Neon Ichiban, a major new player in the digital comics space, launched sales for their beta testers this week. The website, operated by comics publisher DSTLRY, is set up as not just a digital comics retailer, but a digital comics hub with extra perks designed to emulate the “collector’s experience,” with digital signatures and remarques one of the big features teased.
DSTLRY, co-founded by comiXology veteran David Steinberger, has been making waves since it was founded, landing some big names for interesting projects. Neon Ichiban takes them away from being an indie publisher and into the realm of being a service provider with a presence across the comics market.
Neon Ichiban has already landed deals with a number of major comics publishers, including DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, and Oni. Starting this week, fans who signed up for the company’s beta test can purchase digital comics from the Neon Ichiban website.
Touting an “ever-growing backlist” as well as new releases, DSTLRY wants to reintegrate some of the seamless user experience that has been lost by ComiXology since the company was bought out by Amazon, including easier offline reading and the ability to download digital copies (if the publisher allows it). Of course, they’re swimming upstream in a market where ComiXology had a near-monopoly even before being integrated into Amazon.
“Understanding how comic book fans and people who should be fans want to shop and think about and browse doesn’t exist anymore,” Steinberger told the New York Times when Neon Ichiban was announced. “The Comixology app, where you can have all your comics in one place, does not exist anymore. It’s all just part of Kindle.”
Publisher control goes beyond the downloads: they can opt in or out of the features like digital remarques, which presumably means that some of the more forward-looking companies will be aggressively participating, even if Marvel and DC are more interested in getting their backlist established. Part of the sales pitch, in any case, is that the provenance of your digital collectible will be integral to the file itself.
Neon Ichiban will also host a marketplace function where fans can buy and sell their digital comics and collectibles (provided the publisher is on board). Publishers and creators will get a cut of the resale, and the hope is that it will bring the secondary market to digital comics — something that has been missing from the beginning.
Of course, the majority of users will likely never get into the weeds with digital collectibles and resales…and it’s the basic function — selling comics — that’s taking center stage right now as DC, Oni, and others already have the first wave of new titles available for sale on the site.
