The Future of Digital Comics: An Interview with Omnibus CEO: Travis Schmeisser

This episode was recorded back in March, so there's been a lot of new updates and features from Omnibus since then, including the launch of their iPhone & iPad and Android apps!

Travis Schmeisser, the CEO and Founder of Omnibus, a modern digital comic book store and reader carrying your favorite publishers and creators, joins Badr for Ep. 429, to talk about digital comics, the fall of Comixology, and why an app like Omnibus has been a long time coming. 

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Transcript

The Future of Digital Comics: An Interview with Omnibus CEO Travis Schmeisser - The Short Box Podcast Ep. 429

00:00
Intro music plays

02:09
Yo, Shortbox Nation. Welcome back to the podcast. Welcome for another episode. Thanks for being here. If you're new, welcome to the show. My name is Badr and this is the Short Box Podcast, the comic book talk show that brings you the best conversations about comic books with the people that put their blood, sweat, and tears into making them. And today we're talking about something that I've been really enjoying a lot recently. And that's not this bomb-ass Florida weather, the spring that we get for about a month,

02:39
mini iced lattes I've been drinking. I don't know. I've been on this like weird iced latte kick. I've had one every single afternoon and it makes me happy. But what we're talking about today is digital comics. Most of you may or may not know that I read probably 90% of my comics at night on my iPad and the other 10% comes in the form of single issues, floppies that I pick up from my local comic shop, Gotham City Limit. And then I've got the occasional trade or hardcover or something like that that I've picked up from Amazon or a bookstore.

03:09
But the majority of my comics are consumed digitally. And in the recent months, I've been using the Omnibus app. If you don't know what the Omnibus app is, it's a new modern digital comic book store and reader app that launched last year and carries everything from single issues, trades, Omnibuses, from a bunch of different publishers and offers just a really solid reading experience. Omnibus basically offers everything that comic fans have been asking for for the last decade. And that's not hyperbole.

03:37
And it's not even much. That's not, you know, we haven't been asking for much. We've just been asking for an app that makes reading and buying digital comics simple and easy. Now, if you're not familiar with what I'm talking about, the non scholarly, just of all of this is that for the longest time, your only option for buying and reading digital comics was Comixology, an app that's been around since 2007. But if you talk about the app or bring it up today to people that are in the know, you're definitely going to be met with some groans.

04:06
And that's if you're lucky, all right? More than likely, you'll probably be hit with a five page dissertation about why the app kinda sucks now. But when they first came on the scene in 2007, they were seen as an innovating app and really kinda defined the cloud-based digital comic platform, AKA the digital comic sphere. And they enjoyed a long run and a really good reputation and support from users, readers, and publishers, and industry, and for the most part, were kinda the only game in town when it came to digital comic stores and readers.

04:34
So that gave them a good leg up and a good lead head start in controlling a majority of the digital comics sales that we know today. Now, all of that to say that it was amplified almost a hundred fold in 2014 when Amazon purchased them. And that's when you started to see cracks form in the armor. Under Amazon's ownership, they started making some updates that didn't really get the best reception from users and fans alike. They just made it harder to find comics, to purchase comics in the app.

05:02
and a whole bunch of other bad decision after bad decision that just seemed to compound. And eventually Amazon decided to shut down the Comixology app and merge the platform of Kindle last year, December, 2023. I share all of that to say that ever since Amazon got their hands on the Comixology app, I think it really highlighted a need for diversity, as well as options when it comes to digital comic book stores and readers, and Omnibus has stepped up. Instead of hearing me tell you about all the cool things they're doing and...

05:30
and why they're so great. I decided to invite the CEO and co-founder of the app, Travis Schmeiser, to the podcast to talk about what still needs to be done to make digital comics great again. Short Box Nation, without further ado, let's welcome and give it up for our guest of honor today, Travis Schmeiser. What up Travis? Welcome to the podcast. Hey, hey, thanks for having me on. Woo, all right. Travis, I'm gonna catch my breath and ask you, did I miss anything pivotal in that?

05:58
very condensed history of comicsology and why we need things like Omnibus, TLDR? No. I think you spoke to what the main feeling that everyone's had for many years is that was I think it was a little more drawn out than just even December. There were a couple of phases of emerging into the Kindle app. I think for years before that, it was just besides removing maybe

06:27
There was just an extended period of feeling like nothing was really happening with features that help you find comics or kind of general improvements. I think it kind of created like a malaise for many years leading up to them kind of finding out getting rid of it. That part I guess was kind of drawn out. But no, I mean, you're more or less covered, I think, what the problem in that space was. Hell yeah. Well, I'm going to give myself a B+. It doesn't like that. I felt like it was a strong B+. I could have sprinkled in a couple more facts, but I appreciate it.

06:56
And you know, before we dive into Omnibus, obviously this whole interview is going to be about that. I want to take a step back and mention a fun fact that maybe only myself and a handful of the listeners here from Jax will appreciate. And that's you're originally from Jax as well. I was really happy to learn that when we first met, that you're from the hometown. You're from Duval, baby. Well, I didn't grow up there, but I went to college. So I moved there. You know, the formative years are the best years. Come on. Yeah. I moved there for college. And I'm.

07:25
I lived there for almost 10 years before moving to New York. Oh, wow. Come on now. You know damn well you're an honorary duplex. You're an honorary resident. It's a very long time. I like it. What were some of the shops in town while you were living here in Jackson? Oh, man. I actually kind of got back into comics after moving away. Jackson will do that to you.

07:48
No, it had nothing to do with that. It was kind of the typical story. I think like a lot of people out of high school and maybe going into college, I feel like I've heard this a ton just kind of fall out. I mean, I was working pretty much full time while I was in school. I didn't do much besides work and do schoolwork. And actually, comicsology is like kind of what got me back into reading comics. So I had already left Jacksonville and yeah, I'd moved to New York and...

08:17
I went to Bergen Street Comics actually, it kind of was what got me back into it. They're no longer open, unfortunately, but it was a neighborhood shop in Park Slope where I lived. And yeah, I started kind of dipping my toes back in and had missed it for so long and started buying books there. And then, yeah, I can't remember, whatever it was it, 2011 or 12 when it came out originally, I kind of started seriously buying again and reading consistently. So they really did get me back into comics. Huh.

08:43
Just out of curiosity, what did you go to school for? Was it something in IT or computers? Yeah, I started graphic design and transitioned into multimedia, is what my degree technically was. But I focused mostly on digital design and specializing in web design. And you're in New York now, right? Is that where you call home today? Yeah, in Brooklyn. Do you got a local comic shop that you go to now? Yeah, I go to Action City on Manhattan Avenue, because I live in Greenpoint. Oh, good stuff. It's pretty close to where I am right now. I'd say the funny thing is like,

09:13
running the store now is like I'm having to think more like a retailer than I had in the past, clearly. It's even like first building a tool, there's even this aspect of like you kind of have to think like, well, what I'm putting on the shelves in my store, like a retailer in your favorite shop, they need to move books and keep the lights on and sell books or pay the bills. So there's an aspect of like you have to like...

