A mobile comic is a digital comic or cartoon strip that can be purchased, downloaded, read and sometimes edited or shared with friends via mobile phones.

Overview

Increasingly the line between digital comics, animation and games is blurring and the same applies to their mobile counterparts as mobile comics become multimedia with sounds and interactivity. In 2008 IDW Publishing and Devil's Due Publishing (now Devil's Due Digital) became two of the earliest adopters of comics for mobile devices.[1] Devil's Due's initially offered mobile comics through companies such as Uclick, on their GoComics Mobile Store.[2]

Mobile comic content has until recently been miniaturized or adapted versions of established branded comic content. With the rise of file sharing and piracy it has been increasingly hard for publishers to control money leakage from digital/mobile comics and as such publishers (especially traditional Japanese Manga houses) have shied away from licensing digital or mobile comics.

This however, has led to the rise of user-generated (independent artists) using platforms to publish and sell their work at low cost, and (for the first time in years) do so profitably.

The challenges for mobile comics creation include:

  • Small screen size, which means as little text as possible can be included.
  • Different handsets with different screen sizes and technical specifications means the same java viewer will not work on all phones.
  • Story telling must end within 25 frames, or less. The number of frames depends on delivery method

Several mobile content providers have now developed their own mobile comics platforms, some using java-based applications which have to be downloaded to the mobile first before comics can be viewed. Others are using Multi Media Messaging and WAP subscription to deliver strips. However, there are platforms for iPhone and iPad that have been developed to distribute RSS-based webcomics for free, such as the iOS application Comic Avenue.

Titles

Initially the titles released were existing comics licensed for the new medium but new titles are emerging purely on the mobile phone. Thunder Road is the first original title for the medium, featuring artist Steven Sanders who previously worked on The Five Fists of Science.[3][4][5] Carnival of Souls is the first digital and motion comic book series on Blackberry's App World, written by Jazan Wild.[6][7] The Carrier is the first original graphic novel exclusively on the iPhone, written by Evan Young.[8] Alien Revolution an eight chapter multi language comic, by Illot.[9]Mobilecomic A collection of comics. Multi language. Interactive, by Illot.[10]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Phegley, Kiel. "IDW ON THE CHANGING FACE OF MOBILE COMICS". Comic Book Resource. Archived from the original on 26 October 2008. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  2. ↑ Peres, Josh. "uclick Brings Devil's Due to Cell Phones". PR Web. Archived from the original on 15 October 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  3. ↑ Thunder Road: Comics On Your Phone Should Be Good Archived 2007-08-10 at the Wayback Machine, Silver Bullet Comic Books
  4. ↑ "GoComics Books - Mobile Comic Books". Archived from the original on 2007-09-17. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
  5. ↑ TALKING TO THE THUNDER ROAD CREATORS Archived 2007-09-22 at the Wayback Machine, July 19, 2007, Newsarama
  6. ↑ "Carnival of Souls - 1st Comic Book App in App World- Mobile Comic Books". Archived from the original on 2010-01-09. Retrieved 2009-11-07.
  7. ↑ Carnival Comics scares up downloadable apps / LA Times , May 24, 2009
  8. ↑ The Carrier released: First graphic novel exclusive to iPhone Archived 2009-09-26 at the Wayback Machine, Sept 22, 2009
  9. ↑ Alien Revolution: Multi language. Archived 2022-02-04 at the Wayback Machine, by Illot 2016
  10. ↑ Mobilecomic.org: A collection of comics. Multi language. Interactive. Archived 2023-06-06 at the Wayback Machine, by Illot 2017
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