DJ Khaled voice: another one. Or, to be more specific, yet another digital comics shop has launched, with Sweet Shop entering an invite-only beta today, pending approval on app stores. The best part, beyond 24 publishers already in the app? Per the press release, “As part of their commitment to the hard work of creators and publishers, Sweet Shop does not accept AI comics.”
This last part isn’t necessarily news, as Sweet announced that “AI need not apply” back in July of 2024. However, it’s nice to hear them reaffirm that commitment nearly a year and a half later, now that they’re ready to launch. In fact, back last year they noted that they’ve “enabled Cloudflare’s new AI Firewall, which will help us block bad actors. We’ve boosted our bots.txt to block all AI scrapers we know.” And not only that, despite admitting that some functions might be cool, it’s not worth the cost. So, “We’re not going to do some shady opt-out surprise. We will not host generative AI comic work. We’re going to be so human, it’s gross.”
That out of the way, with so many comic shops on the market, what makes Sweet Shop different? Well, you can do the compare and contrast, but they do have “in-app purchases, offline reading, and the ability to download DRM-free PDFs.” So that’s pretty neat. They also will soon allow users to give and receive recommendations, create reading lists, access sales and bundles, and to continue their ethical stance, “did it without venture capital money.”
They also have some pretty great folks recommending them, including Kieron Gillen, who states, “I’ve been looking for a digital comic company that looks at what makes Steam and Letterbox work and working out how to do it for comics, so I’m excited to see Sweet Shop land.”
Added Kelly Sue DeConnick, who is also awesome, “The Sweet, um, suite (sorry!) is the first real, executable vision for a connected comics ecosystem I’ve seen that honors creators, readers, and—vitally—the brick-and-mortar stores who make our community possible,” she said. “Sweet Shop feels like it was built for us, not off us. I don’t have a lot of faith in tech these days, so I’m trying not to get ahead of myself, but… honestly? The Sweet folks have demonstrated to me personally that they’ve got hearts as powerful as their big ole brains. I’m borderline feral waiting for the beta.”
Publishers on the app currently include Image Comics, Kodansha, Fantagraphics, Dark Horse, IDW, Manga Mavericks, Ignition Press, and Panick. While Marvel and DC have yet to join Sweet Shop, given their respective stances against AI, maybe they can find common ground? I don’t know, I just work here.
You can check out Sweet Shop yourself (or at least join the waitlist) at https://sweetshop.app.
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