Japanese merchandising company Sanrio is making its debut at San Diego’s annual pop culture expo this year, complete with a Hello Kitty graphic novel, a fan hub and pop-up shop at Petco Park’s Comic-Con Interactive Zone, a fan-fiction contest, a booth on the convention floor, Comic-Con-exclusive collectibles and appearances by Kitty White herself.
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — If you’ve ever bought a digital comic book, your experience probably went something like this: You opened up an app like ComiXology, paid around $1.99 to $3.99 — likely, the same price as a print issue — but never downloaded the file for the comic to your hard drive. That’s because you don’t really own it — you’ve simply licensed the right to look at it in someone else’s library.
It’s a digital sales model that has been adopted by every major U.S. comics publisher and was inspired by fears that piracy of digital copies could hurt not just digital but also print sales. It has also essentially prevented the comic book readership (or at least, the legal comic book readership) from truly owning any of the books they buy. At least until this morning, when comic book publisher Image Comics announced that it will now sell all of its digital comics as downloadable via its website for both desktop and mobile users, making it the first major U.S. publisher to offer DRM-free digital versions of comics.
See the full article: For the First Time, You Can Actually Own the Digital Comics You Buy | Underwire | Wired.com.
Braille has come a long way since its invention in the 19th century, but it’s still tough to apply it to the highly-visual storytelling we see in comics. This realization led Phillipp Meyer, a Copenhagen-based interaction designer, to create the first comic for the blind.
Simple, recognizable shapes paired with a contextual title and a simple narrative flow was enough for readers to glean a basic understanding of a story. From there, the reader’s imagination is in charge.
For the full story see: A Beautifully Simple Comic Book for the Blind | Wired Design | Wired.com.
Less than two years after DC Comics began selling digital versions of its own comics on the same day as print, the superhero publisher announced two new digital comics formats: DC2, which will feature “dynamic artwork” that unfolds as the reader taps on the screen, and DC2 Multiverse, a choose-your-own-path format that will allow users to make decisions at key points that will unlock different storylines.
via DC Announces Choose-Your-Own-Path Digital Comics | Underwire | Wired.com.
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infophile 