10 Questions: Russell Willis, publisher of SEQUENTIAL and Panel Nine

Russell Willis - Publisher of Panel Nine

I've known Russell Willis since the 1980s, first encountering him at the Fast Fiction stall run by Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury at the now-legendary Westminster Comic Marts when he was publishing INFINITY, a zine that included many interviews with leading comic creators back then such as David Lloyd and others.

Russell has worked in publishing for over 25 years, specialising in digital media. In 1993 he set up a multimedia development company in Japan which produced customised language-learning software for Canon and published a large number of successful language-learning software products, including Finding Out, a joint venture with Macmillan described by Modern Education as the "best language- learning software for children available".

He has created products for TIME, the British government, Oxford University Press, and many others.

Russell’s audiobooks, podcasts, and iOS apps have all reached the Number One spot in Apple’s iTunes charts in Japan.

He is the publisher at Panel Nine (which has previously sponsored downthetubes), who have just launched SEQUENTIAL, a new digital store for a range of graphic novels. 

We'd like to thank him for taking time out of a busy schedule to answer our questions...

downthetubes: Tell us what SEQUENTIAL is and what you hope to achieve?

Russell Willis: SEQUENTIAL is a digital graphic novel storefront app for that iPad, that is primarily designed for people who would read Persepolis or From Hell or something by Eddie Campbell or Alison Bechdel, but would never think of going to a typical geeky comic shop. It's a place to put together all the quality material that's out there and provide an environment where a mainstream reader can feel comfortable and not have a virtual She-Hulk scaring them off at the door. This time, we want to be on the main street of culture with our underwear worn *under* our trousers.

SEQUENTIAL has just launched in the UK and Ireland, and will launch in the US and the rest of the world at the end of June. It's free to download with the ability to purchase graphic novels from within the app.

downthetubes: How did the project come about? 

Russell's early publishing
venture, INFINITY (#5)

Russell: As you know, I have been fascinated by sequential art since my teens when I was publishing INFINITY. About 18 months ago, I found myself running a software development and publishing company and realised that I had the ability to do something exceptional in the area of digital graphic novels. 

Having always talked about how graphic novels should be marketed and presented I had the opportunity to put my time and money where my mouth was. 

Right time, right place, it just seemed the right thing to do.

downthetubes: What are the initial titles being offered through SEQUENTIAL?

Russell: We have 21 graphic novels, coming from Blank Slate, Knockabout and Myriad Editions. We've got From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, Bolland Strips by Brian Bolland, Lady Chatterly's Lover by Hunt Emerson, Science Tales by Darryl Cunningham, Hugo Tate by Nick Abadzis, Kickback by David Lloyd… it's a great list and we'll be adding lots of new titles every week. 

We've also got a new "Sequential Mode" reader that is a bit like what Alex di Campi and Mark Waid have done with digital comics but with a few tweaks. There's a story drawn by Terry Wiley that can be downloaded for free from the app (which is also free to download).

downthetubes: How do you see the project developing over the next year?

Russell: The addition of more graphic novels, publishers like Self-Made Hero, Jonathan Cape, Walker Books, Abram Comic Arts coming on board, we'll be creating "Expanded Versions" of many titles, by adding audio commentaries by the creators along with interviews, production sketches, etc. and we'll be marketing graphic novels as a mainstream choice of entertainment, untainted by superheroes.

downthetubes: How will SEQUENTIAL impact on your other publications so far - will they merge with this new platform?

Russell: Yes, the four existing Panel Nine titles are on SEQUENTIAL.

downthetubes: You're busy developing a comics platform based on British and Western comics but Panel Nine is based in Japan... is there interest in the comics SEQUENTIAL will carry there?

Russell: The market for western graphic novels in Japan is quite small, but we are talking with Japanese publishers about doing some things.

downthetubes: What do you think are the main advantages for creators and publishers publishing their work digitally?

Russell: Availability -- in theory anyone with an iPad can purchase one of our titles, and creators can more effectively promote their own titles by directing their fan base straight to SEQUENTIAL to purchase immediately. 

downthetubes: Growing a digital comics audience isn't easy, despite the hype for digital publishing. Are we in an age of 10 per cent perspiration, 90 per cent promotion to compete with all the other offerings out there - legally free comics, other media and the pirates?

Russell: The ubiquitous availability is there as mentioned above, but just because you have a phone number doesn't mean everyone calls you. The promotional aspect of digital comics is, as you suggest, extremely important, and is a demanding ongoing exercise. With printed books, once they are in the shops then the shops are out selling them for the publisher every day. With digital the publisher (or platform owner, in our case) has to be doing that -- through advertising, social media, events, promotions etc.

downthetubes: While generating revenues on the iPad and related Apple platforms seems a given, purchases on other platforms (Android, for example) seem slow in comparison. Do you think there's still a resistance to the concept that digital creations have intrinsic value?

