74: Special Guest Chris Carter, Founder of Global Comix! 🎤

Our first guest interview, and it's a topic near and dear to our hearts - digital comics! Chris Carter, the founder of Global Comix, joins us for a chat.

Global Comix Links:
New titles: https://us4.campaign-archive.com/?u=57e8d5fa071b5a6940f3cf448&id=b60fef8f81
Exclusive release: https://us4.campaign-archive.com/?u=57e8d5fa071b5a6940f3cf448&id=a933a4cd0a
App launch: https://us4.campaign-archive.com/?u=57e8d5fa071b5a6940f3cf448&id=c2630fc2f7
Crowdfunding help: https://mailchi.mp/3233c9d01671/globalcomixcfwd09072023-16852312
IPG catalog: https://mailchi.mp/bf48d34db23c/globalcomixipg03162023

The two comics Chris recommended at the end of the episode:
Jack Irons, Steel Cowboy: https://globalcomix.com/c/jack-irons-the-steel-cowboy-
Cat Goat Dog: https://globalcomix.com/c/cat-goat-dog

Follow Chris on Twitter: @nimlothcq

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Original Music by Alex Productions
Show notes include some AI generated content

Transcript

Dave (00:02.047)
Welcome back to the Comic Dudes, a podcast about comic books and comic book related things. If you're a regular listener, you probably remember in the not too distant past, we did an episode about a company called Global Comics. We were really, really excited about what we think the future holds for the digital comic space, particularly with what Global Comics has done and I think has plans to do. After that episode came back or came out, I actually got...

a couple back and forth Twitter correspondences with the founder of Global Comics. His name is Chris Carter. We're actually lucky enough to have Chris on the podcast this week to talk about all things Global Comics. I guess, first of all, Chris, tell us a little bit about yourself and maybe the history of Global Comics.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (00:45.891)
Thank you.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (00:51.14)
Sure. Thanks for having me on the podcast, by the way. My name is Christopher. I'm the CEO and founder of Global Comics. And originally, the lead engineer. I kind of taught myself how to develop in order to build Google Comics. And it started as a side project over the course of many years. And finally, in 2019, we were able to raise some angel funding and off we went as a full-time. There was me and another guy at the time.

Dave (00:55.391)
Of course.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (01:20.108)
And as of this week now, where we've actually increased our team size all the way up to 15, and we're still hiring more. So, you know, it's been one hell of a journey so far, mostly powered by conversations with creators and publishers on how do we create a product that solves their problems? And how do we make it easy? And, you know, like, how do we help folks find success and be successful and find readers? So, you know, Google Comics is the birth of

Dave (01:28.479)
Nice.

Dave (01:48.159)
I love that.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (01:49.724)
of that. The birth of global economics is the result of that dedication to creators.

Dave (01:56.255)
And I do think that that dedication shows through in a lot of the UI and the UX on the global comics, particularly in the app. That's my experiences with the app. I know the desktop site is up too. And I like the desktop site, but I'm more of an iPad reader. And I will talk about some of those things. I think first question that we have that's on our minds is with a lot of things in e-commerce,

Amazon seemingly has a chokehold on the digital comics space. What made you want to jump in the ring with comixology?

Christopher @ GlobalComix (02:32.228)
You know, it's... So this is a real conversation that I had with, you know, some of my friends and advisors back in 2017. Right? Like, where do we go first? Right? So we looked at the vertical web comics market and we looked at the manga market and we looked at the Western comics market. And in the first two of those, like web comics and...

Manga, oversaturated with apps and platforms and things. The Western side, there was only one, it was Comixology. So there was actually less competition to fight against. And then separately, you know, like we had some conversations on where do we think that Amazon wanted to take Comixology already back then. And my guess was, you know, like that they purchased the Comixology brand and all.

in order to have visual content for their Kindle devices. And it turns out, as we've seen, we were right. And here's the funny part. My buddy works with really big companies. And what he said to me was, if Amazon really wanted to go and make a billion dollars, it would probably be easier for them to make a billion dollars off of making their own.

Matt (03:36.462)
You were right!

