“Where is the Netflix of comics?” you ask. Unlimited streaming of everything from Blondie to Urasawa. That remains only a pipe dream, but a site called Comicsfix (get it?) is trying to be the streaming service we want. For $9.95 you get unlimited comics on various apps, and 24 hour access. But access to what? It’s just been announced that Dynamite is the first company Top 10 publisher to sign up with them. You don’t get everything, but some good starter stuff:
The first two volumes of The Boys by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson;
Legends of Red Sonja with Gail Simone;
Project Superpowers, featuring covers by Alex Ross;
The Blood Queen; Pathfinder, based on the best-selling Paizo RPG;
Bob’s Burgers comic book based on the Emmy award-winning television program;
Mark Waid’s The Green Hornet;
Zorro;
Vampirella Strikes;
Evil Ernie Volume 1
Battlestar Galactica
The Twilight Zone
The all-ages Lil’ Dynamites series by Art Baltazar and Franco.
More Dynamite single issues and full series will be added every week.
Other publishers on board seem to be Athlita and…it’s hard to tell because the covers are small and the publishers not very well know. You gotta start somewhere. There is also a publisher program. Here’s the hype:
“Dynamite Entertainment partnering with Comicsfix not only validates all the hard work we’ve done this last year, but also our belief
that the subscription model that works for the film and music industries can be successfully translated to the comic book industry as well,” said Comicsfix’s CEO Felix Kiner. “For Dynamite to take a chance on a new way to deliver comics to readers is a testament of their incredible innovative spirit. Today we have great books from fantastic indie publishers; adding a company of this size with such an amazing history of quality titles is a dream come true for us. I cannot wait for the moment our readers will see Red Sonja, The Boys, Bob’s Burgers, Battlestar Galactica, and much more on their Comicsfix app.”“Comicsfix is an innovator in the realm of digital comics, and a welcome partner to Dynamite,” says Keith Davidsen, Marketing Manager of Dynamite Entertainment. “The good folks at Comicsfix apply technology that’s familiar to millions of internet viewers to comic books, making the digital reading experience as enjoyable, affordable, and extensive as what you might find for television and movie viewing. The Comicsfix platform will introduce subscribers to hundreds of Dynamite comic books, and — as our industry has seen time and again as digital comics have developed — the increased exposure yields greater success in print sales for our brick-and-mortar retail partners, as well. We look forward to growing our library with ComicsFix, for the benefit of all.”
This seems like a reasonable idea in this era. Some will want ownership, others find streaming just fine—and streaming is preferred to a lot of travel light millennials.
On the one hand, I consider this to be a great idea, and wish Comicsfix good luck. On the other hand, I do not nor shall not ever understand the value and attraction of digital comics collections. And on the OTHER other hand, with all due respect to Dynamite, this would be a more exciting development if this publisher had even one original concept for every ten or twenty they have borrowed from the past. Dynamite has yet to find somebody else’s idea they didn’t like.