Amazon Buys Comixology
Pretty scant on details; it'd be interesting if this adds comics to that Amazon Worlds thing.
http://comixology.tumblr.com/post/82316305607/amazon-com-to-acquire-comixology
http://comixology.tumblr.com/post/82316305607/amazon-com-to-acquire-comixology
Comments
@JasonAQuest - But yeah, that's a concern, especially with Amazon's history.
That said...I don't think it's Comixology censoring anything, at this point. As far as I know, Apple has the final say on rejecting books or not if they're to be sold through an Apple-product app; Comixology then offers those through their site, which can then be downloaded into the Apple app. Apple's more like an LCS refusing to carry a book than Diamond not even offering it to them, to use a print analogy.
There was that one Saga issue that they pre-emptively didn't offer until The Comics Internet yelled at them and they played it off as a big misunderstanding, but I've not heard of anything else where there wasn't a way to get any given book on any given device.
(That said, I've no idea who's driving Miracleman being offered in Censored/Uncut versions like they were Dragonball Z VHS tapes, but I'd imagine it's Marvel doing that to duck Apple.)
He doesn't have a high-profile publisher like Image to go to bat for it and raise a stink, and it isn't like the ridiculous incidents where Comixology initially rejected books with just incidental male nudity and simply needed a "come on now" to fix it. He's an independent creator of high-class erotica, and as far as Comixology was concerned, he could just go try his luck with, say ... Amazon.
(I was going to ask "wait, is there any other erotica/smut on there?", but then I remembered how search bars work. If, say, Chester 5000* made the cut**, I got no idea what their criteria is.)
*though not on an iPad search
**no knock on that book, it was just the second smutty comic I could think of after XXXenophile
By way of example: that splash where Suzie's floating around after Jon at the party while he recites Lolita? On Image's PDF, you couldn't actually see that her feet aren't touching the ground, on account of the PDF's...levels? contrast? (Jimmie, help) being skewed way dark, making her black stockings blend in with the dark brown floor.
I'm not usually a snob about HD/standard def stuff, but it detracted enough from the scene that I've been sticking with Comixology (and trades) since.
Digital contract wise, my experience with most places has been it's usually an exclusive-format-non-exclusive-content deal; you can land your comic with as many digital publishers as you want, but Image couldn't offer the Comixology Guided View version of Five Weapons as their DRM-free download.