Whitechapel - The LongBox Digital Comics thread

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:36:04 -0700

As some of you may know, LongBox was officially unveiled to the public on Sunday at HeroesCon. Reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, and it's especially exciting to us because the amount of details we've released at this point are very much the 'tip of the iceberg'

We should have the digital video of the unveiling panel this week, but until then, check these out...

iFanboy

Forbidden Planet

Keiron Gillen

Noise to Signal

CBR

Twitter Reaction...

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Jon Wake — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:39:34 -0700

Noisrot and I are keeping a very close eye on this.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

James Puckett — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:06:58 -0700

Part of me wants to bring up the usual nostalgia whinge about how we have to buy comics to save the stores or whatever, but the truth is I’ve become one of those people who just waits for trades (and sometimes buys them from Amazon to save money). So I welcome a service that will allow me to pay the minimum amount possible to read weeklies and monthlies while I wait for my trades.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:39:40 -0700

I was at HeroesCon for the unveiling and I've got to tell you, I'm totally fucking impressed and excited about this. The CBR article sums it up pretty nicely. Also, they might be calling it a beta but what Rantz showed off was incredibly smooth and complete...I'm sure there's still work to be done but I don't think there will be rage-inducing bugs that you get with some betas.

The biggest question in my mind is whether Marvel and DC will support the .99/issue pricing model. If not, then it becomes a question of what I would pay to read certain titles. Right now there are many Marvel/DC titles that I don't read because I don't want to pay $3 an issue, and inevitably I end up reading about the storylines online and forgetting about the TP altogether. Frankly, I think I'd still stay away from them if they were $2 on Longbox.

A few questions for Rantz, when he has a moment:

1) Will Longbox be available outside the US?

2) I know that there's a rating system involved to prevent minors from seeing mature content and that sort of thing, but will Longbox encourage/support extremely graphic material? Let's say someone's got a comic that no publisher will put in print because it's too obscene/vulgar/sexual/whatever. Will a comic like this be able to find a home at Longbox? To be clear, I'm not talking about a comic that contains this material just to push people's buttons. A graphic adaptation of American Psycho comes to mind as an example where the graphic content would be necessary to the story.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:53:20 -0700

1.) In the midst of the various country hoop-jumping to make this happen, and have it be a '2 way' street. This will not be a short discussion, and we will likely have to launch without international (or with limited international) support. Our goal is to make this happen as quickly as possibly.

2.) Because of the ratings lock-out fo 'sub-accounts' (such as parents would make for their kids, we will support graphic material (Black Kiss was used as an example in the demo for a reason). There's been a lot of work that's gone into the structure of that since the last thing we want is to have an initiative aimed at creating a true 'mass market' for comics, and then have someone in Peoria flip out because their kid saw something 'unfit'.

and thanks for the kind words, they are much appreciated, and I'm glad you liked the demo/unveiling.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:02:35 -0700

Oooh, just thought of this: integration with Netflix so that I could view comics through my Roku box. Just a thought. Deals with Microsoft and Nintendo would be huge though, given the install bases of the two consoles and all.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Corey Waits — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:16:59 -0700

So very excited about this. Especially the bit where Publishers can offer discount vouchers for subscribers who also want to buy the trade.
Longbox is pretty much the only thing that could stop me from tradewaiting (well, that and Casanova, which I can never wait for).

Hoping it launches in Australia with or soon after the initial release.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Jon Wake — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:24:10 -0700

Rantz, have you figured out how access to the service will be granted? Will the new writer/artist with a book still want to go through a traditional publisher, or will there be more of a 'general bazaar' model, where anyone can put up their book?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:46:20 -0700

Jon

Established publishers and self-publishers at launch. New 'self-publishers' will be able to participate about a year or so after launch. (since we do all file QA and per-file compatibility checks, there's not an economy of scale to doing so prior to that) There are criteria, guidelines and the like, as well as a vetting process to ensure that anything on LongBox is of professional quality (which has nothing to do with style, approach, genre, etc.) Details on this process will be announced around SDCC.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

pi8you — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:57:10 -0700

One more, io9, which mostly points and comments on the CBR interview, but hey, they're talking about it.

As stated previously, very excited about this, and the unveiling hasn't done anything to dampen it (I'll be quickly bumping against the 3-device limit, but I can live with it). Assuming everyone jumps aboard and isn't stupid in their pricing, I'm probably looking at shifting upwards of half a dozen titles to Longbox, and starting in on at least as many that I've not been picking up.

Talk of the voucher plan seems rather vague so far, is that going to be something where Longbox/the publisher will send out a coupon for use at my LCS (helping to keep up my business with them), redeemed purely online as a direct order from the publisher/affiliate store, or some combination of those?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Michael Woods — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:10:57 -0700

Longbox looks amazing! I can't wait for it to go live.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

krista — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:25:06 -0700

Ha! Took the question right out of my brain, Jon.

Glad to hear that there will be some kind of vetting/quality filtration process applied to self-published work. The range of paper comics already available can be daunting enough to even a seasoned collector, so a deviantArt/Lulu-style free-for-all would likely escalate the problem and frighten away potential new readers.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

mojojoseph — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:05:11 -0700

I'm keeping a close eye on this. As someone involved in creating and releasing a self-published indie comic later this year, it seems a very exciting possible new market to me.

ATM, as we are pretty much doing it all ourselves, most likely including printing etc, we'll probably be limited by our budget. This could open up a whole new line of revenue for us, and get the comic out to a much larger audience.

As such, I'm watching for anything mentioning the service for any details about if indie publishers can get involved

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

morganagrom — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:53:46 -0700

Purchasing a comic through Longbox will allow a user to read it in three “iterations,” meaning on three different machines or devices.

What happens after the user runs out of devices?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Jon Wake — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:14:17 -0700

Rantz,
It almost sounds like Longbox will become its own publishing house, further down the road. This is pretty damn monumental. Well done pulling it off.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:36:05 -0700

@ tcatsninfan - Agreed. Having this on Xbox Live would be amazing. There's a precedent (of much smaller scale) for it too, seeing as how they put the Watchmen motion comic up on their Marketplace when the movie was released.

They've announced plans to integrate Twitter and Facebook into their online service (and they've already got Netflix, as you mentioned), so they could use this as well, couldn't they?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:00:01 -0700

I think a very important part of making digital comics a success will be to market OUTSIDE our usual market group. Giving out free downloads through videogames, tv show ads, hulu ads. Anything to bring in more people. Also using ads like wowio did to bring in more revenue for the creators would be good.

I was a bit confused though. Would I be able to use CDisplay to read the comics or will I HAVE to use the program they featured to view it. They mention it and say atleast some can be but can they all be used with the program?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

joe.distort — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:05:36 -0700

i support this for spreading the medium and helping out areas where print is too cost-prohibitive, but i really dont want the books i love to go digital only. thats my only real concern with this.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:11:51 -0700

while single issues sales keep going down, trade's seem to be opening us up to a larger audience with their ability to get into major book stores and being able to be sold on amazon. Sadly I don't think single issues will last for more than another decade.

We'll always have our trades though so its not like we won't be able to hold it in our hands

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

warrenellis — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:31:22 -0700

i really dont want the books i love to go digital only.

As opposed to those books going away entirely? Because I think we're reaching that point now.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

joe.distort — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:36:15 -0700

well, if its a choice between not existing or existing, then yes, obviously i want them around. but you know how i prefer physical media- i am concerned for books that ARE big enough to survive in print, but that this option may become so overwhelmingly popular that people just skip the whole "getting actual comic books printed" part of making comics.

i also am well aware that my opinion on this is probably in the minority, especially on a site like this. i understand the economic reality for small publishers, i am more concerned with digital-only comics becoming the norm in a few years.

edit: i hope im being clear: i am not opposed to digital comics, i think its great for this to prosper.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

RichBarrett — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:14:58 -0700

I had the pleasure of seeing the unveiling at Heroes Con and not only was the product itself impressive but, Rantz, you are truly the perfect spokesperson for your company. Professional, knowledgeable and obviously passionate about the entire subject.

Something I'm really interested in with this is something that Rantz spoke briefly about at Heroes Con. The social and community aspect to Longbox. Not sure if it's planned for initial launch but being able to friend other Longbox users, recommend books and even buy your friends' books at a discounted rate (if I understood that properly) could be HUGE in growing the user base for this.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:34:20 -0700

Yeah, not to keep bringing up Netflix but I use it a lot and it's great to be able to view my friends' queues and add movies based on what they have.

Think about what kind of endorsements there would be if comic writers and artists got Longbox accounts and gave other users access to their lists..."What's this Mr. Stuffins thing that Matt Fraction is reading? Bought."

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

icelandbob — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:55:56 -0700

Well as long as Avatar are considering signing up to this and if it works in Iceland, i would definitely give it a shot. While the guys at my shop are a good lot it takes AGES for avatar stuff to arrive (and they didn´t know that Absolution was coming out Though they said that they would look into it....). there has also been a worrying abscense of Scalped over the last couple of issues but they said that they have had shipping problems...

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

James Puckett — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:10:01 -0700

As opposed to those books going away entirely? Because I think we're reaching that point now.

Warren, I realize that you aren’t an economist, but do mean right now because the global recession is hurting comics, or because the long downward sales trend is getting ready to nail the coffin shut?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

William Christensen — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:13:37 -0700

@icelandbob - We're looking over all the digital options. While there is nothing I love more than a printed comic, I'm aware that Avatar needs to have digital options available for fans. Avatar won't be the first company to jump on any platform, but when we do, we'll make some noise. I know of at least one annoucement this Fall that will be BIG, certainly more to follow. It is very safe to say WC will be where we pimp any news.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

RichBarrett — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:20:15 -0700

@tcatsninfan Yes, like Celebrity playlists in iTunes! Great idea.

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TechnocratJT — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:25:28 -0700

What do I want?

I want to be able to read books the week of release. I am over 30 and I love my weekly comics, but I don't like storing them and can't afford to simply throw away and spend money again on the trade of everything I might wish to reread. So I keep them.

In addition, I like having that time each week to unwind, yet I rather want to then have them collected in trade on my shelf.

I am the exact audience here I think.

I will happily pay .99 a title for a digital copy with a possible discount on the trade. In the end the cost might be comparable to the price I pay now for just the floppies. I can buy the great stuff as a book, and the rest will simply not take up physical space.

I would however point out the standard DRM machine limit is 5, not 3. 3 runs a decent risk of IT-oriented people burning through very fast.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

James Puckett — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:36:14 -0700

I am over 30 and I love my weekly comics, but I don't like storing them and can't afford to simply throw away and spend money again on the trade of everything I might wish to reread.

Exactly the same story here. Buy piles of comics and filling longboxes was great when I lived with my parents in a giant house in the suburbs. Now I’m in a relatively small apartment in Manhattan, and dealing with single issues is a royal pain in the ass.

I would however point out the standard DRM machine limit is…

The DRM isn’t relevant. It will be so bad for PR that it will eventually be dumped. It’s not easy to market a product when almost everyone who writes about it will include caveats about the DRM system.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

icelandbob — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:39:10 -0700

@ William Christensen

No probs. Am holding my breath till the fall (gnnnnn......)

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Rantz — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:41:08 -0700

The number of iterations (3) is tied to the initial launch on desktop systems. (Home system, office system, laptop) As new devices are added, we'll be increasing the number of iterations.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

TechnocratJT — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:42:20 -0700

Rantz:

Wait, is it a license for 3 at any given time, and not a machine copy limit?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

warrenellis — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:24:22 -0700

but you know how i prefer physical media

Me too. And people like, say, ME, will always be able to publish in physical media. But there won't be a third PHONOGRAM series without something like Longbox. And Gillen & McKelvie won't be the only ones in that boat.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:23:26 -0700

People keep saying they don't want the printed form to die but remember that trade's and graphic novels are a printed form. One that has shown to be viable and isn't hurting companies as much as singles from what I've seen. If anything, going digital and allowing more people to come in would increase demand for THAT printed form.

I was just watching some show on the history channel yesterday about comics and it brought up a good point. Comic book characters are probably more popular now than ever before yet are at their lowest sales as well. People want this but the single issues aren't bringing them in or interesting them

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

LokiZero — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:42:20 -0700

I was just thinking about something like this over the weekend.

My line of thinking was using the subscription based model that porn sites use ( monthly fee = username & password ) and apply it to comics. I couldn't come up with a good reason why someone like Marvel or DC doesn't jump on that and start hosting their comics digitally, undercutting the torrent sites and generating some more revenue. I know I'd be all over it.

Longbox sounds like a great idea, using the iTunes model instead of the porn site model.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

RichBarrett — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:45:36 -0700

Marvel already has a monthly digital subscription like you mention. Not sure how successful it is but I guess their degree of success on their own will determine whether or not they jump on board Longbox.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

TechnocratJT — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:50:20 -0700

Marvel already has a monthly digital subscription like you mention

Sorta.

Marvel has a digital service where you can read archived books. I think there is currently a minimum 6 month lead time between a book hitting the stands, and 1+ years is more common.

They also have a number of runs which stop dead in the middle of stories, and an uneven pattern in how they update older books.

They will be using Spider-Woman to test using the service for week of release, but seem focused on making into a media product (with voice and maybe motion).

It is in many ways a very different thing in a practical sense.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

LokiZero — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:55:34 -0700

The last time I looked at Marvel's digital comics offering, the system was just slow and horrible. It's been a few years, so I hope it's gotten better.

Why not new comics? Why not just post a scan of the image in a full-size browser window, with next and back buttons? Choose which books you want to subscribe to every month, I get a login, and they get my money. Not sure why that's so hard.

Longbox sounds like a much better system than that, I hope the big 2 jump on it.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

TechnocratJT — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:04:10 -0700

Right now it is flat fee Loki, and a way for them to make money on their archives (and the work they put into processing books so they can be collected in trade if they are pre-digital).

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

helloMuller — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:23:16 -0700

About 5 years ago I approached a comic book publisher (someone known, and no I'm not telling whow) with a proposal not unlike Longbox, based on the experience I/we have with digital download stores for music. Sadly it didn't stick: Too risky, fear of the bricks and mortar income etc. (in hindsight, too fucking early) I'm really, really glad that Rantz has finally cracked it and is making serious headway with proper platform independent digital distribution model for comics.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

yorko — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:36:39 -0700

as a creator and as a reader, i'm really excited about this. Looking forward to more info about Longbox.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:39:00 -0700

@William Christensen

I hope Avatar will give LongBox a good, long, serious look. Bringing your books to LongBox is meant to be as painless as possible, and something that Rantz stressed at the unveiling is that he isn't trying to create some turf war thing, like PC vs. Mac. The contracts aren't exclusive, so you could host your books on LongBox and any other service simultaneously (unless the other service IS exclusive, I suppose).

Competition is great for everyone but I don't think anyone will benefit if the digital comic war goes on for years. Right now there are at least two competitors to LongBox, comicsXP and PullboxOnline, although it doesn't look like Pullbox has a comic reader included. Now, as I said, LongBox doesn't deal in exclusivity terms and that's all well and good, but what happens if these competitors do? You'll end up with Image going to one, IDW going with another, etc. And no one's going to want to use three or more services to read all the comics they want.

I have this sneaking suspicion that Marvel and/or DC will come out with a similar product in the near future, especially in the case of Marvel. I can see the executives now saying, "Oh yeah, we made some mistakes with Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited but we've learned a lot from it, and those mistakes won't be repeated with this new service." And then they'll throw in some cliche business phrases like "bringing comics into the 21st century", "cutting edge", and "dominating the 'space'". And then they'll release something that sucks because they'll be following the money trail and not the consumer satisfaction trail. It'll have some godawful flaw that makes everyone hate it, like a high subscription/comic price, a comic reader that is too obtrusive or resource-intensive, or software that isn't user-intuitive. I like Marvel and DC, I really do, but I think there will be another day of reckoning for them, similar to what happened in the 90's.

I'm a cynical person by nature but I am very very excited about LongBox. I believe in LongBox, Inc. Buttons and t-shirts forthcoming (not really).

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:22:13 -0700

Rantz:

Wait, is it a license for 3 at any given time, and not a machine copy limit?

Chalk it up to the fact that I'm on vacation and a bit sun addled right now, but can you clarify your question a bit?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:32:24 -0700

@Rantz

I think he's asking whether it will be licensed to 3 machines and 3 machines only or if there are 3 "slots" that can be assigned to any 3 machines at the same time. I think iTunes has the former, so if you register it on your work laptop and then quit the company you have to call Apple and ask them to delete that record or whatever.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

William Christensen — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:46:31 -0700

@tcatsninfan - I take a hard look at everything. There are a lot of business factors at play, several of which are private discussions, and I'm sure I'll sit down with Rantz again at SDCC. But I need to make sure I am making the right call not just for Avatar, but for our creators who put their faith in me. I just don't rush into things.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:03:48 -0700

@tcatsninfan - it's three 'slots', and you can de-auth a given machine/device from your 'primary' machine in case you do something like leave a company or throw your laptop off a roof. There's also a redundancy system so if your primary system goes down, you have recovery options without spending your day on the phone with Customer Support.

