Modern Tales Family Embraces CBR Digital Downloads
by Joey Manley
Today I’m happy to announce that the Modern Tales family of websites (Modern Tales, GirlAMatic, serializer and Graphic Smash) is the first major webcomics network to embrace the downloadable CBR format for full-length, high-resolution digital comic books.
Not familiar with the format? CBR format has rapidly become the preferred means of digital comics delivery for people who mostly like to read comic books or graphic novels when they read comics in print (as opposed to newspaper strip fans, who are very well-served by traditional webcomic technology). Unlike traditional webcomic strips, Comic Book Reader files are complete issues of “comic books” or even full-length “graphic novels” in digital form, released all at once, downloaded onto the fan’s hard drive and consumed at his/her leisure, with crisp graphics and immediate page-loading.
Like MP3 files, CBR’s first gained prominence in the file-sharing world. Apparently there are a lot of comic book fans out there who enjoy scanning their collections (or even the comics they just bought this week) and sharing them with their friends. I don’t necessarily approve of this activity, but I have a lot of respect for the way that P2P and filesharing systems often stand at the forefront of innovation when it comes to media formats and user-friendly ways of doing things.
At Modern Tales, we’ve always attempted to bridge the gap between webcomics and indie print comics. We’ve spent a lot of our emphasis and energy trying to popularize the “longform” webcomic (that is, comics that are more like comic books or graphic novels than like newspaper strips). We’ve done a pretty good job, but that’s not an easy thing to do. Quick, humorous, non-continuity strips just work better on the web, for a lot of reasons. They always will. And there are plenty of great ones (we have some on our own site!), but — well, you know, there’s always more that comics can be. And we’d all like to see comics be everything they can be, right?
CBR format is, far and away, the very best way I’ve discovered to read “longform” comics in digital form. I’m not the only one who thinks so — recently the CBR format has been embraced up by several “real” comic book publishers, like Slave Labor Graphics (see
Seriously, try it out. Note: EyeMelt and others are selling their CBR files. Ours are free. So you really have no excuse not to give it a whirl.
First you’ll need some Comic Book Reader software, such as CDisplay (for Windows), FFView (for Macintosh), Qcomicbook (Linux/KDE) or cbrpager (Linux/Gnome).
Once you’ve downloaded one of the software packages linked above, here are the launch CBR’s from the Modern Tales family:
From Modern Tales proper:
Headsmen (Rogues of Clwyd Rhan one-shot) by Reinder Djikhuis
Fred the Clown Volume 2 #1 by Roger Langridge
Ballad of Little Monster by Herve Largeaud
Wahoo Morris (Free Comic Book Day issue) by Craig Taillefer
From GirlAMatic:
Galaxion # 1 by Tara Tallen
From serializer:
Make Love the Fetus-X Way by Eric Millikin
From Graphic Smash:
Charity Begins in Hell (Reckless Life) by Tim Demeter
See what I mean?
There will be more. Stay tuned to the respective homepages (or RSS feeds) of the sites listed above to keep up with our latest CBR releases. I’ll also be announcing the CBR/digital downloads/insert catchphrase here/etc. strategy for my biggest site, Webcomics Nation, shortly. Like all things WCN, the CBR system will be a bit more comprehensive, and maybe even more exciting, over there.
March 12th, 2007 at 9:17 am
I want to both thank and congratulate you on what I feel is a very smart move on your part.
March 12th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Any plans on making money directly from this somehow?
While P2P is excellent at developing user friendly applications and formats, they don’t concern themselfs much regarding making money from them. While reading through a webcomic archive in a comic viewer instead of on the web would be quite a bit more pleasant there are no ad impressions made from it. Including banner ads into the images could be one way I suppose.
Anyway, just a couple of throw away thoughts.
March 12th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
I have no direct monetization strategy for myself regarding digital downloads.
The monetization strategy for creators will be revealed when I make the announcement about WCN, which I hinted at in the last paragraph. That’s all I can say for now.
For me, the monetization strategy is indirect: to continue to offer useful services and innovative, easy-to-use technology to creators, some of whom will pay me for the use of same.
March 14th, 2007 at 7:23 am
Just out of curiosity, what advantage to CBR’s have over a pdf. I’m not real familiar with the CBR viewers, but it seems everyone has Acrobat Reader (or even just Preview on a Mac) and you can add a lot of interactivity to a pdf.
Anyway, congrats on all your continued success.
March 14th, 2007 at 11:05 am
There are two advantages, from my perspective.
As a person who reads comics, I find CDisplay (in particular) to just be much, much more responsive than Acrobat. It’s the immediate page-loads that really make the difference. Using CDisplay, then switching to Acrobat, is kind of like driving a stick-shift, then going back to automatic transmission: you always feel like you’re waiting on the machine to do what you want it to, instead of controlling it directly.
As the guy who codes WCN, CBR files are much easier to assemble automatically on the server from large image files. Text PDF’s are easy to assemble from PHP, but high-rez image-files-only Acrobat files are more difficult.
March 15th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
I have to agree with The Colonel. CDisplay is one of the greatest programs ever conceived, whereas Acrobat is ass.
March 18th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Great Move! I’ve been distributing my comics in this format since August and the amount of downloads I’ve gotten has been phenomenal! I’ve also gotten quite a bit of support by the devotees of the cbr format, and I think you will too. I look forward to reading you comics!
- Jim Shelley
April 19th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
If you use Mac OS X and want a more iTunes style approach to managing your digital comics, please check out ComicBookLover.
http://www.comicbooklover.com
(disclaimer: I am the author of the software)