This weekend is London’s MCM Comic Convention and one booth looks to soft launch a new digital comic book app created by Envision Entertainment which aims to showcase UK talent and help it to reach a global audience. Fans, creators and industry professionals are encouraged to visit the Fable booth (N2059) to experience the app, read its first wave of free comics and get early access to its beta.
“Fable is the result of extensive research and coordination with creators at various levels to create a satisfying smartphone reading experience,” says Envision CEO and Founder, Michael Nakan. “We aim to lean into our Britishness and showcase the amazing talent we have in the UK, before expanding our offering into Europe, the US, Japan and beyond. We passionately believe that comics are the purest form of visual storytelling, and that we have some of the world’s greatest storytellers right here in Britain. Our ambition is to help these creators reach a global audience.”
“We’re a small and proud British company, and we believe the UK has some of the best creatives and fans in the world,” adds Nakan passionately. “While comics have undoubtedly gripped the world through film, television and video games, that passion and audience hasn’t always flowed back to the comics themselves. We’re trying to change that: if we work together, we can create a global pop culture revolution with comics at its heart.”
To learn more about Envision’s new app, Fable, there is an opportunity to join a special presentation in the Industry Room at MCM London Comic Con on Friday 24th May from 3:00 to 3:40pm. The panel will be hosted by comics industry veteran, Chris Thompson (Fable, Pop Culture Hound), who will be chatting with CEO and founder Michael Nakan, producer David Barron (The Legend of Tarzan), writer/director Olufikayo Ziki Adeola (Iwaju, Kugali Media), creator/screenwriter Simon Lewis (Bad Traffic, Flesh & Blood), and Titan Comics editor Phoebe Hedges (Doctor Who, Life Is Strange) about the potential of the platform and the future of comics. One of the creators who features on the app, Ram V will be signing limited edition art cards at the booth after the panel on Friday afternoon.
As a keen comic book reader myself, I have always preferred physical copies of comic books. It’s how I grew up reading them. However, now that I have a four-month-old who wakes at the sound of comic tabs being pulled open, I have recently started reading comic books digitally, particularly through the ‘Marvel Unlimited’ app. Having trialled Fable, I am incredibly excited about the potential of this app. It is an easy reading experience which allows for vertical scrolling and enables you to create and share playlists of your favourite titles and creators or to add them to your personal reading shelf. The home page is very accessible with four categories on show; ‘Featured’, ‘Continue Reading’, ‘Fable Suggests’ and ‘Brand New Fables’ and I have already discovered new titles to read from this. The team behind Fable have also launched a Discord server, connecting fans and creators to the team and host networking events to match creators with wider media professionals so there is plenty to watch out for here.
Their submission process for creators is on their website. Under creator tools, a ‘conversion tool’ is promised to seamlessly convert comics to Fable. There is an option to register interest to be notified when this tool goes live. The first 52 creators to upload will be featured prominently on the home page of the app and feature in the first ever Fable deck. It is yet to be confirmed what it means to upload your book in terms of financial gain and it is essential to check that as a creator, you will retain all rights for your projects. Find out all of the current information here.
Download the app via the links below and use the limited-time access code MCM2024 to join Fable and have your say in developing the world’s newest storytelling platform – plus there will be a chance to win some epic prizes!
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/fable/id6476919021
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fable.app
Article by Ellie Egleton
