to be wary of new gimmicks, I can see what the concern might be. As I’ve said, doing this right means changing the approach of creating the comic from the very first step. The idea is to tell the story through screen shots and not through a page layout of panels fitting the traditional sized comic.

What I’ve done is put together a rough publishing plan that includes a little more foresight than just hoping that iPhone comics become the new rage and I sell millions of them.

The first step is what I’ve described already; creating a new comic so that it reveals its story through a series of screen shots, one at a time. There are different ways of breaking this up into a few panels, but for the most part it will be an illustration-heavy, recompressed comic.
However, I am not limited to keeping these screen shots at that same 4.5” x 3” size. Using the same proportions, I can also make this comic into a full-sized webcomic a lot easier than I could if I had shaped it as a print comic.

As many webcomic creators have known for years, the best way to display a comic on the web is by telling it in horizontal strips. The more vertical comic page just doesn’t work as well because it doesn’t fit on the wide screen on most computers. Reading it involves scrolling down the page, which isn’t a terrible hassle, but the evolution of webcomics will eventually become a survival of the fittest race that will leave this nuisance behind.

However, the one little hitch in my business model here is that I still haven’t found a suitable way of making any type of profit from webcomics. I’m still not sure if the best source of revenue for webcomics will come from micropayments or from advertising, or if either is even possible. I think people are more used to getting a lot for free through the Internet on the main computer, whereas the iPhone requires an application that allows them to easily download and read material on the go. Plus it ties in with the whole music and games downloading system where small payments seem more justifiable for the convenience.

So, we’ll right off webcomics as an alternative source of dissemination whose main resource is its ability to provide easy exposure to an enormous audience rather than its ability to make a profit.

And why do we value this exposure? Well, for facilitating the last step in this publishing plan: Printing collected books of the comic.

If you stack one screen shot on top of another, you actually get a nice 9”x6.5” page.
This isn’t a typical size for comics or graphic novels, but as I scanned my bookshelf here in my studio, one set of hardcovers stood out to me. They were 4 original graphic novels by Vertigo: The Alcoholic, Cairo, Incognergro, and The Quitter (all of which I recommend by the way). I remember thinking the shape was odd at the time. Their trade paperbacks are all uniformly comic book sized, so why make these shorter and wider?

(insert Cairo_0107.jpg here)

My guess would be that they felt that the size lost off of the height was negligible and would save costs.  And at the same time, the increased width would allow it to stick out further on the store shelf, making it more noticeable. It certainly seems this way to me as I scan over my bookshelf.

It’s possible that Vertigo was trying to pave a new path for iPhone and Webcomics to adapt to print. I don’t think that’s it, but either way, it’s not an established graphic novel size so if small publisher wants to collect their screen shot comics into books, they’ll fit nicely alongside the Vertigo OGNs in the book store.

As I’ve said many times before, all this does is give us more options. If publishing print comic isn’t working out for you, or you’re just willing to try new methods, designing comics around the screen shot format has potential. It’s very possible that the iPhone market may really take off; it’s a great way to put your comics on the web and the possibility of collecting the comic into a nice book is still very much open.

I welcome more publishers and indie creators to give it a shot. I am, so if you want to see how it works for me, stick around.

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Tyler Chin-Tanner started his own publishing company, A Wave Blue World, and writes and draws layouts for Adrenaline, its flagship series.
© 2008 Tyler Chin-Tanner.  All rights reserved.
Email: tyler@awaveblueworld.com
www.awaveblueworld.com