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Good points about screen resolution. However, it’s not just being able to create or adapt comics for mobile. You also need to be able to distribute them and even with a high profile name like Marvel, this isn’t just achieved by building a web or wap site - it’s about cutting deals with telecom partners and tailoring the comic service to their needs.

I have been working on ROK Comics, http://www.rokcomics.com, porting comics to mobile for over a year with a range of licensed and creator owned comics available. In addition to our web and wap site, thanks to our parent company, we’re distributing worldwide with partners, delivering comics via such means as tailored wap services in Pakistan, South Africa and delivering comics in translation as downloads in China via China Mobile, with whom ROK has an ongoing relationship not just for comics but also TV etc.

There are very different requirements to a comic presented on mobile to that of the printed page and Marvel would perhaps be well advised to consider a range of strips created specifically for the device unless working from layered files - something I think you are suggesting. Several creators have gone that route with us now, getting used to the demands of a larger lettering size and different storytelling. David Fletcher has been drawing a humour strip, Crumb, for over a year for mobile and enjoys the freedom he doesn’t have with his newspaper strips in that he can ‘break out’ of the three or four frame rigidity of those. British artist Keith Page has created Charlotte Corday, a French investigator with stories in the style of the TV Avengers and the results are very enjoyable. Rodrigo Ricci, an Italian artist, has begun creating an intriguing vampire tale.

Marvel’s reprint range shows they are nothing if not masters of re-working material from the amount of work that appears to have been done for their online range. I’m sure they will be examining all their options although I would image that re-using existing material is going to be preferred route in the first instance.

Will anyone read comics on mobile? Well, there’s clearly a demand for them, but it is still early days. Namco recently offered free comics to people as a promotion for their new Popeye game and have had 10,000 downloads. In China, we’ve had a huge response to some strips, particularly ongoing adventure stories and mobile comics (ketai) have taken off in Japan just as print manga seems to have gone into freefall in terms of sales.

Based on my experience here for over 12 months now, on top of my 20 years plus working in the UK comics industry, I think that although mobile comics will appeal to some comics fans, for the most part such a product is more important in terms of reaching a new, and much bigger audience with your comic or ‘brand’.

Some creators have acknowledged that while they don’t think mobile comics will appeal to their existing fan base, the potential to reach an entirely new and much bigger audience is huge and, like web comics, this serves to promote their work and enable them to hopefully sell related products, as many have done via their web comic sites.

Screen resolution is certainly a key aspect here but really, in our day and age most comic buffs would have a phone with a decent display and a WAP connection. Apparently, that seems to be all that is required to get CATOOZ, which is Marvel’s new bid for cell phone comics (check http://www.mmdnewswire.com/comics-on-mobile-devices-4040.html). It seems a Danish company has the exclusive rights to distribute household names such as Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk, Iron Man, and Fantastic Four.

Apparently, the format utilizes the functions of the cell phone such as light, sounds, and vibration. The style of the comic seems much akin to that of Whedon and Cassaday (which is not at bad thing in my book) so it would appear that the comics are digital renditions of printed stuff though the X-Men strip I tried out was new to me.

I agree with John Freeman - the opportunities for reaching a new audience are astounding. I mean, not only comic lovers have time to pass on the bus, at the pizza place etc. Young people already perceive their cell phone as a portable entertainment powerhouse (think WAP and mp3) so why not comics too? The real challenge, or so I believe, is for the big comic houses to make this product fit with their overall strategy. It seems the cell phone series are slick enough to not be labelled simply ‘merchandise’.

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