They could have left it alone and simply collected rent off the thing for years. To those former employees, we saw what you were doing and it was appreciated, even if we didn’t take enough time to say so properly Thank you for your care and curation and archiving a million comics so I could do the research to write lots more comics!Īsher Elbein: Something about Comixology’s destruction I keep thinking about: it worked pretty well when Amazon bought it. I hope they get to take that enthusiasm and talent somewhere that will appreciate them as they deserve. They were always smiling at whatever cool thing was coming next. Gail Simone: Every person I ever met who worked for deeply about making comics available to everyone. So a lot of stuff was tweeted that week about the company. I’m not saying Amazon isn’t one of our tech overlords – but Comixology tended to try to be helpful within the community. Those sponsorships are most likely gone, and that’s unfortunate. Comixology withdrew from sponsoring SPX but continued to sponsor Thought Bubble, and other things like Artist Alley at NYCC, the Eisners Awards and more. AWS hosts about a third of the web, including everything from Slack to Netflix. I’m not going to disrespect people who want to take an ethical stand, but bouncing Comixology buying food and drinks for SPXers because Amazon Web Services hosts a (admittedly alarming) facial recognition technology is a pretty far reach for offense. (Submit was launched and run by co-founder John Roberts, I’m told.) And Comixology Originals, although also controversial, really was a creator owned platform that paid good page rates – something virtually unheard of.Ĭomixology’s sponsorship of indie comics festivals, including SPX and Thought Bubble, eventually rubbed some people the wrong way. Comixology offered a lot of services that benefitted the most indie of creators, including Comixology Submit, a long running program that allowed creators to get their comics on the platform.
It was sadness not just for the end of a dedicated sales platform, but for the many people who worked at Comixology who were seen as valued colleagues.Ĭontroversies aside, (we’ll get to that), Comixology added a lot to the comics community – co-founder David Steinberger and head of content Chip Mosher, who became for many the public face of the company, weren’t just techheads. So it is that last week’s near total layoffs of employees and seeming sinking of the brand as an independent entity within Amazon was met with sadness by the online comics community. It turned out that digital was additive and people liked paper – and though Comixology was viewed with suspicion for years, quietly and patiently, they became a respected member of the comics community, and a solid sales platform.
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