Russell: The stats at the end of last year indicated that for every four iOS apps sold only one Android app was sold. And this is despite Android having a larger installed base. The demographics of Android device owners and iOS device owners has been quite different, and simply put, Android owners tend to buy less stuff, are younger, and more inclined to settle for free stuff.

With regard to digital creations having less intrinsic value, I think that part of the reason for that is that so much digital is of less intrinsic value. Publishers shovel stuff into ePubs or put out apps that work incredibly badly. One point of pride that we have about our apps is that they are often described as "deluxe" "coffee table" apps, which is exactly what we intended. Getting them like that involved sweating hundreds if not thousands of details. 

I think when people use our apps, they do perceive the value. Our problem is that all the crap that gets put out means that people are very wary. 

SEQUENTIAL, being a container app, should partly solve that problem as they can download it for free, try out a free app and get a real sense of the value that we are providing before they purchase.

downthetubes: What one piece of advice do you regularly give new comic creators?

Russell: I don't think I've ever had the opportunity to give a new comic creator any advice. But if I am in that position, I would suggest that people ensure that they have a strong social media following. If there are two artists of equal merit and one has 10,000 Twitter followers, then choosing which artist to publish just got a lot easier. (And that advice is advice I need to take too!)

• Download SEQUENTIAL for free from the iTunes here

• Read an interview with Russell about SEQUENTIAL by Paul Gravett

• Read our 2008 interview with Russell about his early days publishing INFINITY

Panel Nine's SEQUENTIAL project backs upcoming Comica Festival

Digital comics publisher Panel Nine's new SEQUENTIAL is the main sponsor of the Spring Comica Festival, taking place at The Platform Theatre, Central St. Martins College of Art and Design in London this coming weekend, where, amongst other things the company will be giving away an iPad mini.

What is SEQUENTIAL, you say? Well, here's the blurb...

"SEQUENTIAL is the forthcoming platform for the tablet that we believe to be the digital future of graphic novels and sequential art," explains publisher Russell Willis.

"We're working with the world's leading graphic novel publishers and creators to expand the market for one of the world's most under-appreciated art forms," he continues, "and, rather than go the tired old commercial route with the inclusion of superheroes, a genre that has tainted and held back the art form for too long, we stand in opposition to what that genre represents and instead will feature only accessible, intelligent, entertaining, life-enhancing storytelling at its visual and verbal best.

"The time is right to evangelise graphic novels and sequential art anew," Russell enthuses. "Quality graphic novels are being nominated for -- and winning -- awards such as the Costa Prize; digital is making access to material available to most, and British publishers are leading a renaissance in quality material.

"SEQUENTIAL will be making quality graphic novels easily available to all in a specially engineered deluxe format, acclaimed as the 'gold standard', with new features that expand the way in which graphic stories can be told."

Sound interesting? We expect SEQUENTIAL to be available for download for the iPad by the end of April, and we'll let you know as soon as it is.

• Moire about Panel Nine, whose titles include digital editions of David Lloyd's Kickback, Terry Wiley's VerityFair and The Certified Hunt Emerson at www.panelnine.com

• Entrance to the Comica Comiket on the Saturday is FREE, and there are more details here: www.comicafestival.com

• Declaration: Panel Nine is currently the main sponsor of downthetubes

Radio interviews with Russell Willis and Charles Kriel about webcomic apps

Panel Borders: Digitising comics

Concluding a month of shows looking at web comics, Alex Fitch talks to two experts in web based technologies about their dissemination methods aimed at bringing comics to tablets and other devices. Russell Willis discusses his Panel Nine range of graphic novels for the iPad which include titles by Eddie Campbell and David Lloyd and are about to be joined by a new digital store front for British book publishers.
Also, in a presentation recorded at Cartoon County in Brighton, Charles Kriel talks about his Indiegogo campaign to fund a new app designed to be the equivalent of iTunes for comics allowing collectors to combine their existing digital comics collections with newly bought titles to fill in the gaps, with questions asked by Alex Fitch, David Lloyd and members of the audience.

6pm, Sunday 31st March, repeated 4.30pm, Tuesday 2nd April, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / extended podcast at panelborders.wordpress.com

Digitally Infinity! Panel Nine releases iPad-based comics magazine

Digital graphic novel publisher Panel Nine has launched a free preview issue of INFINITY -- a new magazine devoted to digital graphic novels and comics.

