Pipeline #541 - 24 Oct 2003

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

This week:

* Review of SHE-HULK #22, Peter David's first issue.
* A look at Wowio.com, another on-line comics distributor. They sell FREE comics!

Coming up on Wednesday: An additional review I can't discuss just yet for a book that's coming out next week.

-Augie

[jeremiahvedder]

Wowio is the greatest thing to ever happen to me. I've only got one book up there now (DEAD: WITH DICK & JANE #1, which you can download here (http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=1577)), but what Wowio's doing for me, from an unknown-creator standpoint is amazing.

Paul and I have racked up over 500 downloads in the month and a half the issue's been online -- plus, he's got his own separate comic imprint with about ten books available, which you can find here (http://www.wowio.com/users/searchresults.asp?txtSearch=Renderwrx&cbBrowse=0) -- which is far, far more copies of the book in people's hands than we would have ever been able to sell in that amount of time running the small-press route.

And since Wowio pays us creators every time someone downloads our books, partnering with them has opened so many doors for me that I can't even begin to describe how indebted I am to the way they do business. Because of Wowio, I went from being able to write with just Paul (though he's an awesome dude) to being able to have about eight new comics (done with other artists) available by the start of 2008. It's a really exciting time to be an Independent, and I can't say enough about what the company's doing for guys like me.

All best,

Jeremiah Allan
Writer, DEAD: WITH DICK & JANE, THE ADVENTURES OF MISTER MISADVENTURE, and WORMWOOD: A SERIALIZED PODCAST (http://www.wormwoodshow.com)

[Chris Crosby]

Ditto to Jeremiah's sentiments about WOWIO. Our company, Blatant Comics, has had over 90,000 downloads of our books on WOWIO since early August, with 5 or so of the slots on their Top 10 Comics list usually being Blatant Comics titles (http://www.wowio.com/users/comicshome.asp?cbPublisher=x53). We're looking forward to launching a bunch of new titles on WOWIO within the next few months, some of them possibly WOWIO-exclusive premieres.

[Bobby Crosby]

Agreed. Everyone should join WOWIO right now.

[Althalus]

Agreed. Everyone should join WOWIO right now.I'd actually like to, but I'm not allowed to. Living on the wrong side of the Atlantic. Any word on when they'll open it for international users?


~Althalus

[Bobby Crosby]

I was actually mostly referring to publishers when I said everyone should join. I want as many books on there as possible. Publishers can be from any country.

Not sure when other countries will be allowed to download books -- hopefully soon. I hear a dozen complaints per day about this.

[the_poet]

Let me chime in here - Smashout Comics has a stable of 14 titles, and we're growing all the time. We're not even close to the biggest sellers on the site (though HELIOS cracked the top 10 a couple of times), and we've had nearly 12,000 downloads since April. A third of that download total has come in the past 27 days alone.

In the coming months, we'll be putting out new books by our existing creators, and some new talent as well. Also, we'll be working to secure reprints and new projects by well-known creators of the past - it's our way of bringing them back into the limelight.

Though it'd be nice if we had the totals that Crosby and T Campbell and others have had, we're not complaining by any means - there's always room to grow. Wowio is where the money is, but I like to think we have some quality books, too!

[ssava]

I completely agree.
Wowio has been great from a creator/publisher's point of view.

I hope they can stay in business for a long time.

For any creators/publishers interested in putting their books on Wowio.
Contact Everett Fitzgerald.

He's a minority shareholder of DIgiback.
You have to go through DIgiback to get into Wowio.

But if you go through Everett....you've got a better chance of being treated well.

efitzgerald@myipd.com

I've been with Wowio since June I think...and have had a good amount of downloads myself.
I have I think 50 titles up and growing.
:)

Congrats to the Crosbys on their success. I hope to see more people joining too.