Excelsior! Marvel Doing More Motion Comics

Turns out there was some NewTeeVee-ish news that came out of the New York Comic-Con last weekend. Our sister publication The Apple Blog (via TechRadar) writes that Marvel is getting further into the motion comics game, selling the slightly animated versions of their books on iTunes — sometimes before the print version comes out.

We’ve been tracking the rise of motion comics for some time. Warner Bros. has been doing them for The Watchmen and Batman, Image and MTV partnered for Invincible, and Marvel dabbled in the format previously with a motion comic promoting Stephen King’s short story, N.

Marvel’s motion comics will be on sale through iTunes and available through Marvel.com. But in a twist, some motion comics titles, such as the upcoming Spider-Woman, are being created specifically for this new digital medium and will then appear in print.

Motion comics polarize the easily agitated nerd set. Some believe the crude, barely animated panels are a blight and no better than the awful cape and cowl cartoons of the 1960s. Others believe anything that could potentially attract new comic book readers is good for the industry.

I’m more curious to see how Spider-Woman comes out as it’s being created from the ground up for digital audiences rather than imposing digital attributes on a former print publication.

Image courtesy of Marvel.com.