New at No. 3 on the graphic books hardcover best-seller list this week is “Season One: Avengers,†a look back at the earliest days of Marvel’s premiere superhero team. The “Season One†books are conceived as a way of introducing new readers to Marvel’s biggest heroes without being weighed down by the decades of sometimes-convoluted history can sometimes be amassed.
Another significant debut this week was Panel Syndicate, a new hub for original comics that arrived on Tuesday. The site was developed by two critically acclaimed creators â€" the writer Brian K. Vaughan and the artist Marcos Martin. Their first offering, with an additional contribution by the colorist Muntsa Vicente, is “The Private Eye,†a futuristic detective story in a world where the Internet is no longer used in the United States. Other creators have made the leap to digital comics, but this one came with an intriguing premise: a “name your price†option that allowed fans to decide what they wanted to pay â€" possibly nothing â€" for the 32-page comic. Because of this reporter’s digital clumsiness, the experience has been threefold: two downloads at home on an iPad (one for $2.99, the quickly dying standard rate for a monthly comic book, and one for 99 cents, after being unable o locate the first file). At the office, I downloaded it again, this time for free, which was even faster, if only because there was no need to log on to PayPal.
Mr. Vaughan’s comic book credits include “Y: The Last Man,†about the only male survivor of a global plague; “Runaways,†about teenagers who discover their parents are supervillains; “ExMachina,†about a former superhero who becomes mayor of New York; and “Saga,†a new series published by Image Comics that chronicles a Romeo-and-Juliet story about star-crossed parents from alien races at war. He has also served as a writer and producer on ABC’s “Lost,†and is currently working on an adaptation of Stephen King’s “Under the Dome†for CBS. Mr. Martin’s credits include “Batgirl: Year One,†“Doctor Strange: The Oath,†which was written by Mr. Vaughan, and “Daredevil.â€
Mr. Vaughan took time out from his trip to Paris (courtesy of the French publisher of “Sagaâ€) to answer some questions about Panel Syndicate and “The Private Eye.â€
(As always, the complete best-seller lists can be found here, along with an explanation of how they were assembled.)
How long were you planning this
I think Marcos and I first started discussing “The Private Eye†around the end of 2011. I’m obsessed with privacy and the troubling way some of us seem to willfully sacrifice it at the altar of social media. I wanted to write a story about a future where everyone has a secret identity, in part because the internet no longer exists. It was Marcos’ idea to make this story, ironically, available exclusively online at our new site.
What will the publication schedule be like How do you and Marcos find time in between your other projects
The second issue will be out next month, and if readers continue to support the series we hope to keep releasing new installments at a good clip. I’d already written the first few scripts before I started working on “Under the Dome,†so scheduling hasn’t been a problem.
Is it true that your PayPal account crashed
It did, though we managed to get things straightened out within a hour. I guess Marcos and I anticipated that there would be a ton of downloads, but we never imagined how many people would exercise the option to pay us, especially when paying nothing is an option.
What were the lowest and highest amounts that people paid for the download
I’m delighted to say that many more people paid us than didn’t. Those who opted to pay something paid at least 99 cents, and I don’t think too many people paid more than $5. Three bucks, the cost of most new paper comics, seemed to be a common payment.
What was your thinking regarding this approach versus trying something like Kickstarter
I love Kickstarter, but because Marcos and I are fortunate enough to already be pretty well established in our field, it felt like we had a greater responsibility to complete something on our own before we started shaking the tin cup. But mostly, I just loved the idea of experimenting with something that was scary and new to me.
Do you see print and digital comics as peacefully coexisting Perhaps digital can be a place to test out properties and print for collected editions
Print and digital comics will always coexist. When I first broke into comics, there was a trade paperback revolution, when multiple issues of most comics started being collected for sale in bookstores, etc. A lot of people thought that would be the death of serialized comics, as monthly readers would inevitably all start “waiting for the trade.†But instead, it created a whole new audience of readers who might never visit a comic-book store for their weekly fix, but who loved picking up collected editions at Barnes & Noble or on Amazon. Similarly, the digital market doesn’t seem to be cannibalizing the print market. For example, as the sales numbers for the digital edition of “Saga†go up every month, so do the numbers for our print versions. It’s a brave new world out there.
Is it basically an equitable split between you and Marcos (and the colorist) after expenses
Yeah, Marcos and our excellent colorist Muntsa Vicente deservedly get paid first, since they’ve been doing most of the heavy lifting, for free. If and when they’ve been paid a fair rate for their work, then Marcos and I start sharing any additional profits evenly. But unlike working for other publishers or digital distributors, where we’d share only a small percentage of the gross, Marcos and I get to hold on to 100% of whatever readers are kind enough to pay us, and we’re going to put those funds right back into making more new comics.
Do you ever envision a time when digital will be your primary output
No, I’m too dedicated to print comics, and especially to the brick-and-mortar comics retailers who sell them. But I think digital is going to be an increasingly important part of every creative field, especially to those creators who want to own and control their work, and to have as little interference as possible between themselves and their audience.
Was beginning on a Tuesday a deliberate choice
Absolutely. For a lot of arcane shipping reasons, new comics, even digital ones, have a long history of only being released on Wednesdays. But because Marcos and I can put out our new issues whenever we feel like it, a Tuesday release felt like a smart way to stand out from the crowd.