William and I talked at NYCC, and as he noted, we will continue to have discussions. I expect every publisher to 'do right' by their creators, so his methodical approach, and efforts to make sure he does so, are appreciated by me.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Eddie Current — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:18:25 -0700

I am a filthy Linux user (ubuntu, in my case). Am I going to be able to use Longbox?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:28:42 -0700

RE: Linux. Possibly. It depends on the demand/feedback during the Beta. Doing the Linux build isn't difficult, and it's something we've planned for, but it comes down to whether or not the platform has enough demand/support to justify doing it as part of the 'launch deployment'. If we don't have a Linux version at launch, it's likely to happen during the first year.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

TechnocratJT — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:44:58 -0700

it's three 'slots', and you can de-auth a given machine/device from your 'primary' machine in case you do something like leave a company or throw your laptop off a roof. There's also a redundancy system so if your primary system goes down, you have recovery options without spending your day on the phone with Customer Support.

Well that works for me. 3 allowed systems at any given time (as opposed to 3 lifetime) is more then generous enough.

Now we just need a color kindle....

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

RichBarrett — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:51:57 -0700

@TechnocratJT Or a large iPod Touch ;)

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Finagle — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:25:47 -0700

Any plans specifically for portable media options? iPhone, Windows Mobile, etc.

Support for media center plugins (Xbox 360, Windows Media Center, Roku) would be nice as well.

Aside from tech stuff, some sort of subscription like a CSA farmshare basket would be nice. I'd like to get a "Season Pass" for everything put out by Mr. Ellis, for instance, for some sort of flat fee that gets me everything he happens to put out in a given month, whether a little or a lot.
---

Wishlist pipe dreams aside, I will say this reflects a lot of the stuff I've asked for in the various discussions about online comics on WC, and in all honesty may actually get me paying for stuff I currently torrent.

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tcatsninfan — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:12:19 -0700

@William Christensen

I apologize if I sounded rude earlier. I meant absolutely no disrespect.

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Eddie Current — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:00:51 -0700

Thanks, sir.

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William Christensen — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:33:27 -0700

@tcatsninfan - Thanks man, I appreciate that.

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TechnocratJT — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:38:33 -0700

Honestly bottom line is anything that ensures comics reach the audience and all those involved can make a living is a good thing. Anything which allows the viability in those terms of books that would otherwise struggle is a very good thing.

Past that is down to debate over form, preference and methodology of access. And none of those matter compared to the above. So yes, I hope this does very well indeed.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Jay Kay — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:14:02 -0700

One thing that I'd imagine would make or break the Longbox is, like what Stygmata mentioned, how compatible it is with portable devices. I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I'd think one of the key reasons that iTunes was so successful was that it has a great way to take your music with you with the iPod, and the great advantages of physical copies of stuff is the portability--to be able to take it with you when you're on the bus or on the shitter.

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KieronGillen — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:47:08 -0700

But there won't be a third PHONOGRAM series without something like Longbox. And Gillen & McKelvie won't be the only ones in that boat.

As Warren says. When we're in the situation we're in with a fairly well-discussed and critically acclaimed indie book, god knows how many other are.

KG

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MaC — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:53:42 -0700

I'm really curious about how the reader will be. In my opinion it should be a close to CD Display as possible, simple, easy to use, doesn't eat system resources.

I see lots of potential that excites me here.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

TF — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:46:47 -0700

But there won't be a third PHONOGRAM series without something like Longbox. And Gillen & McKelvie won't be the only ones in that boat.

As Warren says. When we're in the situation we're in with a fairly well-discussed and critically acclaimed indie book, god knows how many other are.

KG

Well..... fuck

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Jarreddo — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:35:54 -0700

I gotta say, I am a comics fan who has never, ever bought a single issue. I torrent new issues every week, because the thing is, I don't WANT single issues in paper form. They take me maybe 5-10 minutes to read through which just isn't worth 3-4 dollars to me, and then storing and sorting through all of them is a nightmare. This conflict very nearly kept me from ever getting into comics.

I know there are a lot of people like me. And who knows how many people out there never got into comics for this reason? With LongBox, I might actually start buying some of my favorite series in a format other than TPB.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Professor Imagine — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:24 -0700

as a longtime fan/supporter of digital comics, I will be using Longbox, regardless of the final form it takes or the publishers involved. also, I'm in the Linux camp and would like to declare my "demand" publicly. that said, how would one participate in this beta period?

ironically, I'm financially stable enough now to be continually adding books to my pull list (thanks for the heads up on diamond restocking Ignition City, btw) and am bound (pun) and determined to show my financial support for the creators whose work I enjoy (by purchasing field bags, etc). I do, however, share the frequently voiced concern about the impact this will have on our LCS. what consideration, if any, is being made for their long-term viability in this scenario?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

orwells_eyes — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:15:00 -0700

@Rantz:

Totally serious question here, are you taking investors?

Cause, to be frank, I look at this and say "That's how I'm going to be reading comics come five years from now."

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warrenellis — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:59:38 -0700

I do, however, share the frequently voiced concern about the impact this will have on our LCS. what consideration, if any, is being made for their long-term viability in this scenario?

Let me spin that back at you: why should Longbox make any consideration for your local comics shop?

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PJBurke — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:11:00 -0700

Until we get some other venue for advertising, I think the local shop is still the best way for fans to find new books to check out - regular book stores don't or won't devote the shelf space necessary to stock very many if any indie books, and certainly don't cater to non-graphic-novel books. Longbox has the potential to change that, but until it gains the kind of market share and brand recognition of even something like the Zune Marketplace its not going to happen.

Which doesn't mean I don't think the FLCS model should stay as it is, but that's another discussion.

Rantz, will longbox offer anything like the iTunes Gift Cards? Stocking those at local shops will give the stores a bit of kickback and hopefully get them to put the word out a bit on yoru behalf.

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lordmitz — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:13:47 -0700

thought i'd just pop my head in to say: rantz, i genuinely hope this all comes to fruition and succeeds. this all seems like an amazing step forward for both creators AND readers.

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Ferburton — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:44:05 -0700

this sounds interesting and like it's the right way to be going with digital comics, makes me wonder why it hasn't been done until now. Though I do like comics better in print, I could see losing the single issues for this and them being collected into graphic novels and being sold in print that way.

@PJBurke - For me, the LCS here are the worst place to try and find new books to check out, unless you want to find old books they've got in boxes stuffed in the back, priced for more then they're worth. My experience with LCS is they stock their shelves with comics they know will sell or if they get enough requests for a comic. The Longbox looks like it'll be more help for an indie cartoonist then a LCS is. If anything, it'll be the indie artists and publishers that might get this Longbox thing off the ground.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Professor Imagine — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:52:52 -0700

I do, however, share the frequently voiced concern about the impact this will have on our LCS. what consideration, if any, is being made for their long-term viability in this scenario?

Let me spin that back at you: why should Longbox make any consideration for your local comics shop?

point. but when I look at this and attempt to view the future through this lens, I see my guy hurting bad, possibly even out of business, and that's unfortunate, tragic even. he was commenting the other day that two of his biggest subscribers just dropped their pulls from 60+ books per month down to 5. I'm heading over there tomorrow and plan to get his perspective on this whole thing. in the meantime, does anyone know if there's any organized strategy on the LCS end to prepare and adjust for the future, or is it an "everyman for himself" deal?

because I've got an idea.... ;)

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:03:51 -0700

Just a thought: My LCS might be able to get by without comics. They could possibly get by with memorabilia alone. I usually spend just as much on collectibles there as I do comics and I'm sure I'm not the only one...

Not professional opinion, obviously, just personal observation.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:14:11 -0700

@PJBurke

To answer your question, yes, Rantz did mention iTunes-like gift cards that could be stocked many places, including local comic shops.

I have a similar story to Ferburton with my LCS. The guys that work there don't have a passion for comics and hardly ever read them. The only things they stock are the things they know they can sell. Now, granted, it'd be foolish of them to order indie stuff if it won't sell, but on the other hand I think they could get that stuff to sell if they actually read things and had discussions with customers when they came in.

It's tragic that local comic shops might lose business to LongBox, but what's the alternative? I think Rantz is going to try to help out the local shops within reason, but beyond that there's not a lot that can be done in my opinion.

Think about it in these terms: I think LongBox will do more to help out local comic shops than what news websites will do to help out the newspaper industry, which is to say LongBox will do more than nothing.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

James Puckett — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:34:35 -0700

I think the local shop is still the best way for fans to find new books to check out…

That’s always been the argument, but honestly I don’t think it holds much water anymore. Fifteen years ago LCSs were amazing, but these days they’re falling apart as the related industries fade. Most of the LCSs I’ve been can only afford space for Marvel DC, Marvel, and maybe some Image books. Most of the trades they sell are Marvel and DC. If you want anything else you need a subscription. Because most of them use horribly dysfunctional software for their orders, the orders get fucked up. If the store doesn’t fuck up the orders, Diamond does. Tabletop gaming doesn’t bring in the money it once did because the game companies burned their customers on D20 crap and collectible games the same way comic companies did in the 1990s, so that income is lost, too. The owners are always in debt and trying to come up with some new thing that might actually make the store profitable long enough to pay down the last batch of losses. Eventually the current superhero boom will fade out after Hollywood has milked Marvel movies for every last drop their worth and stores won’t even have that income to rely on. The LCS is becoming a really shitty business model, and I don’t know that anybody is being done a favor by stringing it along on life support.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:17:45 -0700

Professor Imagine- sooo whats your idea lol

I think a good business model might be to actually merge a comic shop with another industry that might be able to work off each other. Like a game store, coffee shop or something. Coffee shop/comic store would be interesting. Borders already has a coffee shop inside their store near my house. Not sure if that's normal for them or not though. Pretty much anything to get us out of our regular niche

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

pi8you — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:45:41 -0700

If I had any desire to try and operate a business, an uber-shop that catered to the variages of nerddom has always been the thing I'd want to do. Get a huge space, several stories tall, fill the walls/racks with books, comics, movies/videos, and games, and areas setup to partake in each, a cluster of PCs (and wifi), as well as some sort of coffee or pizza shop. Of course, this would be the biggest headache ever to manage, and being profitable would be more than a bit of a nightmare, but its the sort of haven I've always wanted to go to, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

PJBurke — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:48:09 -0700

I guess I'm spoiled - the LCS in my areas have largely been well stocked with not just the big 3, but a variety of indie books, manga, etc. I just don't see another route currently to introduce budding fans to new and lesser known projects and publishers. Hell, I'm a fan and even I can't keep up with hitting CBR and the news sites often enough to really stay on the pulse of the industry.

I do think we'll end up seeing a fusion of the LCS with other industries; I know at least one shop hoping to get off the ground stocking tabletop RPG/Wargaming, along with current run comics and a selection of graphic novels, and anime and manga offerings, plus related collectibles; the idea being to be the one-stop nerd mecca, staff with experts in each field, and cross-pollinate the fandoms as much as possible. Get the Warhammer guys reading the comics, etc. This will all be in association with a web storefront as well, and I know the owners would be all kinds of on fire to support a program like Longbox. Getting a dime from 1000 people instead of a dollar from 50.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

DC — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:57:58 -0700

pi8you you're thinking on the manga model. In Japan there are some stores, several stories high with everything manga-related that you can buy or rent and read everything and anything you want for a small price (it's something like 2$ for and hour or something like that). They have everything there. Food, computers, beds (not sure), anything you can imagine to make people stay.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

James Puckett — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:07:33 -0700

The problem with the all-geek store is that it involves selling a bunch of stuff that has low margins, low volume, is very cyclical, etc. I’ve seen people make it work, especially in affluent areas, or when they could nail a location with cheap rent near a military base. But I’ve also seen a lot of these businesses fail, and usually they’re sold to someone who thinks he’s found the perfect new support system in wargaming or coffee or LAN gaming or merch and finds out that he’s really just thrown a little more sand under his house.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

pi8you — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:09:54 -0700

You know, I know about those places (possibly in more depth than average even), but it never crossed my mind when thinking about it in a Western setting, probably because I've always approached it from the card/tabletop gaming side of the equation. There's also the general (or at least perceived) difference in nerd-density of the populations, outside of some of the huge cities in the US, it just doesn't seem like it'd be able to support the necessary traffic to keep afloat.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

James Puckett — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:23:32 -0700

…but it never crossed my mind when thinking about it in a Western setting…

And these kind of stores do tend to work better in a country like Japan where entrenched customs of hospitality make it a PITA to have or be a guest. For Americans it’s much easier for friends to socialize in each others homes.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Professor Imagine — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:56:37 -0700

well, first of all, my LCS website sucks utterly. At the very least, a mere cosmetic overhaul would be a vast improvement. however, I think big, and envision a complete web portal that would function as social network, forum, subscription manager/notifier, and industry related feed aggregator. Essentially digitizing the actual LCS itself, while still purchasing hard copies from the hard store. I want a system where, rather than having to pick up the phone and call during normal business hours (don't know why, but my guy is kind of anti-email... go figure) I can log into my account at my LCS website, add and remove titles, and also be automatically notified when the title releases to the store. I'd be able to manage my pullbox akin to the "shopping cart" on etail sites. currently, I get all of my industry news through here(WC), and now, bleedingcool on tuesdays when warren reminds me to check it. I've also been catching acomicbookorange irregularly since it's relaunch. what I'm envisioning is a repurposing of existing tools to increase the web-presence of our respective LCS's and network them in a way that will, hopefully, be mutually beneficial for all involved parties.

of course, maybe "real" LCS's do this already, and I'm just out here in Bum-Fuck Mississippi buying comics in the Stone Age.

and based on what I've read so far on this Longbox (great fuckin' name, btw! I mean... shit.) it will accomplish all of this and more, sans brick and mortar. no one seems to lament the passing of the brick and mortar movie rental joint? netflix and redbox just work better, therefore, they win. but the LCS is such a cherished an ingrained institution of our culture (by our, of course, I mean comic readers) that it would be a shame to see it fall by the wayside.

which brings us to the larger question here: how much of the real world are we willing to sacrifice for the digital?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Professor Imagine — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:11:49 -0700

while reading the comments posted since I started typing that last one, this light bulb flashed on:

the LCS should offer mini-workshops and courses on (1)comic history and (2)production.

(1)I know this 20 yr old female who just got turned on, borrowing Watchmen from me prior to the film release. her brother's a huge marvel fan, and now she wants to know all there is to know about the history of the marvel universe. I gave her 500+ digital issues of Uncanny and placed my two FA HC in her hands, grinning as she instantly immersed herself (asking upon reaching pg 7 "why is she saying 'fooking'?" LOL) a primer course in marvel history by her local expert would do her well, of course she could just listen to me and her brother rant for hours...

of course, I'd much rather attend a course on comparative genres, sci-fi comic commentary, or shit, here's one: "How Warren Ellis became Internet Jesus By Exposing Inherent Flaws in All Immanent Futures" that, of course, would be a 400 level course.

(2)and fans with ideas, pencils, and paper but no instruction or direction. workshops to link us with local talent, brainstorm, hone our skills, etc. it might even be lucrative enough to support guest artists or writers doing mini-tours... esp in their own areas... along the lines of a community based art studio, but based out of/hosted/promoted by the LCS. theses are all just top of the head thoughts here.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:47:25 -0700

@Professor Imagine

In my mind, money, Web experience, and population density are the three greatest factors as to why the things you mention don't happen already. Related to money: my LCS's website also blows, but they don't have the money to build a new and better site, one that has all the things you mention. Sure, they could probably get someone local to donate a few hours' time to create a Wordpress site, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a volunteer to roll out a huge site with the features you mentioned.

But let's say they get a site like that up and running somehow. Even then, you'd have to depend on the staff of the store to run and operate all these different things, some of them quite a bit more complicated than checking and responding to emails. How many comic shops would have staff members knowledgeable enough to handle this? I don't know, but neither of the two shops in my area check their email regularly. It's an alien idea to them, getting business from the Web like that, and who knows how much effort it would take for them to adapt.

Second, the idea of mini-workshops on comic history, production, etc. This is a matter of population density, i.e. if you live in a smaller town you're just not going to get enough people to show up. Hell, you might even have to find instructors to come in from outside the local area because there's no one nearby who's familiar with that stuff. I live in the second largest city in Georgia and I would be surprised if more than 5-10 people showed up for any workshops like that. So, you could probably get a decent crowd to show up in bigger areas like Atlanta, NYC, and so on, but I think it's going to be quite difficult everywhere else.

