Bangalore: Not only to newspapers or magazines publishers, the launch of Apple's iPad in the market may also help Comic book makers to breathe life into characters like Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk by beaming them on to Apple's new tablet computer.
Three day ago, Disney's (DIS) Marvel comics unit released an iPad comic book application, which is free to download from Apple's App Store. The software lets readers buy digital versions of more than 500 Marvel comic books for $1.99 each. "Our app is for comic book lovers as well as lapsed readers' people who might be in their thirties or forties who stopped buying comic books after college," said Ira Rubenstein, Executive Vice President of Marvel's Global Digital Media Group.
Similarly, startup Graphic.ly, which is part of Microsoft's BizSpark program for fledgling companies, is also developing an iPad application that will let fans trade comments within the pages of digital comics. "The publisher that really ends up making the biggest splash on the iPad is the one that's not going to look to replicate print," says Micah Baldwin, CEO, Graphic.ly
According to Marymount Manhattan College professor Kent Worcester, who teaches classes on comics and animation and who co-edited A Comic Studies Reader, there are about 3,000 comic book stores in the U.S, down from about 10,000 in the 90's. "There are plenty of towns which have no comic book stores," said he.
Comic book publishers expect that new digital versions of their titles can turn comics into mass-market entertainment, not just artifacts for collectors. "Hollywood and television have begun to give people what they used to get out of comics," said Marymount's Worcester to Business Week.
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