Hot on the heels of the last Comixology employees being laid off by Amazon, a new digital comics marketplace launched their 2.0 total platform revamp update, with an even greater emphasis on digital collectibility. Founded by Comixology veterans, David Steinberger and Chip Mosher, Neon Ichiban is aiming to become the next evolution in the digital comics experience. According to the NI website, the platform offers Day 1 Releases, DRM or DRM-Free collecting (on a publisher by publisher basis), a digital remarques system, and a resellable marketplace for digital comics collectibles.
The 2.0 release of the platform features a newly rebuilt iOS app (Android in beta testing), an expanded Creator Hub, Community reviews and a rewards system, Apple Vision reading experience, and an intriguing print pre-order reward system.
The expanded Creator Hub allows comics creators even greater control over the creator-fan experience, generating equity and revenue from the sale of digital remarques, signatures, and commissions (coming soon). Neon Ichiban heavily emphasizes bringing the convention experience to a digital marketplace through the buying and reselling of digital collectibles. The companyis also seeking to build out greater fan interactions through their digital comics community reviews. Their new Review and Earn program was outlined in a LinkedIn post from Mosher,
We just debuted our community feature and are incentivizing people to review the comics they love and hate up to $10,000 USD. Now of course, no individual person is gonna get that much money. We’re capping it at $.50 a review up to $5 bucks. So ten reviews max per person. But we thought this was a great way to reward the community that does so much for comics by giving them a way to… read more comics.
The last major feature in the 2.0 update is a new Print Pre-order Rewards system. These pre-order rewards are meant to incentivize cross-medium consumption in comics, earning readers up to $2.50 credit per pre-order, which can be used on anything on the marketplace. For pre-orders to qualify for the credit, readers must pre-order the print edition before FOC and upload proof of a non-discounted purchase. Currently enrolled in the program are Neon Ichiban’s sister company, DSTLRY, and Oni Press.
Rob Salkowitz broke the news for Forbes,
Despite the barrage of new bells and whistles, both Mosher and Steinberger emphasize that the core of Neon Ichiban is the superior reading experience: smooth panel navigation, super crisp high resolution scans, optimized performance on both Android and iOS devices and simple ways to find, buy and collect digital comics.
With digital comics platforms like Neon Ichiban, GlobalComix, and the forthcoming Sweet Shop all vying to fill the gap left by Comixology, fans have the opportunity to support the reading experiences that work for them.
Signing up now for Neon Ichiban gives you access to Absolute Batman creator Scott Snyder’s new #1 from DSTLRY, White Boat. There are also a number of sales ongoing including, a Punisher sale featuring $0.99 single issues and up to 50% off the catalog through 5/18, a Kodansha, the Bingeable Romance Sale and a Millarworld sale up to 50% off through 5/25.