I do like the idea of creating a hybrid shop that specializes in both comics and some other industry. The shops in my town survive because they also function as a used book store, so they have two totally different crowds that come in. You can't combine comics with similar industries because you'd be appealing to the same crowd. I don't know what the right answer is, but something like a comic and music shop with a coffee bar mixed in would be pretty cool, or a comic, music, and video store all rolled into one.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Cameron C. — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:52:26 -0700

I found myself wandering around a mall I hadn't been in before and found a place called GAMES WORKSHOP, I believe. It apparently only sells Warhammer figures and paints and kits and stuff. The merchandise is on the walls on shelves and hooks, the floor is mostly taken up by four large felt tables and kids playing Warhammer on those tables. I stood there watching them play, unfamiliar with this particular table top game. Shortly after I was there a sales associate came up to and started talking to me. He simply asked me if I played, if I lived around there. I told him I had played Mechwarrior Dark Age for a while, and DnD, etc but never Warhammer. We had a pretty nice conversation and at the end he gave me a flyer for his store.

Apparently they run these "Academy Workshop" things where they give you a carrying case, some beginning miniatures to get you started, and in these six session workshops they teach you how to play the game, teach you how to paint the figures, and build terrain, etc etc. Sure, I'm a nerd who might be interested in this game anyway, but I think any interested passer by could EASILY just think "Hey,t his looks sort of neat" and have a simple way to get into the game and find a community to play with and meet people.

I'm not sure how comic shops can really do the same, but Prof imagine reminded me of this pleasant experience I had last week. The workshops are a great idea, and could be potentially be very awesome and fun for new readers. My former LCS (For all of a few months, before having to move again) they had a barbeque in their parking lot with free food on the same day they had a massive half price sale on any comics/tpb/hc. Also, I'd love to see an LCS that periodically puts together its own minicomic of stories made by its customers. Maybe a neat way to foster an artistic community, help out local artists, etc.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

TechnocratJT — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:07:45 -0700

Games Workshop stores are directly owned by the company itself, and a number of them in the US were closed as losses in the last five years.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

James Puckett — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:16:16 -0700

Games Workshop is selling only its own product, much of which it manufactures, which significantly increases its profitability compared to independent stores. Even still, the company has been teetering on the brink of insolvency for years, and probably would have tanked had it not acquired the Lord of the Rings license. The stock has long been a joke among people who follow the British market.

There are some private stores that have a similar approach, most notably the successful Game Parlor stores in Virginia or Dream Wizards in Maryland. But they really exploded in the 1990s heyday of CCGs and then rode the D20 and collectible miniatures waves. Since then the game companies really burned out their own market by pushing too much product to quickly and changing the rules of the games too often. Now there’s always the possibility of such waves hitting again, should someone come up with another big game idea—but I don’t think most people are in a position to try and work with that. Game Parlor is in the most affluent (per capita) area of the United States, is near Air Force, Army, and Marine bases, (and Dream Wizards is near a college town) and is located near a major city that has NO game stores. I’m not sure how many other people are in a position to do something similar.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

TechnocratJT — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:26:30 -0700

One of the big things I am interested in here is the impulse purchase aspects of digital media.

Really .99 is not a lot of money at 3AM when you are looking for distraction, so to speak. Itunes does a lot of business not on highly intentional album purchases but from people who but 1 song 3 or 4 times a month at random, becuase they can listen right away. The immediacy factor is a major influence on piracy too. Instant delivery of the desired work.

The real opportunity here is going to be in creators being able to give an interview or say, have a residency thread here. And then people can buy the book at 3AM right when they get interested (that sounds a bit salacious, no?). It might not speak to virtues of patience, but the real boom of the digital has been the elimination of the need to find time to go to a store. And that does not even account for transportation costs in a recession...

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:33:00 -0700

@TechnocratJT

YES, I couldn't agree with you more. Impulse buys play a huge part in consumer spending and it's something that's always been a little lacking in the comics industry. This is how the Amazon MP3 Store gets me. Not only are the albums heavily discounted, sometimes being $4 compared to a $15 or $20 CD, but I also don't have to drive anywhere or wait until morning for the stores to open up.

At the LongBox unveiling, Rantz said there will be a discount involved who buy a larger amount of Comic Blocks (the LongBox currency, similar to Microsoft Points). The one I specifically remember is that if you buy 100 Blocks--$100, in other words--you'll get 20 additional Blocks for free. Additionally, I'm pretty sure (but not certain, my memory is sketchy on this point) he also said there'd be a discount for buying an annual subscription to a comic, like instead of paying $12 you'd pay $10. $10 for a year's worth of issues of a comic.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Professor Imagine — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:34:23 -0700

am I missing something, or will there be a social network aspect to Longbox as well?

profiles, tweets, currently reading, forums, chatrooms, etc?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Cameron C. — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:24:37 -0700

Ha! I had no knowledge of Games Workshop aside from that one experience last week. Kind of sucks to hear all about them now ><

I haven't heard anything concrete about a social network aspect to it, but with a web version as well that would be potentially cool. I know that CBR news will integrated somehow, and CBR members get to beta test it. I don't know if it really goes any further than that, though. Public Reviews/Ratings would be interesting, along with maybe the ability to optionally make the books you buy/subscribe to public as well.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

helloMuller — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:15:35 -0700

For all those people that are worried comic shops will wither away because of Longbox: iTunes was launched in 2001. 8 years later there are still music shops around, both large and small. There are also a lot of independent digital music shops. Hell, I can still buy vinyl. What this will do is open up the market. This is the front runner and a test case. If Longbox succeeds you will see the idea of digital comics distribution take hold - it might even launch new digital only publishers. And the most important thing of all: it will give people like Kieron and Jamie a viable model to work with.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Professor Imagine — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:11:25 -0700

@helloMuller

well put.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Gregory Giordano — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:22:43 -0700

I've thought about this allot over the last 4 years- ever since itunes, podcasting, media downloads and comics warez became more and more available. The industry will clearly switch to a "digital-first/print-collection second" model. I have a few comics stories that I'm slowly getting towards readiness but I certainly can't be concerned any longer with how my book will be seen in comic shops. Even if I could afford print costs for 3-6 issues without making a dime in cost recovery, there's little or no chance that the monopoly DIAMOND will be able to afford to take a risk on it. The state of the industry is matching the already-past writing on the wall. Local comic shops days are likely numbered(population density notwithstanding). Evolution Happened. As someone who wants to make and read comics in a country that consumes and values said artform less than shitty booze, nut-covered cheese balls and Bratz dolls- What choice do I have but make my comics as a webcomic, build readership and monetize through TPB and other merch? Besides, one benefit of this painful and regretful change is- I can get direct access and communication with my readers. Digitally self-published for free now/pay later is far better than making no money at an indy-mainstream publisher who cannot support a book due to sales drop off or an inability to afford promoting it. Phonogram's dilemma is the perfect example of why we all may have to accept the present situation (guess what? it's actually past inevitable).

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

TechnocratJT — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:08:30 -0700

Why do I support this?

Right this second that is why. I can't sleep, my mood is poor and it is, in fact, 3AM. Dropping $5-10 on comics right now would be great.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

orwells_eyes — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:21:12 -0700

@Josh:

Amen brother.

I've been working on a project some obscene hours this week and never got to the store (hence my yapping on here as break from drudge) on Friday as is my custom. The notion I could order up some Northlanders NOW, legally and such? That would be nice. I can't sleep and ordering up some comics right now would be very nice. Especially since I'm back at the project all day.

Like when I discovered the all night thai place that delivered. and doubled my body mass in a month.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Finagle — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:43:39 -0700

What the last two guys said - and to add to that, I'm the kind of guy who gets obsessed with a particular title, writer or artist and will immediately go and get everything (or a significant chunk of) they've done in a chunk. When I first got started on /Cerebus/ somewhere around issue 70, I had a terrible time until Sim finally started with the phonebooks years later.

If I was in the same position today - let's say, with /Fables/ or /The Walking Dead/ - and the whole run was available online, hopefully for some kind of discount if bought all at once? I'd probably give in immediately. Please let there be some kind of discount for "buying the trade" if you don't actually want to go buy the trade.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

MagicSword! — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 07:04:41 -0700

If and when (I realise this is a stretch) it goes worldwide, there'll be the whole expat market to tap into too. I cannot get English language comics in my city (of around 2 million people) for love nor money. Beyond the current movie tie-in TPBs in the biggest bookshop, there's nothing, and GODDAMIT I want to give Gillen and McKelvie my money! I have it! The money! It's here, and I want to put it in their pockets!

But imagine being a comic book fan in a country in which comic books and comic book adaptations ARE the mainstream and there are huge towering comic book superstores and a billion billion different titles published every month and you CAN'T READ ANY OF IT. Christ. I am seriously rooting for Longbox.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:55:46 -0700

ororwells_eyes
@Rantz:

Totally serious question here, are you taking investors?

Yes, we're in the middle of that now...

PJBurke
Until we get some other venue for advertising, I think the local shop is still the best way for fans to find new books to check out - regular book stores don't or won't devote the shelf space necessary to stock very many if any indie books, and certainly don't cater to non-graphic-novel books. Longbox has the potential to change that, but until it gains the kind of market share and brand recognition of even something like the Zune Marketplace its not going to happen.

The marketing plan for LongBox is... not trivial. There's a siginificant product awareness campaign that is in the works, aimed NOT at the current comic audience, but instead focusing on mass market consumers of 'portable affordable entertainment' (Hence why we are talking with investors.)

TechnocratJT
One of the big things I am interested in here is the impulse purchase aspects of digital media.

Really .99 is not a lot of money at 3AM when you are looking for distraction, so to speak. Itunes does a lot of business not on highly intentional album purchases but from people who but 1 song 3 or 4 times a month at random, becuase they can listen right away. The immediacy factor is a major influence on piracy too. Instant delivery of the desired work.

In doing the market research, multiple studies and analysis have borne that out... that places like iTunes, Netflix, WiiWare, XBox Live, ALL experience a significant upsurge in purchase and download of digital entertainment content between the hours of 1am and 3am (per time zone) From a personal POV, god knows as someone who gets done with work around 1-2am, and wants to chill for an hour, being able to instantly see what new comics are out there, having a cig, reading through the new books, that's a huge thing.

am I missing something, or will there be a social network aspect to Longbox as well?

profiles, tweets, currently reading, forums, chatrooms, etc?

At initial, focused launch, no. 8-10 months out? Yes.

Also, there are multiple structures we've put in place that LCS Retailers should be able to leverage off of in order to increase their sales. "Gift Cards" are the least of it. That isn't because, to use Warren's phrasing, we 'owe anything' to them. That's because we believe very much that the key role here is to GROW the market, across the board. If we can successfully grow the market, it will allow for creators to do more 'non-mainstream' books... allow for more experimentation and interesting takes on approaching the medium... without having to make the choise of 'well, I have to do this 'for art's sake', because i will lose money hand over fist doing it".

Already I've had quite a few retailers ask me 'ok, how can I use this to increase my sales', and another group tell me that I'm trying to put them out of business. I don't want to put ANYONE out of business, but I want comics as a medium, a form of entertainment, and as a business, to not just survive, and eeke by, but thrive and grow.

Ok, enough of my rambling for now...

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

orwells_eyes — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:21:25 -0700

@Rantz:
I'm no whale, but I'll drop you a line.

About the late night: The comic XKCD auto updates at around midnight EST and by the early morning it's usually at or near the top of Digg/Reddit.

Comics Don't Sleep.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

BrianKellett — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:33:30 -0700

Another way in which this will result in additional sales is that I'm an idiot who forgets what comics he has ordered via his mail order company - and so I have gaps in my collections that I just can't be bothered hunting down.

*Anything* that makes the buying of comics easier sounds good to me.

(Also $.99, instant download, easy to link to comics are perfect for someone like me who doesn't read comics news blogs, but gets recommendations via friends).

Please Rantz, make it available in the UK as soon as you can. I want to give you my money.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

boyanachronism — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:21:17 -0700

If it means that i can buy things like PHONOGRAM or Chew, which i cant pick up in any of my local shops, then im all for it.
And i would imagine i would end up reading a far wider range of comics with a system like this.
So please Mr Rantz, UK launch as soon as possible please. I have the money here waiting for you.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:25:09 -0700

We definately plan on this being global. There are regional logistics and paperwork, etc to get through to make it happen, but we very much want this to be international and are working to make that happen as soon as is possible.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

ATOM — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:10:18 -0700

@tcatsninfan

Just wanted to point out another competitor to ComicsXP and LongBox, which is Carbonated Comics. I won’t do too much shameless promotion, as I am one of the owners of the company, but we are in an open beta now and looking to begin hosting content within the next few weeks as we finalize some contracts with publishers and content owners.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Professor Imagine — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:36:23 -0700

side note: mentioned this to my LCS guy yesterday. he hadn't heard of it yet. linking him to this thread.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

helloMuller — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:57:17 -0700

What? No UK launch yet? *cries

Damn regional copyright.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

DazedRambler — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:32:05 -0700

Late to the party and likely reiterating what has already been said. I have a budding interest in comics, I grew up with the cartoons and such of the bigger names, but they never led to any actual desire to look into comics. It wasn't until I discovered Warren Ellis that the interest started to grow and that was like a year ago. I live in the middle of nowhere and the closest comic shop I can find has a fairly pitiful collection of comics in it. The last time I was in the shop there were more used board games than comics. When it comes right down to it, my one remaining source is the internet, which means I either download the comics or I order them off Ebay. I don't care about hard copies, I am more comfortable reading off my computer screen than I am sitting down with a comic and I have very little room to store them. The ability to buy the comics I want (or to sample a wide variety), when I want is something that would definitely lead to me dropping more money on comics. I am a casual fan that spends next to nothing on comics, but I have the inclination to become more than that and spend my money... all it takes is better access. Something tells me I am not alone.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

AudieB — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:38:20 -0700

This looks good, and I'd use it definitely (if comes out for Linux), except for the DRM bit. Why not just do the files in jpgs or bmps? I've been burned too many times with proprietary formats - I want to know that something I buy will still be accessible in 5+ years.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:12:54 -0700

We have steps in place to make sure that you'll have access to the content you've purchased 5 years from now, regardless of if the company is still in existence. Without DRM, you'd get (at best) 50% of the comic creators and publishers. Realistically, much less than that, but I'll be generous and say the number is that high without DRM. Will that change over time? Depends on the market, the IP holders, publishers, etc.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

AudieB — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:40:14 -0700

Rantz - I can't say I understand the publisher's reluctance, but I anticipated it. I don't understand it cuz that cat's been out of the bag quite a while. Heck, 5 years ago a cop(!) friend of mine downloaded torrents of every comic published each week, burned them to a CD and organized on his shelf (and rarely read them . .). I assume it's gotten only worse since then and anyone who actually pays for a digital comic is doing so because they want to be honest in the first place, so why bother with DRM; but I guess the publishers either don't know about that or. . some other explanation I don't comprehend.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

MaC — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:34:13 -0700

@AudieB

Were anyone so inclined, by Saturday night this week they could have any comic that came out Wednesday from multiple sources. For the bigger/popular books you can get them even faster. I'd bet good money that Batman and Robin #2 is scanned and readily available online by 7:00pm or earlier Wednesday evening.

DRM is just...I don't quite understand it. It has never worked. All it has done is make life more difficult for the paying customers. Spore, despite it's arse eel summoning DRM was torrented like a million times, many of which by people who bought the game but were screwed out of playing it because of the insanely strict DRM. It's really talked up and it's something all publishers want to see but with every major PC games release the game is cracked and uploaded DRM free before the game actually streets.

It just feels like shooting yourself in the foot. I'm more then willing to pay for my comics, I want to. And I do. More then once for things I really love! Nothing would make me happier then to have a paid version of what the pirates have now. Same-Day release, fast downloads, simple and lagless reader. That's available for free. Right now. With compatibility with my PSP/PS3/iPhone/iPod Touch. And that's what Longbox is going to have to compete with.

@Rantz

I completely understand why Longbox will have and need DRM to recruit publishers, the above was just a mind dump regarding my frustration with the publisher's obiviousness to what is actually going on online with digital comics.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

warrenellis — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:47:36 -0700

DRM is just...I don't quite understand it. It has never worked.

cough iTunes cough

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

AudieB — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:34:18 -0700

cough iTunes cough

Right. But aside from the sewers, and the roads, what have the Romans ever done for us?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

nleavitt — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:35:50 -0700

iTunes DRM has always been easy to bypass, simply by burning an audio CD and ripping it back. And DRM-free iTunes Plus is the standard now. It "works" in so far as it made the major label feel good and didn't affect the user experience.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

brianwood — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:39:35 -0700

It's also "worked" in that they've sold five billion fucking songs! DRM-free came only as a result of that astounding success.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Professor Imagine — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:41:02 -0700

I don't know where this comes in, or exactly how it applies to the discussion, but it is the most pertinent example I can come up with and feel compelled to share/confess:

EpicFU featured FreakAngels about the same time that a brand new good friend of mine was recommending Doctor Sleepless, based on our mutual taste in graphic literature. Both projects immediately struck chords with me, and while I'd remembered hearing the name Warren Ellis before, I couldn't tell you anything he'd written... but lo and behold, he's following Joss on Astonishing. So I ask my LCS dealer for recommendations and he offers me the first Planetary trade. "Mystery Archeologists mapping the secret history of the 20th Century?" SOLD! As soon as I reach the end, I immediately hit the internet, knowing exactly where to go for the rest of the story, right then and there, instant gratification. This has been a few months now, and I'm at the store for my infrequent cash dump. The only title in my box is Astonishing, and I'm not accustomed to transactions under $50 so I'm digging through the trades and come up with vol. 2 and 3 and I little title I'd never heard of, "Red."

