In this week’s PWCW, Ed Chavez unwraps the new service Manganovel. The Toshiba-owned site allows readers to download manga and upload their own translations. At the always NSFW Icarus Blog, publisher Simon Jones comments:

[Manganovel] promises to one day grind the bones of print manga publishers into powder, mix them with the puréed hearts of professional translators and the severed fingers of touch-up artists, to make a frozen almond tofu dessert OF PURE EVIL!

The site is basically trying to monetize something that is already happening on the web: Fans scan in Japanese manga and supply their own translations. Continue reading →

Of course, it was inevitable that the Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited site would crash on its first day. Less predictable is the fact that Marvel would give the new intiative the acronym DCU, which caused audible snickers all over the internet.

Props to ICv2, which asks Marvel’s Dan Buckley, with a straight face, “Can you cite some non-porn examples of successful subscription sites for entertainment content?” (Buckley comes up with a handful.)

Buckley also bends the rules a bit, saying that Marvel may put up new comics (i.e. less than six months old) to promote a trade—and they will pull books off the site after a while. At ComicMix, Dan Grauman reacts badly to that news and also fills in some background. (Via Journalista.)

And this seems a bit ominous: Continue reading →

OK, the magic hour has passed and the news is official: Marvel will be putting 2,500 comics online, for a price.

Here’s the deal: you pay $9.99 a month, or $4.99 a month if you’re willing to commit for a year, and you get unlimited access to the archive. Plus they’re keeping 250 comics online for free. As USA Today’s David Colton breathlessly reports:

Subscribers will be able to access the first hundred issues of key titles, turn pages with a click of the mouse or navigate a battle against Dr. Doom frame-by-frame with a “Smart Panel” viewing feature. The user can zoom in on details of art by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko from the 1960s or catch up with today’s The Ultimates and New Avengers.

Well, not “today’s” The Ultimates and New Avengers: Nothing goes online until it’s at least six months old. And the big catch is that it’s a subscription model, not downloads, so you can read it but you can’t take it with you. Continue reading →

Newsarama posted a news item today stating that Marvel would unveil a subscription digital comics site tomorrow, then as I was writing this post, they took it all back, stating that the original story was inaccurate. According to a commenter, the news was supposed to be embargoed until midnight tonight, which may explain this anomaly. Or maybe the writer of the CBC story that was the source for the Newsarama article did indeed make some mistakes. The industrious reader can find snippets of the original story in the comments section, but as the full scoop will be up tomorrow, I’m not sure it’s worth it.

UPDATE: Here’s a story credited to the AP. Caveat lector, as this may be the same as the CBC story that Marvel called “inaccurate.”

UPDATE 2: Well, Newsarama has posted an AP story identical to the one linked above, except for this paragraph:

News of the new Marvel initiative began appearing online Monday afternoon, via an AP wire story and sources like the CBC.ca website, prompting Marvel Comics to request any version of the story citing the AP or CBC be removed from websites due to the CBC version in particular being “filled with inaccuracies.” It is not immediately apparent what was inaccurate about the CBC version of the story.

Of course, nothing was inaccurate; Marvel was simply throwing their weight around because the story was embargoed. Classy!

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The New York Times Magazine has discovered Platinum studios. Writer Ben Ehrenreich seems to be fascinated by the fact that Platinum’s Scott Rosenberg made a movie deal for Cowboys & Aliens based on a few slim threads of a story—basically, no more than the title and a few character sketches, if the magazine is to be believed. If that’s true, maybe I should clear out my half-baked-ideas drawer and head West.

Ehrenreich’s article raises the question of what exactly constitutes a “comic” when he writes

For most of the intervening years, “Cowboys & Aliens” did not exist as a published comic. Platinum didn’t bother printing any of its comics, in fact, until late last year, when “Cowboys & Aliens” became its first property to exist in tangible, paper-and-ink form.

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When you think web comic hosting there are five names that come to mind: ComicSpace, Webcomics Nation, Smack Jeeves, Comic Genesis, and Drunk Duck. Eighty percent of the webcomics just may be hosted by these guys. Now here comes along the sort of news the corporate world would go crazy for but the government would fall apart trying to block. On October 29th Josh Roberts and Joey Manley announced the intent to merge businesses into one corporate entity. With the help of E-Line Ventures, a New Jersey-based ‘double bottom line’ early-stage investment firm, to secure the necessary funding and support to effectively merge and run the combined business. Here’s the best part of the announcement:

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Three members of Blank Label Comics are ending their partnership with Blank Label Comics to form a new collective, Halfpixel, along with PvP. Scott Kurtz, Dave Kellett, Kris Straub, and Brad Guigar will form the new group, previously a hub for Straub’s and Kurtz’s joint efforts such as their book “How To Make Webcomics” and the Webcartoonist Weekly Podcast. Apparently this has been in the works for a few weeks and true to BLC form there will be no webcomics drama. Brad assures us “Those looking for sour grapes or angry sentiments are going to be disappointed. We’re all still very much friends and fans of one another’s work.”

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When the Internet first burst into creation, there was about 25 seconds of awe before someone thought to themselves “Hey, I bet I could use this to make money.” 4.3 seconds before that, someone thought, “Hey I bet we could use this for pornography!” Fortunately, eventually people realized that the Net could be a great distribution method for some rocking comic strips. Making money has remained in the backs of peoples mind, and rightfully so. People invest a lot of time and effort into building a site and a comic, there’s nothing wrong with trying to get a little bit back for their effort.

There are many ways that cartoonists have tried to raise some money from their strips. These are just two of the more recent and interesting ones that I’ve come across.

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If you’re as curious about this whole DC Comics Zuda line as I am, then you’ve been getting the e-mail blasts from time to time.  Mostly consisting of “Hey, we’re working on it and it’s getting closer to completion” missives, these have largely gone straight to my Trash box.  However, the latest message relays that Zuda is finally ready to go.

Starting next Tuesday, October the 30th, the first Zuda comic will be presented for your constructive and/or destructive tendencies to vote on as you see fit.  After much speculation and derision, the Zuda machine will finally be put to the test and whether you see it as a boon or a bane to webcomics, you owe it to yourself and the community at large to check it out next Tuesday.

When it comes to the Interwebs, being part of a project does not necessarily exempt one from talking about that very same project. Extensively. For weeks. It’s called pimping, and I’m about to do it myself.

Tastefully Done, that deliciously wonderful calendar of nearly nude webcomics characters and creators, is completed and ready to be purchased at your local Lulu retailer. Brainchilded by the influential Michael Rouse-Deane of Webcomics-In-Print infame, the hit calendar is in it’s second year and not showing any signs of a dress code (outside the one big rule, no big censored bars).

After the jump, you can find out that the colorfully-blinding nudity is provided by:

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