It makes sense – Amazon makes Prime Originals for video, so why wouldn’t its digital comics brand make its own comics? Now, ComiXology is doing just that with the debut of ComiXology Originals, a new lineup that brings series’ you can’t find anywhere else to the Kindle and ComiXology customers.
The new books feature some heavyweight talent that reveal the people behind the service are true comic fans – a BOOM! Studios Adventure Time spin-out series is written by Toronto’s own Mariko Tamaki, and illustrated by Audrey Mok, for instance, with following instalments pairing Melanie Gillman and Trungles, as well as S.M Vidaurri and Asia Kendrick-Horton. Late Show with Stephen Colbert writer Daniel Kibblesmith also gets a series called Valiant High from Valiant Entertainment, and finally there’s a project to “expand and complete” the historic first graphic novel, Harvey Kurtzman’s unfitted 1950s project Marley’s Ghost.
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I admit to feeling some skepticism when ComiXology was first acquired by Amazon (I’d been a big fan of the service prior to it being picked up by the ecommerce giant), but this sounds like a very promising beginning for a lineup of Originals. The best part is that none of these choices strike me as particularly ‘safe’; sure, Adventure Time is tried and tested IP, but the creative teams participating there are super interesting.
All the digital-only titles are available for pre-order today, with Marley’s Ghost available October 15, 2017, and the other two titles arriving this coming January. Here’s hoping ComiXology continues down this path with even more Originals, since it seems like it has the potential to achieve at least some of the success Prime Originals has had in generating interesting and unique storytelling.