Comixology launches 'unlimited' subscription service, creators unpleasantly surprised - CNET

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Digital comics platform Comixology has launched a new subscription service. Called Comixology Unlimited, it offers readers what Comixology has described as "endless access to "digital comics, graphic novels and manga" for $5.99 per month.

The "Netflix for comics" is available now, but only to customers in the US for the time being. ComiXology has not yet revealed when the rest of the world might receive the service. Readers have to merge their Comixology and Amazon accounts to sign up. Signing up gets 30 days free on desktop, and seven days free on tablet, as a trial for the service.

Comics can also be downloaded and read offline, but the catalogue is a little sparse. There are no DC Comics or Marvel titles. (Marvel has its own subscription service, and DC seems uninterested in the idea.) Instead, the subscription consists of works published independently, through publishers such as Image Comics, Dark Horse, Oni Press, IDW, Fantagraphics, Archie Comics, BOOM! Studios and others (you can see a list of highlighted publishers and books here).

And the service belies the name: Only one or two issues or volumes of each book are available through the Comixology Unlimited. These will be changed on a monthly basis and could serve, in the long run, to help drive up sales, but even so, independent creators are not pleased. Comixology only approached publishers, not individual creators, and many did not pass the information on or give their creators the option to participate or not.

Cameron Stewart, for instance, who formerly wrote "Batgirl" for DC Comics and is now writing "Motor Crush" for Image Comics: