Youngblood goes digital with comiXology

Posted by nerdblog

on March 3, 2010M at 6:24 pm

ComiXology announced today an agreement with Rob Liefeld to bring his “Youngblood” series to the iPhone.

The Image Comics co-founder’s initial miniseries, newly remastered, will be distributed digitally by comiXology.

“ComiXology is at the forefront of the digital comic book age and presented the best opportunity for me to bring the original Youngblood series to new audiences,“ said Liefeld in a news release. “ComiXology’s impressive track record in distributing classic print comics digitally gave me all the assurance I needed to know that Youngblood would be in good hands.”

The Youngblood miniseries will be available on the iPhone beginning March 4. “Youngblood,” featuring superheroes who worked for the U.S. government, was the first series from upstart publisher Image Comics in 1992.

“It was quite a revolution,” said David Steinberger, president of comiXology. “Of course there were a couple of indy publishers at the time, but none that came out with such a … call to action … that was so creator-conscious. It’s very cool to think that we have one of the original Image guys now on the app.”

Steinberger said the company’s relationship with Image Comics’ Robert Kirkman, whose “Walking Dead” is digitally available through comiXology, helped to cement the deal with Liefeld.

“(Liefeld was) very appreciative of how our reader works, the care we take with the comics,” Steinberger said. “That was really the big point for him.”

The Image Comics miniseries will be available for 99 cents per issue with the Comics app, which is available free.

- Matt Price

Click past the cut for more images from comiXology and a video showcasing the app.