Featured with “Print” and “Create” capability, the Android app made for Madefire, is sure to catch on with comic book lovers in Nigeria, and worldwide. The announcement of the release of the Digital comics marketplace and reading app, Madefire, was made by company officials on the first day of Comic-Con International: San Diego.
Madefire is a company that creates digital comic books
The free-to-download Madefire Android app ( Google Play) promises an enormous untapped market for the company. Given that Google’s mobile platform has more than 1 billion users worldwide on phones and tablets, its absence on Android was notable.
Comixology, like Madefire, is equally is a digital comics marketplace and reading app, but it quickly grew to be the de facto comics app. With nearly every North American and many European publishers using Comixology to publish their books online, Amazon scooped up the startup earlier this year. Many Nigerian comic fans are still to warm up to the idea of a competitive force such as Madefire, given the proven reliability of Comixology, with its immense collection of classic and more modern comics in its catalogue.
A DC digital comic collaboration with Madefire based on the Batman: Arkham video game series that allowed for a choose-your-own-adventure style of storytelling had “hundreds of thousands” of downloads, Ben Wolstenholme, Madefire CEO said.
“From my lens, Madefire is creator-first,” DeviantArt co-founder Angelo Sotira announced. With Madefire, he said, “you’re back in control. It’s the traditional feel of comics, and then there’s the motion,” if you want it.
Such novel concepts taken on by Madefire could see it propel to heights unreached by its obvious-yet-already-established rival Comixology, but as they say, “the proof remains in the pudding”.
Madefire faces an uphill battle, with Comixology dominating the marketplace. But its apparent willingness to listen to what creators want could give it the room to carve out a different niche.