The magazine contains a roundup of digital comics news, features and reviews delivered via Apple’s Newsstand service for the iPad, including a terrific interview with comic creator PJ Holden, talking at length about Murderdrome, the digital comic he created with Al Ewing that was banned by Apple.

There's also a sampler of Panel Nine's excellent digital title Dapper John by Eddie Campbell and an extract of interview with artist David Lloyd, talking about his film noir inspired graphic novel Kickback. (The full interview is part of the Panel Nine Kickback app).

In a "Where Are They Now" style item, the magazine also profiles artist Simon Russell, the head of Brighton-based agency Boing today - but who worked with Russell on INFINITY's previous incarnation as a small press comics fanzine in the 1980s.

Today, INFINITY publisher Russell Willis has swapped his photocopier for an iPad and relaunched it for the digital age.

“Digital delivery is a huge part of the future of comics," says Russell, "and we’re launching INFINITY to cover things as they develop, debate the big issues such as user experience, platforms and pricing, interview the key players, and provide a guide for people to the good stuff.

"Appropriately the magazine is specially designed for the iPad, and contains audio, video and Panel Nine’s “Panel Mode” presentation of digital comics.”

The first issue proper of INFINITY will available in September as a NewsStand ready title. The magazine will initially be published bi-monthly from then on.

Users can download the preview issue (and all subsequent issues) for free from iTunes.

• Download from iTunes
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/infinity-digital-graphic-novels/id540599442?mt=8

David Lloyd's 'Kickback' graphic novel arrives on the iPad

It's the mask protesting about corruption and greed around the world, and its creator David Lloyd, the artist behind V for Vendetta, has just released an interactive graphic novel for the iPad addressing those very issues.

"V for Vendetta was concerned with how a society becomes corrupt and how it frees itself from corruption," he says. "My graphic novel, Kickback, resonates with this theme, but it is about how one man frees himself from the shackles of his own corruption."

Kickback follows the story of Joe Canelli, a corrupt cop in a tough city, haunted by his dreams and confused by his past. When his partner is murdered and his colleagues betray him, Canelli must confront his past and question the direction of his life.

Kickback is a fast-paced thriller that explores themes of corruption, consciousness, society, and self-respect against a big-city backdrop," says Lloyd.

The iPad app (which takes advantage of the new retina screen) presents Kickback in a stunning high-quality digital format, with a specially-designed user interface that gives the reader smooth swiping from page to page, flawless pixel-per-second movement, and effortless transition to Panel Mode to view enlarged panels one by one in beautiful detail.

The app also includes an audio commentary by the artist, an exclusive interview, and production notes and sketches.

In the exclusive interview Lloyd discusses a range of issues and details his experience of launching the print version of Kickback just after the V for Vendetta movie was released and is scathing about former publisher Dark Horse and their lack of promotion of his work.

In relation to the decision to release the work in iPad format, Lloyd commented, "Intelligent graphic novels for adults have rarely been able to find the readership they deserve. With this iPad version of Kickback, we're making something I'm very proud of available to millions of people who wouldn't think of scanning the graphic novel section of a bookstore, or entering a comic shop. The format also allows us to add features that would either not be possible or be too expensive in a printed book. The whole thing looks fantastic and I'm very excited to see my work in this form."

The artist worked with Tokyo-based digital publisher Panel Nine Publishing who specialize in fully-featured software for digital graphic novels. Publisher Russell Willis, a Brit, commented: "Not all digital comics are created equal. The 'lean back' nature of the iPad allows immersion into the material and we have created software which sweats the small stuff to exploit the features of the device and create the optimal reader experience. This is a world away from reading a dodgy PDF on a computer monitor. Kickback is the future of the graphic novel."

Kickback is available for all versions of the iPad and can be purchased from iTunes for $9.99.

- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kickback-crime-noir-thriller/id511224450?mt=8

APP DESCRIPTION

This app presents Kickback in stunning high-quality digital format, with a specially-designed user interface that gives the reader smooth swiping from page to page, flawless pixel-per-second movement, and effortless transition to Panel Mode to view enlarged panels one by one in beautiful detail.

Special features include:

• Audio commentary for selected pages, recorded by David Lloyd exclusively for this app

• A host of extra material including a selection of previously unpublished sketches, thumbnails, and cover roughs from the development of Kickback

• A brand-new interview with David Lloyd conducted exclusively for this app

• Visual contents and bookmarks that let the reader view thumbnails of all pages and navigate quickly and easily

 

 

Eddie Campbell's "Dapper John" stories released on iPad

Panel Nine, a new digital comics imprint set up by Hong Kong-based iEnglish.com run by a longtime British comics supporter, has just released a superb iPad edition of Dapper John, one of Eddie Campbell's earliest comic strips.