Christopher @ GlobalComix (03:59.24)
paper brand than on building out comixology from what it was already back then, right? Just thinking of market reach and penetration and all those things. So like the unit economics for really big businesses played in our favor. And that's why we actually ended up, you know, going against comixology. Plus the fact that in the conversations with creators and publishers, it was where we had the most opportunity to deliver a product.

market fit with a vastly improved experience for folks that are.

Matt (04:34.19)
That's awesome. I just have like a follow up just from that, Chris. So I definitely have some criticisms for global comics, but by, by we can go back to that episode we had originally, that me and Dave recorded and like I, this app immediately was like in my number one position for apps reading. I'm really enjoying the experience there. And this kind of jumps off of the question that you'd have.

Do you all really consider yourselves like a direct competitor with Amazon and comics, comics ology or you kind of, are you kind of doing your own thing? Like we got a comics ology unlimited. We got Marvel limited. We got fece ultimate ultra, all these like different digital platforms. So where do you, what is your place and what is your role in that ecosystem?

Christopher @ GlobalComix (05:24.104)
You know, I don't view. Yes, we are in competition with every other comic app out there. We're also in competition with Netflix and Facebook and TikTok and every other place where people are spending their time. Right. But that competition doesn't. It doesn't really dictate to us what do we do and why do we do it? And how do we do it? Right. Like we're doing our own thing there. And we're, you know, as I said earlier, it's really.

what we do and how and why is born from how do we create the best product for creators? How do we give them the best experience? How do we give readers the best possible reading experience that we can? And that's kind of the guiding star, right? Like whatever other platforms do or don't do, I kind of don't care as long as we're doing the right thing for our creators and constituents.

Matt (06:18.702)
That is the correct answer. You passed the NFL head coach or football manager. We're worried about our own team and no one else. You have passed the test, sir.

Dave (06:21.983)
I'm sorry.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (06:24.42)
I love that.

Dave (06:26.335)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Christopher @ GlobalComix (06:28.56)
Thank you. Where do I see ourselves? You know, look, we're not just a comic book store. We're not an online store. We're not an iTunes clone. We're not a Kindle clone. We're a community. And you can see that from how Comic Book Comics is designed in the first place. And so there's a lot more focus on the social part and the discovery part and through social than any of these other platforms. And...

Dave (06:31.583)
I-

Christopher @ GlobalComix (06:57.085)
throughout 24, you're going to see even more of that come to life both in the app and on the website.

Dave (07:03.999)
Actually, I was gonna ask another follow up and it's really, it was more of a leading question. So I think I'm just gonna go ahead and say the question would have been, hey, what's the, what do you see as the biggest differentiator or advantage? And it's, you've already said it multiple times. It's the community aspect of it. I actually, I think one of the coolest things that you've done with Global Comics is having the ability to leave comments on the pages of a comic that you're reading. I think that's such a unique community

building engagement tool. Um, is there anything else along those lines in terms of like new features that you can maybe speak to that are on the roadmap? And if you're not able to speak to those things for lack of fear of like not wanting to let the cat out of the bag, I totally respect that.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (07:52.66)
I mean, you know, so...

If you look at the web experience, there is this kind of concept of social feed over there. But it's really populated by being able to follow creators and publishers primarily. And we're thinking through, we're going to be bringing over the custom list curation from the web experience into the app. So you can create your own custom lists and have them either be private or make them public. And if they're public, you can share them with other people.

And so when we think about what does that look like for a community and how do people discover that, right? And kind of it lives into this question of what does identity look like for people that are actually putting effort in into curating and creating great discovery lists? You know, it kind of becomes a logical.

conclusion to say that there needs to be this mechanism in the web app and in the mobile app in order to discover other people and engage with other people so that you can discover what they're curating and sharing in the first place, right? And so that really kind of stems from this idea of how do we how do we make this community whole right like connecting the creators with taste makers with hardcore readers and then the broader casual

reading sphere. And it goes beyond commenting on releases, it really comes back to how do we connect the community to engage with each other.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (09:34.249)
It's not a very specific answer, but I think you can probably guess where that goes.

Dave (09:36.703)
You know, it's okay.

