Digital Comics

Sunday morning, I turned on NPR (National Public Radio for those of you who are still unaware of this radio gem) in the car while on the way to do laundry. I happened to turn on the station in the middle of an interview with comic book author Alex De Campi and was thoroughly enthralled. Again, I ran into a situation that occurs frequently with me and NPR. I was sitting in the car at my destination so that I could listen to the rest of the segment. Because I had only tuned in halfway through, I resolved myself to find the rest of the interview online later. What a wonderful world we live in that I can access information at my convenience, even radio programs that have already aired. The full interview can be found here if you are interested.

After listening to the entire segment, I learned that Alex De Campi is utilizing new formats to distribute her comic Valentine to the masses. Instead of printing a traditional copy of the text, she has only made her comic available digitally for formats such as the iPhone and electronic readers like the Kindle. She sells monthly additions of the comic online for $0.99 an issue, with twenty-four installments planned. De Campi is unique in that her comic has no print version available yet (one is planned for November) and even a web version has not been made. She is strictly marketing her product to those who are utilizing these new technologies.

This makes me think that I need to upgrade my phone. And just when I thought that I was catching up to the modern digital age; after all, I did finally join Facebook this year. The one consolation is that De Campi herself admitted to not owning a phone sophisticated enough for her to access her own work! This made me smile.

In the interview, De Campi also described how she utilized social networking sites like Facebook to find people to translate her comics into other languages. It seems like such a novel idea, and one uniquely of this generation and our mindset. Valentine is currently available in fourteen languages (Russian, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Irish, Polish, Serbian, German, Dutch and English) and will hopefully soon be available in Latin, according to the author. I do like the idea of learning Latin from a graphic novel and anxiously await its arrival.

Although a few months ago, I would have never sat and listened to a twenty minute interview about a comic book author digitizing her work, I am glad to say that now I will. I feel that my horizons have been opened with this class and am no longer intimidated by the world of technology. Now if only I had the money to purchase this new technology...