Scopetech

The two dominant comic publishers in the world, DC and Marvel, are often viewed as dinosaurs by the web comics crowd. Old guys with old money on an old platform. It looks like DC wants to change that, as they begin to hype their new web comics platform, Zuda.

The site aims to be a social aggregator of web comic talent. Artists submit original comics (using DC or other characters and such is not permitted) in a standardized format, users vote and comment on the content, and the highest rated of the comics may get a publishing contract with DC.

Zuda seems like a winning business idea for the publishing giant. Bright creators come flocking to them in droves, hoping to score, and the community gives them a pre-installed test market for the material. For all the cynics believing DC is luring in starving artists to poach their potential franchises from them, the Zuda team attempts to stall that notion right from the get-go:

The copyright for each comic submitted to Zuda will be owned by its creator. DC will publish the winning/chosen comics under fairly conventional publishing agreements adapted to the peculiarities of the digital platform: initial payments for the work that is done, with royalties from revenues based on other uses, such as books, merchandise and movies/television shows. In the next couple of months the contracts will be going up on the site, and we’re doing our best to make them as clear as possible, so people can make an informed decision about submitting their work.

Zuda is set to launch officially this October, according to the site. You can sign up for their update mailing list on the Zuda main page or check back to Scopetech for further updates as we get them.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 7:07 am and is filed under Web Services. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.