Smash Pages Q&A | MK Reed + Jonathan Hill on ‘Budding Crisis’

The creators of ‘Americus’ reunite for a new fantasy series from Comixology Originals.

MK Reed and Jonathan Hill are no strangers to collaboration. Having previously joined forces on graphic novels like Americus and Science Comics: Wild Weather, they’ve established themselves as a formidable creative duo. Now, they’re venturing into new territory with their latest digital comic series, Budding Crisis, for Comixology Originals.

This fantasy epic plunges readers into a world where the Onamanthe plant—whose seeds possess the extraordinary power to grant wishes—has become extinct. When the remaining seeds aboard a ship called The Eclipse are stolen in the Bay of Cygnus, the Dureni people must race against time to recover this irreplaceable treasure. As they hunt for both the magical seeds and the thieves who took them, they stumble upon a conspiracy far greater than they could have imagined.

I spoke with Reed and Hill about the origins of this new series, their creative process and the unique challenges of crafting a fantasy world where the most precious resource is rapidly disappearing. The second issue arrived on Amazon today.

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NYCC | ‘The Comixology Originals program is here to stay,’ declares the head of Comixology

The digital comics platform held an event during New York Comic Con to announce new Originals titles and talk about the future of the platform.

During an event at Amazon’s New York office this week, Comixology’s Jeff DiBartolomeo announced the next wave of Comixology Originals titles as well as teased 17 newly acquired projects.

More than that, though, he showed that the original digital comics program — and Comixology itself — is still alive and moving forward inside Amazon.

“The Comixology Originals exclusive digital content line plays a key part in our business,” said DiBartolomeo. “The Comixology Originals program is here to stay. We’ve been busy signing deals for 17 new creator-owned projects with new teams joining the family and some fan favorite creators returning to work with us again. We’re thrilled to help both new faces and industry veterans bring their stories to the public through Comixology Originals. To say we are excited about the future is an understatement.”

It’s been almost two years now since Amazon laid off a large portion of the staff working on Comixology and a year since Comixology announced plans to retire the stand-alone Comxiology app. Since then, we haven’t heard much from Comixology about its future, although they have continued to announce and release new additions to the Originals program.

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