09:41
push what you love, but also understand you do have to sell books and you're a retailer and like it's a business. So it's weird because it's kind of like you can't just put every book on equal footing or everything, nothing stands out, right? And that's like, again, the ocean of content problem and also just like we're an app and we're digital, but we still have a very much physical problem of like we can only show so many things and highlight so many things. Curation, yeah. Yeah. So that-

10:09
Yeah, exactly. The curation and editorial aspect of it is very different than other stuff I've worked on, digital products. So I've had to shift how I'm thinking with that. And the reason I bring that up with the reading habits is there's just stuff that as a fan and a reader, I probably wouldn't have dug into before or I'd hear about or see and just be like,

10:37
It's bad, but I'm having to make my taste broader and read other things that maybe I wouldn't have jumped into before just so I know what is out there in the wider comic world and within the catalogs we carry. It's cool because I feel like it's broadened my horizons on comics in general by just needing to be able to be like, oh yeah, I've checked that out and I roughly know what it's like. Then just having access and way more in front of me all day is all I do is...

11:07
started our product and use it and test it. There's constantly new things in there. Or we onboard a new publisher and we're going through the back catalog and checking and making sure everything's working properly. And there's just stuff where I'm like, oh yeah, I heard of that, but I never read it. And now I'm going to dig in or stuff like that. I don't know. So it's cool because it's, yeah, again, forcing me to go broader with it. It's daunting though too because it's a shitload of books. It's just like it's a lot. You said something though.

11:37
a digital vertical stack of issues that you need to read is a lot less intimidating than a physical one because the physical one takes up space and it's staring at you all the time. A digital one, as long as I have the power button off on my iPad, I'm good out of sight, out of mind. But what's more interesting is that you bringing up that, I mean, you are a comic shop retail. Yeah, you own a comic shop. It just happens to be on the digital space. And you may not have all of the...

12:07
the baggage and responsibilities that comes with owning a brick and mortar. But you do have to think like a comic shop retailer. And yeah, and I guess I never maybe put too much weight into the curation aspect. And maybe that is a feature of Omnibus that I've appreciated just unconsciously is that there is a good sense of curation and the fact that you guys, you know, group things by publisher. Well, it is. I mean, honestly, it kind of even took me by surprise. I mean, I knew

12:37
I knew we were building a store clearly. I guess at the initial outset, I didn't think how much I would need to rethink kind of just like, I don't know, traditional assumptions from other stuff I built sort of and like thinking like a retailer. Yeah, like, I don't know, I use the word merchandising a lot and like think about like, yeah, like I see the front homepage is like that's our store. When you walk in the door is the first things you see, you know, and it's like, I tried to think about it that way. And like,

13:06
what cool things we could do. It's been cool. I mean, like I said, David from Sketch, his retailer interviews and back articles and podcasts on things. I've learned a ton. I do. I think about us just like another retailer. We just happen to be for people that prefer to read digitally. I think even some publishers and other retailers don't even see us that way. I do. I'm just like a comic shop. I just happen to be on the internet instead.

13:37
And we're not, you know, people are just like, oh, it's an app. It's like, well, it is, but it's also, it's a storefront and it's a digital representation of like, yeah, a store. So we do have to come up with that. It's funny, like you said, the trade-offs of like, we don't have to unpack and order books and have first order cutoffs and have dates and shelves of stock. But you know, we have infrastructure that converts PDFs into images.

14:04
servers and an application that we have to build things for. So it's like, it's all trade-offs. It's like we have different sort of day-to-day tasks to keep the shop running than the physical one. You're still reliant on selling these books to keep up a different type of infrastructure in brick and mortar. Not brick and mortar, but a digital mortar. Is that a thing? Digital mortar? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? You still have to sell comic books. So it's an interesting trade-off of like, yeah, I might not have rent.

14:33
These servers don't come cheap, you know? Yeah, I mean, like I said, we have to literally pay for liability insurance to protect the assets that we hold and we do have infrastructure costs and yeah. But I mean, it's, you know, the nice thing about still being in the same wheelhouses as other retailers, like I said, is just getting to learn from a lot of them. They've done it way longer than I have. And his name is Brandon Shouts or Shoots, I'm butchering it and I feel bad, but he runs

15:02
in Canada and he has a newsletter called the indirect market and that one like I've learned a ton from too. Like he really like writes newsletters about how he runs the store, decisions he makes, like what to stock and what not to. Like I can't remember when it was but like last year he or maybe it was even the tailing of the year before he started refocusing on like moving away from single issues and focusing on volumes and graphic novels and stuff.

15:32
his thought process behind that and hearing what he was doing. It was coming at a perfect time for me, like I said, when I had to start thinking about all these things. So I try to study them, to be honest. I listen to the podcasts and David does interviews. And again, I have a lot to learn from them. So I try to soak it all up and learn what they've working hard at for decades. Now, that's... I mean, look, you've got a ton of historical data and empirical data.

16:02
to like reference and build off of. So that's cool that you're expanding horizons in that way. What's the first conscious memory you have of comic books? Like do you recall the first comic book you ever read? Or maybe like the most meaningful one. Cause I've come to realize throughout the years and interviews that it's not always a person's first comic that is the meaningful one or gets them into the hobby. It's almost sometimes, it's usually the second one or the one that they read in college or post high school that really has an impact on them. What is it for you?

16:32
I mean, the Jim Lee X-Men number one, hands down. That definitely wasn't the first comic I read. I'd read some when I was younger before that, but I distinctly remember being in the shop and seeing that for the first time. I remember the, I don't know if you ever seen the poster of them all at the pool. Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, that was in the shop and I just remember that era. I think just like that artwork and how...

17:00
detailed it was just really struck me. And I felt like I'd never seen anything like it. And then I had already liked some X-Men stuff and the idea of it, but that one was the first one that I really dug into from the beginning. That's definitely one of those time periods that if I had a time machine that just had infinite usage and you could just do stupid stuff, one of them would be to go back and experience some of those big comic book moments. And I think there's probably no

17:30
bigger one than Jim Lee X-Men number one era. It still holds the record, I think, for the most sold single issue comic book, like eight million sold. So I think that's a really. I believe he still holds the title. It is something in the high millions. And I do want to say it's like eight point something last time I checked. But yeah, you grew up at the peak of comic book popularity right before the bubble burst. Yeah, it was an exciting time. And I think that whole era made.

17:57
huge impression on me, like them leaving and starting Image. It was like, I mean, that was like one of the moments that I was like, oh, like as an adult, you can just like start your own company and do your own thing. Like that's wild. And I loved them like breaking off and kind of running off and saying they didn't need these big companies and could do their own thing. Like it made a huge impression on me. I guess that leads into, to lead right into the origin of Omnibus. Like what was, what were the events leading up to you starting Omnibus and, you know, getting that off the ground?

18:27
Um, I was at a, uh, healthcare startup that I really loved and I enjoyed working at. And I just kind of got the itch to do my own thing again. I had been there for I think a year and a half and, um, I was trying to figure out what to do. So I kind of left and I was going to like freelance and kind of work on some B2B SaaS ideas and, um, I I've kind of like come from building a lot of tools in that world. And I have a lot of experience in it. Enjoy it.

18:56
So I was kind of trying to figure out what to do and that was like around all the time that Comixology was kind of starting to crumble, I guess, for lack of better terms. But they hadn't talked about merging, like getting rid of the app, but a lot of people kind of early days thought the writing was on the wall, right? Like they were merging or sorry, changing the app like basically into like a white labeled version of the Kindle app and, you know, laying people off.

19:26
an opportunity and being somebody that used the app forever and wanted there to be a little bit more there, I, as somebody who likes to make software, just saw it as an opportunity really. And I don't think it would have been possible to try to do it maybe a couple years before that. I think it's almost too hard to talk someone out of switching, sort of. And that's just like, I've made software for a really long time and worked on it.

