Posted in: Comics, Digital | Tagged: 2000ad, app, apple, Comics, digital, ipad, iphone

The 2000AD Day-And-Date Digital Experience

Published Tue, 07 Aug 2012 12:00:03 -0500

Last updated Tue, 07 Aug 2012 12:04:32 -0500

For years, Americans and Brits have been trying to deal with the tricky problem, how to sell the British sci-fi weekly anthology comic 2000AD in the USA.

Because, while there is a terribly efficient distribution system that gets American comics to the UK, on sale hours before they are available in America itself, the same can't be said of comics going in the other direction. The volume doesn't justify it you see, and for quite some time Americans fans of The Tooth had to put up with getting four issues in one, every month, and probably two months late. Oh and pay twice the price.

You can see why it never really caught on.

Well, yesterday, 2000AD launched it's first Apple App, for the iPad and iPhone. And made 2000AD avalailable to download from the Apple Newsstand, on day-and-date digital terms, at £1.99 or $2.99 a copy, compared to a £2.25 or $5 print price.

However the ClickWheel.Net price for DRM free editions a week later continues to be £1.49.

But rather than paying over the odds, subscribers can save money on the cover price, one month's issues costing £7.49 or $10.99, with a month of free back issues. Three months costs £20.9 or $29.99 with two months of free back issues. And a year costs £74.99 or $109.99, saving a quarter off the standard price, with three months of free back issues.

And for those who would rather try before they buy, there's a free sample copy, featuring the first chapters of recent stories, including Judge Dredd: Day of Chaos, Zombo, and Ichabod Azrael!

Print does have some advantages, and print subscribers will get their copies earlier than digital subscribers. Also the iPad version does not have guided view, only manual magnify, which as some have pointed out, makes reading it on an iPhone a right pain.

But for those overseas drawn to 2000AD, especially with the arrival of the new Dredd film, this could be rather essential.

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