dstlry Launches Artist Customization Features - Comic Book Marketplace

DSTLRY Enhances Digital Comic Experience with New Features

DSTLRY, a digital comic book marketplace supported by venture capital, has introduced two new features aimed at increasing user personalization. These additions focus on enhancing the interaction between creators and fans within the digital space.

Commissioned Digital Remarques: Bringing Customization Online

The first feature, Commissioned Digital Remarques, allows comic creators to provide personalized sketches and signatures directly onto digital comics. This replicates the popular practice of obtaining artwork at comic conventions.

A remarque traditionally involves a small sketch or doodle added to a comic's cover or pages, often blending with the existing artwork. These are typically quicker to create than full illustrations, yet remain highly desirable to collectors.

Creators on DSTLRY have full control, setting both the price and the completion timeframe for these commissioned pieces. Once a digital comic has been remarqued, it can be resold or traded by users on the DSTLRY platform.

Expanding Cover Options with Unlimited Digital Covers

The second feature, Unlimited Digital Covers, broadens access to alternative comic book covers across the entire platform. This provides collectors with more options and opportunities.

Variant covers, where publishers release multiple designs for a single issue, have long been a cornerstone of comic book collectability. This practice gained significant traction during the 1990s comic book boom, with features like holograms being popular.

With DSTLRY’s new system, both the primary and alternative covers will remain available digitally throughout the book’s lifespan. However, some level of scarcity will be maintained.

Alongside remarques, “collectible variants” will be available for one week following a book’s initial release. After this period, these variants can only be acquired through purchase or trade on the DSTLRY Marketplace.

Supporting Creators Through Resale Royalties

A significant aspect of the DSTLRY model is its commitment to creator compensation. All transactions occurring within the platform’s secondary market continue to generate royalties for the original creators.

This differs substantially from the traditional resale market for comics, where artists and writers typically do not receive any compensation when older issues are resold. This was a key consideration for founders David Steinberger and Chip Mosher, former Comixology executives, when they launched the company in 2023.

Collectability has been a central feature of DSTLRY since its inception, mirroring the long-standing tradition of limited editions within the comics industry. While explicitly avoiding the use of NFTs, DSTLRY utilizes limited editions as a core component of its marketplace and business strategy.