19:55
of different products and I think getting people to jump ship from one tool to another, like if you use a to-do app or an email app or anything, there has to be a pain point that customers feel and then they decide it's time to go look for a solution to this. So even though this is not the same thing, I think everyone felt a little bit of that pain, but they had every publisher and people had a library in there and it was good enough.

20:22
that I think it would have been tough without some kind of like community, like up swirl and cataclysm, like a feeling of a cataclysm for people to kind of really consider something new. It's almost like you had to wait to like win the popular vote. To your point, that is all we knew was comixology. This is how you buy comics. It just is what it is. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, so I just saw that and kind of figured there might be a shot to maybe publishers would be interested. Maybe.

20:51
would be interested and fans would be interested in a kind of new option. So just started doing some cold calls to publishers and shipping away little by little. Build a prototype, talk to publishers, keep moving forward and then yeah, fast forward to today. I was taking a look at the app and I was just curious, man, what was the first comic I bought on Omnibus and what are some of the purchases I've made? And the first book that I bought on

21:19
big game number one, the Marc Millar and Pepe Larez series where it combines like all of the, I think it's like a big crossover of the Millerverse books. So that was the first book I bought. As far as series that I'm buying every issue on, specifically on Omnibus, for me, it's rare flavors. Omnibus also gave me an opportunity to catch up with Geiger, all the cool stuff in Geiger. Cause I missed the boat when the physical issues came out, but I noticed they were on Omnibus and

21:48
That has quickly become one of my favorite comic book series. And I'm excited for them to do the new series this year and everything they're doing with Ghost Machine. Have you read any of those? Yes. Yeah. And the Ghost Machine one-shot that was like the overview of all coming up. Yeah, I've read Geiger so far. Yeah, I'm really excited for the Rockefellers, Francis Vandepal. I was like really, really into the Flash New 52 stuff that he drew.

22:18
I actually had a chat with him like last month or something because we have like a mutual friend that introduced us actually. Oh, wow. That's awesome. Yeah, I was like geeking out. I was like, dude, I was like, I was obsessed with that book when it came out. Yeah, it was cool to finally in the One Shot because it's like, you know, I've read everything that they released on their sites and the interviews about the different worlds. So the One Shot was cool to finally get like a taste of what each of the different kind of universes is. I'm really excited for...

22:46
I like how they're doing, there's like three or four different worlds I think that they've announced so far under this Ghost Machine umbrella. So I think it's really cool and I don't know how much the interviews are read but it's cool because they're even talking about like, you know, setting up these worlds for other people to play in maybe even after some of them are gone, right? It's like their properties that are going to be part of Ghost Machine and I just love that idea.

23:13
Same thing with them. I got really excited with the three worlds, three moons, Hickman. The Hickman and Delmundo. Yeah. I just thought it was such a cool idea to kind of develop this world that you invite other people to come play in. Especially from his world, or not just him, their all of their world building kind of approach to it as like they're defining the geography of the world and the religions and like...

23:40
I've read all the write-ups on that because I was just like, how fascinating. It's very Tolkien. It's like you're inventing this language and coming up with the history of everything before. There's too many stories. Yeah. It's Hickman on a thousand. Yeah. It's insane. Yeah. The Ghost Machine stuff, I got excited in the same way. I was like, it's a really cool idea to set a line in the sand that you're going to make these worlds for people to come and play in.

24:08
The quality looks really good, too. A lot of these books look exceptional on digital. I think that's sometimes a point of debate, is that print just looks better. You like the feel of it. But you could almost argue that with where we're at in technology and in comics, especially with art, a lot of artists leveraging digital programs, or the colorists leveraging digital programs, that you can make the argument that

24:37
a lot of comics today are made for the digital screen. Do you feel that way? Are there any, I guess, comics or exceptions that are kind of prove that point? I could think of an exception that disproves it. But no, in general, I think I agree with you. I mean, I, you know, it depends on what it's printed on and how it's printed. But screens are so nice on devices now, especially, yeah, like an iPad.

25:06
But all smartphones and new devices like that just have such amazing high DPI screens that the colors look amazing, the details amazing, they're bright and crisp. So it is vastly ahead from where it was when iPads first came out and digital reading apps, not just comics, but there's a gold rush of digital magazines and all those at the same time.

25:33
I mean, they're amazing. You used to be able to see pixels and now you can't see any. But I was going to say the one that stands out is we have Silver Sprocket who makes a ton of genre spanning different kinds of books down there. But there are so many that are just so special in print that that is one. I've rebought some.

26:03
physical copies of because seeing them in person, they just do so many special things like golden record, like the cover has some shine to it and the paper's print around is really nice. They just they do special things with print, not just it's not just stock paper. And they do different types of printing and coatings that are like appropriate to the material, I guess is the best way to put it. They approach it a lot more like

26:34
like a really high end book publisher than a lot of other comic books that you would just buy at your shop. They're like beautiful art objects really. And that's the one that yeah, they look amazing in the app, but like when you see some of those in real life, you're like, I need a second copy of this. That's awesome. Yeah, I'm actually flipping through them right now. And some of these covers look rad. When you were first starting, what were maybe the...

27:02
top, you pick however many, but what were the top priorities for you in terms of building an app that addressed or maybe filled any gaps that were left to be desired from comixology? The first ones are all the kind of easy stuff and it's what we've been working our way through for the first year and a half of the company is just table stakes like browse, buy, read comics kind of from anywhere.

27:30
I think our twist on that is like a cute consumer friendly, easy to use, kind of high design experience I guess to kind of combat what a sort of stagnated product had about it, kind of compare the two. Just making it easier to browse but I think all the interesting stuff is kind of like ahead of us. So it was a long road of ticking off sort of like typical V1.

28:00
what do you need to do to make this work? And there's a lot like even behind the scenes besides the app that you use that kind of drive the product. So there was just like a ton to build there. But the goal was, I guess the longer the shorter that is, the goal was to be able to be a switch out replacement for CommaSolidly. So it needed to at least do 80% of the important things in the app to I think be like viable and kind of give everyone what they'd expect.

28:28
You know, this business is interesting. Like I said, I build a lot of tools, but being a marketplace business, it's like there's a bunch of people to please. There's like publishers, there's creators who want to make sure that they feel like we're presenting their work in the best way. And sometimes we'll get an email, I don't like that avatar, can you switch this out? And then fans obviously using it too. So I just, I take all that stuff really seriously. So when people do leave feedback, I mean, I try to answer everybody on Twitter if they mention something.

28:56
Just so I want people to feel like they're heard and like know who we are and like know that they're going to get a response so that it doesn't feel like things are just going into the ether and that nothing will change. And I can't always, I'd love to promise everybody I'm going to fix everything they want, but you know, the reality of that is I can't do everything all at once or we can't as a team build everything. So I try to just be honest with like, yeah, that's on the list, but it's kind of far off or yeah, that's super important to me too. We're definitely doing it soon.

29:24
And if I don't understand something, I'll ask questions because I want to know like, well, okay, I wasn't planning on that, but tell me more about it. So to me, it's kind of just like, you know, I've been a product designer a long time. It's like research. I just need to know what people like, don't like, what they expect. And then I'm also, I'm one of them too. So I just want them to feel the way I would want to feel if I was dumping energy and money and time into...

