From Universal Press Syndicate comes news that GoComics will be releasing the first mobile phone comic book on August 20th. The comic entitled, “Thunder Road” will be delivered as a slideshow to the phone. “Thunder Road” is created by Sean Demory and drawn by Steven Sanders and is a “post-apocalyptic, diesel punk action adventure” – a “Dr. Strangelove meets The Road Warrior” according to Demory.
From the press release:
Thunder Road will be available for purchase chapter by chapter. Each chapter is 80 panels long and will be delivered in weekly installments of 20 panels to subscribers. “We’ve worked exclusively with uclick to take full advantage of the GoComics Mobile Comic Book Reader and create an all-out epic experience for your mobile,” Demory said in another interview. “With Thunder Road, we’re setting a new standard for the scale of action that can be conveyed on a mobile screen. It’s one hell of a ride.” The Comic Book Reader can be downloaded from the GoComics web site straight to mobile phones.
While the creators feel it is necessary for comics to move into more technical media forms, they also hope to eventually publish Thunder Road as a paper comic book. Sanders hopes the future holds an iTunes or Rhapsody kind of program just for comic books. “You could rent the comics or buy and own the comics in a digital format, and then you could transfer them over to your e-paper comic book readers,” mused Sanders.
Their first or the first? I believe there are others already out there (e.g. ROKcomics.com).
I think peeps overestimate the effort comic readers will go to read a comic strip. 80 panels long? Sounds like a part time job just to read this toon…all done in near squint.
Hey, great if it works. Another avenue for cartoonsts, but it’s one I don’t/wouldn’t care for, and I’ve got a pretty large comic strip/comic book collection…