It's a fabulous package collecting all of the "Ace Club" stories in one place and adding a whole bunch of extras.

When Alan Moore first saw Eddie Campbell’s In the Days of the Ace Rock ’n’ Roll Club in 1982, he wrote, “Eddie Campbell is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting talents, amateur or professional, working in comics at the moment.”

It was the start of a beautiful relationship. Dapper John was an inspiration for John Constantine from Swamp Thing. And it was with Eddie Campbell that Moore created the magnificent From Hell (later adapted by Hollywood with Johnny Depp in the starring role).

Campbell, of course, is now recognised as one of the world’s most talented comics artists, with his Alec stories included in the Comics Journal’s list of the 100 most important comics published. His graphic novels The Fate of the Artist, Bacchus, and The Playwright have all drawn great critical acclaim.

Last published in 1993, the Ace Club stories here follow the lives of a group of teddy boys in Southend in the 1970s – characters who could mythologise their walk down the street before they got to the end of it. The stories are a direct precursor to Campbell’s Alec series and are essential reading for any Campbell fan.

"In the Days of the Ace Rock'n'Roll Club was a book, or an ongoing series of sevn-page stories which I drew between March 1978 and March 1979," says Eddie. "The stories interlocked in various ways, with characters from one piece showing up in another. The 'arc', as we say nowadays, came to a logical conclusion after the eighth story, by which time Dapper John had emerged as the main character. A proto-Alec MacGarry appears as the second key character.

"It was in these pages that I started to get the idea of using autobiography as a starting point for a big serious book."

Eddie created new artwork and wrote a special introduction for this new iPad edition, and a whole raft of notes and captions covering the era in which Dapper John strode the small press stage.

The app itself is excellent, offering different ways of reading the strip - a version aping its original layout and a slick 'panel by panel' version with a very well thought out scrolling action involving movement from frame at some points and at other times, a simole cross fade which make for an enjoyable reading experience.

The strips themselves are raw Eddie Campbell at his finest - vignettes of life among the 'Teddy Boys' of Brighton, the stories themselves given entertaining context thanks to accompanying notes, offering a fascinating insight into the heady days of Fast Fiction, early photocopied comics sold at Westminter comic marts and more.

All in all, this is an excellent app with great content - certainly one of he best presentations of comics on the iPad I've seen and up there with my other iPad bench mark, the 'Mirabilis' app.

Panel Nine will be publishing more comics on iPad in the coming months. "We will have two lines," says Russell Willis, who longtime British comic fans may recall as one of the ground-breaking figures in indie comc publishing back in the 1980s (read an interview on downthetubes here).

"One publishes some of  the best comics work already existing work in deluxe digital graphic novels for the iPad, and the other is to commission new work that is created with the iPad in mind from the beginning.

"Our team here in Tokyo has developed what we think is the best graphic novel reader on the market," he enthuses, "giving a much better user experience than market leaders such as Comixology and other comics reader platforms."

More news as things develop.

• Buy the App from iTunes

• More about Dapper John on Eddie Campbell's blog

• Panel Nine official web site: www.panelnine.com

Japanese publisher seeks colourists

Tokyo-based publisher EigoTown is looking to have around 600 black and white and greyscale illustrations coloured for use on the iPhone and iPad and has put out an appeal for samples to British creators.

"We're creating Apps based on Oxford University Press' graded reader series for learners of English," explains EigoTown's Russell Willis, who some downthetubes readers may recall as the editor of some ace British indie comics magazines such as Infinity  back in the 1980s.

"We only need screen resolution and the maximum size is the viewable area of the iPad's screen (768 x 1004).

• Interested parties should contact Russell via russell.willisATeigotown.com. Please put "Colouring Work for iPad" in the subject line.

To Infinity and... er, Japan!

Russell Willis produced and published a number on important underground cartoon magazines in the 1980s including Infinity, which included interviews with creators such as Alan Moore, Posy Simmonds and David Lloyd and later issues of The Alternative Headmaster's Bulletin. He moved to Tokyo in the early 1990's where he now runs a web based publishing company in Tokyo.

UK underground cartoonist, Simon Mackie, who also lived in Tokyo in the early to mid 1990's, recently met up with Russell in Tokyo where they talked about Russell's involvement with the UK comics underground two and a half decades ago... Read the interview on the main downthetubes site