Digital Usagi

[Stan Sakai]

Usagi is in the Dark Horse Digital Store which was launched last week. Here is the link to see what they're offering so far:

https://digital.darkhorse.com/search/?q=usagi

[Steve Hubbell]

I'm surprised that Dark Horse is offering some of the stories usually published by Fantagraphics. That Classic Usagi Yojimbo #1 cover looks pretty awesome!

[Stan Sakai]

I'm surprised that Dark Horse is offering some of the stories usually published by Fantagraphics. That Classic Usagi Yojimbo #1 cover looks pretty awesome!

Rest assured, it is with Fantagraphics' blessings, as they have no digital program in the works.

[Maka]

Hello UYDers,

I bought a digital copy of Yokai for $5.99. I don't have an iPad but I have an iPhone4.

The water colors look great on the iPhone screen. The lettering can be read but is on the small size. I have to admit it look a lot better than I thought it would on such a tiny screen.

At first the Dark Horse app setting had the "panel zoom" feature automatically turned on. I found that extremely annoying. It zooms in and out of of panels on each page. You rarely get to see the whole page at once. Very un-comic like. I turned it off. It reads a lot better.

Of course you can only see on page at a time. With a comic you almost always see two pages at a time. The story is a little different that way. And when they get to the splash pages (i.e full images across two pages) the comic app mergers the pages into one seamless image (it looks good without the crease in the middle of the image). When you turn your phone sideways, you get a bigger horizontal image.

Of course I'm sure it must look amazing on an iPad. Maybe with the iPad 3 comes out I will buy one. I have to admit it would be pretty cool to have every Usagi comic on one device.

When you buy a copy for you iPhone/iPad, you also get access to a digital copy on the darkhorse website. So you can read it on the computer as long as you have Internet access. I have a pretty big computer screen (24") so it looks pretty good. But not as good as the hardcover itself.

Overall, I'm satisfied with my purchase. I will probably pick up a black and whites Usagi to see how that looks as well. If it looks good, I may buy the rest.

Question: does digital copies of Usagi pay Stan less, more or the same than the print editions.

I love the single print issues. But at WonderCon, I heard panel after panel of how difficult it is to make a living on individual comics. At least I got the sense that most single issues don't make that much money and many independent cartoonist lose money on them. Trade paperbacks are where more money is made.

I went to a Digital Comic Publishers panel with the the three biggest digital comics distributors. They said there are a lot of hidden cost: paying the engineers, marketing folks, publishers, creators. It didn't seem to be a lot of money to be made. The one exception was pocket god. That mobile app game is so successful, it seems to make a ton of money that can sustain other parts of the business that aren't as successful. And when they made a comic based on the game, it sold well.

I think they would sell a ton of comics if they were only $1 each (and they do have sales). But I don't see that as sustainable for the digital distributors. I'm willing to pay $1.99 for digital copies of Usagi because it is cheaper than print edition (although as a collector, I like the print copies), more portable, doesn't get damaged, has a backed up copy on the web if I ever lost my phone, can access it from any computer as long as I have Internet access. I hope Stan gets a decent cut (i.e. same as the print edition) for each digital copy sold but I don't know if that is so.

It's a brave new world. I'm excited that digital Usagi is here. Now if I only can get myself to pay a chunk of money for my Usagi Tablet reader.

Peace, maka

[Maka]

Also Brandon's interview with Stan is not included in digital copy. Nor the painting process. Peace, maka

[Midnight Detectives]

Mr. Sakai you did a great job designing the Usagi Plush. I just bought one last week and if traditional comics ever go away I'd pick DH's digital service because of your characters and the new Avatar: The Last Airbender series.

[ZoneFighter]

I bought digital Usagi v1 1-6 during the Dark Horse "Cyber Monday" sale (I purchased the Classic issues when they were released too.)

I've been reading them to my 10 year old as bedtime stories for the last few nights. Any idea what the release schedule is going to be for the the other 186 (or so) issues? My son (the cyber-kid) prefers reading them in the dark on my glowing iPad to the paper versions!

Will Dark Horse be releasing the Mirage v2 run also? If so will they be in color or black & white? (Actually having both in the digital version would be nice.)

[Jet_Jaguar]

Don't forget that, starting tomorrow, all new comics released by Dark Horse will also be available in digital form on the same day:

http://digital.darkhorse.com/blog/2011/ ... print-sam/

I'm definitely hanging on to all of my paper UY issues (especially the ones that Stan signed for me) and I'll probably still buy paper issues occasionally, but I rather like the idea of being able to buy digital copies of new UY issues and then getting paper copies of the TPBs when they come out (single issues will be $2.99 for the first month and then $1.99 after that).

http://digital.darkhorse.com/blog/2011/ ... se-update/

I may be getting a Kindle Fire tablet soon, it sounds like it's a pretty good digital comics reader from what I've read about it (my uncle had one last time I saw him and he seemed to like it). There isn't an Android app for the DH digital store yet (the Kindle Fire runs on the Android OS), but I think there is supposed to be one out pretty soon.