Atomic-Robo.com

Atomic Robo comics are now available on ComiXology’s new iPhone comics app. Don’t let Robert “Fat Cat” Kirkman kick us out of the Top 10!

Publishers Weekly interviews Red 5 Comics and Atomic Robo creators on digital comics distribution.

The full text of the interview conducted with Scott and I can be found below the cut!

Publishers Weekly: When did the two of you first hear about Atomic Robo being offered through the iTunes App Store? Were either of you involved in the choice to make it available or was that all out of your hands?

Team Robo: I believe iVerse came to Scott and I first and we deferred them to our publisher to make the final call. But we knew ahead of time that Red 5 Comics was interested in pursuing alternative distribution methods. All of us were. As publishers and creators, we want our products to be as accessible to the public as possible. Putting our comics on iTunes was a no-brainer.

PW: Were either of you involved in the decision-making process on how the comic was laid out to be viewed through iVerse Media’s comics reader? Do you have any thoughts on the layout of displaying a few panels at a time rather than keeping pages together?

TR: Well, iVerse sends us their version of every issue for us to give the thumbs up or down. I mean, there’s several solutions to the “screen problem”, and iVerse has done a great job of translating our comics to the iPhone. It’s not the only way and I’m sure they or other distributors will try other approaches. It’s a very young facet of the comics industry and no one’s of a mind that they’ve figured out all the angles. It’s pretty exciting to be a part of it in our small way.

But I think that no matter how well formatted the page is, unless it was made specifically for the screen, it’s always going to be an imperfect process to move from one to the other. The buyer knows that’s part of the package though. It’s the price they pay for getting a $3.00 – $4.00 item for $1.00.

PW: Why don’t you think a number of the higher profile comics publishers are making their books available for download yet? How helpful has it been for you to get your books available as iPhone downloads before they’re able to compete with you there?

TR: There’s one simple reason other publishers haven’t explored digital distribution: they 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. I don’t know, maybe that sounds spiteful, but I don’t mean it to be, it’s just the reality of business.

Their reluctance to compete in this new medium can only help us in the meantime. All it does is give a whole new audience more time to take a chance on our product and become familiar with it instead of defaulting to a property with the momentum of fifty plus years of publishing behind it.

PW: A number of issues of Robo were cracking the top 20 App lists in the book category at a time when the only other comics on that list were summer blockbuster tie-ins. Would you credit that to word of mouth, good promotion, a combination of those, or something else?

TR: I’d say a number of factors contribute to Atomic Robo’s success in the App store. Primarily though, I think it’s the difference between your average comic shop customer and your average App customer. Long story short: 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. What we’re left with in the direct market (i.e. comic shops) are customers who disproportionately seek out Marvel and DC titles because everyone else has been chased away.

Further, it’s just a solid business model. Anything that reduces the consumer’s perception of risk is a huge benefit, so the free first issue and low price point for subsequent issues are a great way to get word of mouth going and, ideally, always generating new sales. Even if the reader doesn’t like the first free issue enough to pursue the title further, he’s lost nothing by taking a chance on it and he will be inclined to try out other titles. It’s win-win for the customer and the industry.

PW: Has the availability of the book online made a noticeable impact in the attention you’ve been getting from readers? Has there been any increase in sales, and have you interacted with any new readers whose first exposure to Atomic Robo was through the App Store?

TR: Part of the difficulty with this question lies in how poorly comic sales are tracked. Even so, I’m not sure there’s a correlation between App Store sales and print sales. Right now, comics sold through the App Store are really marketed toward people who aren’t already reading comics, so there’s probably very little crossover. Surely, there will be those App store customers who are already comics readers, or those who convert to print readers – but I think it’s too early in digital distribution to say that’s happening at an appreciable rate. Certainly, our print sales haven’t shown any spikes since our App store debut that couldn’t also be explained by other means.

PW: Right now the issues that are up are from the first volume. You’ve got a second volume finished and collected as a trade and you’re now releasing issues from volume 3. Are there plans to make digital versions of those available as well? Would you like to hit a point where digital releases of Atomic Robo are made available closer to the release of the print edition?

TR: Oh yes, all volumes of Atomic Robo will be available through iVerse and any other App Scott, our publisher, and I find compelling. I think we’d all prefer to have the digital versions released closer to the street dates of the print versions. The delay is largely caused by the time required to format pages to the iPhone screen and then Apple’s abysmally slow approval process.