When I'm at home, on a comics binge, 70 miles from the nearest LCS which isn't likely to have the inventory I'm needing anyway, I download indiscriminately. Why? Because it's available. But I'm also a consumer who knows his place in the industry, and I know that if I'm not buying the stuff I love, it will cease to exist.

That's why FreakAngels is such a perfect example of a (hopefully) workable business model. You've got hundreds of people clamoring to spend $60 on a field bag, and feeling privileged to be in the lucky few who actually get to make that transaction and show their support for a product that will continue to be provided for free regardless. Hell, I knew I was holding out for the HC of Vol. 1, but bought the soft trade in stock at the store for my best friend (15+ year nerd buddy), because I can not get him to read a digital comic and FreakAngels, cliché as it may be, is a must read.

So thanks, William, Warren, Paul, Ariana, Mark and the entire Avatar gang for being bold and attempting to change the game, or change with the game.

Rantz, that is what LongBox represents to many of us, with our finger on the pulse and a clear vision of the future. It's the game changer we've been waiting on, and I'll do everything in my power, both financial and promotional, to see that it succeeds.

up to and including beta testing as a high volume digital comics consumer ;)

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:44:36 -0700

Unlike Spore's DRM, the DRM with LongBox isn't going to prevent you from enjoying the content.

I don't know how many of you realize how behind the times print publishers can be. I mean don't get me wrong, they're a great bunch of guys and all, but sometimes they refuse to look a few years down the road and anticipate the changes that the Internet will bring about. For example, it wasn't until the middle of 2008 that a newspaper company I used to work for removed user registration from their website. That means that, until 2008, you couldn't read ANY of their stories unless you had a subscription with them. You can imagine how many people just went to Google and found a local news station or national news website instead.

In my mind, I'm glad it's just a proprietary format and nothing else too major. It could be a lot worse. And I take Rantz at his word when he says we'll have access to our stuff years down the road regardless of whether or not LongBox is still around. I mean who knows, maybe in a year's time the DRM will be eliminated altogether.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Jamie Coville — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:50:22 -0700

Rantz, just wanna say good luck with this.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:58:06 -0700

DRM (from an average user POV) becomes an issue only when it prevents you from using or enjoying the content you've purchased in ways that you would logically expect to be able to. You're never going to STOP piracy, so the best you can do, in order to assure publishers and creators that you're not making it 'easier' for pirates is a.)have a system that prevents people from easily just 'handing off files'. and b.)doesn't annoy, or get in the way of legitimate usage. The LBX Schema is unique (to the point where parts of it are patented) and is designed from the ground up to not annoy, frustrate, or piss off legitimate users.

It's a trade off... do you want the majority of publishers to be on a platform? Then there has to be a form of DRM. Since the LongBox model is to HAVE the majority of publishers on the platform, our guiding principle then becomes "Don't ever let DRM become an issue for people who have purchased the content".

(Because, having had the discussions with publishers and creators, I can tell you, we would not have very much in the way of content without it)

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

TechnocratJT — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:56:46 -0700

Well,

I think an important point here is it is not Longbox's (or Rantz) job to fight DRM anymore than to preserve local stores. This needs to happen in a big way, and getting publishers on board, no matter how reasonable their concerns are or not (we are not going to resolve DRM as an argument here) is a big deal.

Now the other thing is proprietary format has the advantage of preserving visual intent. That may sound like a small thing, but from an artistic perspective a format that has certain rules can be much more desirable than a totally open format. It also allows the publisher to control the general presentation, retain advertisers and continuity as single books. Fidelity of visual intent can be important.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

christoph — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:00:52 -0700

@Rantz:

What about previews and/or the size and availability of previews? Not the shitty Sears Catalog of comic books, but actual content previews.

One thing that has always bothered me with Amazon is how seemingly arbitrary it is when it allows you to preview content, or when the content itself is almost useless, like only showing the foreword as the "first pages". I would absolutely love a 100% ubiquitous preview of all content, maybe something like 10 to 15% of the content available for everything.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:29:40 -0700

@christoph

You can preview up to 5 pages with each comic book before you buy it. The publisher chooses the pages to be included in the preview...that way, they can choose 5 pages that don't give any big reveals away. And I believe the previews are zoomed at 100% too, not like really small thumbnails or something.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

toyg — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:15:14 -0700

Like so many nerds across the globe, I've been toying with such ideas since forever. Glad to see somebody is actually doing it right.

My personal feature-request is the ability to buy original-language comics, not just the usual anglo rubbish. I've been desperate to get hold of Italian and (especially) French comics here in the godforsaken North of England. The French market is humongous and is the perfect weapon of audience-enlargement, almost 100%-non-superhero and some of the production doesn't even need translating. Also, Frenchmen are actually used to pay big money for their balloons, so you can easily sell them "enhanced content" at markup prices.

I find it ironic that people are worried about LCSs. The business model for those in US/UK/Europe changed quite a while ago, it's now almost completely based on selling merchandise and boardgames; without those sources of income, they would have all but disappeared years ago. If anything, Longbox shaking the market up could mean they start to see some real income from comics again.

My philosophical stance on DRM doesn't agree with your iTunes-model, but I understand how it's required to get the publishers on board, and we all know it will be cracked in a few weeks anyway. I also don't see the point in geo-limited websites, but again that's something we know how to route around until publishers get to learn what this "intertube" thing is.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

helloMuller — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:11:08 -0700

DRM is just...I don't quite understand it. It has never worked.

cough iTunes cough

cough and Apple is now starting to offer DRM free content because they finally realized its a moot point cough

Respect your customers and they'll come back for more. Look at Bleep, Boomkat,… and every other successful independent digital download store.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

MaC — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:19:07 -0700

@Rantz

Yeah, I understand why Longbox is going to be running DRM and I'm totally fine with it. Whatever it takes to get as many publishers onboard as possible, because I really want this thing to work and work well. Due to an hours change I no longer have such an easy time of getting to the LCS to buy my comics and would love to not have to jump through hoops every Wednesday.

@warrenellis

Touche, but I was meant working as in "preventing piracy". One can still illegally download anything and load it onto whatever iDevice they have. All it's doing is making it difficult for its users. But as the poster above me mentions, they are offering DRM free content for an additional $.39 cents I believe.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

TechnocratJT — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:19:28 -0700

cough and Apple is now starting to offer DRM free content because they finally realized its a moot point cough

Because they made a huge amount of money and were able to convince their partners DRM free would now be more money. Including from many of the original sales to upgrade the songs. That last bit of double dipping is both important and unfortunate. But there is no way to get around the fact Itunes was massively successful while totally under DRM, and was only able to build that model under publisher requested DRM agreements.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Professor Imagine — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:41:42 -0700

This DRM debate begs a larger question that I'm sure someone who has crunched the numbers on this project can answer for me:
Are the major publishers really necessary for the success of this project?

If every small or independent publisher got on board and Marvel and DC missed the boat, would this still be a sustainable venture?

If success is defined by creating a one-stop-digital comics shop or iComics, then no. The alternative would be the Big Guys each coming up with their own inferior solutions that they would have control over, right? But if LongBox is the best (and possibly only multi-publisher outlet), and starts generating revenue and gaining popularity, they would either sign on or fail, right?

Like GM, would it be such a bad thing if the market evolved and we only ended up with 1 X-Title a month? Does anyone see potential here for trimming some of the market's bloat?

I know the object is not to start a distribution war, but if that ends up being the unintended result, what potential benefit would the market reap?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

MaC — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:54:37 -0700

@Professor Imagine

I kind of feel like Longbox will need at least Marvel or DC in addition to Dark Horse and another Indy company. Superhero comics are the biggest selling comics and are pretty much singlhandedly keeping the direct market afloat while simultaneously pushing indy titles off the shelves. I really like that revenue stream is going to be key here.

I certainly wouldn't mind a shift away from superhero-centric in comics, but with the movie turn around and relative sucess of the superhero movie creating oppertunities to cross-promote on the new formats like Blu-Ray and Download Services which already have internet connections and could allow people who bought the movie to instantly download some comics right to their player.

I worry most about the stubbornness of the comics reader. Who are more concerned with the "LCS experience" and "Need to hold the real deal in my hands because reading on a screen is a dead experience". I tried talking about this on a forum that's primarily superhero-centric and I haven't had many responses and most of the ones I did get dealt with not wanting to pay for a reader to read comics on the crapper. It was disheartening.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

TechnocratJT — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:58:59 -0700

I am rather under the impression that the chances of getting Marvel (who has their own Digital plans)or DC (who is Warner) are at best "in 2-3 years if it succeeds, " and I suspect major publisher in this discussion refers to Dark Horse, Top Cow, IDW, Avatar and so on.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:02:54 -0700

IFanboy has beem kind enough to host video of the HeroesCon panel & demo, so you can see it for yourselves...

LongBox at HeroesCon

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:04:35 -0700

@Professor Imagine

Asking whether Marvel and DC are necessary is kind of like designing an application that won't run on Windows or OS X. The key to success here is getting non-hardcore comic readers involved...that's when the money will really show up. And let's face it, at this stage in the game most of these people are very focused on Marvel and DC.

Plus, we as outsiders don't even know which publishers are interested in the DRM. Is it only Marvel and DC or is it all of them? What about Image and Dark Horse?

I wouldn't compare Marvel and DC to GM, at least not at this point. Theoretically, if Marvel and DC didn't get on board with LongBox I don't think they would just die out...I think it's like you say, they'll end up coming up with their own solutions and going from there.

Is the market really bloated? Sure, we have a lot of books coming out every month that feature Wolverine, Spider-Man, Batman, and so on, but is that a bad thing? Don't get me wrong, I don't read many of these books myself and often wonder how in the hell there can be half a dozen Spider-Man books alone every month, but when this recession hit it kind of put things in perspective. Think about how many people Marvel and DC employ. Not just the writers and artists and such, but the editors and the merchandising people and on and on and on. Maybe the companies are too big, but would you be happy if they slashed their number of monthly books and laid off hundreds, possibly thousands, of people?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

helloMuller — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:43:43 -0700

Because they made a huge amount of money and were able to convince their partners DRM free would now be more money. Including from many of the original sales to upgrade the songs. That last bit of double dipping is both important and unfortunate. But there is no way to get around the fact Itunes was massively successful while totally under DRM, and was only able to build that model under publisher requested DRM agreements.

Yes, because through the deals they were able to make with the labels, they practically became the defacto market leader overnight.
Its only after Amazon MP3 selling DRM-free content that Apple started making the switch.

The "safety" of DRM is a bit of a moot point really. When we (the company I work at) built Bleep for Warp Records we went DRM free. It didn't hurt sales at all, and Bleep quickly became a hub for hundreds of independent labels to sell digital content. (Of course I know its much easier to work with 1 label's own download store, compared with a 3rd party app distribution other companies' IP)

As usual, it'll be the "small" independent (i.e. LBX) that will have to lead the way. And I fucking do hope they succeed!

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Professor Imagine — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:44:21 -0700

was just reading Ironman:Extremis (digitally) and came across this quote, which sums up alot of the debate raging in this thread:

"You can't just wish the future into being. It has to be paid for."

typo

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Greg W — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:38:09 -0700

I, like most others here, am very interested in this. Picking an example at random.... After the series of convoluted messes DC has made with their "Crisis" crossover books, I've always shied away from any of their big stories. However, after hearing good things about the "Sinestro Corps War" I picked up a few issues, thinking to just check it out. I liked them, but (again, as many others have said) availability of the remaining story was a problem. If I could have gone and grabbed them online for a buck apiece I would have. In a heartbeat. This idea has a real serious chance to succeed in a big way, and I'm really hoping it does.

As far as DRM goes; I get it. From the small indy publisher thinking "I have to eat this week, I need every sale I can get." all the way up to the big 2 thinking "We need to protect out properties!" I get it. But anyone who has watched the issue over the last few years knows it is possible to make money without forcing DRM on people. How many bands have given away their music just to have their fans go and buy their CD as well? How many webcomics continue to make money off sales of their books and other merch while giving away their daily/weekly strips? Last year Ironclad and Stardock put out the computer game "Sins of a Solar Empire" with no DRM of any kind on it. People lost their minds over this, how could a company do this? Just let their game loose in the wild like that, free to be copied and traded and pirated all willy-nilly? And they sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

Here's the thing; the people and groups and companies that make money consistently without using DRM all put out good products. That's it, as simple as it can be. Put out something worthwhile and people will pay for it.

I think there are a lot of people that want to see this succeed and will pay for comics even with DRM, but they're all going to be hoping the same thing, that maybe, eventually, it'll go away.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:34:47 -0700

@Rantz:

What about previews and/or the size and availability of previews? Not the shitty Sears Catalog of comic books, but actual content previews.

5-8 page previews, determined by the publisher, which can be either sequential or non-sequential (to avoid spoilers, give a better sense of the 'feel' of the book, etc) Previews are smaller than the LBX file pages (to ensure speed in a catalogue of potentially 100s of thousands of titles) but are large enough you should get a good feel for what the comic is like.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

MisterSmith — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:53:47 -0700

Rantz (& Co.), have you had any cases so far with certain books/creators not being on the service because of pressure from companies who don't support it? (For the sake of example) have guys like Bendis and Brubaker turned down putting their own books like Powers and Criminal on Longbox because of their close relationship to Marvel and their current lack of support for Longbox?

Also, for the gift cards, would they be sold exclusively through comic retailers or would we be able to find them in places like (for example) Borders and Target as well?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

warrenellis — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:58:34 -0700

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:18:30 -0700

Do you REALLY expect him to answer that?

Beat me to it...

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

MisterSmith — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:04:46 -0700

Well, definitely not with examples or specific details. Wasn't expecting much of anything, took a shot anyway.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:57:46 -0700

Well, I know Warren REALLY wants to be on LongBox, but William won't let him out of his Avatar Shackles...

(I am SO joking. William has been nothing but nice to deal with, and Warren can drink us both under the table and make us cry like schoolgirls.)

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

AndySpield — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:55:23 -0700

Longbox looks amazing. I use digital comics on my little G1 phone for my train commute but there's very little offered.

Hoping that Longbox solves the content issue. Like many other people on this thread, I'm more than willing to try any number of titles for 99-cents a pop. The more, the merrier. I mean, I don't want to watch any necrophiliac clown pedophile stuff, but I can get into lots of other things.

With that in mind, I hope that more creators feel like they can get involved in comics and make a little bit of coin on their creations. And that more creators pop a wider array of genre (from gangster homo sex to pageant romance melodrama to coffeehouse cliques discovering witchcraft to cowboy gorillas to dinosaur alien explorers to, yes, spandex fetishists).

I've already been forced to switch to digital for books & music just due to space concerns. Can't wait for Longbox. Bring it on!

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:37:47 -0700

With that in mind, I hope that more creators feel like they can get involved in comics and make a little bit of coin on their creations. And that more creators pop a wider array of genre (from gangster homo sex to pageant romance melodrama to coffeehouse cliques discovering witchcraft to cowboy gorillas to dinosaur alien explorers to, yes, spandex fetishists).

A huge motivation in doing this is that I am sick of seeing very talented creators and friends of mine have to make the choice of a.) have a day job (or 3) in order to be able to pay the bills b.) do comics they really don't want to do in order to pay the bills, c.) give up doing comics or d.) make the choice to basically starve to death in order to be able to keep doing the comics they love. We expand the market past the limitations (in terms of numbers of shops, people willing to Go to shops, and the type of content they typically support) in the majority of LCS', and I think we'll end up being surprised at the types of books that end up becoming the 'big hits'. An example would be the Nintendo DS game "Cooking Mama". Trying to sell that game, prior to the DS having 40 million units installed worldwide, would NEVER have gotten approved. But at those installed numbers, the game could sell to .04% of the installed user base and still be profitable. Four years ago, the discussions with publishers (prior to the DS launch) were VERY different than they are now in terms of both them approving titles, and what kind of titles they prefer to focus on, because (after the willingness to experiment) games like Cooking Mama and Brain Age have actually ended up selling well BEYOND 0.04% percent, AND ended up actually expanding the demographics of the installed user base (i.e. people like my mom ended up buying a DS because of games like that).

It's an exciting time for comics on so many levels.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Alastair — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:08:56 -0700

i was skeptical about reading comics on my computer but then i realised i've been reading freakangels online since the start.

i just became much more excited about this

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:26:07 -0700

@Rantz

Will you give us Whitechapelites invitations to the beta? I know that people at SDCC and CBR members will get some kind of notice but I don't fall into either of those groups.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:38:10 -0700

There will be other forums and opportunities to participate in the Beta, I hadn't talked with Warren, Adriana, or the Avatar crew about possible WC participation, but I imagine it's a possibility.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Professor Imagine — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:42:36 -0700

Imagine! Music to my ears!