Yeah, yeah, I won't even ask follow ups because I can I can absolutely guess where that goes. And I'll let you all talk about that when you're ready to. Yeah. So in in our episode where we talked global comics, we did have there are some spirited opinions about panel by panel reading. Yes, from me. I'm that's one thing that I have to give the nod to

Christopher @ GlobalComix (09:47.981)
Thank you.

Matt (09:57.742)
From you.

Dave (10:09.439)
has broken me when it comes to reading digital comics. I need something to guide me through because I think that's the superior way to read comics digitally. So what can you tell us about when we can expect panel by panel, why we don't have it now?

Christopher @ GlobalComix (10:25.168)
The reality is actually, so there's two answers to it. Panel by panel exists. What you're really asking is when are all the books that you read gonna be configured with panel to panel, which is a whole separate actual question, right? Like, we've had panel to panel based reading since 2017. We launched with that back then as a thing. The editor for that.

Matt (10:37.966)
I'm sorry.

Dave (10:38.847)
Ah, very clever.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (10:53.72)
is a little bit clunky and tedious. And it takes like 40 minutes, 30, 40 minutes to really properly set up a single book with panel, best read, right? And so expecting creators and especially publishers to sit down and do that with manpower, and especially take someone like Image or Bloom with their ridiculous library size, they're not going to do that.

Since we raised funding in June of this year, we've been hiring a lot on the engineering side. And I'm actually happy to share that we're almost ready with a new version of the panel-to-panel configurator, using some really cool tech innovation that will drastically speed up the amount of time that's required in order to set up a book, almost by an order of magnitude. And so.

Dave (11:47.551)
Speaking my language. I love that. I love hearing that.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (11:51.616)
And so with that, right, like we're going to invest in, you know, probably finding some folks that are interested in doing as a side project or like as some extra income and pay them to set up panel based reading for starting with the most popular stories and branching out. Right. So the answer is it's there. There's a couple of books that you can go and look for to.

to test it out, if you search for in the app or on the web for that matter, a book called Katrina Hates the Dead, so Katrina with a K, you'll see the panel based reading. And, you know, like from creator uploaded stuff, I see maybe like 20% of their books are configured with a panel based experience. It's just that overall, that number at this point is maybe less than 10%.

Dave (12:31.583)
Awesome.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (12:50.148)
of all of the books on our platform. So the penetration and the odds of you landing on a book with that right now.

Dave (12:58.367)
makes sense. I actually I didn't I had no idea that this was something that had to be manually configured so I guess jokes on me. I appreciate the insight that's great context for me because I literally had no clue.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (13:07.201)
You know...

Christopher @ GlobalComix (13:11.64)
You know, panel detection algorithms and machine learning is actually really hard. And the reason for it is there's no definition of what a panel actually looks like.

Matt (13:24.846)
Yeah.

Dave (13:25.151)
Right.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (13:26.492)
And you look at, you know, vault has some of the best examples I've seen where it's like these double pages and it's like really weird shapes on both sides. And then there's a panel in between that isn't even outlined. And we're like, ah.

Dave (13:42.623)
Hehehehe

Matt (13:43.438)
Yep. That barbaric series I'm thinking from vault that I read. It's just like, like what, what is this? Like I can totally understand. Uh, I mean, Chris, I'm just a Christopher. I'm just going to say like screw Dave, just keep the books coming. You've done my favorite feature already, which is I have always asked on my beautiful 12.9 iPad, I want fit by width so I can just scroll and have that big screen for my dying eyes and you have achieved that.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (13:59.253)
I'm sorry.

Matt (14:12.334)
So I am a happy man. I've been happy from day one with this product. So great job.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (14:17.873)
Well, thank you. I'm glad that you're enjoying it. There's so much effort that went into the reading experience in the app and really just polishing it up. I'm glad that it shows and that we're able to delight.

Matt (14:22.606)
I... yeah.

