Call them vertical scrolling comics, or call them webtoons…the comics format you can read on your phone is fast growing in popularity among young comics readers. And now digital comics platform GlobalComix is jumping on the wagon with a huge team up with Dark Horse and other publishers.
Termed a “huge expansion,” the GlobalComix Vertical Originals line will see them adapting comics from not only Dark Horse but AWA, TKO, Top Cow, Vault Comics, Bad Egg, and Humanoids…with more publishers to join.
GC Vertical Originals kicks off with Stranger Things, based on the popular Netflix series, which debuts today in a regular and “upside down” format. Additional vertical titles debuting today include Marjorie Finnegan: Temporal Criminal and Casual Fling from AWA, The Darkness from Top Cow / Image, Humanoids’ Urban Legendz, TKO’s The Pull, The Banks, and Lonesome Days, Savage Nights, Vault Comics’ Heavy, and Bad Egg’s GODSLAP.
The rollout of material will continue every week, with Dying Inside from Vault Comics, Year Zero from AWA, and The Darkness from TopCow set to launch in the coming months. Although the line is called Originals, it refers to comics specially formatted for the vertical scrolling format, not new material – and GC is working closely with publishers to translate the material to a format you can conveniently read on your phone.
The partnership with Dark Horse will bring more than 150 titles and 700 titles individual issues. to the scrolling format, including The Witcher, Hellboy, and so on.
Vertical scrolling comics/webtoons are hugely popular with younger comics readers – at Anime NYC, Tapas Entertainment released results of a survey that shows that 80% of their users are 17-25 years old, and over 65% identify as women. This is the audience that prefers reading comics on their phone to buying periodicals…so bringing the material to the format via GC Originals makes a lot of sense.
“As the graphic fiction industry continues to evolve, GC Vertical Originals is something our team is incredibly passionate about sharing with the world as we look to bring the best selection of comics to readers around the world,” said Christopher Carter, CEO of GlobalComix in a statement. “We take painstaking care in translating series into the vertical scroll format to ensure that every panel retains its original intention, now in the more mobile-friendly reading format that has captured the next generation of comic readers.”
“Webcomics and mobile-friendly platforms are the next frontier, bringing comics to fans wherever they are, whenever they choose,” said Mike Richardson, Dark Horse CEO and Founder in his own statement. “Our partnership with GlobalComix to bring Dark Horse titles and licensed properties to GC Vertical Originals is another step in our effort to reach comic readers in new and exciting ways.”
You can read all these titles on the GlobalComix App for iOS and Google Play and on the web.
GlobalComix provided a bunch of images to show the line and videos to show how this all will work, below.
Stranger Things – the Upside down version!
