Forget Comixology: get your inexpensive comics from the Humble Bundle folks
Pretty soon Humble Bundle is going to run out of new things to sell. The company has already conquered video games, ebooks, comedy albums and briefly dabbled in film, now the pay-what-you-want kings are turning its sights on comic books. Starting at 11AM PT today you can get a fine collection of digital comics from Image, including Saga and East of West for as little as a penny. If you do care to cough up more (over $15, to be specific), you can get vol. 1 and vol. 20 of The Walking Dead. But this is just the beginning: Humble wants to be known for its book bundles as well as its game offerings. Once this Image Comic promotion is over on May 15th, Humble will be launching a new tab on its site dedicated to ebooks, audio books and comics. That means that there will always be two bundles running simultaneously: a game or other media bundle on the front page and an ebook bundle on a separate tab. And you can expect two different book bundles per-month.
Two bundles per month certainly seems ambitious for a company that has only offered a handful of book flash sales in the past, but there are already conversations in progress with indie book publishers, comic book publishers and even a few of the "Big 5" (Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Simon and Schuster, etc). In fact, there are already enough bundles lined up to carry Humble through September. And you can expect a healthy mix of formats in there from straight sci-fi ebook bundles and super hero comics collections, to publisher-themed bundles of audio and text.
While there are no immediate plans to bring ebooks to the Humble Store, Kelley Allen (director of eBooks), said that it was a distinct possibility. It's easy to see why the company would choose ebooks to focus on next. It's an easy to distribute media with a wealth of independent players looking to boost their exposure. It probably doesn't hurt that the highest average prices for Humble Bundle have been for its ebook collections, rather than its video games. Next we can only imagine that Humble will begin working with indie movie makers and musicians as it continues to build a rather unconventional media empire.