Dave (14:35.775)
I'll end up, I'll soldier through. I'll still be able to read some stuff, primarily because this is my clever segue into the next thing I wanna talk about. Your payout model for creators and publishers is really interesting. For those that maybe don't know, could you just like talk us through how that works? We have some follow-up questions on that too.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (14:59.32)
Sure. Let's start with paywalling. When you, as a creator or publisher, create a series or upload a book, you can choose whether or not the series and the book should be paywalled. And if you choose to paywall it, then you can configure, does the paywall start? Which page does it start on, for example, inside of each book? And so because of that, we don't actually need a preview mode.

at all because what creators tend to do is say, okay, well, the first 10 to 15 pages will be free and then the paywall kicks in. But also what they're able to do is say, okay, well, we want the paywall to kick in on a cliffhanger. And maybe if you have a graphic novel, you set the paywall to kick in on page 37 because that's after some amount of story and cliffhanger kicks in. So that's kind of the basic premise for paywalling.

So how do consumers access? Well, consumers access with a single subscription, single monthly subscription, that when you have the subscription, anything that is paywalled on the entire platform unlocks and you can read on.

Matt (16:10.606)
I told you Dave, we had this conversation because I was like, I'm pretty sure you do the one paywall and you're in everything you can read on the on the service and I thank you for confirming that for me. No, there's it's endless value. That's what I'm trying to say.

Dave (16:11.967)
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe

Dave (16:22.591)
It's sounded too good to be true to me. I don't know.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (16:23.245)
I'm sorry.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (16:28.493)
Hahaha

Dave (16:28.831)
My jaded capitalist brain told me that there's no way that could be real.

Matt (16:30.83)
Hahaha!

Christopher @ GlobalComix (16:36.804)
I want to tack on to that, but I want to also point something else out about the subscription. Here's a cool thing. In most other platforms, take like a Kindle or a Spotify or whatever. The subscriptions all get tallied into a big pool and then it gets split at the end of two folks somehow. On Global Comics, each reader's individual subscription is tallied and distributed only

Matt (16:39.214)
Hahaha

Christopher @ GlobalComix (17:04.932)
content that they've read. And so if y'all read 500 pages of Boom and 250 pages of Image Comics, Boom will get 66% of your subscription. Image will get 34, minus our revenue share.

Dave (17:22.879)
I mean, that's the thing that, yeah, I just love that so much. So that is creator-focused thinking. To your point, when we first started talking, was we want to do the right thing for creators. And this is, I think, the best thing you can do is ensure that creators are getting paid, publishers are getting paid in a fair way with a model that works.

Matt (17:23.438)
It's such a good idea.

Matt (17:28.942)
friendly up.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (17:41.614)
Yep. And the other thing about subscription, and this is a philosophical question, right, like folks have asked this, okay, well why aren't you doing paper books?

Okay, so here's the deal with that. When a system has a paper book model, then essentially what you are doing, what is called in the industry, whale hunting, right? Like you're looking for the people that will pay the most, unlock the most individual books on a per week, per month basis. And so your business decisions become centered around, how do you find as many of those people? And how do you put those people in front of as many...

paywall books with high prices as you can. Right, and what we want to actually have happen is we want books to find new readers that they haven't had before. And we want readers to be able to feel free to go out and explore and take a chance on a book or a series or a new publisher that they haven't really heard.

And with a paper book model, if your budget is $50 a month, you're going to spend $5 on a new thing, and that's it. And that's one book. So your vector of exploration and finding new things is way smaller. And we also think, in the long run, that of the general population, the folks that are whales is somewhere around 5% to 10%. 90% to 95% of folks.

discovering and reading your stuff is gonna actually net out more revenue than, you know, a small fraction of Wales.

Matt (19:19.63)
So Chris, what would you call me? Cause I love this description model, but I am also one of my big things that I really am a fan of this platform for is DRM free con, uh, DRM free downloads. Cause I like to read, um, I use like some weird PDF viewers and like to read that way. So, uh, I have a little bit of neuroses about like ownership of things that I really like, like the boom Power Rangers series. I'm like, I'm going to read this, but I'm also paying $4 to get that issue every month.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (19:48.024)
Thank you.