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:44:23 -0700

SDCC LongBox Events & Panels...

10:00-11:00 LongBox Digital Comics— Rantz Hoseley (CEO LongBox, Inc., editor of Comic Book Tattoo) hosts this presentation of the LongBox Platform for Digital Comics. Rantz, along with special guests—including Jeff Katz (American Original Productions)—demonstrates LongBox, talks about the impending launch, and discusses some of the exciting partnerships and plans for what some are calling the future of digital comics. Room 32AB

3:30-4:30 Digital Comics Now!— Digital comics are happening right now. Not tomorrow, but right now. Join a panel of the best and brightest in the new wave of digital comics in a wide-ranging discussion of everything from comics on the iPhone to new digital comic platforms, motion comics, webcomics, and day-and-date-releases. Big announcements will be made! Panelists include Michael Murphey (CEO iVerse), David Steinberger (CEO of comiXology), Rantz Hoseley (CEO LongBox), Chris Folino (VP, Catastrophic Comics), and Chip Mosher (marketing director, BOOM! Studios). Room 4

More to be announced in the coming days...

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:51:48 -0700

damn it all the way on the other side of the country....

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:59:54 -0700

I wish zcultfm lasted long enough for this. I was a member of it for awhile before marvel and dc cracked down on it. The site just went down a little bit ago. Zcultfm, new x-men (morrison run) and a spiderman trade were what got me hooked into comics. It would've been cool to see something between longbox and zcult happen.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

runkst — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:22:21 -0700

Rantz,

Can't wait to see Longbox. When I discovered eMusic, I switched completely from the occasional illegal music download to only legal downloads and in much higher quantities. I have a feeling this might do the same to my digital comic reading.

When Longbox goes international (hopefully at launch), will there be region locking? E.g. will some titles/publishers only be available in certain regions? I'm afraid of a scenario where most of the bigger companies won't be available outside the US.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:18:21 -0700

@runkst RE: Region locking, I hope not. It's one of the pieces that has to be worked out, and with some publishers and countries gets pretty complex and convoluted. Our ideal goal is to have this as a truly global platform. You can here about some of that here:

http://www.comicgeekspeak.com/episodes/comic_geek_speak-850.php

Comic Geek Speak put up a VERY detailed and VERY extensive interview with me today on LongBox. It should answer some outstanding questions that keep getting asked.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Michael Woods — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:06:42 -0700

Really anxious to see this thing kick off. The day job needs to go.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:46:40 -0700

the day job is gone for me but I still think longbox might be the best shot for my continual comic career

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:35:07 -0700

Ok, so...

We’re heading in to the ‘select Beta’ for LongBox, as as a part of that, we’ll be giving out access code cards at SDCC. I’ll be notifying everyone via my Twitter stream (@rantzhoseley) of where and when, as it will change daily, and be for short blocks of time. If you’re not going to SDCC, don’t worry, I’ll be announcing more opportunities to become part of the Beta in the near future.

My (public) schedule for SDCC is as follows:

Thursday July 23rd
12:00-1:00 LongBox Digital Comics— Rantz Hoseley (CEO LongBox, Inc., editor of Comic Book Tattoo) hosts this presentation of the LongBox Platform for Digital Comics. Rantz, along with special guests—including Jeff Katz (American Original Productions)—demonstrates LongBox, talks about the impending launch, and discusses some of the exciting partnerships and plans for what some are calling the future of digital comics. Room 32AB

3:30-4:30 Digital Comics Now!— Digital comics are happening right now. Not tomorrow, but right now. Join a panel of the best and brightest in the new wave of digital comics in a wide-ranging discussion of everything from comics on the iPhone to new digital comic platforms, motion comics, webcomics, and day-and-date-releases. Big announcements will be made! Panelists include Michael Murphey (CEO iVerse), David Steinberger (CEO of comiXology), Rantz Hoseley (CEO LongBox), Chris Folino (VP, Catastrophic Comics), and Chip Mosher (marketing director, BOOM! Studios). Room 4

Friday July 24th
8pm – Hilton Bayfront, Indigo Room
The 2009 Eisner Awards. I’m up for two Eisners, one for Best Anthology, and one (With Tom & Liz Muller) for best packaging/design.

Saturday, July 25th
5:30-6:30 Made for Mobile: Creating Comics for the iPhone and the Big Small Screen— With the advent of bigger screens and increased bandwidth, mobile comics are now poised to make the creative and economic leap to become a major force in the universe of comics. Uclick, the top name in mobile comics, hosts a panel of experts in creation and distribution in the medium. Learn how existing comics are being adapted and new comics are being created specifically for this next generation of mobile devices. Get important information from Uclick on their open call for new and established creators designing comics specifically for mobile devices. Panelists include Douglas Edwards (president and CEO of Uclick, LLC), Rantz A. Hoseley (CEO of LongBox, Inc.), Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man), and Shena Wolf (asset manager for Uclick). Moderated by Peter Maresca of Uclick and Sunday Press Books. Room 10

At the same time, one of the LongBox team will be appearing on this panel...

5:30-6:30 American Original: Birth of an Original— Jeff Katz (Booster Gold, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash), president and founder of American Original, Marc Silvestri (Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia), and Matt Hawkins (president of Top Cow) give you the 411 on the genesis of their "Nerd Machine"! Find out what's coming from American Original first, and get introduced to their mix of talent from a spectrum of comics, film, television, sports entertainment, and animation! Plus enough surprise guests to fill a three-ring circus! Room 7AB

(i'm not doing any signings... too many meetings and not enough time)

Hope to see some of you there!

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

BrianKellett — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:52:08 -0700

It's sad, but it really does annoy me when people around the world want to give publishers money, yet aren't allowed to do so because they live in a different region. I mean, seriously, publishers in a global recession don't. want. my. money?

I can go over to America and buy something physically or I can get it on import - but as soon as something turns into electronic bits of information the gates come down and you aren't allowed to own it.

I'm having similar problems in trying to buy ebooks.

Does it really make economic sense, in this connected world, to make it impossible for people to buy your stuff?

Rantz, you are a stronger man than me - because I suspect that were I trying to launch such a thing I'm end up standing on the conference table half naked screaming at publishers to stop being some bloody short-sighted and stupid.

So good luck Rantz - whatever you sell in the UK I suspect I'll find something new to read.

(I keep checking my watch/diary, tapping my feet and loudly complaining that Longbox isn't here yet...)

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

metasyntactic — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:26:17 -0700

Hey All,

If this is the wrong thread, please let me know :)

I'm the author of the new 'Comics' app for the iPhone: iTunes Link
I was wondering if you guys had had a chance to try it out. I'd love to get some feedback about what's good/bad and what you'd like to see improved.

Thanks!

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Corey Waits — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:32:01 -0700

Rantz has started tweeting about some Image comics that are going to be on Longbox - Viking, NYC Mech & Hawaiian Dick so far.

Very exciting. Hope we hear a lot more announcements like this before the end of the weekend.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Charlene — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 10:43:23 -0700

Congrats on the Eisner.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:08:39 -0700

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:25:01 -0700

So it seems that longbox did well at the san diego con. Rantz talks about ads being added to the comics if the creator wishes which would make them free if I heard right, right? I was wondering if there are any companies that have been/can be announced that will be putting their ads into the comics.

We're going through the 'paperwork' stage, so I can't announce specific publishers, but I can say there are multiple publishers that plan on doing this.

Reaction at SDCC was fantastic, wish I had a week to nap and 'recover', but there is too much to do (which is a great thing, mind you) More news and announcements very shortly.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Professor Imagine — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:16:15 -0700

will LongBox be at Wizard World Chicago?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:41:01 -0700

Nope. We may be doing a show appearance in October (Long Beach or Blatimore) but no more conventions until then. Too much to get done!

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:19:51 -0700

@Rantz

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, so I apologize if it has, but are there any plans to bring magazines to the LongBox platform? It occurs to me that there are a number of digital mags and print mags that are quickly going the way of the dodo. Even the ones that aren't struggling might want to give it a shot *coughs* hopefully Coilhouse *coughs* because they don't sell it near me *coughs*

Man, it's drafty in here.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:09:55 -0700

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:46:08 -0700

It'd be great to be able to buy back issues of mags like Life and Nat Geo for a couple bucks. Imagine all the huge historical events they covered and what it must've been like to read about them at the time...oh wait, some of you are older than me and were probably alive then.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:25:56 -0700

oh wait, some of you are older than me and were probably alive then.

NO BETA CODE FOR YOU!

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:17:05 -0700

when will be the announcement for more beta cards. Will it be mentioned here at whitechapel? I check your twitter pretty regularly but just to make sure since I check this site much more than any other

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:25:26 -0700

Yes, I'll mention it here.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

helloMuller — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:40:07 -0700

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, so I apologize if it has, but are there any plans to bring magazines to the LongBox platform? It occurs to me that there are a number of digital mags and print mags that are quickly going the way of the dodo. Even the ones that aren't struggling might want to give it a shot *coughs* hopefully Coilhouse *coughs* because they don't sell it near me *coughs*

I would be nice to have magazines that are image-heavily, such as the Look, Life, or Nat Geo archives easily available, wouldn't it? If only...

Actually (warning! wild conjecture to follow!) a much more interesting way to expand the Longbox service beyond US comics would be to get a foothold in the UK/Euro market, which is much more focussed on creator-owned work (although creators tend to strike deals with publishers).

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:00:50 -0700

^that was one of my thoughts about it. There are so many great books in the european market that are difficult to get a hold of here. Though they also work in graphic novel format if I understand correctly so they might end up getting priced a bit more

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

morganagrom — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:26:26 -0700

What happens when the creator makes changes down the road? Will there be automatic updates?

How about when a work is revised and/or completed for collection? An example of this is Bob Fingerman's minimum wage which was released as pamphlets for a while, and then ceased publication, only to be completed later as part of a single book, with the earlier pages revised. Will people who bought the digital periodicals on Longbox have to pay again for the complete digital book? Or would that be thrown in as a "thank you" for the early support?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:32:54 -0700

Rantz,

I got a beta code from Tony Lee. Am I missing something or will there be an update to the LongBox website that allows me to enter the code?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

BrianMowrey — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:56:04 -0700

It'd be great to be able to buy back issues of mags like Life and Nat Geo for a couple bucks. Imagine all the huge historical events they covered and what it must've been like to read about them at the time...oh wait, some of you are older than me and were probably alive then.

You already can buy NGs. Thrift stores have them. Antique stores have more reliably old selections (for more money). 60s and 70s National Geographics are the bees knees.

@Rantz RE last night's Open Mike:

Get some of that Smart Balance Peanut Butter. An all-natural, non-hydrogenated oil blend with healthy levels of fat plus superb roasted flavor plus it's got them omegas. Nobody should have to stop eating peanut butter. Nobody.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:12:52 -0700

As I've stated many times, the Beta is not live yet. If you follow the instructions on the website, you will get an email with instructions on how to use the beta code the second it goes live. :)

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:35:18 -0700

Part 1 of a VERY lengthy interview went up on Newsarama today. More details and BG, etc...

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090804-longbox-part1.html

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:42:01 -0700

Had to post this here, because i know Warren, if no one else, will appreciate the bitter irony.

So reaction overall to LongBox on the interbes has been incredibly positive. For every 30-50 posts, there's maybe one or two saying "I'll never read digital, print comics are the ONLY way comics should be."

However...

there's a forum that's geared around a certain sci-fi "superhero" character... a character that has always had a space/tech/futurism kind of vibe to it, and the response on that forum?

about 7 out of 10 are saying things like "Digital Comics are the devil, comic companies should ONLY be doing print!" etc, etc. I realized how naive I can be at times, that it actually surprised me that, on a forum dedicated to a sci-fi superhero, sheparded into creation by an editor who got his start as an agent for sci-fi writers, would be so "anti-tech"

Ok, end of digression...

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

BrianMowrey — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:44:26 -0700

Well, you get the real digital-haters when you go to the print forum. Print forums will always be the only real kind of forum.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Mike Black — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:40:01 -0700

Going back to an earlier question in the thread about LCS owners, it works as such - They should be transitioning to a repository of trades, graphic novels, traditional print and memorabilia in the long term.

Resistance to change is not a viable business model.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

ZacDozier — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:59:52 -0700

Mike Black - I've heard from my local LCS owner that he already was having problems trying to stock mostly trades, as he can't compete with the discounts that Amazon or the like can mark off a book. If everyone of his regular customers adopt Longbox 100% and buy TPB's of anything else. I can see his store going under.

That said I prefer Trades anyway, and would rather not wait to read the story has it's published monthly for a title. I think a lot of LCS's are going to have to make changes, but I think they've needed to make them years ago.

Comic book specialty stores shouldn't exist. Bookstores should be their home, which they kinda are now.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

darkpinky — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:44:41 -0700

@Rantz - Longbox looks fantastic. I realise you've probably got many more important territories to sign up before Australia, but when you get here, I'll be waiting. I read almost all of my comics on-screen (I was reading webcomics years before I discovered "real" ones that interested me) and really only buy the paper versions if I want to support particular books or creators (or when things like Absolute Sandman come along). I'd happily buy electronic versions as well, especially if it gave the creators a bigger slice of the pie.

@KG and mckelvie - I downloaded Phonogram because Warren had talked about it on his blog, bought the trades of Rue Britannia and Suburban glamour once I had regular income, and was excited to be part of a new series as it was coming out.

which is why I was really disappointed to read that you aren't making any money on Phonogram 2. I have a standing order for it, thinking I was doing you guys a service. It sucks that the current distribution model isn't supporting a work of such vision and integrity.

@everyone who wants phonogram 3 - mckelvie's site has a section called Torrenting which has a paypal donation link for those who want to help support Good Art.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 06:15:32 -0700

@rantz- what's the forum if you don't mind me asking?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Professor Imagine — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 06:36:33 -0700

and when you say:

As I've stated many times, the Beta is not live yet. If you follow the instructions on the website, you will get an email with instructions on how to use the beta code the second it goes live. :)

which website would that be, exactly?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Spiraltwist — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:55:13 -0700

@Professor Imagine

This website, probably.

(For information regarding the LongBox Beta. Please use the “info” email address, and use BETA in the subject line. Do NOT email your Beta code, or use it in the subject line of your email. Thank you

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Mike Black — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:53:40 -0700

@ZakDozier - What I'm saying is in the long term. You're not going to transition from 15 guys arguing over Red Hulk to a traditional bookstore over night. I don't expect anyone to. It should be a gradual move. There is no reason that a LCS can't be a viable business in the long run. I hate to cite James Sime here, but The Isotope is a perfect example of a hip, viable business model.

Ideally, if I were a retailer, when something like Longbox comes out, I would start a huge advertisement blitz in my store. I'd make a point of telling each of my customers about it, and I would especially push the "trade paperback voucher" program. I'd slowly start phasing out single issues, and in their place start pushing trade paperbacks. I'd dedicate single issue space to trades, graphic novels (the types which are not normally stocked by LCS',) and I'd start stocking much more Manga than the typical LCS does.

This sort of change can't happen over night. It's going to take blood, sweat, and tears from the retailler. Quite a few will fold into history. However, the savvy business people will thrive and grow.

We're a service based economy now. You can't expect people will choose you over another shop simply because of what you stock anymore. You need to step up and make your store the single best experience you can. People will come.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Brad McLoughlin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 02:05:07 -0700

Hey rantz, I really love what you're doing. If all works out, you're basically going to reinvent the way I read, sample and store comics, and from my end, it can only be an improvement. Just a quick question, I've recently taken to reading digital comics on my netbook rotated 90 degrees, so I can read it like a book (which made me 150% more interested in the medium distributed this way) and I was wondering if Longbox will support this?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Professor Imagine — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:19:52 -0700

oooh! good question. naturally, the LongBox Reader should be "full-featured", right?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:02:00 -0700

There's a reason (other than the aforementioned netbooks) to take into account screen orientation... without violating NDAs, I'll leave it at that.

Also, screencast of LongBox (barring complications like another unplanned root canal) should be up by the end of the week. I'll be sure to post the URL here

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

sleemo — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:30:11 -0700

Been looking forward to this screencast, myself.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:51:44 -0700

You want a screencast/video? well... ok then.

Check THIS out...

enjoy!

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:14:47 -0700

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:25:49 -0700

one of the things that bothers me is the fact that I and many others are use to the simple method that CDisplay uses to read cbr files. You've shown that cbr files can be read on longbox but will it be vice versa or maybe having a cdisplay style setting in longbox itself? I think it would go a long way for getting that crowd to come.

