Search

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi

Star Wars: Invasion

Star Wars:
Lost Tribe of the Sith

Star Wars: Knight Errant

Star Wars Adventures

Star Wars Omnibus

Star Wars Audio Books

LATEST NEWS & RELEASES|DIGITAL COMIC TITLES

In May 2009 Dark Horse Comics, official publisher of Star Wars comics since 1991, in collaboration with THQ, launched Dark Horse Mobile, the name for their e-Comics App for Apple iOS systems. In August 2009 Dark Horse Comics adapted their first Star Wars title, Legacy: Broken, for this medium and published it as a two chapter download. By the time THQ's license had expired two years later only eleven Star Wars comic stories had been made available from Dark Horse Mobile via Apple iTunes.
With the digital publication market expanding, lead by thge increasing popularity of e-book readers, Dark Horse Comics took production of e-comics in-house and launched their own digital service, Dark Horse Digital, in early 2011. Their digital service allows users to purchase individual comic book issues (previously unavailable from THQ/iTunes) as well as full-story collections (as bundles of individual comic book issues). In June 2011 Star Wars comic titles were added to the Dark Horse Digital store and in early 2012 new comic book releases were made available in e-comic form on the same day as the traditional printed edition was released.
Currently Dark Horse Digital purchases can be read on iOS & Android systems (via Apps from relevant App Stores) as well as any modern web browser. Selected graphic novels can now be purchased for e-book readers including Kobo, Nook and Kindle (available from relevant e-book stores).

Adapting a comic book for the small screen of a mobile phone presents certain challenges as Randy Stradley, Dark Horse Comics' editor, acknowledges: "Obviously, certain things that work in one medium don't work in another. For instance, tall vertical panels don't work as well in the iPhone's 'widescreen' format, and careful editing is required to make sure visual story information isn't compromised. On the other hand, wordy panels can sometimes be split into two or more separate screens to actually improve the pacing of the story and the ratio of text-to-art. It sorta needs to be seen to be fully understood."^[1]
Dark Horse Mobile's reasons for choosing which titles are adapted is dictated by having "something easier to adapt to the small screen"^[2] because "every artist tells their stories differently in the print versions: varying the size and shape of panels, etc. Each story we do for the iPhone requires different considerations on how to transition the storytelling from one medium to another. There's no set formula like 'one print panel equals one iPhone screen', every image is a judgment call. Every new story is a new challenge, but I think we've come up with some satisfying solutions."^[1]

• [1] Randy Stradley in interview with Shaun Manning, ComicBookResources.com (23rd July 2009)
• [2] Randy Stradley, Dark Horse Message Boards (13th June 2009)

advertisement