Matt (19:48.078)
So I have it on a hard drive. If it ever disappears, I have it like I have the same thing with like the G.I. Joe comics at one point in comics ology. They were all there. They lose the license. Boom. They're gone. Well, not boom. That's IDW, but so I am your hybrid whale slash subscription viewer. So you need to come up with a new term for that. Cause that is me with the idea with DRM anxiety as well to sprick. Yeah.

Dave (20:07.935)
with DRM anxiety on top of all of that.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (20:08.088)
Sure.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (20:14.248)
you're a super fan, kind of, right? Like at the end of the day, that's what it is. You're a consumer, super fan, and collector. And it's funny you say that because all of the people that buy PDF downloads using our mechanism and our system, the majority of them actually have a subscription also. And just based on conversations, what folks tend to do, or those folks, is they use a subscription as a mechanism for being able to go out.

Matt (20:21.934)
Yeah.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (20:43.672)
find stuff that they want to collect and then they buy the stuff that they want to collect for exactly the same reasons that you just said.

Dave (20:51.199)
See Matt, you're just like everyone else. Yeah, you're just like everyone else. Yeah.

Matt (20:51.214)
Dave. I'm not crazy. I'm just like everyone else. Wearing that like 5% weird, weird DRM anxiety people. That's me.

Dave (20:57.535)
That

Christopher @ GlobalComix (20:58.05)
Hahaha

Dave (21:01.343)
The amount of validation you just gave to Matt is immeasurable. He's in the late in bed tonight, grinning from ear to ear, not sleeping because he's validated in a way that only you'd be able to right now. Cause you have the, you have the inside. Do you have the data and the analytics to prove that he's just like everybody else? So kind of staying with the payout model theme, have you found that

Matt (21:03.534)
Oh my god. And it's recorded? Oh my god.

Oh my goodness, you have no idea.

Matt (21:17.87)
This is the greatest interview of all time in my opinion.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (21:18.584)
Hahaha

Dave (21:28.607)
presenting this to publishers makes it a little bit easier to sign them up particularly some of like the the mid to larger size publishers now that you've Image just came to global comics, which is a huge win for me That's actually why I subscribed because there's so much on image that I know I'll read And then won't have to pay for because unlike Matt. I don't need to own it. I would just be happy reading it sometimes But anyway, I don't want to talk over my own question. So I'll let you answer

Matt (21:37.774)
crazy.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (21:49.281)
Right.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (21:54.251)
I mean, which part makes it easier? Like, what are you referring to?

Dave (21:58.463)
The way that you pay out based on a reader's individual page is read, and then that translates into a percentage of their subscription going to the publisher or creator.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (22:09.096)
You know, I would categorize this as just transparency, right? Like the analytics that a creator and publisher gets and the data that we share makes it fully transparent and they get to see who's reading WAA and how they're making money and where their revenue is coming from. And so yes, of course it helps having, you know, like a model that is really fair.

But it's almost more important to be able to go to that negotiation table and say, there's no surprises here. We're fully transparent. And here's how everything works. And we have the ability to track every penny that goes through our system. Where does it come from? Where does it go? And you all get the same amount of data as we do, just walled off in the context of your own data. And so that, more than anything, I think,

very helpful because you know what's not to love if people are transparent and honest and upfront about stuff.

Dave (23:12.895)
Yeah, yeah, no, I totally agree. Actually, I work in e-commerce as well. So, I'm in order fulfillment, but one of my favorite things is that nothing cuts through the bullshit like the data. You show up with good data, there's really nothing else to say other than let's talk about the data. And I think that your ability to show up to your point, to show up and say, hey, look, this is what it looks like. We're fully transparent.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (23:21.96)
Hmm.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (23:33.836)
That's right.

Dave (23:41.823)
Um, it, I would imagine that is giving creators and publishers more of a, they're here to help me rather than on, you know, let's say Amazon and comicsology, for example, they're Amazon and comicsology doesn't need anybody. They don't even need comicsology. But this is just a drop in a very large bucket for them. I would imagine in terms of revenue. Um, but you know, we'll never know because they're never going to, they're never going to tell us.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (24:07.74)
Yeah, you know, it's like.

What do I say?

