Comixology, Amazon’s digital comics marketplace, is launching Comixology Unlimited, a subscription service offering access to thousands of comics form independent publishers—there are no DC or Marvel titles--for $5.99 per month.
Comixology Unlimited starts today in the U.S.where it will be free for a month. The service will launch elsewhere in the world at a later date. The new service offers consumers unlimited access to thousands of graphic novels, manga and periodical comics from a broad range of independent publishers including IDW/Top Shelf, Image Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, Kodansha Comics, Boom!, Fantagraphics, Dark Horse,and Archie. Hit series available through Comixology Unlimited include Saga, Walking Dead, Attack on Titan, Lumberjanes, The Incal, Adventure Time and many more.
Consumers can access the service's content on any device, including reading on mobile phones by using Comixology’s guided view.
Comixology Unlimited is entering the subscription marketplace that already has a number of other comics subscription services including Marvel Unlimited (17,000 Marvel back issues for $9.99/month), Scribd (10,000 comics and graphic novels, $8.99/month), Archie Unlimited (thousands of Archie titles for $7.99/month) and Comic Blitz (3,000 for $9.99/month).
The new service offers access to selected titles from a wide variety of publishers, but not every title released by those publishers are a part of the subscription service. Comixology Unlimited does not offer access to the complete run of multi-volume series.
Comixology cofounder David Steinberger declined to give a specific figure beyond offering “thousands” of titles via Comixology Unlimited. But he said the service will continue to expand and add more more titles as well as more publishers. Asked specifically about adding Marvel and DC, as well as manga publisher Viz Media, Steinberger said, “We want to offer a robust selection for our customers, so yes, it would be great to be able to add those publishers.”
Although Kindle Unlimited, the Amazon subscription service, includes some comics content, Steinberger said the two services were separate, do not overlap, and there are “no plans” to do so.
Steinberger said that the launch of the subscription service was not just about spurring the sales of digital comics, “it’s about how to expand our core readers and help new customers discover new series.” Steinberger said there is “so much amazing new comics content out there, people miss a lot of it. For $6 a month, fans can take their time and read new series, and see what catches their imagination. This is super valuable and continues our mission to expand comics readership.”
Update: An earlier verison of this story did not include remarks by David Steinberger.
