A Five-Page Preview of Soldiers #0, UWS Publishing’s New Digital Comic Exclusively for iPhone

UWS Publishing have supplied Hypergeek with preview pages for their new iPhone exclusive comic, Soldiers #0, written by Rob McClellan, with art by Martin Montiel (The Darkness, Legendary), Chris Summers (G.I. Joe) and Charles Pritchett (Noble Causes). This first issue of the comic follows the exploits of four prototype super-soldiers deployed to Afghanistan in August 2007, and the tragedy that befalls them. It is 185 screens in length and costs 99 cents.

Full details below:

UWS Publishing Releases “SOLDIERS Zero”

The Innovative, Exclusively for Digital Comic is Now Available on iTunes

Clifton, VA, November 16th – UWS Publishing announces the release of it’s first made for digital comic, SOLDIERS Zero, now available on the iTunes App Store.

SOLDIERS Zero was written by Rob McClellan, with art by Martin Montiel (“The Darkness”, “Legendary”), Chris Summers (“G.I. Joe”) and Charles Pritchett (“Noble Causes”). This first issue follows the exploits of four prototype super-soldiers deployed to Afghanistan in August 2007, and the tragedy that befalls them. It is 185 screens in length and costs 99 cents.

SOLDIERS Zero is the start of an ongoing digital comic series made exclusively for the digital market, and the first salvo in a bold digital publishing agenda.

In January 2009, Rob McClellan, a naval officer, and his two partners Tim Welch and Tom James, formed UWS Publishing to produce content primarily for digital devices, a drastic departure from the current approach to publishing. “People keep telling me that comics can only make money in print, but there are over 5 million iPhones out there being used every day,” says McClellan. “Even a quarter of a percent of iphone market share is 12,500 downloads – that’s much better than most books by small publishers would ever do in print.”

How does UWS Publishing plan to compete in the new digital comics market now that Marvel is putting books in digital? “I don’t view this as a competition thing, actually” says McClellan. “Marvel’s entrance to the scene is a fantastic indicator for digital comics. By placing their comics to the iphone, they are legitimizing this type of content and bringing a lot of die hard paper fans to the small screen. I think it’s fantastic – the better they do, the better the digital comics market will do.”

To provide that quality experience, it was imperative that the app perfectly synchronize with the book. After a lengthy search, the right comic book app materialized from a small, Irish software company, Infurious Republic.

Over Skype, Rob and Philip Orr, the CEO of Infurious Republic, hammered out the details and, three prototypes later, settled on the app for SOLDIERS. The final result is a digital comic experience unlike anything else currently on the market.

The navigation method is a simple tap on the far right or left sides of the screen. The word balloons can be removed to allow for better appreciation of the artwork. The reader can quickly access “visual scrolling”, a unique feature which yields fast, accurate navigation through the issue’s 185 screens of content. Screen advances are quick, but subtle. The effect is a surprisingly easy and effortless read.

“Going digital required thinking a little differently,” says McClellan. “There are a lot of differences between digital and print. We made SOLDIERS around those differences, fully accepting them. The result is a comic that feels organic to the device. I think it will change how people look at digital comics.”

At a time when more and more books are gravitating to large Digital Comic Distributors such as iVerse and Comixology, SOLDIERS stands on it’s own. “We felt that putting the book behind an “in-app” purchasing application added another barrier for readers to get to our comic. Anyone can search for SOLDIERS in the app store, or link directly to it and share via blogs, e-mail, Twitter, and Facebook. We wanted to be able to capitalize on the impulse buy nature of digital.”

When asked about his digital focused approach, Rob replied, “ I realize that many feel this is a risk, but this is where we are going. A year ago video games were only played on massive systems, but now they’re everywhere on the iphone. The digital comic audience is rapidly expanding and they’re hungry for quality content.”

Here is the direct link to SOLDIERS in iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/soldiers-zero/id337480370?mt=8 or search iTunes for “soldiers zero”.

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