Christopher @ GlobalComix (24:16.544)
The thing that was originally for me the most surprising was that none of the other platforms at all give any of this data, give no data, no analytics, no metrics, really, other than here's what you made this month. And that was flabbergasting to me. I come from a web product kind of background over the last decade and a half.

And I was used to analytics like Google Analytics and Mixpanel and these types of things since forever. And then, so I come to these publishers and they're like, what data? Uh, okay. Let's start at the beginning. Here's what you care about knowing.

Dave (24:50.783)
Yeah, I've used that. I've used that in the past as well.

Matt (25:05.71)
awesome.

Oh, I'm still thinking of this Amazon toilet paper factory. I'm going to be honest when you talk about it.

Dave (25:12.703)
So one last kind of publisher question. Any plans for Marvel and DC? Are they in the crosshairs to get among global comics, or is that not something they're even concerned with right now?

Matt (25:16.942)
Yeah.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (25:30.464)
I mean, look, our mission and vision is to get every comic in the world onto the platform. So it would be silly of me to say, do we want Marvel and DC? Sure, we want Marvel and DC. We also want Shueisha and Shogun, and we want all the other publishers and Korean studios and all that jazz, too. How easy is it to get these big behemoths that are owned by even bigger conglomerate behemoths? Well, that's a whole separate story.

Dave (25:57.887)
Yeah, right. You gotta talk to Disney if you want Marvel. Disney and Warner Brothers. That's who you gotta talk to.

Matt (26:00.494)
Yeah

Christopher @ GlobalComix (26:03.987)
So, you know, it's the way that I think that it works basically is that we'll just continue proving what we're doing and creating success for folks. And the hope is that eventually, you know, these some of these bigger players are going to take notice and say, well, we should also be here. And I welcome that conversation whenever they're ready.

Matt (26:28.174)
Can I ask one of my juicy questions I just need to know? So, oh, I don't know. Okay, so I don't know if this is, this seems like a very web-based product. I'm good. I just got updated to fiber-optic internet. So like, this is a dream for me at my house and wherever I go. But for those individuals, if I do ever travel and visit my good buddy Dave and get on a plane, which I hate to do sometimes, but for him, I will do it when I fly out to Texas.

Dave (26:30.559)
Yeah, go for it. Yeah.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (26:32.34)
Oh, always.

Matt (26:57.486)
Is there any plans in the works for native downloads on the app that I could take something and connect and download and do it offline?

Christopher @ GlobalComix (27:08.192)
Yep, we're targeting January, February. We're released like that. Look, it was originally part of the scope, but the tech complexity of it just made it such a big feature that we decided to ship the app out first and then add offline reading later.

Matt (27:10.766)
I'm sorry.

Dave (27:12.383)
Nice.

Matt (27:23.438)
Hey, hey, you gave me hope. That's all I need. I just needed help.

Dave (27:28.159)
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe

Christopher @ GlobalComix (27:32.826)
Yes, sir.

Matt (27:33.006)
Oh, that makes me so happy. I need to... fans, I am a monthly subscriber. I will be doing the annual very quickly here now, so when that hits. So, super user and DRM download guy.

Dave (27:43.295)
superuser over here. Kind of sticking with like content catalog type of questions. I think it looks to me and this is again I you know obviously didn't flip through the entire catalog on global comics but it looks like there's more collected editions versus single issues from some publishers particularly like some of the newer larger publishers. Is that a deliberate strategy?

Christopher @ GlobalComix (27:46.82)
Hehehehe

Dave (28:12.095)
Am I just overthinking it?

Christopher @ GlobalComix (28:15.9)
I mean, it's just really the effect of some of these publishers are working with an ebook aggregator that distributes their stuff to multiple different platforms, right? Like Google.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (28:31.764)
And we get whatever they send that aggregator. That's not to say that we're not trying to figure out how do we work on single issues and these types of things, but there's no decision specifically on this from our end that said, oh, we only want the collective emissions.

Dave (28:51.231)
Okay. I guess that does make sense given sort of what the, the direction that you mentioned earlier, which was, you know, this is not going to be a pay per book type of storefront. So I think probably for a lot of publishers, the preferential way to read would be in collected editions rather than single issues and knowing that it's coming. I didn't know there was like an aggregator that just is like digitally distributing these things to multiple sources. Again, this is like a whole new world to me.