One of the features demonstrated at SDCC, but not shown in the video, is the "minimum UI" mode as well as "No UI" mode. So for users who prefer to have 'just the pages', that is available to them.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Brad McLoughlin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 04:31:03 -0700

Stunning work, Rantz. You really seemed to have covered all bases, while keeping the UI simple and good looking.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

helloMuller — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:51:09 -0700

Thought this was interesting, only to hammer home the point that Longbox is indeed the future: apparently Sony is releasing their own comics/digital reader for the PSP

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

BrianKellett — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:05:48 -0700

There's a reason (other than the aforementioned netbooks) to take into account screen orientation... without violating NDAs

If I were to read something on a reader something like, say, a 10" aluminium 'media tablet', it'd be nice to be able to lock the orientation so that I could read it while laying in bed. For I am lazy and the way the iPhone automatically re-orientates the screen can be annoying in the circumstance.

I like the 'bulk discount' of comicblocks - my brother buys around £300 of comics per month (Mostly Marvel/DC) and so I can see that alone saving him a shedload of money.

Has the dynamic zoom been used elsewhere - because if it hasn't would it be worth patenting it? Because it seems really intuitive.

Yet again you whet my appetite, and I am keeping my fingers crossed that the Rights/Regions/Publishers is as large as possible. I also look forward to the Reader support, if only to see how you do it...

Will there be support for user skinning of the Longbox client? I only ask because the neon blue wouldn't fit in that well with my minimalist Mac desktop.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Chris Hodge — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:30:01 -0700

@ Rantz

This is pretty much the complete opposite of what you are doing, but...

Could you ever envision a time when LongBox users could print comics on demand and have them shipped to them? I know it sounds ludicrous considering what LongBox is intended to be, but I think there could be a market for this, especially with out of print or rare comics.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:52:21 -0700

Has the dynamic zoom been used elsewhere - because if it hasn't would it be worth patenting it? Because it seems really intuitive.
It hasn't (in this manner) and the application has been filed.

Will there be support for user skinning of the Longbox client? I only ask because the neon blue wouldn't fit in that well with my minimalist Mac desktop.
Yes, there will. Documented support. As opposed to 'sure you can skin it if you can figure out what file "X_3ZMM_64x_STFU.png" relates to'. Crazy concept.
There is also a 'minimum' UI mode and a 'pages only' mode (for the reader)

Could you ever envision a time when LongBox users could print comics on demand and have them shipped to them?
Shipped? In some cases (such as collections, OGNs, etc) yes. POD? Highly unlikely.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:05:00 -0700

Just wondering what is everyone's expectations during the first month of longbox going online? How many downloads you think will the top comic you think have? Who do you expect to join in from the other publishers?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

BrianKellett — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:16:45 -0700

So now the question is - have the recent changes in DC and Marvel made more work for you?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:14:55 -0700

Actually no, it hasn't. Can't go into more than that due to NDAs and the like...

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

btx — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:33:37 -0800

Is there another thread that I'm not seeing? Since this just seems to have gone into private beta, I guess agreements/ndas are keeping folks from commenting?

The sales interface was by far the part of the application I thought was the most interesting... it looked like the type of interface necessary to make this thing viable, which is a great thing. I keep hearing rumors of future strategic partnerships - obviously you can't comment on those, but perhaps you can say whether or not the software is basically the same as above for Win / OS-X.

Another question: A while ago, I read something that claimed the format was vector-based. I assume that was a botched quote (if you folks have a way to turn raster -> vector with that type of quality, you might want to look into another market :) The vimeo video above wasn't really clear enough for me to tell.

Will it be up to the publisher to determine what resolution its pages are? I actually like having a bunch of horizontal resolution, which is something marvel doesn't deliver (one of many things). What about multi-page spreads? One of the greatest things about digital comics is the way gorgeous artwork isn't broken up by the book's crease... is the goal to try to go with the "comic look" with the crease, or will your software support that?

Avatar has some of the sweetest wrap covers in the business - I'm a big fan of Juan Jose Ryp's work on Avatar books, especially No Hero & Yuggoth Creatures. Would LOVE to see that kind of spread in high res glory on my screen, rather than seeing it with a crease in the middle and a couple staples. :)

Anyway, best of luck with your beta program! I'm psyched to see where this goes - my perfect scenario = all new comics released in this format, with trades and hardcovers released as usual... still can't beat a nice hardcover for the books you truly love, but after moving several times, I really can't stand issues anymore, aside from a few that are important to me.

-b

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:44:40 -0800

Hey BTX

I'll try to answer this tonight, after food and caffeine...

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:31:02 -0800

OK, answers...

The sales interface was by far the part of the application I thought was the most interesting... it looked like the type of interface necessary to make this thing viable, which is a great thing. I keep hearing rumors of future strategic partnerships - obviously you can't comment on those, but perhaps you can say whether or not the software is basically the same as above for Win / OS-X.
The app is HW/Platform agnostic... there isn't a "Mac Version" or a "PC version"... it's all the same code base that has a graphic UI wrapper that allows of OS-specific issues. We've walked away from two partnerships, after months of discussions and negotiations because it would have meant limiting what platforms/HW that customers could use LongBox on, and that's a go/no go line for us.

Another question: A while ago, I read something that claimed the format was vector-based. I assume that was a botched quote (if you folks have a way to turn raster -> vector with that type of quality, you might want to look into another market :) The vimeo video above wasn't really clear enough for me to tell.

It's a botched quote, the files are not vector-based.

Will it be up to the publisher to determine what resolution its pages are? I actually like having a bunch of horizontal resolution, which is something marvel doesn't deliver (one of many things). What about multi-page spreads? One of the greatest things about digital comics is the way gorgeous artwork isn't broken up by the book's crease... is the goal to try to go with the "comic look" with the crease, or will your software support that?

You're actually talking about aspect ratio... publishers/creators can designate BOTH resolution (dpi) and aspect ratio (forced single page, double page, multi-page, etc) at export time. It's entirely up to the creator/publisher how they want to present the pages and layouts.

Avatar has some of the sweetest wrap covers in the business - I'm a big fan of Juan Jose Ryp's work on Avatar books, especially No Hero & Yuggoth Creatures. Would LOVE to see that kind of spread in high res glory on my screen, rather than seeing it with a crease in the middle and a couple staples. :)

Yep, and going off of that, having access (again at the publishers/creator's choosing) to have all the 'alt' covers as well...

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

BrianKellett — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 05:32:06 -0800

Have you seen www.graphic.ly ? Seems that they are doing a similar thing.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 06:27:07 -0800

There were rumors circulating that LongBox was having discussions with Apple for their tablet(Ipad) that has now been released. I understand that you can not say yet until an announcement has been made whether that was just a rumor but when do you believe this will be announced on who the large company you are working with will be?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:53:25 -0800

Yeah I'm wondering what the status of LongBox is. Haven't heard anything concrete in a long time. I got a beta code back in...I don't even know. June, or something like that. Been waiting to use it but I'm wondering when it'll happen.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:01:26 -0800

Been waiting to use it but I'm wondering when it'll happen.

This month. Major developments over the last 8 weeks, radio silence should end starting this coming week...

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

deantrippe — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:12:00 -0700

(BUMP)

Looks like a nice day for a beta.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Corey Waits — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:58:48 -0700

Oooh, lovely. Downloading now, but won't be able to check it out until later tonight.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:33:16 -0700

I downloaded it but it doesn't have a file type. I assume it's a .exe file?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Cat Vincent — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:40:29 -0700

D/loaded Mac version. Loads fine... but creating an account (without which you can't do anything) is a pain.

According to the Bleeding Cool forum, the form is picky about passwords - likes 10 characters (rather than stated 8) and needs mix alphanumeric and upper/lower case. But even following this format, still not working for me. I continue to fiddle.

EDIT: Despite inputting a password that fits criteria & filling out other fields carefully, attempts to create account only result in a deeply unhelpful error message; "Invalid Data, Please Check Your Input". Knowing which field needs changing would help!

EDIT2: - Aha! Make sure you also set the "State/Region" box to "N/A for Beta" or it won't work. I now has account... Proceeding.

Oh. One final hoop - you have to give the name of the machine you're registering! That'll be interesting when I try using another box... trying with 'Mac' as machine name for now. Hooray - actually got to the Store page & d/loading Phonogram/Pull Shapes & a couple more to test.

EDIT3: - Working OK so far. Doesn't like the "Double Page" button at all - screen snows up - but page turn & zoom are fine. NB comics are watermarked for the beta, so allow for that.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rootfireember — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:45:45 -0700

Just setup my beta, seems to be working okay so far though it lags on quitting for me, and it crashed once while trying to look at my library.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:55:39 -0700

The biggest problem for me is hardware, not software. I'm on a laptop with 1200x800 resolution. I wish I either had higher resolution or one of those nifty monitors that can be turned 90 degrees so that I can see whole pages without having to scroll.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:11:30 -0700

*EDIT* figured out how to download it, for some reason when I first tried it did something weird

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:23:35 -0700

my computer apparently doesn't have windowscodecs.dll so it won't work on my computer....

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:51:06 -0700

New build went up tonight, which should make it easier on the overseas crowd.

http://drop.io/LongBox_PublicBeta_VI

Also, the Beta Forum, for info, bug reports, feedback, feature suggestions, etc. went up...

http://longboxdigital.com/forum/index.php?webtag=LONGBOX_DIGITAL_FORUM

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Jon Wake — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:57:32 -0700

Hey Rantz--
I got to speak with you briefly at #ECCC-- I pulled you away from willowbl00 for a couple seconds.
First off, I think this is a huge deal for the independent comic writer. As the comic market has gotten tighter while the output has gotten wider, the direct market is having a hard time adapting to changing demographics. While I hate to pull a comparison with porn, it's a bit appropro-- by taking a niche item out of a single location that caters to niche consumers, it will find a far greater audience.

Secondly, I commend you for your ability to get so many cats herded at once. If Longbox had launched before you'd arranged for the publisher support you did it would be little more than a top-heavy CDisplay. As it stands now, it feels like a full product with industry support, and that gives it software gravitas.

I know it's bad form to speculate about futures, and you're probably busy bailing bugs out of the code as fast as your coders can type, but I was wondering if you had any hopes on how this will change comic publishing?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

warrenellis — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:10:49 -0700

Congrats, Rantz. It doesn't work so well for me, and I imagine most people with a small screen will feel the same way, but well done for getting it out the door. I trust you've fixed the password issue and added a big button that says LOG IN/CREATE AN ACCOUNT.

Also, your Beehive install seems to have died.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:54:16 -0700

Jon

If it was Friday that we talked, I'll have to sheepishly admit I was running on 2 hours sleep, and am kind of surprised I stayed upright through the whole launch event/party. ECCC was a lot of fun, but it was definately a blur. Thank you for the kind words on LongBox... there are certainly times we wanted to 'just get it out the door', but making sure the infrastructure was all in place (both technically and content wise) was something we knew had to be done right, or that the whole prospect would be just another footnote.

In terms of 'the future of comics', all I can say is, from OUR positioning, we set out with a two pronged goal. First to supply comics publishers a low-risk method to get into the digital space with their current content and workflow. Second, to make sure that the tools and infrastructure make it easy for them to experiment in the digital space to create unique forms of storytelling that are still comics (not MOTION comics) but could only exist in the digital space. The plan seems to be solid.

Warren
Thank you sir... we should have a "native" netbook/small screen version shortly. The password issue is fixed in the build that is up now, and the international keyboard fix got checked in at 7pm today, so we're testing that now. We're doing about 2-3 revs a week, so there's lots of change over in features and fixes. I highly encourage everyone to keep an eye out, as something that might have bugged you, might just be fixed (or fixed shortly). The account creation and sub-account creation (so you can create age-restricted 'safe' accounts for the minors dwelling in your house) are going through a significant overhaul as part of the beta feedback process.

And yes, the Beehive Forum went down for a few hours... my hosting group decided that, since it was getting a sudden surge of traffic, that they would move the DB to a new server. Without telling me first. Or informing me that there might be a lull for 6 hours while the paths between the .php files and DB propogated. Joy, indeed.

OK, back to it, then...

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Finagle — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:15:26 -0700

Drop.io seems to be having maintenance until Sunday night. Any chance you could upload someplace else? I'd like to try it out this weekend, and demand instant gratification as is my God-given right as an American.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:55:38 -0700

Thank you Drop.io for notifying me in advance... *sigh*

You can download the builds from the DL page, HERE

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Finagle — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:04:46 -0700

Hurrah! Feedback will be forthcoming immediately, in response to your prompt answer. Thanks!

(I've got a drop.io free site, love it, but didn't get any kind of notification either -- apparently they feel Twitter is adequate to this purpose?)

How would you like to receive feedback? Here in this thread, email...?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

warrenellis — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:02:59 -0700

the Beta Forum, for info, bug reports, feedback, feature suggestions, etc. went up...

http://longboxdigital.com/forum/index.php?webtag=LONGBOX_DIGITAL_FORUM

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:21:18 -0700

Thank you Warren.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:27:25 -0700

New build with a number of tweaks, adjustments, and fixes (including int'l keyboards) just went up.
(as well as a significant number of bug fixes)

BUILDS
http://drop.io/LongBox_PublicBeta_VI

FORUM
http://longboxdigital.com/forum/index.php

Or, go to the main download site: http://longboxdigital.com/longbox-software.html

Take a looksee for yourself...

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 15:20:07 -0700

Has anyone heard anything about this lately? There was a panel about it at Heroes Con this year but I missed it so I don't know what was said. The brief snippet about the panel in the Heroes Con book said that it was a preview of the software "a full week before its official release".

However, the Longbox site hasn't been updated since April and that update didn't mention anything about an official launch. I haven't heard much about it lately and am curious to know if any new partnerships have been announced.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

warrenellis — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 17:07:47 -0700

With all respect to Rantz, his team, and the immense amount of work they must have put in: time has caught up to them. I think that, unless they move very soon, it's not going to matter what they say anymore.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:23:35 -0700

No disrespect taken Warren. In fact, I/we agree with the sentiment, which is why we've been somewhat 'silent running' for the last month, while we made sure that everything was lining up as planned.

Over the last 3 months, LongBox Digital has undergone some MAJOR changes. Some of this is in response to the difference in the market now, some is in response to issues that have come to annoy us personally after living with/working with the platform for over a year (and issues that we know sooner or later would drive users nuts as well), some are to allow for more naturalistic usage on other platforms (such as tablets and game systems), and a good number were in response to the excellent and detailed user feedback we got during the first phases of the Beta.

As was noted at Heroescon, the waiting is over. We've been doing final internal testing over the last week, and will release v0.9 to the public by the end of the week. This is, for all intents and purposes, the release candidate. The only reason it isn't is a.) because we want to allow for one more user feedback loop, and b.) we want to get a wide swath of international testing for 'the field' before releasing v1.0.

in v0.9, you'll be able to purchase comics, new comics will be available each week, and we currently have over 200 titles from 9 publishers queued up, with a steady flow of additional titles coming in. We'll also be opening the LBX Platform up to small press earlier than expected, since the aforementioned revisions also helped refine and streamline the production flow, making it possible to bring new titles all in a much more efficient manner. A (partial) listing of the new features and/or revisions...

LONGBOX v0.9
Changes, Alterations, and New Features in this build.

START SCREEN
– New Layout emphasizing Featured Comics and New Releases.
- Layout Standardization for all screens
- Cleanly supports all resolutions now (netbook to widescreen)
- Can download subscribed titles from Start Screen
- Can add New Releases to cart from StartScreen
- Accurate listing of number of comics purchased
- Accurate Listing of the number of ComicBlocks user has.

OPTIONS – General
- Cleaned Up layout and use of standardized buttons.

OPTIONS - Accounts
- Ability to manage Account settings
- User can Deauthorize registered machines remotely
- Change Password
- Set Personal Rating/Content shown
- Ability to select directory for content.

OPTIONS – Sub-Accounts- Ability to create Sub-Accounts
o Specify settings for each SubAccount
- Ability to Edit Sub-accounts
- Ability to give Comic Blocks to Sub-Accounts
- Sub Account Content is shared with Master Account.

LOG IN/LOG OUT
- Ability to Auto Log In
- Ability to remember all accounts used on device
- Ability to Log In using ‘offline’ mode, to read and access
already downloaded files without internet connection.
- Ability to reset password, emailing temp password to
registered email account.

STOREFRONT & LIBRARY
- New Layout
- Standardized navigation buttons, and ‘discoverable’ interface
- New ‘Display Criteria’ Function
– Allows for easier quick navigation and exploration-based discovery of new titles.
o NOTE: Publisher, Genre, & Association Display are turned off in the 0.9.12 build.
- New List Mode
o NOTE: New List Mode is 70% complete. Meets previous function and exceeds it, but does not use new functions for sort and display groupings.
- LIBRARY – Displays titles by “association” and ‘Title’ Stacks.
- LIBRARY – Displays when user has purchased title, but does not have it currently on device they are using (‘broken’ symbol)
- LIBRARY – Allows user to re-download title(s) with one click from Library in either Tile or List Mode
- LIBRARY – Added ‘Import Content’ button
- LIBRARY – Imported Content now has top-level user-editable metadata
- LIBRARY – Download History revised with improved file and history management.

