The following first appeared Tuesday in the ComicsXF newsletter. Sign up using the form on this web page to get editorials, a roundup of the week’s best content and our Staff Picks in your inbox every week.
I spent about 10 minutes chatting with Eric Tapper and Chris Carter from GlobalComix last year at New York Comic Con. Their booth was part of a larger setup shared with Source Point Press and its parent company, Ox Eye Media. A few weeks before, GlobalComix had announced Source Point would be distributing digital comics exclusively through its platform.
At the time, I don’t think I had the best handle on what they wanted the platform to be. One of them told me, “It’s somewhat of a mix between Twitter, Facebook, ComiXology and Netflix.” Hey, I use all those services! Can it also be a mix between Gmail, Yelp, Waze and Farmers Only?
They had a comics reader, but not enough of a selection. You could tell they were very excited about the tech aspects of it all, but as a layman and potential user, the things worth getting excited about were all still very “coming soon.” There was a social aspect, which was nice, if you were looking for Letterboxd but for self-published webcomics.
Cut to Thursday, when a series of announcements let it be known that GlobalComix had added Image Comics, BOOM Studios, Archie Comics, Toykyopop and more to its library in advance of the company launching its app this spring. The company plants to demo the app at the end of the month at C2E2 in Chicago.
The above-mentioned publishers join Source Point, TKO Studios, Valiant, Top Cow, Mad Cave, Humanoids, AWA and others in making their content available through GlobalComix.
That’s not a complete snapshot of the comics industry — they’re still missing IDW, Dark Horse, Vault, AfterShock, Dynamite, Titan, AHOY Comics and of course the Big Two — but it’s clear the goal from here is rapid expansion.
A look at GlobalComix’s site Monday morning offers a year of unlimited reading for $69(nice).99 and features at the top Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Walta’s Sentient, Mad Cave’s Nottingham, John Carpenter’s Tales of Science Fiction from Storm King and a number of webcomics with which I am unfamiliar. Not exactly comics’ biggest and best (though y’all should read Sentient if you haven’t already), but certainly less self-promoting than ComiXology, which conveniently keeps all its Originals titles above the scroll — a boon to Scott Snyder, to be sure.
Amazon’s increasing relegation of ComiXology to the dustbin of Things It Doesn’t Care About has made it clear there needs to be another popular online platform for reading non-Marvel and DC comics. GlobalComix is coming up at the right time to take advantage of that, though some questions remain.
Will more publishers sign on, filling in the gap left by the absence of properties such as Hellboy, Vampirella and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
And perhaps most importantly, will the app address all the issues people have had with reading comics on ComiXology the past two years?
(For the record, GlobalComix boasts of the following features: Over 40,000 books in catalog with 25,000 more in the pipeline and growing; in-app subscription purchase with worldwide access; catalogs from top publishers, indie and webcomic creators; curated recommendations for hundreds of new series weekly; opt-in to follow creators and publishers for new release notifications; fully searchable personal library collection with reading status filters; filter searches by type, format, genre, theme, art style, language, paywall and other facets; comment, react and share your favorite stories with friends and community alike.)
GlobalComix also has competition. Another upstart comics reading platform, Omnibus, is expected to launch this spring, with Vault Comics among its roster of offerings.
Omnibus’ site is very much an “actual stuff coming soon” page. There are pictures of books like Paper Girls, Saga and Something Is Killing the Children, but nothing you can actually click on apart from signing up for updates. A list of features promises “In-app purchase, save to wishlist, share with friends” and “offline reading,” and a little symbol at the bottom establishes that the company is based in Seattle, Brooklyn and “Earth-1218,” which is Marvel’s designation for our reality, making it clear that, yes, these people do in fact read comics. We hope to learn more soon.
(Also let’s not forget hoopla, the platform that lets you check out digital comics through your local library. In general, let’s just not forget libraries.)
We wish GlobalComix all the best in its upcoming app rollout. More competition in the market is always a good thing. As they say, adamantium sharpens adamantium.
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