Matt (28:56.942)
industry.

Matt (29:03.182)
Yes.

Dave (29:19.583)
So that's, again, more interesting stuff for me. I wouldn't have ever expected that was the case.

Matt (29:21.23)
We're learning.

We're learning a lot.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (29:24.224)
Yeah, I was surprised that existed too, but I guess it makes sense when you're dealing with metadata for tens of thousands of books.

Dave (29:34.207)
Right, yeah. Yeah, so I don't wanna get too in the weeds on it, but also I work in e-commerce, and I used to work at GameStop prior to the company that I work at now, so I do have some tech interest. What is, when you talk or when you say that there's just like, their digital distributor is just like an aggregator that's sending out to everyone that's, basically that they're hooked up to receive this stuff, is this just like...

Are you just hooked up to like an API and like as they push updates, like it's hitting your storefront or is there something? Fair enough.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (30:06.856)
Oh my god, I wish there was an API.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (30:14.196)
No, so this particular aggregator, here's how they function. They use a metadata format called ONIX. It's O-N-I-X. And it's basically an online metadata syntax structure for books that comics are being kind of shoe-hordoned into.

And so there's some challenges with just the format itself, but that comes alongside the PDFs. And how do we get these pieces of metadata and the PDFs? It's an FTP drop on a schedule. And so, you know, we get these files dropped onto an FTP server that we have specifically for that aggregator. And then we...

Dave (30:57.023)
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Dave (31:03.487)
Oh man.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (31:08.232)
on a schedule, look at what just came in or what has come in since we looked last, and then we parsed or we processed that with an interim piece of software that we wrote specifically for them. But that software connects to our API and it ingests and connects in a sane manner from there.

Dave (31:27.615)
Okay, interesting. It's crazy to me that everything just gets dropped through an FTP. That's...

Christopher @ GlobalComix (31:34.589)
Yeah, you know, 2023 in FTP was not a thing I thought.

Dave (31:35.455)
It's 2023. Well, you know, we're a little behind sometimes in the comic book industry when it comes to being tech forward. That's where you come in, right? You're taking the bull by the horns on this. We appreciate it. We truly do. I think... Oh, go ahead. No, no, no, go ahead. Go ahead.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (31:51.075)
It's a challenge. We're trying. Ha ha ha.

Matt (31:58.35)
So help it. Okay.

I was just going to say, so a follow up question I have to maybe help with some of my DRM anxiety here. We talked about it briefly earlier, but one of my fears is things constantly disappearing or rotating out. You've done a fantastic job for me. I read a lot of the Power Rangers stuff, so boom stuff. Like literally, I don't know if it is day and date for the Power Rangers series, but it's pretty close. Day and date for new issues is a big thing for me.

But with the subscription model and most companies, there is some rotation of content that happens. Is that in the plan for most series? Or are you really trying to, once something is on the service, it is on the service? Or I don't know, I don't need you to get into like contract. Yeah, I don't need you to get into contract details like, oh, six months or a year, but like, you know, like, okay.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (32:48.748)
That's where we want to be. We have no contract. We have no contracts at all that involves a rotation and we have no, like, I don't think there's any publisher that we've worked with that has a rotation on removing.

Dave (32:52.575)
Hehehehe

Matt (33:08.078)
just this is just great this is just getting better and better for me oh my gosh

Dave (33:10.143)
It just gets better and better for you, doesn't it? Just better and better. So I think my kind of final question here, as far as content and catalog stuff, there's one unfortunate upside to comixology and that's something is always on sale. Now I know you've already told me today that you're not a storefront, you are a subscription first, and I appreciate and respect that.

Any chance we're going to do any sort of, can we see promotional or sale pricing coming in the future at some point, or is that just, those aren't waters you want to tread into?

Christopher @ GlobalComix (33:48.26)
for buying individual books, you mean, in the app? We're not gonna introduce buying individual books in the app, because if we do, it really muddies the water of how, like with a subscription, what do you get and why and how, and how does that work? And the other thing is kind of the philosophical point that I made earlier in.