29:53
into something and I had a problem is I'd want to know somebody's taking care of me. It's like if you call AT&T if you have a problem, it's the fucking worst. It's like just trying to get a hold of somebody and things like that. It's like, I don't want to be that kind of company. Even outside of comics, I just don't want to do that to people. So I'm trying to be a good dude.

30:20
15K then have to call Comcast about a bill. I'll just suck it up. I think I can speak a little bit about what you're saying in terms of the challenge of changing people's mindsets and convincing them to at least give a different option a shot. Because I think I definitely fell into that category when I first found out about Omnibus. Which by the way, I want to shout out Chris Hacker who maybe was responsible for first putting me

30:48
onto Omnibus and obviously he's been a big champion. Anyways, when he first told me about it, he's like, hey, just give it a shot. I was definitely of the mindset of like, I've already got all my stuff here. You know what I'm saying? Like I've got everything on comics. I'm used to it. You know, can they really fix? If Amazon can't get this right, how, you know, what are the hopes? I guess I didn't know I needed something like Omnibus where these simple fixes, these simple things that I wanted, that I've wanted in comicsology

31:18
made such a big difference in my reading experience, as simple as being able to buy a comic book in app. It doesn't take that long to do in comicsology, but it's just the principle of it. It's like, what do you mean? So things like that and just a streamlined view. I think also your eye for graphic design is prevalent in the layout of the store, as well as the reader. It's eye-catching. And like I said, I find myself.

31:46
discovering new comic books because of the layout and the design in mind. Prior to that, that was a headache for me in comicsology. It just felt so cluttered. And I think you said in an interview on Sketch with David Harper that if a user is doubting or can't tell you how something works after using it, then it's not a very good design. And that really stuck with me after reading that and getting to use the app. It's like, yeah.

32:13
I can explain to anyone how to use that. I'm not so confident with comixology. I think I need a degree for it. And I was curious about the reception from the industry, from publishers and maybe creative forces and creative teams. Have you gotten any feedback about the app from some of these other entities? Yeah, it's been awesome. Everybody's been very excited and very welcoming having a new option.

32:42
Yeah, I think overall just kind of excitement from when we started reaching out to meeting creators at cons and trying to kind of share what we're working on is, yeah, it just seems like people are happy to have another entrant. And I think they can tell that, you know, fans, we want to make something good, we care. And I hope that does show in the app and when you use it is that, yeah, we're, you know, we care.

33:10
We want it to be good too, I'm using it. I wanna enjoy the experience. And that's kind of the whole reason we started it, you know? It was like not being happy with what was there. So yeah, it's been great so far. I mean, same thing with fans. Like everyone seems excited once they give it a try and kind of dig in. I guess what that brought up, like did you have any opportunity to...

33:34
Talk to anyone that works at ComiXology that might have been, whether laid off or working there to pick their brains. Did you get any support from, I guess, the Distinguished Competition? Yeah. I mean, I've heard from several different people that were there or kind of got laid off over time, all sorts of different roles. Yeah. I mean, overall, I was actually surprised how many of them were excited to see something else. I kind of, when they reached out, I kind of was like, oh, no, this is going to be...

34:04
weird, they're gonna hate me, and they're actually super excited. The gist that I get from the inside is that comixology was just filled with real comic fans. I think they're just pumped that somebody is trying to do what they sort of got blocked by moving forward, by acquisition or just whatever was happening internally. Everyone I talked to was just super, super nice.

34:33
Yeah, it just seemed exciting, which was really cool. With the state of comicsology and the opportunity for new faces to enter the digital comic landscape, like do you feel like we could see more digital comic shops and retailers pop up? Like, do you feel like the floodgates have kind of opened up? I don't know. That's interesting. I think I was kind of surprised there weren't more leading up until this,

35:03
I think maybe now that I'm deeper into it, I kind of see why. There's just a mix of a lot of manual relationship building, winning publishers over. There's just a lot of technology to build. There's a mix of like, yeah, like I'm seeing people problems to solve on top of technology problems in a really interesting way. So maybe I think that's kind of slowed it down. So I don't know. I think it'd be a little harder too because like...

35:31
We've got a pretty big head start on some things and there's other people who are, you know, have different approaches and I think there's probably only so many the market could sustain, but I don't know. I mean, I'm like super into what's happening with like scrolling comics and web comics. I think, the Infinite comic or Infinity comics, I think.

35:59
while a lot of them aren't my thing, like Webtoons and Manta and some of those, they're like the slice of life or like romance comics, like there's a few that I read on Webtoons, but a lot of those aren't my thing is like, I think that's like ripe for opportunity and lots of cool stuff happening. But it's hard too, just cause like, like I was on a panel at Emerald City and the VP.

36:27
business, something I can't remember his title. Fromonta was on there and like, I got to chat with him while I was really cool and they have a lot of user generated stuff but them and Webtoons, like I don't know how much you've looked at them but they're like, dude they're pulling like a Netflix more or less. Like they have a studio. But I mean they have like a studio of like hundreds of artists and writers. Like.

36:50
making their content. So they're just like, even though they have user. There's a distribution platform. Yeah, yeah. And it kind of makes sense because the user generated stuff, you're only going to get so many lower Olympuses, right, that are like super bangers. And it's like anything. It's just like a small amount of things that are incredible and a lot of things that are, and then some that are bad. And their top titles and where they're dumping all their energy seems to be on theirs because they're.

37:18
They're hiring top tier people and talent on stories they know are good and they're developing in house. And so it's not the same thing as what we're doing, but it's like, you know, it's still comics and like, that's one that kills me. I actually always forget to bring this up in chat. I'm so fucking tired of this. Like there's all this doom and gloom of like comics are dying. And, you know, this has been a thing off and on since comics were out, as far as I can tell from everything I've read and what people say. And,

37:48
It's just so funny when I see that because I'm just like, well, I mean, have you seen how many people are using these things over here? I'm like, this is crazy. And it's like, and they're young. They're like, people are like, oh, like, you know, gray hairs like me and people who read comics like in the Jim Lee X-Men era are like, dying off or not collecting or aging out or just, you know, don't care anymore, whatever. You're like, they're like, people like comics, like, it's not, they're not dying. It's like, maybe they're different than what you're looking at. But I mean,

38:17
Like, Webtoons might IPO for like three or four billion in June or July. There's like rumors of it and like they're huge. Like, I mean, Amazon was testing getting back into comics with scrolling stuff in like Japan, like, I don't know what is happening with it. Um, there was a rumor that Apple was even looking at it and like, just those few that are out there are so big and like titles like Lord of Olympus are just like, becomes so legendary that it's like.

38:47
It's like, what are you talking about? People don't like comics. It's like, maybe they're not reading the same ones you're used to them reading, or yeah, the same old properties, but dude, it's like people like comics. It's also a location thing. Like we're not doing ourselves any favors, not wanting to go where the readers obviously are, especially like the younger generation. Like if we're hopeful that a new generation will come in and get into the hobby and, you know, stick around awhile so the industry can prosper, like we gotta go where they're at. And that's just...

39:16
where we're at as a society. It's on our phones, tablets, and screens. There's good and bad of that. But to your point, people love comics, and they're just consuming it this way, in this modern way. And I think we've got to meet them there. And it is interesting to see some of these outside influences, like webtoons and what's going on with manga, find their way into comic books, and sometimes challenge our traditional,

39:46
traditional roles and how things have been done. And I imagine you're at the epicenter of all of that. You're getting it from all these different angles, from the users, the publishers, and the retailers. Yeah, I mean, I've got a whole bunch of opinions on it and long-term plans centered around some of these ideas that we're talking about, because I think there's a ton of opportunity for the comics we know and love to move into that space more. I think even one of the simplest things, when I see it is like...

