Digital comics are one of the most embraced parts of print publishing going digital, but for whatever reason, comic book publisher websites are consistent eyesores. DC’s launching a new site to try to fix that, and it’s going to bribe you to get there with exclusives on upcoming events like Before Watchmen, the controversial prequel to Alan Moore’s masterpiece Watchmen.
Here’s an exclusive peek at the new site.
The plan is to get butts in the seats with images like the one you see above, which is the first time you’ve seen the Before Watchmen cast together in official art. There will be a bunch more mini-exclusives like it in the next few days. As for the rest of the site, bigger-name characters will have their own “franchise page”, with a list of comics they’ve appeared in, and DC’s working to fill out the profiles of lesser-known faces in the universe. The coolest and most useful part is probably the creator index: The site uses over six years of publishing data to set up an “IMDB of DC Comics” of sorts for writers, artists, and other creators, so you can find and buy any book the creator has worked on.
It’s a good start, and we hope DC follows through and gets everything fleshed out like it plans to right now. A DC-backed, fully-encyclopedic resource for its comics would be a hell of a thing. The site isn’t live just yet, but it’ll be up later today. [DC Comics]
