We’ve talked to Rachel Rising creator Terry Moore a couple of times about digital comics and what he sees as the future of the industry, and both times he stopped short of saying anything about when he might enter the digital comics arena. “Where’s the business model?” He asked during our first interview on the subject. Even back then, though, when asked about Bone and Rasl creator Jeff Smith signing with ComiXology, Moore noted that Smith had “never made a wrong move,” and that he would be watching that development with interest. Well, this weekend Moore announced via his blog that he, too, had signed with ComiXology.”I’ve signed with ComiXology to make my comics available digitally,” said Moore’s post. “This weekend I’ll be prepping [Strangers in Paradise] for them. I’d like to get Rachel Rising to them ASAP as well.” He went on to elaborate, “Because I have a larger readership than my direct market figures suggest, I constantly hear from readers about the difficulty in finding my books. That’s not good. Today, in the age of iPad, new readers are practically demanding I get my digital act together.”Moore’s comments presumably refer to the fact that his work traditionally sells very well in trade paperback, in the bookstore market and online, and that those types of sales are rarely or never calculated on Diamond’s sales charts or considered by direct market retailers when ordering.During our interview earlier this week about Rachel Rising #4, Moore said that he “would have been selling digital versions long ago if there was enough money in it to pay for the time and effort involved.” Maybe going through ComiXology turned out to be less difficult than he expected, as his blog post says that he will be preparing Strangers in Paradise, which ran for fourteen years, over a weekend.
