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Marvel Sends Letter To Creators About Apple iPad Urging They Stay Positive

Published Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:00:42 -0500

Last updated Sat, 03 Apr 2010 07:07:19 -0500

Well, Marvel made it all official like. I understand a number of Marvel freelancers received e-mails concerning the news.

Dear Marvel Creators,

Today, Friday April 2^nd, we're pleased to announce the Marvel Comics App, a revolutionary new app that's going to bring our comics to a whole new audience. It'll be available for free on iTunes, iPod Touch and iPad. We're also launching with some free content.

You're likely to get a lot of inquiries from press about your reaction to this development, how it affects you and what it means for the industry. As always, we're glad to see you get the press and represent Marvel on a global scale.

However, we're hoping to keep the press focused on how this brings the Marvel Universe to a new audience, presents our great stories in a new way and drives customers to comic shops. Some reporters will try to make this about the notion of the print industry dying or Marvel abandoning the direct market, when we all know we're 100% committed to our retail partners. From the Comic Shop Locator built into the app to the mention of comic shops in our press release, we're making sure that local comic shops are prominently represented.

We're also asking you loop in Arune Singh as he's the point person for our press efforts with the Marvel Comics App. He'll let you know if we're good to proceed with the interviews and can provide additional guidance where you have questions.

Let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thanks!

George Beliard, Manager Talent Relations

Marvel Entertainment, LLC

417 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10016

Of course, some creators don't respond that well just being told what to do.

Also, no one has yet given any explanation at Marvel over how this may impact on creator pay. The last time I checked (admittedly, a while back), creators received no payments for their work distributed on the Marvel DCU subscription. I don't know if iPhone distribution systems complicated that. My requests are currently bouncing around the system.

So what are people who've actually got an iPad saying? Let's run past BoingBoing first.

So what does Marvel do to "enhance" its comics? They take away the right to give, sell or loan your comics. What an improvement. Way to take the joyous, marvellous sharing and bonding experience of comic reading and turn it into a passive, lonely undertaking that isolates, rather than unites. Nice one, Misney. – Cory Doctorow

@BrianReed Somebody needs to sit Cory Doctorow down, give him a cup of hot cocoa and see if they can settle him down a bit.

Business Week have a very consumer-level reaction;

I was surprised by how much I loved the Marvel Comics application. A few weeks ago I had a miserable cold on the weekend and for some reason had a peculiar urge to read comic books. I found a digital comic book reader, BitCartel's ComicBookLover and found a few files to download to it and read them on my Mac. It was okay. Today I tried Marvel's iPad application, and I kinda wish I had a cold again so I had an excuse to crash on the couch and read Spider Man and drink tea. If you like comic books (and who doesn't, at least once in awhile?) this is a lot of fun. It lets you see full pages or zoom in to individual panels, and you can download books — some are free and some cost $1.99 — from Marvel's store.

The CBR board thinks it's all just too expensive and not subscription-based. iFanboy seem to agree, pointing out that they can often buy the actual print back issues for less than the Marvel App will be charging. But Gizmodo makes it short and sweet.