40:15
I haven't had a creator tell me this, but I would guess that some of the scrolling stuff is like maybe they're just not interested or it's such a different wheelhouse than what, even the page system that writers are used to. Okay, I've got 28 pages, I break down stories this way, there needs to be an arc here, by the end I need to do this. Or issues one through five fall in an arc, so I need to plan 28 pages times five to land it. You'd have to rethink a lot of how you're used to structuring stories from a

40:45
definitely writing standpoint and then clearly art, right? Like telling a story downwards. But I get excited about that. I'm a designer, I'm not like, I can draw a little bit, I'm not clearly as talented as the people we know and love. But as a designer, I get visual conventions and art direction and the stuff I see on webtoons, when I look at it, I'm just like, damn, these people are kind of bad at designing panels.

41:13
Like using the vertical space in interesting ways, breaking it in interesting ways, and like that opportunity to tell a story in a different direction to me is I'm just like, fuck, I designed the shit out of this. This is like, this is really cool. Like, you know, there's almost like too much white space or like Hickman pages, like I just call him Hickman pages, but you know his like title pages where he's like unveiling story, like dude, those in a scrolling format, like it's like prime for.

41:41
you know, like just like scanning down a page, it's like naturally like reading that narrative down and insert some cool like graphics. I'm like, I'm not seeing any webtoons people like play with those kinds of things. That's a really good point. If I had to make a prediction about like the big changes, I think I could see in comics taking place in the next five, 10 years. I think one based on what you just said is more thought to graphic design and presentation.

42:11
You know, like as comic books, I think we'll inevitably start shifting towards digital or at least digital becoming much bigger and a very solid competitor to print and, and physical is that I think it gives the opportunity for more graphic design elements, more, you know, thought to presentation from like professional graphic designers. And I cannot recall right now the name of the graphic designer that has done all of the house of X power of X. Tom Mueller. Yeah.

42:41
Herzen Buhler, he's amazing. But you know what I'm saying, and then you're even bringing up Hickman's Knack for it. Because I think he's a graphic designer himself. He's an artist, a graphic designer. But I think we're going to see more of that, clean layouts and ways to present information. And I'm definitely here for that because that's new innovation. That's new insight and perspective. You're saying, man, there's so much opportunity to do different things with the vertical scroll. That makes me really excited about where

43:11
digital could be in a couple of years. Yeah, I mean, I like that aspect of it. I mean, again, because I'm a designer, but like, have you read Hexagon Bridge? I'm so glad you brought that up. Yes, which has been praised by every graphic designer friend I know. They love that. But it's not just, I mean, the covers are sick, but it's not just that. It's like the page panel design is like super innovative, like the way it breaks space and uses or doesn't use panels and...

43:40
That comic just looks different. And I get really excited about that as a designer because I'm just like, yeah, I just think about it. It's expanding my visual knowledge of how you play with space, sort of, as a graphic designer, how I look at it. And yeah, so I get really jazzed when I see cool uses of stuff like that. And I think, yeah, again, scrolling. Oh, the one thing I was gonna say too is that's the other, I think, misnomer that, I kind of think people, like, when they,

44:09
to talk about digital or like scrolling comics is like, I think part of the opportunity is not just scrolling, because again, that's like a pretty big departure from how people are used to like in traditional comics, used to telling stories. But I think there's even just something to be said for like, pages that are less dense, that are just easier to read on mobile. Like there's certain books, if you pull it up, and it's like, can't think of a good example, but

44:34
Like there's a manga called Glitch that I always bring up as my example for this, because it's like, I don't read like a bajillion manga titles and it's one that I like in particular, but like put really into the artwork and the story. And, you know, it's got a pretty standard, like three to four row system. And the, so the panels are just like, and I think it's only too wide for most.

44:57
Because the manga format's smaller, so it's like literally the book itself is smaller too. So they don't do super dense panels either. It would be too hard to read sometimes. So that on your phone is way easier to read without zooming or anything right off the bat. So to me, again, it's not just about scrolling, but it's just like, what if it's just more, I just in my head keep calling it mobile friendly. It's like, what if it's just easier to consume? And again, that's not just like if you want to.

45:25
the way I think about it at least, one of the cool things I think about digital is like, it's not even just trying to get everyone to read digital, but like everyone is on this discovering things, exploring, finding stuff, right? So like, if it's just easier to even get a like preview of something and see like dip your toe in, that is like more friendly for your phone, you're more apt to go pick it up in the shop if you're like you read print, right?

45:51
So to me, it's not even about, it's like discovery and just like finding shit is where people are doing that on their phone, even if you read physically. Um, so I think there's something interesting there about like, yeah, just, um, I mean, I don't know, you work in marketing, you know, it's just like, you gotta, like you said, be where people are and make it easy to like find your shit and get you for, so people can get excited about it and get behind it. Um, you know, prepping for this interview, it just got me thinking of some of my favorite.

46:21
companies, brands that combine technology or developing technological solutions for comic books, whether it be services, solutions, and things like that for the comic book industry. And it got me thinking of Short Boxed and how dedicated that team is to bringing modern technology to comic books, especially in the resale market, et cetera. And then also websites like League of Comic Geeks, where I think they've got a really good handle on.

46:49
good digital UI, good workflow and everything like that. And I was curious to hear from you. Are there any other brands or companies, whether that be any comic book space or just general space that you've looked at as inspiration when building out Omnibus?

47:08
That's a good question. I don't think necessarily an app or company. I think someone that's doing, that's really sharp, that's doing cool things with technology and media is Kyle Higgins that does the Massiverse. Yeah. He just announced like a, I'm sorry, I think he just announced like a music album, comic or something like that. The Singularity, yeah.

47:35
Yeah, that's a really good pick. Yeah, Kyle Higgins is killing it. But he's doing a lot of, him and his team, are doing a lot of cool, like there's an in-world podcast that goes with the book No One. And he sort of acted like the character was hacking a video during a talk at San Diego last year. And he's got a card game. I think he's really making his books bigger in the world outside of just.

48:06
the book, like actually reading the book. And I think kind of, while that's not like a service, like I think there's a lot more opportunity for that. And that's where, like when I said, you know, marketing opportunities and stuff like that is like, marketing doesn't just mean advertising, it's like touch points for customers and what will get customers excited. And yeah, and I think that's like some of the coolest stuff is like, let's get comics just out of the books and the shops and like, what else could you do with it? And being able to draw people in to the story, like when I saw the podcast, I remember these

48:35
I was like, this is genius. The people on the podcast are in the comic talking about their unveiling story and talking about what's happening. It really is like a companion to the book. I think those are the opportunities. I think there's even, if I remember correctly, I think he's got a Twitter account for the sort of...

48:59
That's right. One of the characters in one of his book. The guys in Radiant Black. Yeah, yeah. That's right. Man, I'm blanking on the name, but there's like three guys in there. And there's a Twitter account for them. Like, I don't know, those are just fun touch points that kind of like, you know, you follow it and you're checking Twitter and you get reminded of the book every day. And it's kind of just like more backstory and making it more than just the one story that you get. So that kind of adds more depth to it that I really enjoy. So like that, that kind of stuff, I get really excited about. I just think there's like tons of opportunity.

