Posted in: Comics | Tagged: ,


DC Digital First Comics Are Really Digital Seconds

DC Comics has a line it calls Digital First. Comic books created to be published digitally first usually a 10 page story, then collected with another chapter for a print comic later down the line.

Except, rather than the comics being digital-first, they are more like digital seconds. They are not drawn for the digital reading process, but for the print comics audience instead.

DC's digital-first comics are told in landscape format, basically the shape of a computer screen or a tablet or phone on its side. Which approximates to the top half of a printed comic book page. The printed version of a digital-first comic takes two of the pages and puts them one on top of the other.

But if the artist draws for a printed landscape page, rather than a digital-first layout, the editor just chops the page in half, whether it makes sense to do so or not.

Sensational Wonder Woman and Truth & Justice appear to be the most egregious offenders, but it's popped up in most titles including The Next Batman: Second Son.

Here are a few collated by friend-of-Bleeding-Cool Martin Gray. And will start with my favorite, the final cliffhanger two pages of The Next Batman: Second Son #1.

DC's Digital First Comics Are Really Digital Seconds

Grifter has arrived, with a message for Jace Fox from his father Lucius Fox. So what will the final page show us?

DC's Digital First Comics Are Really Digital Seconds

Purple shoes! What a climax! Or the moment in Sensational Wonder Woman when she makes her dramatic entrance.

DC's Digital First Comics Are Really Digital Seconds

What will the reaction from the people be?

DC's Digital First Comics Are Really Digital Seconds

It's all about the boots! The red boots! And picking up Truth & Justice, the digital-first comic with a more radical agenda?

Digital First Comics Are Really Digital Seconds

It's all about the leggings! The yellow leggings!

Digital First Comics Are Really Digital Seconds

This isn't "Guided View" or anything. These are separate pages of a digital-first comic book. Proving that it is anything but. And there are plenty, plenty more examples.

Might this be something DC Comics editorial might like to try and keep an eye on? And remind creators when they are creating for digital-first comics of the sizes of the pages?


Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!

Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
twitterfacebookinstagramwebsite
Comments will load 20 seconds after page. Click here to load them now.