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The fairly recent innovation of layered comics used by Thrillbent, Marvel Infinite and others is still a mystery to most, even though I’m convinced it’s going to be a future if not the future of digital comics. But creator Reilly Brown, one of the very first to utilize the format with Power Play, went into a good amount […]

By Matt O’Keefe

Over ten years in the making, Mark Waid and Barry Kitson’s Empire is finally back. Volume 2 just debuted as on Thrillbent as a comic. I spoke to Mark about transitioning the series and updates on Thrillbent’s iOS app and new subscription model service.

Can you describe Empire for those who haven’t read it?
Empire is the story of what happens when a bad guy wins. Empire is the story of Golgoth, an armored despot who has supreme power and had a ten year plan to take over and earth and rule it in totality, and in eight years he knew two things for certain. One was that he was going to win and the other was that he didn’t want the job anymore because once he assimilates all the power onto one throne that makes him the target. That makes the throne the most deadly place in the world.

Golgoth is ruler of all he surveys, and there’s no opposition. There is no Justice League or Avengers to topple his rule. He’s won flat-out, but the question now is what happens next. What do you for an encore once you’re conquered the world?

What drove you to continue a print series as part of Thrillbent instead of create a new concept?
Ever since Barry Kitson and I did the original Empire back in the early-2000s we’ve wanted to do a sequel, but we had to wait until the right time when we were both available, and after we reclaimed the rights from DC. Now that we have it back, we’re full steam ahead. The reason we’re going to Thrillbent is because I own it, and as a publishing platform it was the perfect place for us. When you couple that with us rebranding Thrillbent as a premium subscription service for creator-owned books, Empire was a no-brainer as a flagship, because every store signing, every convention I’m asked when will more Empire come out. Well that day is tomorrow.

Is Empire Volume 2 in the Thrillbent format?
Yeah. It’s taking advantage of everything Thrillbent can do on a digital platform.

Had you started scripting it in traditional comics format?
No. We had a bunch of notes we had a bunch of ideas half-written ideas and half-written emails and notes written on napkins but really it wasn’t until we reclaimed the rights that we got very serious about it. Thankfully it was very easy to step back into that world which bodes well for us.

How has a comics veteran like Barry Kitson transitioned to the new format?
Very well. By his own admission he was nervous about it but Barry is a very, very smart man and he’s a brilliant storyteller so it really wasn’t much of a challenge for him at all. He got it right off the bat and he’s adapting very well to what digital can do and bringing a surprise to every page turn.

And Troy Peteri is lettering the book?
Yep. And Chris Sotomayor, who colored the original Empire, is back on board to join us with this.

Troy Peteri letters a big portion of the Thrillbent line. Has that that consistency helped the comics-making process?
Yeah he’s an invaluable part of the Thrillbent team. It’s not just that he gives us consistency, it’s that he understands every part of the process and he understands what digital can do. He’s not just treating it like a side job and instead treating it like a vocation and I’m thrilled about that.

Is Empire Volume 2 a finite story?
Yes, but not a short one. At least as long as Volume 1. You can certainly pick up Volume 2 without reading Volume 1 if you’re so inclined because we recap in those first few pages. But if you want to delve into volume 1 which is out-of-print and not easily accessible, when you subscribe to Thrillbent we are throwing in the Volume 1 192-page edition as well.

Why did you decide to stop offering downloads on Thrillbent?
We actually had been offering the files as downloads on the site and we were doing that specifically because we were building an audience. The reason we were offering the files as downloads was because people were going to pirate and share them anyway so we figured we may as well give them a quality copy that had our names on it. We did that for a few years and that served its purpose in getting the word out, but we’re moving into a new phase.

I’ll be brutally honest with you. We’re at a point that if we want to keep doing what we’re doing and keep pushing forward like we have been and keep producing new material that is going to attract an increasingly sizeable audience, we need to create a mechanism by which we can sell people early access to material that will eventually be free on the site–the Hulu/Hulu Plus model, if you will. That said, we’re bending over backward to give you way, way, way more in value than we are asking for in compensation. Even if you’re reading Empire and nothing else on Thrillbent you’re getting $3.99 worth of content every month. If you add to the other Thrillbent series you have access to, and our 300+ comic back catalogue, and the free 192-page Empire graphic novel, I think your $3.99 is well-spent.

What’s surprised you about the response to the Thrillbent app?
That people are embracing it like you wouldn’t believe. I was nervous that people would look at this and go, “Oh wait, you’re charging now? Well then i’m not interested” and certainly that made me nervous, but what pleasantly surprised me was the number of fans who stepped up and said that they appreciated getting two years worth of content so far and “how can we help you keep delivering that content at a fair price?” That was awesome.

And Insufferable is returning soon?
Yes, Insufferable will be coming back with Volume 3. We haven’t set a date; it will almost certainly be coming out after San Diego at this point. But in the meantime we have James Tynion who has been writing Batman Eternal over at DC writing a new series for us called The House in the Wall which will premiere next month. We have a brand-new series from a fantasy writer named Seanan McGuire. She’s terrific. She brings a whole new audience to Thrillbent because frankly her fan base is bigger than mine so, Seanan, please come aboard. She’ll be doing new material for us next month as well, and we’ll have many more announcements to roll out over the summer.

You can now read Empire with a subscription on the app or at thrillbent.com.

We round out this Kickstarter Power Hour with a Thrillbent series which’ll be coming to print if it makes the Kickstarter goal. Written by Trevor Mueller and drawn by Gabriel Bautista Jr, Albert the Alien is an all-ages graphic novel looking for $8000 to make funding.