49:29
for comics there that sure it's marketing and hopefully it helps sell books for those people obviously. But to me, it's the best kind of marketing because it's fun marketing as a fan. You're like, oh, this is cool. Which leads me to something that you guys are doing with Omnibus that caught my attention big time was that I understand that you guys are the digital distribution fulfillment partner for companies like Massive. There was Sean Gordon Murphy, he's got the current Zorro series.

49:57
The Kickstarter had launched prior to the comic book coming out. I had signed up for the Kickstarter just wanted a hardcover. I kind of completely forgot that it came with digital copies of every issue. So when I got the email from Omnibus that was like, hey, redeem your free digital issue of Zorro number one. I was like, come on, man, these guys are doing it right. How did that come about and how are opportunities like that helping Omnibus get in front of more potential readers and users?

50:25
I mean, that's the first one we did and it did get us in front of a bunch more people and people were excited to be able to get it and read it online. It's kind of nice because we provided the file like you saw, but also you automatically get it added to your Omnibus account so you can actually read it in our app or on the website. But I had just been talking to Massive and that kind of came up and they had mentioned, because it's a digital fulfillment, they had just kind of mentioned it to me.

50:54
We just started chatting about what we could do with it and they weren't sure how they were going to fulfill it yet. They had some ideas and I just kind of like put a few things together and was like, hey, I think we could do it this way. Here's how it would work. Here's what I need from you. And yeah, we just built a couple kind of custom things to make it work. I was particularly excited. I mean, I love John Gordon Murphy and he got the, I don't know, it's too dark, but you can see the artwork. He's like one of my favorite artists.

51:25
I'm just, I think Kickstarter, like those campaigns, you know, just constantly get.

51:34
funded and very successfully released. Yeah, I think it's one of the most successful types of campaigns that get fulfilled more than other ones. So they're big in the Kickstarter world, but I just think they're great for comics too. It's a great way to get a project funded and give that team some runway to get something done. So I was a big supporter of it, and as soon as I dove in and saw it, before the massive thing.

52:02
saw how many were being done and have back some myself. I just am like really interested in space. I think it's a cool idea. I've always liked Kickstarter period, but I think for comics, it just makes sense. So we've talked about like the basic premise omnibus, right? You can buy your comic book. You can buy comic books, the digital store as well as a reader. As far as like the content that's on there, you've got a few publishers available. Not just a few. You've got quite a few.

52:29
publishers available right now. According to their website, it says, right now we're beyond proud to carry a blaze. Ahoy Archie Comics, Black Panel, Boom Studios, IDW, Mad Cave, Oni Press, Titan, Valiant, and Vault. I think it is no surprise or no secret that the only ones I think publishers really miss in are the big two. And I imagine, Travis, you're probably tired of answering this question. You probably get this question the most. But let's just get it out there.

52:58
How is the journey to getting Marvel and DC on Omnibus? How's that going? We are working on getting several more key publishers and working hard at it is about all I can say right now. I like it. Okay, all right. Cause it's not as simple as going to them saying, hey, I've got a really good digital reading solution. Come on, bring your books on here. There's a lot more, like from what I understand, a lot of legalities, a lot of red tape.

53:27
And then obviously, you're also talking to publishers that have their own app as well, so they can kind of see you as competition too. Is that around the lines? I don't know if necessarily as competition. It's almost like different business models, like being in and not just the big two, but there are other companies that are hesitant to be on other platforms and maybe don't see the value in being part of a marketplace.

53:53
Again, to me, it's another customer segmentation thing is like some people want to buy everything in one place, not jump around to a bunch of different apps. So, some people might be hesitant to be part of the marketplace and rely only on their own app because of that reason, but you're missing out on customers that don't really want to pay a monthly or want to divide their library sort of. So there's that kind of sentiment. And yeah, I mean, it's just...

54:23
It's not just them too, but we have to store valuable property from publishers. So we need to be vetted and trusted. We have to carry liability insurance with our contracts with several publishers because we have their entire library of comics or damn near most of it. So some of our contracts required that and that is just part of the deal to get it. It kind of makes sense. We have...

54:52
Again, like valuable digital property that belongs to other people that we are just kind of licensing and reselling at the end of the day. Yeah, that's a good insight. Can you share who was the first publisher or publishers to come on board of Omnibus? With respect to all of the publishers, was there maybe one significant one that when they came on board that you felt like, oh shit, this is really real or wow? Yeah. I mean, it was one that early on.

55:22
I was most excited about and they were the first one we talked to was Image. And, I mean, I told you what an impression they made on me early and they've, you know, been a favor for a very long time. And I respect just the work that comes out of them and the teams, you know, that publish through them, the independent teams. So yeah, we, they were one of the first ones. And

55:47
They were one of the first ones that agreed to get on the phone. We had reached out to a bunch of people. That was a really good... It took several chats. It wasn't just the first one. It was a good signal that if we could get them, we could maybe make this happen, if we could win them over. It was a good shock confidence pretty early on that maybe we could make it go.

56:16
Man, that's awesome to hear. Because when you think of Image, to me, they embody that spirit of entrepreneurship, that ownership, and everything that they represent from their start. So it only makes sense. And I think it really highlights what you guys got going on for them to be available on the app. So I want to say thank you. That's all because of Lorelei. Inside Image, who has been a huge champion for us and just a huge, friendly person and big help, especially in the early days.

56:46
That's awesome. Yeah. Since the launch of the app in May 2023, which introduced us to the initial Omnibus store and reader experience, I think I counted there's been about nine or 10 updates since then. The most recent one for this year was the availability of the, or I'm sorry, the launch of the Omnibus app in iOS stores for iPhone. Am I saying that right? Yeah. So it started on the iPad. Now we've got the iPhone app.

57:13
What's coming up in the pipeline and what can you share? What are you most excited for that you can share? Yeah, so iPhone, we actually kind of like soft launch. We are making an official announcement probably like next week. What is today? Tuesday? I just exposed that I've been into the data for a while. It's all good. Yeah, there was actually, it's like this funny Apple bug where if you're releasing a new app, you can usually like...

57:38
hand out codes, generate a code and then people can secretly use a released app. Oh, cool. But there was like a bug in the app store where you couldn't, it just, it wasn't working. So the app wouldn't download. So we couldn't really test it in production without throwing the switch. So we threw it quietly knowing that there's probably some bugs and a couple of things we wanted to fix in production, like in the real world. So yeah, we've been doing a couple updates behind the scenes for, specifically for iPad fix, or iPhone fixes, sorry. And

58:08
I was actually working on that earlier testing some things. So there's one or two updates we want to get out the door and then we're going to make a larger announcement about it. So that and then after that is Android's really hot on its heels, hopefully weeks away. That work has been underway for a while. So it's really far along and that'll be really close. And then I think I'm just excited to get there because that's finally... I talked about the kind of table stick stuff earlier.

58:37
we're finally like on all platforms. So there's no more people trying to find us getting bummed out that they can't use it because we're not on their phone or on Android at all. So I'm just really excited to get there because I think anyone can use us then. And then to me, I think that's like the interesting stuff past that, I think like I said earlier. So it's been fun and very hard.

59:03
to get to this. There's been a lot, a lot to build. But I think the interesting things are how you help people find new comics and sort of the features you build from here. So we're going to build pull lists. We're going to build lists like collections of books. We just have some fun kind of merchandising store ideas that we want to work on. So I think from there...

