And how’s that for timing? Earlier today I put up the post on Longbox. And lo and behold, when I fired up the feed reader tonight I see that Kieron Gillen’s done a bit on it as well. Quite fitting really as the Gillen written (and quite bloody marvellous) Phonogram The Singles Club is all over the images for Longbox.
(Kieron Gillen. Photo from San Diego ComiCon 2008, borrowed from CharlieChu’s Flikr photostream.)
Here’s some of what he had to say from his perspective as a comics buyer and from a writer’s perspective. Well worth heading over to read the lot:
Kieron Gillen’s Notes On Longbox:
“Jamie (McKelvie) and I saw Longbox in an earlier demo at New York Comic Con in February and were impressed. In fact, I was so impressed I made sure that a clause related to this kind of sales was written into the next comic contract I signed. Clearly, I have no idea if it’ll take off. I hope it does. I also think that Longbox does so many things right that it’s got the best chance I’ve seen for a digital-comics-format system to do so. This would be a good thing. In fact, possibly a necessary thing.”
“On a personal level as a reader, I’m in the market for digital comics and have been for a while … the reduced price means that I suspect I’d be following more books than I am right now. And most importantly, I’d be sure to find something I’m interested in. In the Indie field, I’ve been looking for a copy of CHEW and OLYMPUS since they came out. And no bloody luck. This immediately solves that for any book on Longbox.”
“If we sold as many copies of an issue (of Phonogram The Singles Club comic) on Longbox as we do at retail, Jamie would have close to a living wage. If we sold half as many, we’d have rent money. Even if we only sold one copy, we’d make more money than we do now. As I said, we make no money from the issues. While a dollar an issue (minus Longbox’s cut) may seem not enough to someone who doesn’t know the economics of comic production, it really is perfectly acceptable.”
“In other words, a model where we do all single issues on something akin to Longbox and then, when completed, collect in a real trade for a paper-audience is something which seems feasible. It’s certainly more feasible than what we do now. I suspect a lot of indie creators in a similar position to Jamie and I feel the same.”
I imagine we’ll be hearing a lot more about Longbox as the months go by and we get nearer an official release.
Tue, Jun 23, 2009
Comics and cartoons, General