Here is a great piece by Cherise Fong on CNN.com today about mobile comics with a mention of Crispy Comics:

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/10/digitalbiz.comics/

While we did a long interview with her, she was only able to slip in that one quote. Which is cool since we’re just so happy to be on CNN. But for those of you interested in how articles are done, might like to see the email interview Casey did with Cherise and then you can compare that to the final piece. Casey is so longwinded he needs to be edited down anyways

CNN: How has the response to Super Kaiju Hero Force compared to your expectations, given the plethora of comics currently flooding the App Store?

Casey Lau: It is far beyond our expectation. People just find it and then recommend it to their friends. We have done print comics in the past and the download rate of the iPhone comic has surpassed that on all levels.

One of our main things is that Crispy Comics is producing all-original content for the iPhone and other mobile devices. Most of the other companies doing it are reformatting print comics to the small screen, which depending on who is doing it comes out like “pan and scan” does when they reformat widescreen movies for TV. While we love all the other comics on the iPhone we are excited about more creators coming in and doing original stuff. But for us, currently you can only read Super Kaiju Hero Force on the iPhone, so it’s building a smaller but extremely loyal following that we hope to build on with even more characters and products.

Right now we’re putting a flag in the ground and saying that Super Kaiju Hero Force comics will never hurt a tree and be printed. Our plan is to proliferate the comic on as many electronic devices as possible so you’ll never feel like you didn’t get a chance to read it because it wasn’t printed. We’re readying for Android phones, Nintendo DS, Playstation Portable and when it’s ready color eBook readers etc.

Comics on the go! Never go looking for a comic book store ever again, we want to bring them to you.

CNN: What were the particular challenges of creating your comic specifically for the iPhone OS?

CL: As long time comic fans the biggest challenge is working in the confines of the screen size. Where print comics seem to be getting bigger to show off the super-detailed artwork we are going the other way and need to try and keep a balance between the art and the story. But we think we’ve found a good balance.

The upside of course is that with Apple, the installed user base of iPhone and iPod is around 45 million and people are always looking for cool new apps and content for their devices, and when we start releasing Super Kaiju Hero Force in other languages we hope to reach even more “iPhanatics” around the world.

CNN: What do you think of “motion comics” and other enhanced interfaces of comic-readers?

CL: To us, we love the format if its done right. So far the most recent offerings have been a mixed bag, but I think there is a learning curve to see which format works the best. The Watchmen motion comics were incredible as its amazing to finally see the original artists work come to life but the casting of one male actor to do all the voices (while perhaps a budgetary thing) left something to be desired especially when it came to the women characters and pulled me out of the story a bit.

But the medium is exciting and expect an “enhanced” Super Kaiju Hero Force done in a similar way by early 2010 with a big media partner supporting us.

CNN: Is the Special Edition of Super Kaiju Hero Force still on track for this summer, including on other mobile platforms?

CL: Absolutely, the free versions are there to generate interest and give readers a taste of what we are offering, and that has helped us build a fanbase. We’re working in a TV DVD model, where individual comic book chapters are free but we’re going to compile them and add in special behind-the-scenes features on how we create it as well as pre-production art and other things you see on “Special Edition” DVD’s and introduce those as paid apps in the App store and in multiple langauges.

We’re looking at the Android platform next and Windows Mobile and we’re talking to other mobile manufacturers to get Crispy Comics out on more cellphones.

CNN: Have you received any original submissions since you launched in March?

CL: Actually we have and from around the world from Australia to Spain to Argentina – and just now after exhibiting at Comic-Con International alot of print creators are asking how they can be able to get their comics out to a much larger audience than what is now available to them. So I think with the handful of mobile comics publishers out there with us, the next Comic-Con will see all kinds of new books available.

CNN: Now that even Stan Lee is making comics for the iPhone, how do you see the future of both original content and the comics archive on mobile devices?

CL: We attended the panel at Comic-Con where Stan Lee made this announcement in person. But Stan has always been ahead of the curve even being one of the first to get his new creations on the web as well as revolutionizing the whole comics industry in the 60′s.

This is definitely not the death of print, its just another version of it. DVD’s are offering digital copies of the movie so you can enjoy it anywhere you go. Japan is offering SD cards with the movie on it so people can watch on their cellphones. Comics will be the same, buy the trade paperback get the iPhone version too.

Looking to find out what happened in the first fight between Joker and Batman? Easily search and downlad this comic from the 1940′s anywhere you are.

The web brought down a huge barrier of entry, now mobile does it even more so and it’ll be everywhere soon enough. And this is not just comics, its newspapers, magazines and any kind of print media.

With Stan Lee on board it brings a new level of legitimacy to the industry and we have no doubt by this time next year there will be at least a dozen major players in the field offering new and archived content as smartphones get better, cheaper and replace laptops and netbooks. I was going to say even when your grandmother has one, but then my grandmother DOES have an iPhone already