Mobile Comics Market Grows

Mobile comics seem to be growing in popularity worldwide, bouyed by better screen resolutions and the growing number of comic creators experimenting with the form. Further growth in the market might come from the increasing sales success for mobile comics (ketai) in Japan, a country which has already successfully exported manga print comics worldwide.

Reuters reported today that the Japanese love of mobile comics - which is already huge - could grow further with the arrival of Apple's iphone next month. Analysts claim the device's touch-screen will make it easier and more appealing to read comics on handsets.

With the number of mobile phone subscribers close to 108 million, or 85 percent of Japan's population, carriers there are already finding e-mail, music downloads and web surfing hugely popular, and are looking for new opportunities to make money in a highly competitive market - and that includes comics.

Mobile Comics led the size of the Japanese mobile publication market to double in the last business year to 22 billion yen ($204 million), according to Internet and media research firm Impress R&D, almost three times bigger than the e-publication market for PCs.

"Until now, users had been extensively using mobile phones for email," Shinko Securities analyst Tomohiko Okugawa told Reuters. "Now that's shifting to games and comics ... This is the area that's going to be very interesting."

"The importance of content has been growing," agreed Toshitake Amamiya, general manager of telecom KDDI's content and media division. "It's crucial to pursue what we can do in this market where each adult always carries around a mobile phone and uses it as a life tool."

The Mobile Comic phenomenon is not restricted to commuters aboard trains into Tokyo or Osaka. Comics on mobile aren’t just proving popular in Japan," argues John Freeman, Managing Editor of comics-on-mobile service ROK Comics. "Translations of strips first published on ROK Comics for China have proven very popular in recent months.

"Selling comics on mobile to traditional comics readers is, surprisingly, a hard sell," he acknowledges. "It's hard to beat the beauty and versatility of the printed comic page either online or on mobile. But reaching a new, wider audience who have always read newspaper cartoons but never set foot in a comic shop is proving the key to making mobile comics a success.

"Webcomics creators argue a hardcore fan set of a couple of thousand readers is enough to turn a profit online (largely through sales of strip-related merchandise such as collections, t-shirts etc.) so the potential revenues are strong," he argues.

"What we’re finding is that mobile comics are popular even in countries where there is no traditional print-based or web comic industry, and mobile reaches far more people than even web comic creators reach via PC delivery.

ROK Comics provides both a platform for licensed comic content including Andy Capp, Roy of the Rovers and Garth, and the tools for independent comic creators to upload their own comics, promoting their characters on mobile using a comic creator tool which also enable web blog and web site publication. The sale of downloads and WAP page views are creditted to creators' accounts, with profits on sales shared equally between ROK and the creator.

"Delivering comics on mobile in the West is achievable - we’ve been doing that for over a year," says Freeman, "but creators and publishers do need to take on board the creative challenges imposed by small screen delivery."

• More about creating comics for mobile on the ROK Comics web site

Night Owl Comes to ROK Comics

New to ROK Comics this month is Night Owl, just one of several heroes from US independent publisher Wham Bang Comics - the humorous creation of an imaginative teenager, with help from his father.

Night Owl, a 12-year-old superhero from Texas, holds the mantle of "Earth Shaman," the most powerful mage on the planet, and is charged with protecting the balance of the universe. A daunting task for a youngster!

Secretly Zack Finley, a seventh grader from Fort Worth, Texas, Night Owl is the child of divorce who spends weekends with his father and the rest of the time with his mother. He inherited his power -- derived from earth energy, the life force of the planet -- from his grandfather, Mack Finley, after the elder shaman was murdered.

Night Owl is still trying to full understand and utilize his powers. He knows he can fly, has super strength and limited invulnerability. He occasionally has prophecy dreams that come true, and he can use the staff left him by his grandfather to commune with the universe. His power animal, Grandfather Owl, is a constant ally in his fight against injustice.

Night Owl is an advocate for human rights and the rights of crime victims. He lives a lonely life, as he must keep his identity secret from even his mother, fearing that her life would be in danger if she knew who he was. (Plus, she'd be so worried for his safety she'd make him stop!)

