Either CrossGen was way ahead of its time or Marvel is just doing it better or there’s a new market that now exists that didn’t when CrossGen was still around. Let’s go to the good ol’ press release:

Marvel is pleased to announce that the first episode of Spider-Woman Motion Comic has conquered iTunes, debuting as the #1 episode on the Television-Animation sales chart and as the #2 episode on the Top Television Episodes sales chart. The New York Times Best-Selling team of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev (Halo Uprising) present Marvel’s first ever original motion comic as Spider-Woman embarks on a new mission that’ll change the Marvel Universe forever! With national coverage from MTV to the LA Times, everyone’s talking about the first episode of the Spider-Woman Motion Comic, available now on iTunes!

“To wake up this morning and see Spider-Woman ranked so high on the iTunes charts is crazy insane to me,” gushed Brian Michael Bendis. “Thanks to all the readers, and especially the motion comics first timers, who tried us out and than hit the subscribe button. To quote the Stan: you ain’t seen nothing yet!”

“I’m thrilled to see fans responding so enthusiastically to Marvel’s first motion comic,” said Alex Maleev. “Thanks to all the fans who’ve purchased Spider-Woman and I can’t wait till you see what’s next!”

John Dokes, Vice President, Sales and Marketing- Digital Media said, “Everyone at Marvel is proud of the Spider-Woman motion comic and this superb launch has exceeded all our expectations. Brian and Alex, have re-energized the geek in me—you have to see this for yourself!”

Fans can purchase the first episode of Spider-Woman on iTunes at iTunes store now! For more information on motion comics please visit Marvel.com at www.marvel.com/motioncomics

The motion comic is $0.99, a third of the cost of what it would be if it were a floppy. When CrossGen did their motion comics, you had to purchase them on DVD. I forget how much but I seem to recall something in the ball park of $10-$12, about the cost of a regular DVD. iTunes wasn’t selling video back in the CrossGen days but I imagine if it was, CrossGen might have been able to corner the motion comic market early on. I think Marvel will be successful simply by being there.

There’s a hidden danger. The $0.99 price points makes the motion comic a great impulse buy, kind of like what comics used to be back when you could pick them up at the corner drug store. This is brilliant on their part. But if Marvel starts churning out more motion comics, both original series and adaptations of current books, they may be inadvertently killing the floppy market. Personally, I think floppies are on their last legs anyway. If Marvel keeps winning that #1 slot with their motion comics, it’s only a matter of time before other publishers follow (hey Dark Horse, I can totally do this for you!).

I can easily see these replacing the floppy. The price is right. Production costs are minimal (animating already drawn comics is not that difficult and there’s no lip sync for the audio). And you’ll still get people picking up the eventual trade. I think this might be the next thing for comics.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 21st, 2009 at 10:01 am and is filed under Comics, Animation, The Future, Art, Streaming Tele. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.