Archie, Madefire Team to Relaunch Archie Comics App

Archie Comics has teamed with Madefire, a digital comics publishing platform, to relaunch its Archie Comics Reading App. The new Archie app will offer fans a retail storefront as well as a subscription option providing unlimited access to the Archie Comics library for $7.99 a month.

The new Archie Comics app is available now for iOS devices. The new app offers fans browsing and retail opportunities to all Archie imprints, new releases, best sellers and bestselling titles. The new app is also designed highlight Archie’s reboot of many of its classic titles and characters, in particular its flagship Archie periodical series which has been redesigned for a younger generation with new storylines and character designs by veteran writer Mark Waid and Eisner award-winning artist Finoa Staples. Fans that open new accounts before November 26 will receive 30 free digital Archie comics, which will show up in their account library.

Archie is also offering an Archie Unlimited subscription option for $7.99 a month that will give subscribers access to thousands of new and backlist Archie titles, from periodicals and digests to full graphic novels. The service is similar to Marvel Comics’, Marvel Unlimited, a longtime subscription access model that offers fans access to thousands of Marvel titles and special content for a monthly fee.

The new app replaces the former Archie app (anyone with a previous account will retain all their purchases). The app also debuts Archie’s use of Madefire’s Motion Book Publisher platform, a browser based technology that allows publishers to produce and distribute their digital comics across channels and formats while retaining control of revenue and customer information.

In recent months, Madefire has been serving as an alternative to dominant digital comics vendor Comixology. The company is acting as a white label vendor and taking over the backend of a number of publisher apps, including those of IDW, Kodansha Advanced Media, Lion Forge and StanLee/POW Entertainment.

Ben Wolstenholme, Madefire’s CEO & Co-founder, said the Archie publisher/CEO Jon Goldwater and his “team are re-inventing Archie and we’re very proud to be a part of that.”

Goldwater said, “This is a forward-looking, engaging and sleek app that will serve Archie and entertainment fans well, and is a perfect way to ring in Archie’s 75th anniversary.”