With digital downloads of comics for various desktop and handheld devices getting more and more attention, several comics publishers are getting additional sales through iPhone downloads (see PWCW story "IDW Hires Webber to Oversee E-publishing "). One of the surprise success stories has been Red 5.
Red 5 Comics—founded by several former Lucasfilm employees—is a relative newcomer to the industry, having published its first issue in October 2007. This makes Red 5 younger than the iPhone, since Apple's iconic smartphone was released four months earlier. From the start, company co-founder Paul Ens knew that alternate means of getting Red 5's comics in customers' hands would be key to bringing attention to their line of titles. So when iVerse Media began to offer downloadable issues of comics formatted to be easily read on the iPhone, he was impressed, noting “The iVerse app was the first to make me enjoy a comic equally as much as a printed copy”. Ens leapt at the opportunity.
Neozoic, one of Red 5's original launch titles was written by Ens with art by J. Korim and Jessie Lam, and was its first release through iVerse in November 2008. This past January saw the release of the Eisner-nominated Atomic Robo, a pulp sci-fi action-comedy series following the adventures of a robot created by Nikola Tesla. To date Robo's had the most success for the company on iTunes, breaking into the list of top 20 iTunes book apps at times when competition included IDW's tie-in to this summer's Star Trek movie, books from the Twilight series, and editions of the Bible. Ens holds that “our comics are their own best marketing” and that iVerse's decision to offer first issues for free makes the download “an easier first taste for some than taking a $3 chance on a physical issue from an independent”.
Ens and Red 5 have been relying on word of mouth to draw in new readers. Robo had already built up a buzz through positive reviews, the Eisner nomination, and a loyal fanbase for its writer's existing webcomic. Over time the following grew, as the first issue of Robo cracked the top 20 list months after its initial release, but the next issue to do so was issue 6 on the week of its release.
The creative team behind Atomic Robo, writer Brian Clevinger and artist Scott Wegener, credit the book's success to the wider market reached through the App store. “Mainstream comics publishers have spent decades culling 'normal' people from comics because Marvel and DC felt it was in their best interests to cultivate readerships rabidly dedicated to their own titles,” says Clevinger. But now offering comics through the App store lets them reach readers “who don’t care about Marvel or DC or big event crossovers. They’re people who just want to be entertained by comics.” As for Red 5's success reaching those readers, they feel “It should come as no surprise then that a relative dark horse of the publishing industry can rise to the top of the App store because the barriers that keep the big publishers big and small publishers small aren’t in place.”
There are a number of well-established comics publishers offering material through iVerse: Image, IDW and Boom!. DC and Marvel have yet to venture into the App store. Clevinger and Wegener believe it's only a matter of time, owing to the fact that the big two “are not yet convinced it’s profitable for them to do so. Once the model proves itself on the backs of indie press, the mainstream will jump all over it.” And Red 5's Ens welcomes more books on the market, predicting, “If they see Batman or Spider-Man there and enjoy it...they might be more inclined to try out a free copy of that Atomic Robo they've been hearing about.” While it's difficult to measure whether the digital offerings have led to more readers picking up print copies, Ens happily reports that readers have approached him at conventions, iPhone in hand, pointed to a downloaded Red 5 comic and told him “I want to buy this one”.
