One Coin Comics

One Coin Comics

For his first column on SNOW, creative director Remo Camerota introduces us to the advent of creator-owned digital “One Coin Comics” for all.

One Coin Comics

One Coin Comics

For all you comic and manga readers out there, here is something quite exciting. Interactive manga graphic novels/comics for the iPhone are now here. It’s still in its infancy, but something we’re going to see grow. Japan/US-based company Genkii — led by Ken Brady — is filling that gap with the release of its own comic reader app that allows you to download comics to read. Once you access the comic, you can change languages on the fly (English and Japanese, for the issue released so far), and there are game-style elements to interact with, and even director commentaries that you can flip to anytime.

For its first series, Genkii has released the first episode for free in an initiative to get as many people as possible to sample the story — a $1 fee will appear for future episodes. This at least gives you a chance to decide whether you like the content or not before paying. And the artwork for the one comic they have released so far is great — far from looking cheap, it’s a real pleasure to look at. If they keep the artwork at a world standard, it certainly looks like they’ll have a powerful tool on their hands.

One Coin Comics has only one release at the moment, and so at this stage you can only download the existing Foxfire story, and that’s it. Your first instinct is to look for another story, and so I think they would have benefited from a multi-release of say 3-5 titles at the launch of the app. Regardless, it is a great new beginning, and what’s even more interesting is that the company is open to submissions.This means that you can contact Ken Brady at Genkii and submit your own comic for release through the reader. You can then decide whether to give it away or sell it, at which point you will share in the revenue. This is a great platform for emerging and established artists to get their work out there directly on iTunes.

My own company Raven has done just that. Although I did not intend for this article to be a plug about my own work, but rather about the reader app, I do want to mention that our graphic novel titled SCAR will be one of the next releases from One Coin Comics, out later this month. This is especially great considering we worked for two years on this comic and now we can release it without any restriction or without losing any of the rights. The only thing we have to worry about in our title is the nudity levels for fear of iTunes censorship… But the future is here folks, where you can release your own comics straight to the iPhone.

Remo Camerota is a filmmaker, art director, comic creator, and the author of Graffiti Japan and the upcoming Drainspotting.

What are readers saying?

  • Dann May says:

    Amazing potential there!

  • Jean Snow says:

    Yeah, especially the news that the company is accepting submissions. There are a few good comic readers already out there, but they seem to only be selling content from established publishers (indie publishers, yes, but nothing straight from creators).

Tokyo Art Beat iPhone App

What are your thoughts?

Designers Accord Town Hall Meeting in Tokyo

The first Designers Accord Town Hall Meeting in Tokyo happens this Friday (March 12) at the Tokyo Midtown Design Hub.

Article Round-up in Art for February

Ashley Rawlings — collaborator with Craig Mod on Art Space Tokyo – has been posting monthly art-related article round-ups (including reviews, features, and interviews) on the book’s blog for a while now, and SNOW Magazine will now be sharing those links here as well.

Student Works from Kyoto University

Spoon & Tamago highlights a few works from the Kyoto University of Art and Design’s senior thesis exhibition.

Memories of Island Life III: Takashi Savory, 1972

The final of a three-part series taking a personal look back at the Ogasawara Islands (parts one and two).

Art Beat iPhone Apps

Following the very successful launch of the Tokyo and New York Art Beat apps for iPhone — the Tokyo version has been a constant presence in the Japan store’s top 10 for paid apps — TAB co-creator Paul Baron gives us a behind-the-scenes look at what it took to create them.

Tokyo Art Beat iPhone App
Replica Gun Ads

Patrick Macias digs up a few replica gun ads from the early seventies, most of them clearly aimed at children.

Bape + Case Study Shop

Bape has teamed up with Case Study Shop for a series of items, including the Eames Chair pictured.

School Road

School Road Vol. 1 is a new photo book from Plancton featuring photography based around the routes taken by school children during their daily commute.

Shovel

Kyoto-based designer — and SNOW contributor — Bianca Beuttel points us to the Shovel creative gatherings in Osaka.

Pattern Pattern 20

The latest in a series of graphic design tools for Néojaponisme readers: a number of red, white, and black patterns based on Modern Japanese graphic design from the 1950s.

Parco + Lullatone

Love the music in this online countdown clock website for Fukuoka Parco? It was produced by Nagoya-based “art, music and good ideas group” Lullatone.

Love Distance

Follow these two runners and find out what this TV ad is selling at the very end.