Until now, the only way that new readers to the popular fantasy comic strip The Circle Weave could read the archives of the series and find out what happened previously in the story was to pay a small monthly fee to subscribe to Moderntales.com, host of a number of premium online comics. However, with the introduction of micropayment service BitPass as an option, readers can now purchase access to the Circle Weave archives a chapter at a time directly from series creator Indigo Kelleigh — at a much lower price.
“Through Moderntales, the cheapest way you could read the archvies was the $2.95 single month subscription option,” says Kelleigh. “Which does also give you access to a whole bunch of other great comics, so it’s still not a bad deal at all. But if all you want to read is my comic, it’s a bit much. So, now you can read just my comic for just 45 cents a chapter.” The first chapter available through this new service is “Chapter Two: Into The Woods” (Chapter One has always been available for free at both circleweave.com and moderntales.com). Circle Weave is currently in the middle of Chapter Four, and when that chapter is complete, Kelleigh plans to release “Chapter Three: Daughters Of The Fain” for an additional 45 cents. The fee allows readers access to the full chapter up to 20 times in 180 days.
BitPass is a service that, while still in beta mode, allows users to pay for downloadable items online in increments as low as a penny. Users pre-pay for an account (starting with as little as $3.00 US), and then have access to content on a number of sites, including http://www.scottmccloud.com, http://www.dieselsweeties.com, and http://www.makeshiftmiracle.com. For more information, and a list of some sample sites, visit http://www.bitpass.com.
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