Night Owl is written by 13-year-old Jake Tinsley (pictured) with help from his father, veteran journalist Ben Tinsley. Art is by rising manga star Jason Dube and colours are by Kristoffer Condes.

Publisher Ben Tinsley formed Wham Bang Comics, based in both Galveston, Texas and Las Vegas, Nevada, to showcase the adventures of Night Owl. Along the way, other writers climbed on board and Wham Bang's first comic, Two-Fisted Adventures, ended up as a 52-page anthology comic, available via their main online site: www.myspace.com/whambangcomics.

The Sound of Drowning

Comic creator Paul O'Connell, creator of cult comic book The Sound of Drowning, has a brand new issue (#10! double figures! ) out now.

"It's a non-linear comic book inspired by those kids 'Choose Your Own Adventure' stories," he says, "co-written with Laura O'Callaghan-White and just a dash of Harry sauce."

Paul, whose "Air Diana" strip was one of 30 shortlisted in the 2007 ROK Comics Humour Competition, also has some new strips on the soundofdrowning web site.

Paul will be selling the new comic and other bits and pieces in the small presss market at the London ICA Comica event, curated by Paul Gravett.

Lunney Comics!

ROK creator Lizz Lunney, whose 'Burger Love' strip was shortlisted for the 2007 ROK Comics Humour Competition, has two new comics on sale via her web site (www.lizzlizz.com)

Waiting For Sushi is a 32 page A6 comic with colour cover containing lots of mini cartoons with characters such as Hairy Midget Elf, Leaning Rabbit, Burger Love and The Boy with Living Ears!

"This first edition of this comic is now sold out," says Lizz, "but a second edition is now available. " This new version features three new cartoons - Melon Boy!, Fat Pigeon and Smelly Pigeon! and What to do if your Hair is on Fire!

Party Animals is a black and white 16-page mini comic featuring exciting little cartoons and ew characters such as My Mate Primate, Disco Rabbit and Troy the Talking Chair! This comic comes with a free random badge.

Hailing from Birmingham in the UK, Lizz studied Animation at a University "in a little town in the middle of nowhere.

"I soon discovered animators spend too many hours alone in the dark drawing the same picture slightly different millions of times with very little reward (except insanity) and so I developed an interest making fake taxidermy squirrels and puppet animation which is much more fun," she says. "Since then I have concentrated on cartooning again,

Her next comic will be Zine Arcade which she sells us which again features her characters, Smelly Pigeon and Fat Pigeon.

To buy either comic visit: lizzlizz.com/store5/agora.cgi

Reboot Competition

With our ROK Comics humour competition to win $10K now in its final days (and is it going to be hard to judge!), here's some news of another competition (its deadline 26 August), courtesy of Josh Roberts, who runs the terrific comics web site comicspace - if you want to track down your favourite comic creators, try here!

Vancouver-based effects company Rainmaker Entertainment is working with Zeros 2 Heroes to bring back the classic ReBoot television series. As part of this campaign, Zeros 2 Heroes will be creating a new comic based on ReBoot.

Here's the twist: the art team will be picked solely from online submissions: essentially users upload a sketch, painting, even lettering work for one of the ReBoot characters. These sketches are then voted on by the ReBoot fans, with the winners being called on to make up the art team.

So, it's an unpaid audition, but it will be a paid gig starting in September. The winner will be announced at FanExpo in Toronto on August 26th.

If you've got the time/interest, here's how to get involved:

(1) Go to www.zeros2heroes.com and join the site.
(2) The ReBoot pitches are found here (http://live.zeros2heroes.com/content/view/87/118/) - you need to be logged in.
(3) Launch the Flash viewer by clicking on any of the pitch thumbnails.
(4) Browse through the pitches and pick the CHARACTER or WORLD you think is the most interesting
(5) Upload a sketch using the UPLOAD button

If you haven't got the time to get involved in this process (or you don't really think ReBoot is your thing), no problem. But you may want to join the site anyway... Zeros 2 Heroes will be hiring a LOT of artists in the next few months to work on a number of upcoming projects.

ROK Comics in Bristol

ROK Comics Managing Editor John Freeman was in Bristol this weekend for the annual Comics Festival and offers this quick visual comment...