Dave (34:04.639)
Yeah. Attribution, et cetera. Yeah.

Matt (34:05.678)
What's the point? Yeah.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (34:15.296)
We don't want to be in a situation where there's any ambiguity at all with regards to what is the outcome that we're looking for, right? Like we want to bring, we want to make the comic reading audience bigger. We want to increase the pie, not take a slice of someone else's pie.

Matt (34:35.022)
Yeah, I mean, I was not that I was like frustrated by that, but like, Oh, these books are full price to do the DRM. Like I wish they were cheaper, but like talking to you, engaging with you. It really makes sense with the vision of the platform. Like it totally does. And I get it now. So.

Dave (34:45.855)
Yeah, it does. Yeah.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (34:51.704)
Cool, I'm glad I'm making sense.

Dave (34:52.542)
Yeah, totally. I think one final question. What are you reading right now that we should be paying attention to or put on our pull list?

Matt (34:52.717)
No you've had it!

Matt (35:05.102)
That's a great question. That's a great.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (35:07.008)
You know, I am incredibly eclectic. And every time people ask me that question, I try to find some randomly cool stuff on GC that you probably haven't read. And given that you all are reading a lot of stuff from the major publishers, I'm going to point you at two different series or two different comics that you probably haven't read that I think that you'll both enjoy.

Dave (35:10.655)
I love that.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (35:37.909)
One is Steel Cowboy by Ironverse.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (35:48.424)
see I'll put the links to these in and chat so you can get them.

Dave (35:53.503)
Perfect. Yeah, and I'll include any links in the show notes as well.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (35:57.628)
Jack Irons, Steel Cowboy. Here we go. So here's this one and the other one, and this is the most ridiculous comic that you'll read, I think. It's not particularly long, it's only 13 pages and there's no text whatsoever, but if you read Cat Goat Dog by Zangkon Entertainment, you'll have a good time.

Dave (36:25.759)
Perfect. I love having a good time. And I love, I just love trying new stuff, man. That's one of the things that I think is great about Global Comics. So thank you. Appreciate the recommendations. And honestly, man, I appreciate your time so much. I feel like great conversation, really, really insightful, way more in the weeds than I could have ever hoped for. And I love that kind of stuff. I know Matt does too. Any...

Matt (36:39.438)
so much. Yeah.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (36:50.116)
Hey man, you know, thank you for having me on. I, if it wasn't apparent, I love talking about this stuff.

Dave (36:53.855)
Of course.

No, yeah, it shows. Yeah, your passion really shows through man. And I could tell that you're super sincere with all of this stuff. Thank you for just being willing to engage with me on Twitter and actually come on our silly little podcast and talk about this stuff. This is super fun for us too. So any parting thoughts you wanna leave with the listeners or anything else you wanna plug, if you want, I'll put like your Twitter and whatever else in the description of the episodes, people can find you if they want.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (37:22.98)
Sure. So for those of you all listening, the Google Comics app is actually available on both Android and iOS for phones and tablets. And you can easily get it on the iOS app store and the Google Play store. If you have feedback or thoughts or questions or just want to have a chat, you can reach us on Twitter with at Google Comics. We're also on Instagram, but we're not fully as active.

But most importantly, if you are readers that are using our platform or considering using our platform, what you really should do while you're reading is leave a little comment and thank you for the creators. It makes a world of difference for them when they get to see folks that are appreciating their work.

Matt (38:12.59)
It's awesome.

Dave (38:13.631)
I love that. That's how you drive growth and we love growth and we love comics. So again, thank you so much for your time. Usually I have a very long and verbose wrap to the episode where I ask people to share the podcast, rate it, review it, engage with us on Twitter. I can kind of do that anyway, but I'll keep it a little bit shorter. We'll be back in a couple of weeks, sadly without Chris, but Matt and I will still be here. Thank you all for paying attention to us again.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (38:32.196)
Thank you.

Matt (38:37.614)
You

Dave (38:42.111)
and take care of yourselves everybody. Bye bye.

Matt (38:44.718)
Peace.

Christopher @ GlobalComix (38:46.469)
Peace.