In the wake of last week’s launch of Diamond Digital, Diamond Comics Distributors new program to offer digital downloads through physical comics shops, digital comics vendors like Comixology and iVerse Media have entered into the spotlight of digital comics distribution. While both vendors are among the frontrunners in offering digital comics, PW Comics Week talked with a number of digital vendors also looking to compete in the digital comics distribution and retail marketplace.

Comixology has been a leader in digital comics distribution, working with Image Comics, DC Comics and Marvel Comics, among others, to offer their comics via the iPad, the Web and smartphone applications. In fact, Comixology recently announced its own Digital Storefront Affiliate program, designed to work with traditional comic book shops through their respective Web sites; while iVerse announced its partnership with Diamond Comics Distributors to allows physical comics shops (aka the Direct Market, the 2,700 stores serviced by Diamond) to offer exclusive downloads of select comics.

But smaller distributors are also entering the digital distribution space and offering a variety of retail options from downloads to Print On Demand hardcopy comics publishing. PWCW spoke with Micah Baldwin of Graphic.ly; Cameron Merkler of My Digital Comics, and Matt McElroy of DriveThruComics in an effort to get a broader view of vendors working to create a digital comics marketplace.

Indeed, Graphic.ly just announced that it has raised $3 million in funding from investors; MDC is the exclusive digital distributor of AdHouse Books' commercial hit Duncan The Wonder Dog, a critically acclaimed debut graphic novelby Adam Hines; and DriveThru Comics is promoting a print-on-demand service paired with its digital services.

The companies had plenty to discuss during our interviews, but they answered one burning question: How are revenues from sales of distributed comics split between distributor and publisher? The standard: They take 30% of a sale, and the publishers get 70%. This agreement can vary; Elroy said, if a publisher comes to a non-exclusive agreement with DriveThru, the company offers a 40-60 DriveThru-publisher split.

Graphic.ly Offers Bonus Content

Digital vendor Graphic.ly launched in April 2010 with a mission to bring social and interactive elements to digital comics. Graphic.ly distributes titles from more than 150 publishers, including Marvel, Archaia and Boom! Studio titles. According to CEO Micah Baldwin, the company is expecting to launch its Android application this month, adding to its iPad, Web and desktop applications. It's a significant launch: Graphic.ly is poised to be the only distributor with Marvel Comics licensing on the Android Market. (comiXology has an Android app, but the app does not feature Marvel.)

Baldwin also said the company is producing more bonus content related to its distributed comics, much like the special features of a DVD. In fact, it recently included audio commentary and interactive panels for Top Cow's Berserker series and Boom! Studio's high-profile Irredeemable. Those features are downloadable within its desktop application.

"Our community wants more," Baldwin told PWCW. "They want to expand the comic book experience and do more than read a comic. They want to be able to listen to the creators, talk to the creators, or engage directly with the comics. They want things like interactive panels, where you can wipe away the colors and see the inks, or see extensions of the story."

Of the digital distributors PWCW contacted, Graphic.ly was the most forthcoming, offering data about how consumers use the service . On average, Baldwin said, a book is read 3.6 times, and users reportedly spend roughly 25 minutes reading on the site, commenting, etc. Factoring in its iPad, Web and desktop applications, the company has recorded 750,000 downloads since April 2010, and 75,000 monthly active users.

Those active users are the driving force behind Graphic.ly's updates to its software. The company recently addressed problems with its iPad application, a sore spot, until recently. "We’ve fixed the most painful bugs plaguing users,” said a recent note on the company blog, “such as the dysfunctional Close button and several of the intermittent crashes and (user interface) wonkiness issues. We’re now covered for (Apple's mobile operating system) iOS 4.2, too, and increased the speed of backups."

Graphic.ly is also looking to expand the numbers of comics publishers as well as trade book publishers it works with. But Graphic.ly v-p, external relations said that while "We are able to say that we are in talks with some of those publishers. I can't comment on which ones."

My Digital Comics Offers Triple Threat

Like other distributors, My Digital Comics, founded in 2009, works with a bevy of publishers—Devil's Due, Dynamite Entertainment, Arcana Comics. Its download options, though, distinguish it from Graphic.ly, comiXology and the like. Indeed, one can opt to download select comics and graphic novels as PDFs and CBZs (files for image-viewing apps such as Comical and CDisplay), and later transfer those files to compatible tablet devices, computers and applications; the downloads are not locked to My Digital Comics.

According to co-founder Cameron Merkler, customers like the downloads, and they want more from publishers. "They don't want to be logged in, being near an Internet connection. It's way more convenient to actually own the product and being able to take it wherever you want."

Merkler said mydigitalcomics.com has been seeing much traffic, thanks to AdHouse's decision to work with MDC in the digital offerings of Duncan The Wonder Dog, created by Adam Hines. (Read PWCW's interview with the creator). Merkler said it's against company policy to disclosure the number of downloads for Duncan The Wonder Dog and other popular comics, but he did concede: "I can tell you that (the site has) been growing and January was our best month that we've had since beginning My Digital Comics."

Merkler has two upcoming programs designed to link mydigitalcomics.com with online comics retailers Discount Comic Book Service and InStockTrades. In the next month or soon after, he said, customers can visit InStockTrades and order a trade paperback, download, or perhaps order both. The project with Discount Comic Book Service will launch later, Merkler said, and it's much bigger. "It's publisher-specific, where we'll be able to highlight a particular publisher in a much more open fashion. It will promote particular publishers pretty heavily on the site."

DriveThru Comics is an Indie Magnet

Digital comics vendor DriveThruComics.com is offering a new service that allows customers to order the print or digital version of a comic. The service is slightly different from Merkler's plan with My Digital Comics: DriveThru can actually print the comic in-house using Print On Demand technology.

"It's a good way to let customers get books that are out of print or might not be worth doing a full print on," said Matt McElroy, publisher relations manager at DriveThru. He added: "It's definitely going to be more beneficial to indie publishers, because companies like Top Cow, for example, have a print program through Image Comics."

DriveThruComics is one facet of DriveThru's network. The distribution company has a role-playing game site and fiction sites. McElroy said DriveThru was selling comics through its role-playing-game site before 2003, when drivethrucomics.com launched. "We were selling comics in e-book formats before anyone even knew what they were—because the RPG industry had jumped on digital publishing a decade ago, and we spun a comic site out of the RPG site. It's kind of neat to see digital comics really taking off."

In terms of site trends and numbers, Phil Folgio’s Victorian-influenced Fantasy series Girl Genius and long-running U.K. sci-fi crime series Judge Dredd are most popular, McElroy offered. He added that the site newsletter has 100,000 subscribers, and "most of the users are regular customers."

And what's the company's position on customers owning a digital comic? There’s no DRM. "They download it and it's theirs," McElroy said. "We offer a watermark service that publishers are not required to use, but most do. It puts the customer's name and order on the file."