Dark Horse, Toshiba, and USA Today Launch DH:HD

I got this press release today, and I've been trying to decipher it so I can tell you about it, because I think it could be significant.  In terms of a small comic book company like Dark Horse, I'm sure it's significant to them.  Basically, it goes that Dark Horse is partnering with USA Today, who partnered with DC for Wednesday Comics, and Toshiba, who make TV's and Blu-Ray players.  The result is called DH:HD. The plan is to bring original comic content from Dark Horse, to different platforms, starting today with a preview of Troublemaker, a new graphic novel from Janet Evanovich, who has sold a crapload of novels. Presumably, more original and regular content will go up on comics.USAToday.com, and the whole shebang will be sponsored by Toshiba.

It took me a minute to understand how to use the comics player at USA Today, because initially, it looks like a comic strip, but when I realized it was cutting off the lettering, it occurred to me that you can scroll around on a standard comic book page, but only view it through this strip sized window.  I can't tell if it's innovative, or poorly designed. It makes very good use of the space, but isn't necessarily intuitive, and I wonder if people are going to miss some of the content, because they don't know it's there.

Either way, cheers to the companies involved for trying to get comics out to a wider audience, and build some awareness for comics.  I hope it snags some readers, or at least opens up some minds.