59:31
That's again, that's the stuff that I think we can differentiate even more besides just having, you know, a nice designed app is kind of doubling down on those areas. So it's, it's felt like a long road to get to kind of the starting line, you know, cause not even a lot of people have like tried us or cared until we kind of got to that point. Um, so even though it's like, we've been working on this for over a year and a half, it very much feels like just beginning kind of, I think as far as I'm concerned, like when we get that, it's like now we can really like do some cool stuff.

01:00:00
Yeah, the Android app is going to be a game changer. Yeah, that's going to be awesome. Ever since I've been really using the Omnibus app, I find myself double dipping. Well, I'll go to my local shop. I'll pick up Animal Farm. But not Animal Farm. Is it Animal Farm? Is that what it's called? Animal Pound. Sorry, Animal Pound, the new Tom King book. Double dip. Bought issue one at the shop. Went ahead. It's almost kind of like the modern. I'm doing the modern day. What was that saying for collectors? Buy one to keep one to read? That's what I'm doing.

01:00:29
Like I buy the print one to keep, you know, and if I end up selling it or keeping it forever, that's cool. That's interesting. And I've got my reader copy, which is the digital. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting. So the more that I've done kind of customer interviews and dug into people's buying habits, I've found that it's not as simple as everyone kind of thinks it's like.

01:00:50
either you only read digital or only physical. And I found like that's a new one actually. I haven't had somebody tell me that, but that's really interesting from a collecting standpoint, like keep the physical one pristine. But I've had a bunch of people tell me even that they kind of dip in just to see if they like something. And then if they like an issue or two enough, they'll be like, oh cool, I'm just going to buy the volume when it comes out of my shop. Or if they love it enough, they'll rebuy it so they have one for the shelf or something. So

01:01:17
As I dig in and talk to people, I'm finding that there's all kinds of interesting buying habits like that that aren't exactly what I expected. I don't do that. I buy them just because I don't care as much about collecting for it to be worth something as much as if I, if there's like, when I was at New York, I bought Tokyo Ghost hardcover Reminder ad, a bunch of this table and I'm obsessed with that book and I don't care if it's worth anything. I just wanted it because I love that book.

01:01:44
To reference that sketched interview, there was something in there I wanted to bring up just to follow, to get an update on. But you guys had mentioned the possibility of manga and even maybe some of European publishers and foreign publishers being added to Omnibus as well. How is that going along in terms of bringing comics from a global scale to Omnibus? Is that on the roadmap? Yeah, we've been talking to more.

01:02:11
Manga in particular, I don't have any kind of launch or major announcements there just yet. We've kind of been focusing more on traditional American comic publishers right now. And really, it's just a function of just time and energy. It's like we only have so many hours and resources to kind of onboard more people. So I'd love to carry way more publishers, but it's kind of manual to set people up right now for us. There's a certain amount of...

01:02:41
infrastructure we'd have to build to widen things. I don't know. It's interesting because it's like the mug is so hot and there's a ton of apps and they make their own. Like this has a big one. It's just kind of like even tough, I think, to start some of those conversations and have any kind of leverage right now just like they know they have such a hot commodity.

01:03:10
just time and focus sort of is like, you got to kind of like pick your battles when you're building, like, you know, the plane while you're in the air, like the old saying goes, and, um, and it's, it's really just trying to focus on getting like specific kind of publisher right now. And then we'll see.

01:03:29
It sounds like the sky is the limit for you, but this stuff takes time. And I'm glad that you brought up just the process that comes with dealing with publishers. I'd even think about it from that aspect of the legality and having to keep certain things in mind and safety. I didn't even think about the safety aspect of it all. Yeah, I mean, it's just, there's a lot of complicated stuff to build and a lot of moving parts. And I mean, I think it's interesting too.

01:03:58
I kind of believe in just enough planning generally at a smaller company because if you even ask me a month from now exactly what order we're going to build things in, I'd probably change a few things. So it changes week to week and what we hear from customers. I knew the DRM stuff and providing the PDF backups was really important and it's always been on the list. It just wasn't as high up as it is now. And that's due to like, we've just heard from a lot of people.

01:04:28
really want that kind of confirmation and have requested backups or like asked when it's coming multiple times and it's something that comes up on Twitter a lot. So that's one of those things where I was like, oh man, like I knew we were going to build this. It was just kind of when and we've actually punted it up a lot higher in the list because we're trying to listen to people. So I think there's a mix of that of just like listening to customers. There's maybe just we change our mind on something we think is more important after a month.

01:04:57
I think just as you dig into problems and you build and find out what you can do, just sometimes you think about things differently, sort of, or maybe get excited about a particular thing and kind of put it higher in the list. But stuff gets bumped. We did the massive Kickstarter thing. We had to build some custom stuff for that. So it was like you shuffle things around for a week or two while we built a couple of those and that maybe delayed one other thing. But it's all trade-offs and decisions, I guess, as you go.

01:05:27
Like based on feedback, the number of feedback and what you see on Twitter and the Apple reviews so far, what would you say is the most, what feature is most in demand from the users? What are they most looking forward to? And it doesn't maybe have to just be one, but maybe one or two. What do you see most recurring? I mean, the DRM thing has come up a lot, like I said. That much? That many people? I mean, that's why, like I said, that's why we're putting it kind of higher in the list. We've had a lot of very vocal customers about it.

01:05:56
I guess there's plenty of examples to show you why that's important for people. How many times have you bought a movie or something digitally from Amazon, Kindle, whatever it may be, and it's not there? Or vice, maybe not even buying, but just streaming. How many times is Netflix removing things? You're like, God damn it, I wish I just owned this. I think for the insiders that are actively in the know and really reading, leveraging, and prefer digital, DRM free.

01:06:26
copies is something that they'll bring up a lot too. And I was curious if you could explain in layman's term what that is and why that's important feature for digital comic readers and how Omnibus is addressing that. Yep. DRM is digital rights management. It's just that some places do not allow you to back up or maybe have some kind of wacky password protected or tracking system on some sort of filing, but

01:06:54
We accept for only a couple of publishers, I think like 90% of ours allow PDF backups. So we still have to build that. So we're gonna expose very soon in the app, which books are DRM free and then build a little area so you can download and backup your PDFs if you want. And I think for anything digital that's just nice so that we're not like a streaming service, you're not paying a monthly to get access to it. So if you stop paying.

01:07:23
lose access, we're a paper book. So I think it's kind of only fair that we allow people to back up and have a copy that they could use a different reader or move somewhere else down the road if they wanted. So I think in that business model, it's kind of only fair. So I guess in even more layman's term listeners, you get to keep your shit. You get to go and keep the things that you buy. And I mean, that's the kind of stuff, like you take it seriously. If you get enough customers saying that, you're like...

01:07:53
or something here. Because I'm not. You want to own their shit? Yeah, yeah. Subscribing to a book has come up a bunch, and that's one of our top features we're going to do next too. So like a pull list. Trying to think what else. Certain publisher requests come in a lot. Is there any outside of the big? Because I imagine a lot of people are probably asking you about, hey, when's Marvel and DC coming on there? But is there any publishers that maybe you weren't familiar with that people are asking for, that you had to do maybe a little bit of research on?

01:08:22
Oh, that's a good question. I mean, I've had several that I hadn't heard of but not maybe like repeated to the point that I was like, oh wow, I didn't know about that one. I mean, we did a lot of homework when we started this too. So aside from the ones that I'd already read and we're familiar with is we just kind of went really wide on kind of what was out there and went super indie and back again.

