Sweet Shop's Digital Comics App Launches for Everyone
The primary* digital comics retailer for Image & Ignition opens to the public with new features, and a panel view reading mode in the works, Sweet Shop CEO says.
Sweet Shop is finally available without an invite, launching a public version of its digital comics platform today along with many new bells and whistles.
The platform, which debuted in private beta nearly a year ago, joins a small but concerted handful of companies (Global Comix, Neon Ichiban) vying to fill the void left by Comixology in the wake of Amazon's decision to consolidate it into its Kindle ecosystem, angering both comics readers and creators. Amazon has more or less communicated that there isn't a large enough financial incentive to support a dedicated comics platform, thus driving new activity from other upstarts.
For instance, the recent Sweet Shop update includes expanded functionality for backing up purchases, related comics recommendations, sales bundles, improved library sorting/grouping, and more publisher partners. And while not yet available, CEO Kenny Meyers told Weird City the platform will soon add a guided "panel-by-panel" reader mode option.
But the public launch is particularly great news for fans of Ignition Press and Image Comics, as Sweet is currently the sole retailer offering day and date releases. No platform currently offers new release titles from all the major comic publishers, creating a level of fragmentation that is often cited as a major pain point among potential readers. Though that is slowly changing.
Sweet, for it's part, has primarily focused its efforts attaining a wide selection of small press and indie comic publishing partners. Notably, it offers books from Silver Sprocket, Second At Best Press, Fantagraphics, Abrams ComicArts and a handful of other more available staples (Oni, Dark Horse, IDW, Mad Cave, Kodansha, Titan Comics).
Both Marvel and DC are noticeably absent from that list, although part of me wonders how much that really matters given the iron grip the big two have running their own dedicated subscription services. (At the same time, I could never imagine a brick and mortar comic shop that didn't sell anything Spider-Man or Batman would last very long.)
I've been using the app since early spring, and have greatly appreciated its selection while traveling all summer, even before this last round of additions...
I'll save the rest of my comments about Sweet's new public version for the in-depth platform review I''ll be publishing in the near future. It includes a long, enlightening interview with founder and CEO Kenny Meyers that I'm pretty excited about.
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. * Primary retailers, based on high quality digital comics experience
