New York, NY/Boston, MA — Komikwerks, LLC, owner of www.komikwerks.com, a leader in creator-owned online comics and webbased comics community-building, has entered into a partnership with ibooks, Inc, the first simultaneous publisher of books in printed form and on the Internet. ibooks printed titles are distributed by Simon and Schuster and ibooks ebooks titles are sold by a variety of partners, including Palm Digital Media.
Komikwerks’ founders, Patrick Coyle and Shannon Denton, have executed an agreement with ibooks that gives ibooks an equity stake in Komikwerks, LLC and active involvement in its future development. ibooks president Byron Preiss, has been involved in the development of digital comics for many years, and established the first major website for comics online, virtualcomics.com in 1995.
“We’re very excited about this new partnership with ibooks,” stated Coyle, “This bilateral agreement brings ibooks expertise to Komikwerks and also gives Komikwerks entry to the print world through a partner who has a great reputation for publishing high-quality work. Byron Preiss and ibooks have knowledge of both the graphic novel and publishing industries. They have released titles with a roster of talent that includes Jim Steranko, Harvey Kurtzman, Ray Bradbury, Douglas Adams, Matt Wagner, Dean Motter , Mike Mignola, Dave Gibbons, and Moebius, to name a few.”
Through Komikwerks, ibooks will gain access to the large online audience that Komikwerks has built since the launch of Komikwerks.com in March of 2001. “I am impressed with what Komikwerks has been able to build from scratch over the past 2 years. They’ve built a strong product and a loyal audience. Komikwerks is an ideal partner to extend ibooks reach on the Internet and to build an audience for ibooks new graphic novel line, which includes titles such as VIC AND BLOOD by Harlan Ellison and Richard Corben and HONOUR AMOUNG PUNKS by Guy Davis and Gary Reed.”
Komikwerks co-founder and comics innovator Denton adds, “We’re both doing the same thing from different angles: delivering high quality comics to readers around the world. Ibooks is doing this through worldwide print and ebooks formats, and Komikwerks is publishing online comics weekly for a global community.”
This partnership will allow the two companies to create new synergies between online and print publishing. “We’re now able to create new types of products, products that neither of us would have been able to create on our own,” boasts Komikwerks co-founder Coyle. “We’ve got some great projects in the works which we’ll be announcing in the very near future.”
“Ebooks are a growing audience and have tremendous synergies with the audience for comics. Ebooks are portable and accessible anywhere there’s a computer or wireless PDA. Komikwerks’ community will be among the first to be able to download topflight comics in high-quality formats compatible with Palm, Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Reader formats. We can’t wait to get started!” agrees ibooks’ Preiss.
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