NYCC’14: ComicBlitz Interview with Jordan Plosky
Written by: Gary M. Kenny, CC2K Comics Editor
We can agree services like Netflix, hulu, amazon, etc. have changed the ways we watch our shows. Imagine if we could access our comic collection the same way? ComicBlitz wants to form this into reality. Say goodbye to piles of comics locked up in storage and say hello to books you never could get into because they were just too expensive.
CC2K: Hi everyone, we are here at NYCC’14 with Jordan Plosky, FOUNDER & CEO of ComicBlitz, a radical new comic reading app that is calling themselves “the Netflix of comic books.” Jordan, can you elaborate why that is?
Jordan Plosky: ComicBlitz will be the Netflix of digital comics. To expand on that a little bit more: we a subscription based digital comic distributor. Think of Marvel Unlimited and what they are doing, now think we are going to do that for everyone else (multiple publishers).
CC2K: So ComicBlitz is going to be operable on the computer, tablet, and smart phone?
Jordan Plosky: Correct, we will be on all mobile platforms.
CC2K: New technology like smart TV’s have apps, will I be able to read my comics via my TV?
Jordan Plosky: We like smart TVs; there is so much you can do with new technology and we have some very smart people on our team. They have a lot of ideas that we can implement down the line. However, as a start up company we are focused on phones, tablets and web browsers. Our best guess is that people want something like ComicBlitz, but we have to see once we launch and have costumers before we can say “we like smart TVs, let’s go talk to some smart T.V. companies. We are young, we are hungry, and we know what technology can do for us and how to benefit this industry.
CC2K: People can’t afford 10,000 comics but they can afford a low priced subscription and read as many comics as possible.
Jordan Plosky: We came up with the price point of $9.99 a month for all you can read comics. Whatever we have in our library, you get access to. Let me ask you, would you rather walk into a store (which we love, we want people to still walk into stores) and buy three comics or it’s two comics and you have a $1 left over, or it’s one graphic novel, or would you rather have thousands of comics and not even leave your couch? In business school they say “barrier to entry,” so we just lowered the barrier to entry to get into comics for anyone.
CC2K: What if I already have a large collection, why would I use ComicBlitz?
Jordan Plosky: Say you are veteran reader and you have all your books in long boxes in your basement and you can’t dig through them in order to read them, they would all be available through a service like ComicBlitz. If you a new reader and you are like “I like comics but I don’t want to talk to the guy behind the counter at my local store or I don’t have a local store,” Not everyone in every country around the world has stores to choose from, so ComicBlitz brings the store to them. Not everyone has a house or a garage, some people just have a studio apartment and they still want comics, our program solves that space issue as well. We are giving people so much more bang for their buck.
CC2K: When do you plan to launch?
Jordan Plosky: We are looking at April 2015.
CC2K: How many comics do you plan to have available to view by that date?
CC2K: The smaller publishing companies will probably be perfect for ComicBlitz, because many don’t put out weekly comics. What about the larger companies that do, will ComicBlitz have new weekly content?
Jordan Plosky: That’s on a publisher-by-publisher basis. It will depend on what they want to release every week or every month. We can have a publisher say: we only have enough material that we want to release on a monthly basis; so that works for that publisher. If there is another publisher that is larger, they could go and say: we can give you a new graphic novel for every title every single week. We will take that too. There will always be enough content from these publishers that Comic Blitz benefits them and hopefully generates interest from their current fans and new fans.
CC2K: Interesting, more titles and publications will entice people to check out this great program, but what if I just read the big two (DC and Marvel) or indy comics only?
Jordan Plosky: Let’s say you spend your allowance ($40 or $100 whatever you allow yourself) at the comic shop on Marvel or DC comics and maybe a few Image books, but there is a whole world out there of incredible content and comics from publishers you might have heard about, you might have read about online, but you didn’t have enough money to go and buy them. All of that stuff will be on ComicBlitz for less than the cost of three comic books. You can check out as much as you want. Hopefully what that does is turn you into that fan that now wants to go out and own that trade, or go out and become a monthly reader of something new. We want to expose our readers to something new.
CC2K: I have the app on my phone and I plan on reading the comics though said app, what if I don’t have WiFi or my Internet is down, what do I do?
Jordan Plosky: No worries, we will have an offline reading feature. We will educate our customers and let them know, if you are going to be in a WiFi free zone that you will need to plan ahead and download your comics to the offline reading portion of the app. We want people to know, if they have a cross-country flight and they want to have their comics, they can. Marvel has a cap on their program, I believe it’s 12 comics you can have on your device. We plan on having a larger cap; it won’t be unlimited because that will basically take up your entire tablet or Iphone’s storage but we will give you more then Marvel gives you for offline reading.
CC2K: Will ComicBlitz have exclusives?
Jordan Plosky: Publishers won’t be giving us something different then they are giving other digital distributors. Whatever you are seeing out there on the market is the same quality and product that we will have. As much as we would love to have exclusives (so we can have that leg up on our competitors), publishers have learned not to tie their hands behind their back. The independent publishers need as much exposure as possible. That’s why you see Image and Dynamite doing DRM free on their own websites and still going to drivetrucomics and madefire; they need all these other platforms and they need the exposure. It wouldn’t be good for them, as much as we would like to have them be exclusive with us. That’s just means we need to give our readers the best product possible.
CC2K: Speaking about other companies, what makes yours the best?
Jordan Plosky: We are the pony to bet on. As far as digital comics goes and the reading experience there is so much more that has yet to be done. I’m not talking about what madefire is doing in terms of just adding motion to a comic or what Neil Adams is doing with his cartoon animation comic. With ComicBlitz, we just want you to be able to read the comic on your own on your tablet. That’s it, pretty simple. I like guided view, but to me It’s not important. What we are coming up with (and it’s a little vague) is different ways to experience the comic within the comic and outside the comic. Again, I know it’s vague but I hope what we are working on will give people something to look forward to as far as new ways to experience the comic.
CC2K: Thanks Jordan. There you have it folks, get ready for a new way to read comics, say goodbye to those long boxes and say hello to ComicBlitz.
If you are interested in beta testing the ComicBlitz app, please send an e-mail to info@comicblitz.com with “Beta Test CC2K” in the subject line. Add anything you want us to know about you in the message.
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