Albert is Earth’s first intergalactic exchange student, arriving to Earth to help bridge the cultural gaps between his planet and our own. Finding Earth to be a place where we have strange school social structures, bullies, nerds, jocks and all kinds of other groups, Albert sets about making school life a strange and amazing adventure for everybody to get involved in.

Having originally published over at their website, the creative team brought Albert and his world to Thrillbent more recently, and are now looking to publish the first 100 pages – and some new, Kickstarter-exclusive content – as a print book. Suitable for all ages, I’ve been reading up on his stories over at the site myself, and can verify that this is absolutely suitable for anybody at all but especially aliens, non-aliens, and everybody who doesn’t fit into those two descriptors. It’s brilliantly funny, packed with jokes, and filled with a genuine warmth for the characters.

Albert himself is an utterly infectious character, and I would love if we could see him head to print. This is absolutely EXACTLY the sort of comic we should all be reading. Smart, addicting, good-hearted and brilliantl put together, Albert the Alien is a wonderful comic. And you can find it here! 

Over at Thrillbent, the webcomics portal he devised two years ago, Mark Waid has announcedThrillbent 3.0, which includes an iPad app that will allow users to sync their website purchases, see where theyleft off, and other up-to-date functions. In addition to the free comics Thrillbent has always offered, Waid is adding what he calls a “Hulu Plus” level that includes new content for a monthly subscription of $3.99, which is, as Waid points out, is the price of one comic. For this you get:

EMPIRE VOLUME TWO, the long-awaited sequel to the out-of-print graphic novel EMPIRE by myself, Barry Kitson and colorist Chris Sotomayor;

THE HOUSE IN THE WALL, a fantastic horror series by THE EIGHTH SEAL’S James Tynion IV and Noah J. Yuenkel and artist Eryk Donovan;

INSUFFERABLE: HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE, the next series of INSUFFERABLE adventures by myself, Peter Krause, Nolan Woodard and Troy Peteri;

THE BEST THING, an upcoming series by the Hugo- and John W. Campbell-award winning writer Seanan McGuire, whose audience and fan base eclipses my own;

New episodes of THE DAMNATION OF CHARLIE WORMWOOD

More material is rolling out soon. Waid writes:

That’s a lot of new content, and I’ll be blunt—to make sure our artists, colorists and letterers are compensated fairly, and to continue to build a base for other creators to redefine this medium in new and exciting ways, we can’t afford to give it all away for free the same way we’ve been doing. But neither do we want to create an unfair barrier to entry. Ultimately, what we arrived at was this: a monthly subscription model that allows access to all Thrillbent material past and present for the price of one print comic: $3.99.

I’ve already subscribed — and if my invoice number was an indication, so have several other people. $3.99 is a low, low price and I want to support the kind of independence and innovation that Thrillbent has been exploring. So, yeah, good deal.

by Alexander Añé

One of the hot topics in the comics industry is the movement into the digital medium, and of course the biggest question in that migration is, “what’s it going to cost?” Sunday afternoon at San Diego Comic-Con, the leading voices in this debate came together to discuss this topic: Mark Waid representing Thrillbent, Scott Kurtz the creator of PvP, IDW Publishing’s ePublishing director Jeff Webber, Chris Ross attending as Top Shelf’s director of digital publications, and moderating the panel is comiXology’s Chip Mosher.Mark Waid was a little late showing up, having just won three Eisner Awards the evening before, and after introducing the panel Chip asked the panelists, “what is the ideal price for digital comics and why?”

The line of responses started with Mark Waid, and he suggested, “99 cents… because 99 cents is the point at which even the most casual readers will drop 99 cents will try something they have not tried before. 99 cents is the price you’d pay on an app from the app store… We’re not competing with other comics and we’re not competing with print comics, we’re competing with other things that cost 99 cents.”

Jeff Webber suggested that, “there’s not one price,” following up by suggesting a staggered price system based on date of release, starting from full cover price and lowering after periods of time with the inclusion of discounts; citing that IDW’s best selling digital items at the, “highest price up… except when we do a 99 cent sale.”

Scott Kurtz focused on the question, “Is this digital market the first or secondary market for this content?” His belief is that depending on the use of the digital market, should influence the price, whereas first market should be 99 cents and secondary should be free; especially in regard to marketing, “it should be zero or very little.”

Chris Ross narrowed the question to specifically what sort of comics should be priced and in which way, “Top Shelf publishes big, huge books, it doesn’t make sense to price those 99 cents.” He explained that Top Shelf’s strategy is to price their digital books to help supplement physical books and in a way that encourages readers to invest in physical copies. Mark Waid followed up with the price point concept by suggesting the question, “My motto at Thrillbent is more, ‘I want to charge 99 cents for this, then how much can I give you?’”

Chip Mosher then posed the question, “Don’t you think the 99 price point discussion is really about having people discover more comics, making them accessible, cheaper?” Chris Ross replied “I think the one thing we keep coming to as far as the 99 cents, is Angry Birds. That’s the thing that said you can get hours and hours of entertainment for only a dollar. So when you purchase a comic or you purchase a graphic novel, if it’s anything that takes you an hour or two, you feel that if you pay $4 for it you just got screwed.”

Scott Kurtz replied by saying, “It’s scary to spend 5 bucks to ‘rent’ a comic,” and continued on how paying a full price becomes an obstacle to draw in new readers and how portals or a