CART- LBX Promo Codes – App now redeems promotional codes in the Shopping Cart
- Wishlist – User’s wishlist is now saved and propagated to server/across all registered devices
- ComicBlocks – Users can now purchase ComicBlocks, allowing them to purchase titles within the LBX StoreFront.
- Founding Member – Users can now purchase Gold Memberships, which during the last phase of the Beta will be promoted to ‘Founding Members’ (Founding Member status does not expire)

READER
- Removed QuickNav Shelf of Thumbnail Page views
- Removed Confusing Zoom Navigation Mode.
- Reader Control Menu is now an ‘auto roll-up’ shelf.
o Reader Control Menu can be ‘pinned’ in up or down position by the user.
o All Enhanced Content controls will be on the left side of the Reader Control Menu
o All Standard reader features will be available on the Right Side of the Reader Control Menu.
- User can use the ‘hide’ arrow in the upper Right Corner to hide the entire upper UI shelf in the Reader screen.
- User can now access the different modes and fumnctions of the Reader by selecting the ‘Reader Display Mode’ button in the upper Left Corner
o Clicking button gives button overlay, allowing for Book (where applicable), Chapter, Page, or Zoom mode.
o Clicking Zoom brings up sub-menu of zoom modes applicable to the current comic file (Page Width, Sequential Panel, or Free Zoom)
o The ‘Standard Return’ button or the ‘esc’ key drops the user back out of the Display Mode menus.
o Selecting Chapter brings up large, scrollable versions of all of the pages in that chapter.
? Unread Pages are ‘masked’ to protect spoilers.
? Double clicking a page takes the user back into ‘Page’ reader mode.
- Added multi-finger swipe support in Mac.
- Added 4-way middle mouse support in Win7+

Couple tech and comic news sites will have stories going up this week with (hopefully) a screencast, but here's some screenshots to hold you over for a couple days until the release.

And Warren, please note... it should work well on your netbook now!

Main Reader with Rollup navigation shelf and main app UI visible

Reader with Main UI hidden (upper right arrow) and Rollup Navigation shelf 'pinned' down

Revised Start Screen

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

arklight — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 06:30:16 -0700

@rantz

what every one wants to know is if a creative person can wake up one day,
knock out a comic and immediately have it up for the digital masses
which our music making brothers can without having a "submission" process
which might eliminate their style.

And if not you, then who? And more importantly how. what is the step
by step process of upping a title.Post a link if you can't write it up.

Heri

http://www.youtube.com/thearklight

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 07:09:58 -0700

@arklight- On the one hand I'd like that but on the other it would probably flood longbox with well...a lot of crap

Does itunes allow that with music?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

kperkins — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 07:22:22 -0700

I'd say that the crap can be weeded out by the "consumers" (for want of a better term right now), just like anywhere else. Because you know one persons crap is another's gold.
If you go into a book store, or comics shop about 95% (I'm being generous) is crap, who "allows" that?

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

arklight — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 07:24:07 -0700

@gzapata...

I've put stuff up for people on itunes of whose music
I don't like AT ALLLLLLLL...

It's a democracy. When someone seaches for X-men on Longbox
they won't get anything else but X-men. So they won't see the
er.."crap...

But if they're open minded....there will be a vast
ocean of talent and styles to choose from.

There's loads of sequential art I don't like but millions love.
I shouldn't be able to ban it or weed it out.

Heri

http://www.youtube.com/thearklight

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

warrenellis — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 07:47:29 -0700

On the one hand I'd like that but on the other it would probably flood longbox with well...a lot of crap

Does itunes allow that with music?

I'm pretty sure Coldplay is on iTunes, yes

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:36:38 -0700

There is a submission process to have your title distributed through LongBox. This has nothing to do with 'style' (as there is a diverse bunch that comprise the advisory board and executive committee that are committed to seeing more diverse genres and styles in comics) and everything to do with professionalism (both in terms of business/production/ability to maintain schedule, and in terms of execution).

Detailed submission guidelines should be up by end of June.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:56:29 -0700

@arklight- I never said I was completely for it, I just understood why they would have a submission process to have some quality control (which as Rantz just mentioned, they do). And by quality control I don't mean keeping out specific art styles. There are a lot of artists with styles I don't like but I don't mean to lump them into what I called crap. I still respect them and know they are highly skilled.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 02:34:18 -0700

As I mentioned, we're releasing the final Beta Release Candidate... as in now.

GO HERE AND GETS IT

At the link there is also a full listing of all the new or changed features...

On The main Website There's now a link at the top of the page to the support forum as well.

Additionally, those nice folks at Robot 6/Comic Book Resources wrote a very nice article on the full launch.

Take it for a spin and let us know what you think!

(now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to pass out due to exhaustion...)

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

kperkins — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 06:11:38 -0700

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 06:41:49 -0700

Finally was able to download and get longbox to work. My computer had a real bad virus months ago and I must have deleted a windows program needed in getting longbox to work (windowscodes.dll)

The only issue I have with longbox is the zoom scrolling. It is ALMOST perfect but I don't really like the scrolling down then going to the left or right to get to the next page. I know it's a pretty small unimportant idea but longbox and other digital programs(publishers? not sure what to call you guys) want to grab atleast a small portion of the illegal downloaders. They already have a standard though, CDisplay. This program is so easy and quick to use which is it's strength. Little thought or effort has to be put forth allowing readers to ignore everything but the comic itself. All the other options are very cool and even the fact that longbox allows you to download cbz files is great and not a feature I expect others to get for quite awhile (though I'm sure the market will force it in eventually)

I know it sounds insignificant but it's something I feel would be quick to do while at the same time going a long way in improving longbox.

I had also been hoping for more content especially after reading that last interview. Just a few disappointed customers that went in after reading that interview expecting more comics to read could be a loss for all the publishers in longbox.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:09:24 -0700

I downloaded .9. It does look good.
Several things though. No zoom buttons anymore? CTRL+Z isn't really intuitive, esp. if you don't see any buttons for zooming, or if the zoom entry in the menu doesn't show the shortcut (which is really basic user interface stuff).

Use the "\" key to bring up the view mode menu, or you can click the view mode button in the upper left. That gives you access to the different zoom modes, as well as page/chapter/book browse capability.

As mentioned in the Robot 6 interview, new content will go up weekly starting on the 29th. With the significant number of revisions and overhauls, we wanted to reduce the number of variable to debug in this build. There is a lot of content on the server, waiting to go.

gzapata - I assume you are suggesting the reader auto-page to the next page if you keep scrolling down? On the usability testing we did with other digital readers (including CDisplay), with users who weren't current digital comic readers, the incidence of frustration due to 'overshooting' the page on a fast scroll was high enough that it was determined that it was better to no auto trigger the page turn.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:38:31 -0700

@Rantz- Oh alright. I can see what you mean since I have that problem when dealing with pdf files. I guess it's just something to get use too and it still works with ease anyways

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:00:57 -0700

@gzapata - even though it doesn't do the 'advance at bottom' function, there are a number of ways to minimize your 'actions'. On PC, mousewheel down then mousewheel button click will take you down the page, then advance. On Mac, two finger swipe down and two finger swipe to side will do the same. On Mac 2 finger held swipe will 'scrub'/speed through pages or panels, depending on viewing mode, and 5-way PC middle mouse buttons - Vista & 7, should do the same thing. (although our testing on that has been limited by the number of users that have the PC equiv of multitouch)

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

arklight — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:17:16 -0700

@gzapata and rantz

I don't know, i've just got an iffy feeling
about the whole submission thing to "keep standards" and scheduling.

Anyway , talking about scheduling "how long did the last issue of
PLANETARY take to come out? Would you have red carded
Warren Ellis?..:-)....just what would you do anyway to
people or companies like that?

And how long is the submission process. i'm sure you will get
swamped with submissions.Have you enough people to do that?
Just how long is the submission review?

As a time saver will you just greenlight all subs by major companies
even though they might be worse in quality then some of the independent
lone artist/writer's work out there? Or will you actually tell a major you will not stock
a particular comic/graphic novel/manga because it's rubbish? Or not on schedule
or doesn't maintain Longbox's standards?

As far as im concerned :- you should just create a mini sequential art universe in
Longbox where anyone can sub anything, and let the search engines and bloggers do
the work of weeding out the wheat from the chaff. Is it a server problem? Youtube stores
loads of videos which tak up tonnes of space. You shouldn't have that sort of problem.

Sorry for the harsh questions. But enquiring people need to know...;-)...
and good luck!

Heri Mkocha

http://www.youtube.com/thearklight

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Cameron C. — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 09:43:23 -0700

I had some of those thoughts as well. Like if an independent creator would have to have a schedule or what exactly they are accepting submissions for. If a creator gets something approved, does every issue in a series have to be approved and does that mean one of them could NOT be approved? Or are they approving series based off the first issue? Does a creator have to go through the process again if he has a second series start up, or an unrelated one-shot story?

I assume this part (independent submissions in general) of Longbox in particular will be of interest to a lot of Whitechapel :3

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

tcatsninfan — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 11:55:45 -0700

@arklight

I'm sorry, but your tone is entirely too harsh. I know Rantz is much too level-headed and professional to actually be bothered by it, but you've worded your post as if you're accusing him of being a dirtbag and are assuming he's going to make Big Government style decisions at every turn.

He said there should be detailed information on the submission process by the end of June, so chances are most of your questions will be answered then.

Youtube stores loads of videos which tak up tonnes of space. You shouldn't have that sort of problem.

I think it's safe to say that LongBox won't have nearly as many servers as YouTube, so maybe they will have that sort of problem. I'm not going to pretend to know how someone else's business works.

As far as im concerned :- you should just create a...

As far as you're concerned, you are (I'm assuming) a writer or artist looking to put his work on LongBox. If that's the case, then why would you speak to the CEO of the company this way, basically telling him how to run his own business? Talk about getting red carded...

The best thing you can do in the comic industry is to network and not talk badly about others even if you don't agree with their methods. People talk and word will get out if you go around speaking down to everyone. Every person who reads this thread will see how you have talked to Rantz, and I know that there are people active on Whitechapel who work for companies similar to LongBox, so at that point they would assume that you would approach them with the same tone.

Also, I don't know if you do all your own writing, penciling, inking, and lettering, but if you don't then bear in mind that what you say can affect those partnerships as well.

I'm not trying to start a flame war here but THIS IS WHITECHAPEL. This place is separate from the regular internet. There will be civility.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

arklight — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 10:44:27 -0700

@tcatsninfan

calm yourself.

Nowhere did i call Rantz or anyone a dirtbag.

Every single question I asked is legitimate and has
been thought about by every single comics/sequential
arts "creator" out there wanting to put there work on
any digital distributor. Not just Longbox.

They are bottom line questions.

For instance that some companies or their products might have
a pre defined advantage in submitting stuff over independent
, team, or lone creators.

If that's the case, well ok. Just let us know about it
that's all. That's a legitimate question. Asking it
is not equivalent to calling someone a dirtbag.

Because what's going to happen if Longox is successful is the
independent creators out there will vastly outnumber the majors
yet might feel they get treated very differently.

As for the reason I mentioned Itunes is that I can be given the Wav
files of a band this very minute. And submit it wholesale
to itunes and about 37 other digital music distributors
and (barring explicit artwork) expect it to be up
in 2-3 weeks on itunes max. Or in some of the other
services instantly.There are next to no gatekeepers
in what you can put up.Major or lone bedroom producers.

considering one Wav song file in memory not a whole album
of wav files is more than the a whole average jpeg scanned comic.
i don't think there should be server issues.

I praise Longbox for getting their feet wet by
being the first get their feet wet.

We should be way ahead in an industry that has vastly lower overheads than
the music business and out sells some records.While being
roughly priced the same (cough !)
(comparing singles=to issues of comics)

for instance X-men has "gone platinum" , many
months in many years,while some albums/singles
may take upto 2 years with tonnes of marketing
money to be recouped.

we're not dissing him we just want information.
And that's fair.

Heri

http://www.youtube.com/thearklight

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 12:04:18 -0700

They do sound like legitimate questions though I doubt Rantz would actually answer them in full detail before Longbox has even announced their process in anything longer than a couple sentences so it might be good to just wait and see.

I also don't wish to be lumpt into either category whether I'm for or against their submission process when I don't have a clue what it completely is. When I first mentioned it I never said I was for or against it, all I said was that I understand that there's 2 legitimate sides to that issue.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

warrenellis — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 12:32:52 -0700

They do sound like legitimate questions though I doubt Rantz would actually answer them in full detail before Longbox has even announced their process in anything longer than a couple sentences so it might be good to just wait and see.

Honestly. With all due respect to Rantz. He's publicly been in development for years. I don't think asking questions were unfair.

It does, however, need to be understood that Rantz is busy as all hell and dealing with questions and comments in probably a dozen different fora. No question's going to get answered quickly.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 23:28:22 -0700

I failed to see the 'downtime' notice.

I spent the last hour writing up a 2 part detailed response.

I lost it when I hit 'submit' and couldn't connect to Whitechapel.

Fuckkitty fuck fuck fuck.

I will try to re-write it tonight or tomorrow. Shitdammitfuck.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 23:28:57 -0700

I'll try to be brief here because (as Warren accurately notes) I am busy as all hell. However, I will correct Warren that we've been publically in development for years... We had first discussions with publishers, showing them the application (the first time anyone outside of teh dev team and the advisory board had seen anything) at NYCC in Feb 2009. First time we showed the public anything having to do with LongBox, and announced details was at HeroesCon in June of 2009. So, while yes we have been working on it in various aspects since 2008 (design staging going back further than that) it's actually only been in the public venue for a little over a year (although god knows, it feel MUCH longer than that at times)

That aside...

I didn't take offense at the questions asked. I thought they were relevant, and frankly deserving of some detail in response, so I hadn't responded right away. Some items I can't discuss at this time in a public venue because, to be blunt, I don't feel like having another 'upcoming digital comic company' announcing they are knicking yet another aspect of LongBox. Let them figure out how to do this on their own for a change... this is why frankly, we've been in silent running for the last 2-3 months, because I know a.) what the infrastructure other companies are using is built on, b.) I know what their app structure looks like, c.) I know how quickly they can 'adapt', and d.) we wanted to make sure everything was solid and damn near release before letting anyone see it. To the point where we had not mentioned to content partners the details on the application changes. (The comic industry is small, and everyone, given a beer or two, talks. Even if they shouldn't) So, tablet deal got locked down, exclusive/first run content got locked down. Patents dealing with new features got filed, and here we are. (A bit of detail on this after answering the questions posed, so if you give not at all two shit about it, you can get your answers and ignore the rambling CEO guy...)

Preface and BG to questions:
I started doing comics in the mid 80s, doing work for Fantagraphics, Caliber, Innovation, Malibu, etc, etc. At the time, even though you THOUGHT the pay was crap, and sales were crap (with your black and white anthology ONLY selling 40k copies, and earning you 3k for your 8 page story), there were a LOT of opportunites for indie creators and aspiring creators to 'break in'. More importantly, if you didn't want to do spandex tales, there were plenty of books proving you could do just that. More importantly, that you could 'break out' and become a known entity in comics doing it 'your way'. TMNT, Puma Blues, Flaming Carrot, Concrete, Grendel, Dan Clowes work on Lloyd LLewellyn, Love & Rockets, Neat Stuff, the Crow, Beanworld, Omaha (and later) THB, Stray Bullets, Bone, Strangers in Paradise, on and on and on...

These are 'iconic' now, but none of them started that way.

When I 'returned' to comics in 2004-05, sick of the videogame industry, sick of not doing the stories I said I would 'get to' someday, the market was vastly different. In some ways, better... you didn't have to justify comics were a 'real' art form. They got write ups in EW and USA Today without a 'bang pow biff' headline. But the sales numbers... holy shit. On one hand you had these insane young creators coming out like a house on fire like Becky Cloonan, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Matt Fraction, Ivan Brandon, Johnathan Hickman... while on the other hand, most creators were in a happy state of elation if orders on their books broke 10k. By the time Comic Book Tattoo came out, it was even more obvious to me... if there was not another viable distribution channel, with mainstream reach (mainstream in the REAL world sense, not the comic industry sense), then I could easily see the day coming when comics were on a level with Knitting. An industry exists to support it, and there are people that participate in it, but that it's a Niche art form. It's no longer a vital form of mass communication. Marvel and DC would always exist in one form or another because (at the very least) they were IP farms. Films to be made. Games to be made. But what about the next Matt Fraction? What about the next Carla Speed McNeil? Diamond's contraction of baseline numbers made it all that much more obvious... if comics were to exist, and grow... comics with unique authorial voices and 'vision' behind them, then there had to be an infrastructure to make it possible.