01:08:52
There are quite a bit that I discovered pretty early on even that I wasn't surprised by. I don't think there was one. There's probably larger ones that you could guess and some other names that you'd guess that were requested a ton. Trying to think otherwise. I think there have been a few just general sort of like help me find more comics kind of requests is how I would boil it down.

01:09:22
I mean, it's obvious, right? Like everyone in almost any media has the same problem, right? Like the internet has an ocean of content and it's hard to sort through all of it. And everyone, I think in the comic space, fans and on the business side alike kind of know that's a problem. So it's clearly like, like I said, the discovery kind of stuff. I, that's what I call discovery is just like helping people find stuff is one of the things I want to double down on this year and do a lot more for.

01:09:48
So we've had a bunch of requests that I would vaguely put into that flow kit kind of too, which again was kind of on our radar. But that's why I love when people are vocal and you try to answer questions and dig in if there are more questions. Or I'll get emails from people and I'm like, hey, write a whole thing back and just say, hey, do you actually mind hopping on a call next week or something? I'd love to pick your brain. So I do customer interviews off and on.

01:10:18
Especially if somebody says something that strikes me as like, Whoa, I hadn't thought about that or maybe seems out of left field. I want to ask more questions, even if it's just via email to see what they mean. And that's again, both just, I want to make the best thing I can. And then having been a product designer and done this for a million years is like, that's just what you got to do. You, when people express something to you that you don't understand, you have to say, well, what do you mean? Or how are you using that? Or.

01:10:48
if you were confused, well, what were you expecting instead? And sometimes it's even down to just like the label that you call something is, um, you kind of look for those signals of like, when you talk to, like, I read and know comics clearly, right. But like in other things that I've done, you kind of have to be like, um, why, why does he keep saying that one term or why does she call that that? Like, what is that? And so it's like, you dig in and you just say like, Hey, you mentioned this a minute ago. And.

01:11:15
she called it this and you called it this, but why do you call it different things? And just trying to find out what's behind that because sometimes it's some weird industry quirk. People in this role call it this or yeah. So it's just like you just dig in to find out what's going on behind the scenes. Do you foresee at some point in the future having some sort of omnibus unlimited equivalent where you're paying a monthly fee and you get access to whatever, a bunch of books?

01:11:45
I'm really torn on this one. I know customers love it, and I definitely see the advantage. It is drastically cheaper. I'm torn because creators and publishers sometimes already have a hard enough time making a solid living off things. So that is such a fucking massive discount. Let's say Call of the Air, like, $9.99, a lot of unlimited things are around that, right? I think even Marvels and DCs are like, $9.99.

01:12:12
So let's say that's like two issue number ones, right? Or three issue number twos and fives or one and a half volumes, right? You are now just cutting how much potential revenue they could make from people buying that book. So I get it from a customer standpoint, I worry about it from a business standpoint, and it makes me feel a little icky. In that regard...

01:12:39
But that said, there's such a thing as like, maybe you make up in volume what you lose by that. So maybe it's unlocking a bunch of customers they wouldn't have got anyway, or a whole revenue stream that they might not have had. So I am talking to publishers about it. I think a few were interested when we first started a lot, we're like, you're not doing that, are you? Because I think they were worried about the loss in sales. Everything you're saying highlights the like this dark side is level.

01:13:09
struggle that is constant, I think, in the comic industry, which is commerce playing nicely with art. I do respect the answer you gave because it's not, I think, the answer that a lot of people want to hear, but it's also not the easy answer. And I do appreciate that you're trying to take every, or you're putting every effort to be ethical about it. You're putting the creators first and foremost, instead of profits.

01:13:37
Thanks, yeah, I mean, it's kind of like, we're here to like, because we love the stuff they make, right? So if we don't take care of them and like give them a way to make a living and be fair, then we're not gonna have the things we love. So it's kind of like, you can't have both. And I mean, it's just so laborious, the things they make, like it is fucking time consuming, like making anything and like, you know, just like.

01:14:03
anything you create is like you deserve to be rewarded for that if people love it, I think. So no matter what it is you make and yeah, I don't know, you got to kind of like support people making what you love or you're just not going to have it. Well said. And maybe I should have brought this up earlier when we were talking about the big two, but I think the omission, the current omission of them not being there is kind of a plus, especially if you are trying to look for more

01:14:32
indie or support more indie comic creators, you know, kind of go off the beaten path. I think not having them there is, you know, you're almost challenged to like, you know, flip through the publishers and look for, you know, different ones that maybe you hadn't heard of. I know for me, you know, I'm flipping through it. And when I saw like, oh, shit, he's got humanoids on this, you know, like that is a company and publisher that I've always wanted to get into. But, you know, when I go to a shop, it's not always, you know, at the front of my mind.

01:14:59
But the fact that you've got them grouped already and all the titles are there, it kind of behooves you and benefits the discoverability factor of, well, I don't have the easy go-tos. What do they got? And then you end up going down a cool ass rabbit hole of human noise. And you're like, yeah, I need all of these. Yeah, totally. It's one of the first things I do when we onboard something new is I love going to publisher pages and digging in. I keep a file of reading list of things

01:15:28
I want to check out that I haven't read yet. But I also do love the serendipity of going in and going through those pages and trying to find and dig into something I haven't read yet. So I try to be strategic about it and also just dive in randomly with whatever strikes my fancy, I guess, when I'm browsing around. Yeah, it's a good strategy. We've been recording for about an hour and 40 minutes. And I feel like if this isn't enough to convince someone to at least download the app and try,

01:15:57
I'm just not sure. I don't know what else I can do. I feel like we made some compelling cases. And I know for me personally, you've given me some new insight and appreciation into the app. Travis, do you have any closing remarks in terms of maybe just double emphasizing everything we've talked about? Why should people give Omnibus a chance? Why should Omnibus be their go-to digital comic reader of choice? I mean, we kind of are you.

01:16:26
and we care and we're trying to make the best place to kind of find and read digital comics. And we are open to your feedback and ideas. You can literally email me, i'm travis at omnibus.app or hit us up on Twitter. We do want to hear what you have to say. And yeah, I mean, I just, you know, I show up to work every day and try to make the best thing I can for everyone that wants to read it. So.

01:16:55
Yeah, I think just like we care and we try to put everything we have into making it like an amazing place to kind of like hang out digitally and read. And yeah, I mean, like I said, I think we're kind of just getting started. I think all the really cool differentiating stuff we can do besides design sensibility and the little bit of editorial we've done now is we're just going to double down on those areas and keep trying to make us like more special and stand out more and more fun to use and more discovery features.

01:17:24
So I think we're kind of like just getting started and it's like an exciting time to give us a shot because we're going to be doing a lot of cool stuff this year. Hell yeah. I co-signed that and I amplified that. Listeners, I'm going to have links to Omnibus.

01:17:40
I'm have links to the Omnibus Twitter account, Instagram, all of that in the show notes. If you want to give Travis or Omnibus a follow Travis, this is great. A long time in the making, but, uh, paid off in the end. And I'm so glad that I got to have you on the show, man. Thank you. You're too better. Thanks so much. There you have it. Short box nation. That's the end of the show. Thank you for hanging out. Thanks for being here. And a special shout out if you've made it this far.

01:18:06
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01:18:32
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01:19:02
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01:19:31
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