The highly regarded U.K. graphic novel publisher Nobrow is finally moving into the digital space with the Nobrow Comics App for iPad, which the publisher will demo at the Angouleme comics festival in France, and again later at the ALA Midwinter meeting in Chicago.
Tucker Stone, Nobrow U.S. sales and marketing director, said the Nobrow app is available now in the App Store. It’s free to download and launches with seven titles, including the award-winning Luke Pearson's Hildafolk and Mikkel Sommer's Obsolete, with plans to release one to two digitally enhanced titles each month. Pricing will be based on page-length, and most of the initial titles are priced at $2.99. “The aim is to keep everything as affordable as possible,” Stone said.
The Nobrow app was developed in-house by Nobrow cofounder Alex Spiro and offers a personal library and two reading modes—panel by panel or page by page—and there’s enhanced content for certain titles; using a finger swipe, for instance, buyers can see the early development of a drawing or comics page prior to inking or the addition of color.
Nobrow debuts the app this week, and there’s a Twitter chat open forum (#NobrowApp) with Nobrow digital designer James Wilson on January 30 from 8am to 11 am EST. Nobrow timed the release for the annual Angouleme International Comics Festival, held January 29-February 1, in France. The show draws more than 200,000 comics fans, artist and publishers from around the world.
“This jump into digital is by no means a replacement of our efforts in printed work,” Spiro said. “It was time to step up and embrace the wider audience that a digital platform can offer the artists we are lucky enough to publish.”
