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Madefire launches first IDW ‘Motion Books’ – Star Trek, Transformers and My Little Pony

By John Freeman on August 28, 2013

One of the most-buzzed about announcements the week of the San Diego Comic-Con was digital comics creator Madefire’s partnerships with third party publishers and bringing the Motion Book treatment to their top properties. That day has come for the award winning and top four US comics publisher IDW as they bring a trio of their most-popular titles — My Little Pony, Star Trek, and Transformers — to Madefire’s groundbreaking experience today (28th August).

“It has been fantastic to see our properties come to life as Motion Books — with just the right amount of animation and audio, it has truly created a new experience,” stated Jeff Webber, IDW’s VP of Digital Publishing. “Additionally, the partnership with deviantART exposes our comics to an incredibly broad network of illustration fans.”

Madefire – co-created by top Brit comic creator Liam Sharp – spent the last year perfecting the Motion Book with their own acclaimed content on iOS mobile devices and the web. Their web-reading partner is social network and creative powerhouse deviantART.com, and the Madefire app has been five-star rated since launch, even landing on the App Store’s “Best of 2012” list.

“The move to digital reading is about more than just scanning in print — we are at the start of a new grammar for books,” said Ben Wolstenholme, CEO of Madefire. “We are pleased to welcome IDW’s comic book properties to help continue to evolve the medium of Motion Books.”

Founded in 2011 by Ben Wolstenholme, Liam Sharp and Eugene Walden, Madefire provides artists and writers a publishing solution for iOS and web reading allowing them to build their stories in an exciting new format called Motion Books.

Madefire is backed by Toni Schneider at True Ventures, The CEO of Automattic makers of WordPress, with angel investors including Sina Tamaddon, former Senior Vice President of Applications for Apple Inc–both of whom are on Madefire’s Board of Advisors. The Advisory Board also includes industry leaders Mike McCue, CEO and Founder of Flipboard, Dave Gibbons, co-creator of Watchmen, the bestselling graphic novel of all time, and Bill Sienkiewicz, widely recognized as one of the greatest innovators of sequential art.

• For more information go to madefire.com.

• Read Star Trek Episode 1 on devinatart

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.