Rambling aside, the point is this. LongBox was always intended to support and grow the independent market and creators. Last year, we stated that we would not be accepting self-published content from new/unknown creators for the first 6 months. The reason for that being this (and this point gets lost in many cases of 'selective quoting' of interviews and articles): We wanted to ensure that any creator, established or new to the field, who had their 'self published' work distributed through LongBox received:

a.) the same deal that publishers received
b.) that they received the same support and infrastructure that publishers received
c.) that, in a nutshell, they would feel that they were dealing with a level playing field, where the onus rests squarely on their shoulders to make sure that the work goes toe to toe with any other book available for sale on its merits alone (rather than placement in the diamond catalogue, or marketing dollars spent)

One of the benefits of the unexpected delay was that it gave us time to refine and iterate the production path, the publisher servers, the trafficking support system and the like. Which, long story short, makes it possible for us to distribute for sale, self published content much much earlier than expected or planned for.

Next post... ANSWER THE QUESTIONS ALREADY

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 23:29:45 -0700

NOTE: YAY FOR CACHED INFO THAT IS NOT LOST!!!

(however, it'll be an hour or two before I can do part 2. thanks for the patience)

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 01:03:02 -0700

Questions answered Part 1 below, part 2 will have to wait until tomorrow. Simply Too. Much. Shit. to get done tonight, and I have to be up at 6am (and REALLY want more than 3 hours sleep for a change...)

_______________________________

PART II - Answering the questions - Content Production Overview

I’ll answer the questions asked grouped into 2 sections/overviews 1.) Content Production and 2.) Content Distribution. I’ll do my best to cover all of the various queries and calls for clarification, but if I’ve missed anything, feel free to ask. Understand that it may be awhile before I can reply (as the next 3 days are nuts, and then I’m out of town with the family until Friday. There also may be questions I can’t answer in a completely direct manner (due to the aforementioned reasons) but in those cases, I’ll acknowledge that, and state when I’ll be able to disclose said details.

OVERVIEW – Key to adoption of any platform, be it music, videogame systems, or digital comics, is the content. With new content made available frequently. A ‘balancing act’ aspect of this is ‘gating’ content. A platform is often defined by the content it has (or does not have). Platform Companies (be they Apple, or Nintendo, Microsoft, or Hulu) are well aware of this, and choose to deal with this in a way that they feel will effectively ‘brand’ their platform. Apple is known for the hoops that developers have to jump through... to produce fart apps. Nintendo is known for it’s firm walled garden aspect to letting new developers create and distribute games through their digital store... Microsoft (ironically) has achieved a notable part of their success on the XBOX360 by the support of the XNA system, and the Indiegames channel on Xbox Live, allowing a couple of guys to create a game after school, and put it up for sale. Sony changes its mind every 3 months about how they deal with content (which is why so many devs have stopped creating content for Sony)

Removing for a moment WHAT content the platform chooses to support and/or emphasize, platforms get content in the first place (or increase the odds of them having content in the first place) by removing the content provider’s “barrier to entry”. Going back to Sony... one of the biggest mistakes Sony made with the last console launch was a.) having shitty, undocumented, unstable tools, and b.) having a tech support group who did anything BUT. Having developed on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo, there is a reason that we haven’t ever mentioned Playstation on any of the lists or discussions of platforms we’re supporting. Nintendo and Microsoft have robust, well documented, VERY well-supported tools. Developing Star Trek, we discovered a minor error/bug in the tools Nintendo provided... we reported the issue, and they had fixed it in two days. We’re not the exception in that... developer’s might gripe that the DS or Wii are ‘underpowered’, but none of them will ever complain about tools being a barrier to entry.

So, going back to comics, when we began the development of LongBox, I knew that the platform had to be comprehensive if we wanted to have content... in a nutshell, putting content on LBX had to be quick, easy, and exist as part of their current print production pipeline. We never wanted to be in a place where publishers had to measure an ROI (Return On Investment) trying to figure out how many copies of any given book they had to sell, per book, to BREAK EVEN. It had to be a matter that (for digital versions of print books) from Unit 1, it’s profitable. With that in mind...

1.) Content Production (process is identical for large, mid size, or self publishers)
a. Content Provider Creates Comic (using InDesign or Acrobat – other formats are supported but will be discussed only as part of a confidential discussion)
b. Content Provider either:
i. Adds enhanced content (video, audio, concept art, page stages, multi-language support, etc) in InDesign or Acrobat (following documentation)
ii. Saves print-resolution .PDF or exports from InDesign using Free (for content providers) export Plug-In.
c. If Content Provider does step b-I then upon completion of adding enhanced content, Publisher does step b-ii.
d. Content Provider Uploads content in exported format (or .zip file containing .PDF, enhanced content files, and metadata file – template provided by LBX) via their private, secure PubServe Web Interface.
e. Content Provider may update content (adding new language support, adding enhanced content, adding storefront hyperlinks to other content by publisher/creator/etc) at any time by repeating steps 1-a through 1-d.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

davebaxter — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 01:38:25 -0700

Hey, Rantz,

I got to sit in on your presentation at CBS in LA today (many thanks for coming and doing that, btw, nice to get a presentation that doesn't take place an insane, completely unmanageable setting like a Comic Con).

Good luck to you on the big Alpha release this week! The platform is truly looking like the best of its kind out there. Good work, m'man.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

helloMuller — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 01:48:34 -0700

Right… I'm having a play with the beta now.

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

gzapata — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 04:52:10 -0700

It was once possible to make money off anthologies? It seems like not even Marvel and DC can do that anymore

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 14:20:11 -0700

Next entry: I've broken this up into pieces to allow me to update more frequently, and to make it easier to cross link to areas of interest.

CONTENT PROVIDERS - SUBMISSIONS AND GUIDELINES - CONTINUTED
PART 3

2.) Scheduling, Submitting and Approval Process (as a head’s up, this has a number of areas that cannot be discussed publically in refined detail, but I will try to cover all the core aspects so there’s a clear understanding of what is involved.)

Submissions and distribution agreements occur...
For Companies/Groups
A.) You are a publisher with a content partnership agreement
B.) You own archival content/comics and have a content partnership agreement
C.) You are part of a ‘collective’ or affiliated group that has a content partnership agreement.
D.) You are a ‘non-comic’ Entertainment/IP company (film Studios, Game Companies, etc) which wants to create comics either to seed pre-awareness of a property, or to ‘branch out’ for an existing property without sub licensing the IP out to a comic publisher (which is being done with a number of film, game and TV properties)

These are all company-to-company contracts, and are ongoing distribution agreements ranging from 1-5 years (depending on the companies and deal terms). There is a ‘core agreement’ that has modifiers for each deal to allow for the specific needs or conditions of the publisher in question. For example, if a publisher doesn’t have the rights to do a comic based on the film BadKillingFucker outside of North America and the EU, the paperwork notes this, and metadata and schedule for said title has a specific include/exclude series of flags that designate which countries and regions a book may or may not be sold in.

Or, for Individuals, you are:
A.) An Established Creator
B.) A “New” Creator, or
C.) An “Unknown” Creator

Who...

D.) has archival content you own, which you want to distribute digitally.
E.) Has an ongoing series (or multiple series) that you want to distribute Digitally.
F.) Has a new book or series that you have not yet created, or are in process of creating, that you want to distribute digitally.

There are variations and special cases beyond these, but generally speaking these are the combinatorics. Since the inquiries on contributing are geared towards indie and self-publishers, let’s start there, concentrating on the definitions of A-C.

A. Established Creator – You’ve done enough ‘distributed’, completed work, that you have a ‘name’ in the industry. This can be Webcomics, small press, work done by a big publisher, and now you want to do your own thing... In a nutshell, you’ve worked the comics streetcorner long enough to be known as a ‘pro’ by your peers. (Note, this does not mean you are a ‘big name’ or that the comic-buying masses know you. There are lots of established creators, even at DC and Marvel, who 90% of the comic buying public has never heard of)

B. New Creator - If, under the revised standards of a convention like SDCC or NYCC, you qualify as a ‘pro’, odds are that you’ll qualify as an established creator. You’ve had work distributed (either in print or online) in multiple cases (a number of short stories in anthologies, more than one single issue comic. A graphic novel longer than 80 pages, or a webcomic updated multiple times a month for over 12 months). Again, this has nothing to do with being a ‘name’ in the industry, but rather that you’ve shown demonstrably that you are pursuing comics, and that you’ve produced enough content to have some idea of what it is like to actually produce work on a regular basis.

C. Unknown Creator – you may have done a story, or an online webcomic, or you may be in the Jonathan Hickman-pre-Nightly-News stage, where you’ve been working for a while on a story that you think is worth the effort and time, and that the current market doesn’t easily support. Or, you may still be in school, and can’t wait to get your stories out. In a nutshell, most people don’t know who you are, you haven’t produced comics in a real production environment (and production includes distribution, either digital or print). You may have completed a 400 page OGN, but if no one has seen it, then it hasn’t been through a full production environment.

MORE TO FOLLOW...

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:07:52 -0700

CONTENT PROVIDERS - SUBMISSIONS AND GUIDELINES - CONTINUTED
PART 4

(cont.)

The majority of “self-published” projects distributed and sold through LongBox Digital will begin by completing the Content Submission Form. The form is broken in to 3 sections/documents.

1. Publisher/Label/Imprint information – All content (Whether on the production servers, sales tracking and marketing servers, or in the StoreFront) is organized by multiple criteria. One of these is ‘publisher’, but it’s more refined than that. It can include sub-labels/brands, affliations, or offshoots. For example, Wildstorm was an independent company, affiliated with Image, who then had a sublabel called Homage, and were then purchased by DC and became a sub-brand of DC. The structure allows a creator (or group of creators) to start as self-publishers, then a year or two from now, alter the ‘StoreFront’ organization to reflect their new distribution deal with Big Publisher A, and 4 years later, their purchase by Big Movie Company C, including the relevant changes in sales reporting and revenue disbursement, without ever causing readers or customers a disruption in content. A label or imprint is not required for self-published books, but is highly recommended for multiple reasons.
2. Creator(s) information – This includes credits, and a short biography. Creator-based sorting will be turned on shortly, and part of the purpose for it is to have accurate information (as well as links to previous content, if applicable) within the bio section. Hence, it is much better to have the creator(s) provide it. The creator bio and information area is also used to verify background for creator status. (Which in turn, indicates what approval process stages the content has to go through)
3. Content Submission Overview – This is the most detailed of the three forms, and includes:

a. Summary of Story (Treatment style – format specified)
b. Story format (Select from series of specified criteria, or specify unique type under “other”)
c. Publishing Schedule/frequency (monthly? Quarterly? One-shot?)
d. Character summaries (Top-level – Format specified)
e. Concept art (if applicable – maximum 4 pieces)
f. Completed pages – lettered (minimum of 10 pages)
g. Perceived Demographic (who do you think will buy the book, and why)
h. Marketing approach - These are categorized and specified in multiple categories. For example, channel (internet, print, TV) form (previews, interviews, early review copies) method (social networking, news-oriented, paid ad placement), etc.

These details and specifications serve two very important purposes. First, they give creators a consistent format for submission, so that in the case of new and unknown creators, the content given to the advisory board and executive committee for review (in theory) stands on its merits (or lack therof) and that the element of ‘packaging’ doesn’t come into play. (using the print example, when doing cold submissions to publishers, we used to do things like send it in black envelopes written with silver marker to make it stand out in the mail)
The second purpose is to make the creator(s) think very hard, and at a somewhat objective state of removal, about their content. It’s a cliché with an element of truth that a good story can be sold in 60 words on an elevator. That’s reductive and simplistic, but if you really want to sell your stories/content to customers (because, unlike the DM/Print market, on LongBox you ARE selling to the customer, NOT the retailer) you have to be able to hook them quickly, or at the very least get across to them why YOUR work is different/better/unlike anything. To be clear, this has NOTHING to do with WHAT your content is (genre, style, approach) and everything to do with how ‘complete’ your vision and concept is.
Part of LongBox Digital is that we put our production, trafficking and marketing behind the titles, both big and small, and at the very least, WE can’t help you sell a title if YOU don’t have a clear vision of it (or clear enough to be able to convey it to us).
NOTE: we recognize that part H: is more difficult for new and unknown creators. We don’t expect a AAA-level marketing plan, but we do expect you to spend some time thinking about it, before you try and submit it. Doing a story about a kid in the inner city that wants to be a chess master? OK, tell us where (in the world of Chess fans/players) we (meaning you AND LongBox Digital) might promote it.

MORE TO FOLLOW...

The LongBox Digital Comics thread

Rantz — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:17:58 -0700

CONTENT PROVIDERS - SUBMISSIONS AND GUIDELINES - CONTINUTED
PART 5

(cont.)

OK, so... how does my content or stories get approved for distribution and sale on LongBox Digital?

In most cases, in your first distribution of content with LongBox, you’ll need to complete a Content Submission Form. (Whether you’re an established, new, or unknown creator) After you’ve had a title or content distributed through the LongBox Digital Platform, you will only need to complete the Content Submission Overview for subsequent titles, comics and content. (Creators can, and should, update their biography/creator information, as need be)

For Established Creators, distribution is a matter of scheduling, production planning (if for example, said creator(s) wanted to add enhanced content to their LongBox-distributed content) and confirmation of rights (when appropriate... for example if a creator had a book through Epic in the 80’s, and wanted to sell it through LongBox Digital, we would need to ensure that the creator(s) had all of the required rights)

For New Creators, distribution is on a case-by-case basis, with some creators being immediately approved, and others being submitted for full formal review. Automatic approval will be based on a combination of creator profile, openings in the distribution schedule that coincide with the creator(s) planned publication and distribution date, and strategic market opportunity. For example, if LongBox is carrying a number of detective, horror, and superhero books, and a new creator submits a title that deals with historical Victorian England, said title is more likely to be immediately approved than a submitted title dealing with Horror, Detectives, or Superheroes will be.

All unknown creators, submitting content for distribution and sale on LongBox Digital for the first time, will be required to go through the full formal review process. Unless there are complications, or mitigating factors, (which the creator(s) will be notified of in advance) any subsequent titles and/or content will not be required to be subject to the full formal review process.

The Formal Review Process

If a title fails to meet the automatic pre-approval criteria, it is sent through the Formal Review Process. Formal reviews are done quarterly (Dates for the upcoming 12 months are listed on the first page of the content submission packet) and are conducted by the LBX Advisory board and the LBX Executive committee. The LBX Advisory Board is comprised of 25 high profiles members of the comic, film, animation, and digital entertainment industry, with a wide diversity in the genres, themes and styles that they are known for. (spanning from mainstream work, to avante garde experimental approaches) These individuals were selected because of the diversity they span, the success that they have achieved as individuals in their respective work, and because each of them is committed to growing comics, as both a business, and as the evolution of an art form. Names of the individual board members will not be released by LongBox, Inc. to ensure that there is no question of undue influence placed on the members of the board, or that the individual members of the board are harassed in any way shape or form as a consequence of decisions the board has made as a whole.

Submissions are evaluated on the basis of:
1.) Professional quality/execution (NOTE: this has NOTHING to do with style or aesthetic approach)
2.) Individualistic approach/subject matter/themes (doing yet another knock off of a post-modern deconstruction of superheroes will not gain you points)
3.) Solidity and Completion of production plan (Is it clear that the creator(s) has thought through all of the schedule, production, and practical aspects.)
4.) Self-awareness of Market (Is it obvious that the creator(s) knows who the market is for the content. Regardless of whether that market is 5 people, or 5 million)
5.) Platform and Artform value – Does the content do something (consciously or not) to push the artform of comics forward and help it evolve, or that takes unique advantage of the capabilities only possible through the LongBox Digital format.

NOTE: This evaluation process is not a majority rule democracy. If 10 members think a title should be rejected, and one member advocates for it, and explains why he/she thinks it should be approved, that holds a great deal of weight. The selection of the board members reflects the fact that we know everyone has individual tastes, and that often the entertainment enjoyed by the masses isn’t the ‘art’ that pushes the medium to grow.

If a title is rejected for any reason, the creator receives a detailed, itemized response, explaining the reasons behind the decision. The creator can choose to address the issues itemized, appeal the decision (writing tirades back is not appealing... it’s ensuring the door stays closed), resubmit at a later time, or say “F you! I Rock!” and choose to put it out through different avenues. Our goal with the process is that it is as transparent as possible, with clear feedback so that creators never sit there wondering “WTF... did my stuff suck? Was it my hat?” etc.

Once a title is approved, the creator schedules the title for release via the secure PubServ site.

<>

For self-published titles, completed content must be submitted/uploaded for production and trafficking production and platform/hardware compatibility review 3 weeks prior to the scheduled sale date. If, for any reason, the scheduled title will not be able to be delivered according to schedule, the publisher/creator is required to notify their LongBox production and trafficking contact of the impending missed date, and from there, has 2 options. First, they can pull the title until it is complete, scheduling it at that time to ensure the sale date is met. Second, they can submit a second sale date. IF, however, the second sale date is missed, LongBox Digital has the contractual right to pull the title, and no longer carry it. If a publisher, content provider, or creator misses four (4) rescheduled dates (Four separate incidents of a title missing its original date, being rescheduled, and then missing its second date) LongBox has the contractual right to no longer carry titles by the publisher, content provider, or creator (this is the case with Publishers as well as indie creators).

Ok, any questions I haven’t covered? I’ll try to swing back around before Monday.