Scribd has reached agreements that will add more than 10,000 comics and graphic novels to its e-book subscription service, all for the same monthly fee of $8.99.
Through the deal, Scribd is partnering with such comics publishers as Marvel (although not DC Comics as yet), IDW/Top Shelf, Archie Comics, Dynamite, Zenescope, and Boom! Studios. The new content agreements will also boost the total number of titles offered by Scribd, to more than 1 million.
Julie Haddon, Scribd v-p of editorial and marketing, emphasized that the comics Scribd is offering have been “optimized” for reading on the iPad, and can display both single page and spread layouts. All the comics files have also been compressed for faster loading.
The new comics category at Scribd will offer unlimited access to classic traditional comic books such as Daredevil, Spider-Man, Archie and X-Men, as well as complete graphic novels such as Alan Moore’s From Hell, Rep. John Lewis’ March: Book One, and Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith’s 30 Days of Night.
“We’ve got something for everyone and we’re able to deliver new revenues as well as new readers to our publishers,” Haddon said. And Scribd continues to talk to new comics publishers, she said, and will continue to add new comics titles to its offerings.
Scribd competitor Oyster currently offers a small selection of comics works, making Scribd’s new comics category one of the most extensive digital comics subscription inventories available. Marvel Comics has its own digital subscription service, Marvel Unlimited, which offers access to 15,000 issues of classic Marvel comics for $9.99 a month. The manga and anime site Crunchyroll also offers a tiered e-comics subscription service providing access to a limited selection of popular manga titles for $6.95 and $11.95 a month.
Haddon said the service offers 12 categories of comics (superheroes, mystery, romance, etc.) to browse. Scribd subscribers can also search by character, series and over 100 “expert-curated” collections, that will include Team-ups, Funny Women, Manga, Zombie Horror, Eisner Award-winning comics and other editorial recommendations.
