COMICLY - AN ALL IN ONE COMIC BOOK DIRECTORY

I remember my old marketing lecturer once saying to me "It does not matter how good a product or service you provide is, if no one knows that you are out there - why bother?". And do you know what? For a fifty year old dope addict with a lazy eye and a gammy ridden leg, he was right you know! Just like my mate Chris for making this comic book community directory. 


The DC Comics Encyclopedia


1) So what made you decide to develop a site like comicly.com Chris?   The comic book industry is full of creativity and incredible artists, however, many websites are very outdated and not really pleasant to the eye - unlike yours.

There are hundreds of different websites all trying to convey a message, but it was being done individually – there was no website that took everyone’s ideas, news, rants, raves, etc and put it all in one place – until now!

I have come across numerous “ranking” websites – which rank websites based on how many people go to the site – and I thought to myself  'why not make a website that actually DISPLAYS all the latest comic news', not just show a rank. I decided to eliminate the entire “ranking” process and just show comic book readers what they want to see – ACTUAL posts taken from real websites and display them all in one central hub.

2) In your own words, how would you describe your site?   Comicly is a central hub for all the latest comic related news. The main goal is to make comicly a common word when someone thinks about comics.

Comicly currently displays all the latest news from some of the top comic book publishers and the most visited websites.

Anyone with a comic related website, podcast, webcomic, etc can submit their site for FREE to be included in my comic news section – no matter if you get 1 or 1 million visitors a month! All websites are manually reviewed by me to make sure that they are about comics and that the site is actually beneficial to comicly readers!

All I ask for in return is to display my small logo somewhere on their site. Plus, it would also be great for people to follow me on facebook, twitter, or my RSS feed.

3) If you could compare your site to a movie or a piece of music, what would it be and why?   I’d have to compare Comicly to the upcoming Avengers movie simply because it takes the best news from all across the web, and then displays it in one central location - which is exactly what The Avengers is about - taking some of the best and well known superheroes and putting them all in one action packed movie!

4) What was the first comic book story you ever read?   The first comic book that I ever read was Spawn back in the 90’s. I was born in the late 80s, so I was not able to start reading most of the golden/silver comics until I was older. I will never forget the first time I went to my local book shop and picked up the newest Spawn issue – the detail and artwork immediately caught my attention and made me come back to the store each week.

5) Do you have any amusing stories where your site is concerned?   Comicly is a new site, but it is quickly gaining popularity. I send out emails to different comic websites letting them know about comicly. About 95% of the time the response is great and people love this concept - saying that it is really innovative and exciting. Though, there was one guy who said the idea is stupid and he wants nothing to do with it. I said ok, thanks for your time. A few weeks later, I get an email from the same guy who said it was not a stupid idea, apologizing and asked if he can submit his site, haha. Pretty ironic!

6) Where does the name 'comicly' come from? Apart from the obvious.   Having a website is ALL about creating a brandable name that is VERY easy to remember. I came across comicly.com on a godaddy auction. Someone else must have really liked this domain as well because the price that I paid tripled as the auction ended! However, I am really glad I got this name, and doubt I will ever find something as short, brandable, and easy to remember.

“Comicly” is a pun on 2 words actually – Comic and quickly – I wanted to provide the latest comic news quickly and BAM comicly was born!

7) Stylistically, what have you mirrored your sites appearance on?   I wanted to create a website that is very easy to navigate and not filled with clutter. I used a paid theme which only has one sidebar on the right. Then I have a custom widget installed that let’s me add/delete websites.

I have not seen any other comic website that is like mine. If anyone finds one, let me know, haha.

I have 2 main ways of displaying news – my free comic section and a paid Featured section – which is the first thing that every visitor sees when coming to my site.

8) What would you say is the best / worst things about the comic book industry today?   I think that the internet has been the best thing that happened to the comic book industry – it lets millions of comic fans come together and unite. There are different websites, forums, twitter, facebook, etc that lets everyone interact with each other.

I don’t have a “worst” but I think that it is extremely hard for a new comic creator to become known in the industry. I feel that the only way to become well known is to spend a ton of money on advertising and promoting yourself which is not something that most of us have!

So there you have it folks, Comicly in a can. It is a great site, I'm even added to their listings as well. So when you have some time, please, by all means - give it a click - you will not be sorry that you did.