COMIXOLOGY ACQUISITION Q & A WITH TIM GIBSON OF MOTH CITY ON THE COSMIC TREADMILL AT FORCES OF GEEK

Moth City (Thrillbent) is one of our favorite and innovative digital comics, so when we heard of the pending merger between ComiXology and Amazon we had questions!

Who better to ask these to than Moth City’s own Tim Gibson?

We get into the nitty gritty of the pinch, swipes, scans, payments and tablet wars with our favorite Kiwi after the jump!

FOG!: Have you ever read a comic on the Kindle app? Kind of atrocious, right?

Tim Gibson: Hah, I’ve only read one comic on my Kindle, and that was Tumor by Joshua Fialkov and Noel Tuazon many years ago. It was a great comic but I haven’t been back to try another comic on that platform.

What’s your initial reaction? Glee, excitement? Disappointment?

Cautious optimism.
  
Do you think creator percentages for something like the ComiXology Submit program will stay the same? How does this affect creator owned projects?

Amazon has always been open about the royalty rates they offer authors, 35% if you sell your work for less than $1.99 or more than $10, and 70% if you sell between $2.99 and $9.99. I believe our royalty rates via ComiXology are locked behind a T&C wall, but they aren’t bad.

There would probably be more comics on Amazon right now taking advantage of that 70% rate if they didn’t also have a strange ‘Delivery Fee’ that cuts into the author’s proceeds for supplying high resolution art at larger file sizes.

I have no idea if ComiXology’s rates will change, but I would like to see our books integrated into Amazon’s store at either rate.

ComiXology seems to be forward thinking and has good customer service (these days). Do you picture a total absorption of the company?

I hope not, and I doubt it. Everything said to date implies that they will keep being the great company they are. Hopefully Amazon just gives them a new audience, and they give Amazon some comic selling tips!

Do you see the iPad comics Apps: iBooks vs. ComiXology going after each other’s throats? At least the competition is healthy, right?  I’d imagine Amazon stops developing it’s various comics properties and shifts all comic attention to the ComiXology app, yeah?

I’m not sure that any independent creators are using iBooks or Amazon in anywhere near the same capacity as they are using ComiXology. But yes, I would hope that Amazon would follow ComiXology’s lead when it comes to technology and systems for comics. I imagine they’ll continue publishing their own stuff through their imprint Jet City Comics.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

MIGHTY Q&A: Tim Gibson Expands Moth City with ‘The Reservoir’

Tim Gibson is back to talk with us about his first Moth City expansion, The Reservoir. While still an amazing use of the digital and tablet comics page, this black-and-white stark Western is as home on the range as it is forward thinking. Meant as an introduction to the Moth City world, this standalone one-shot is coordinated with a ComiXology sale on Wednesday, Feb. 5.

By CLAY N. FERNO

Clay N. Ferno: Tim — thanks for joining us again and giving us a preview of your latest. You’ve returned to the frontier for a prequel to Governor McCaw’s Moth City years. What is different about this McCaw?

Tim Gibson: McCaw has been doing some pretty bad things in the Moth City series, I mean really reprehensible. In ‘The Reservoir’ he is a much younger man on the cusp of great things. Life is looking up — he has a new wife, baby on the way, and he and his brother are venturing into the plains of Texas to make their fortune.

McCaw is a messy and complicated guy, and this one-shot explores what makes a man what he is and looks at the events that create (or possibly just reveal) our darker tendencies.

Besides the landscape and webcomic format used to tell the story, you’ve chosen to keep this black and white, a change from Moth City. The change seems quite deliberate, care to tell us more?

The art is all full-screen — everything is a splash page from a moment of realization to a murder. It gives some real impact, both to the art and the writing. It just seemed a good fit for a Western, those expansive vistas and small figures in large landscapes. In New Zealand, we have our own Western sub-genre — ‘The Man Alone,’ which McCaw is, emotionally.

[READ MORE at 13th DIMENSION]

MIGHTY Q&A: TIM GIBSON AND MOTH CITY - DEBUT AT 13TH DIMENSION

New Site! New Column! Same Great Comics Coverage!

Really stoked to be writing for these guys! Thanks for checking it out. - Clay

Tim Gibson’s murder mystery Moth City is a genre-spanning digital comic that draws from the Western, Kung Fu, zombies and historical fiction. The slippery ink line work and muted palette is combined with an instinctual approach to digital-native comics creation, made of hundreds of swipes per issue, animating and exposing sections of the page. The New Zealander, whose tale is based in a place similar to 1930s Hong Kong, joins us today to preview his latest issue.

Clay N. Ferno: Hi, Tim. Moth City returns to ComiXology today. When we last spoke in June, you said you wrote this first as a narrative piece. Issue #6 is bringing all of the story lines to a head. Is the pacing on point to end at issue #8?

Tim Gibson: Yes, the story is definitely ramping up. A lot of the characters are reaching breaking point, having already made some decisions that they can’t come back from. The last few pages of Issue #6 imply that the characters are going to be coming back together again. Last time they were in close proximity, a man got his throat cut. This time there’s a heck of a lot more teetering on the edge. Issues 7 and 8 are going to play that out, and not many characters are going to be happy with the result (evil grin).

Going through the issues, almost each added a new twist or an entirely new genre to the book. Can we expect genre exploration in the home stretch?

We’ve had mystery and crime/detective, a bit of thriller, some horror, this issue has some Western tones with the showdown on the roof, so yeah, it’s a nice little gumbo. The story dictates a lot of conflict and drama to wrap it all up so the remaining issues are moving towards all-in action. Which is great because previously we’ve only had moments interspersed here and there.

[READ MORE at 13th DIMENSION.COM]

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