Marvel To Sell Digital Comics Through iTunes

[JackFetch]

Marvel Entertainment will begin selling digital “In-Motion” comic books through iTunes, it was announced yesterday at the Digital Media panel at New York Comic Con.

The company is working with Neal Adams and Continuity Studios to create a new form of digital comics for iTunes dubbed motion comics, which feature panels that animate scenes and add spoken dialog from voice actors. No exact price point was discussed, however, it was mentioned that multiple prices could happen depending on the content.

The Comic Con panel offered a preview of an Astonishing X-Men motion comic based on the recent Joss Whedon run, with more original content planned in the future, according to Brian Michael Bendis. Bendis, along with frequent collaborator Alex Maleev, will do a new Spider-Woman motion comic starting in February, which will be the first in-continuity title produced specifically for the new digital medium.

“We’re looking at it as a completely new project.” said Maleev about the new Spider-Woman ongoing. “Motion comics,” he added, “require a much different process when compared to print.”

Those in the panel also explained their stance on the need for a new digital model of storytelling to satisfy the changing scope of media to new technologies.

“With [any] new medium comes a new storytelling language,” said Bendis. “It’s more than just taking the images and moving them around the screen. There’s a new storytelling language that’s emerging every time we work on it and we’re really excited for where that takes us.”

Print versions of the book will be published following the digital release on either iTunes or marvel.com, but they may be added to more digital venues in the future, according to Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada.

Marvel panelists said they would like to release more of their library in motion comic formats to add a new dynamic to the stories.

“Sure you’ve seen the origin of Fantastic Four in the movies and in cartoons, but we’re giving it to you with Jack Kirby’s art, come to life,” said Quesada. “That to me, ultimately, is the coolest part of this.

“I’m not saying that we’re there yet but, those are the possibilities,” Quesada said.

http://geeksofdoom.com/2009/02/08/nycc-09-...through-itunes/

Interesting, but hopefully will be available on something besides iTunes otherwise I will never get one.

[Stavros]

They already did this with Ultimate Spider-man didn't they? I was released around the same time that the Watchmen version was.

[grahamvidger]

I'm glad this is happening, everything in the future is digitalized, music, movies, books, and now motion comics. The only motion comic I have watched is Batman Black & White, can't say I liked it, but motion comics are a good idea, I have downloaded comics off of the internet before, it can be stressful, in some ways better than buying comic books from stores, but I still like having a comic book or graphic novel in my hands and I like adding them to my collection on book shelves and in boxes, although I like the idea that is in motion comics of listening to voice actors, even though your looking at drawn comic book stills and not moving animated people like in cartoons, but that can be annoying if your like me, where you imagine people saying the dialogue in comic books, like famous voice actors talking, like Mark Hamill or Heath Ledger if I am reading a comic book with the Joker.

By the way, I have a question for people who have downloaded motion comics on their ipods before, if you buy motion comics on iTunes Store, and you put them on your ipod, where are they stored, the TV Shows section?