DSTLRY

DSTLRY is a comic book publisher and collectibles company founded in 2022 and officially announced in April 2023 by David Steinberger and Chip Mosher. The founders leveraged their extensive experience from comiXology, which Steinberger co-founded and led as CEO and where Mosher served as Head of Content. Their new venture aims to rectify what they perceive as historical inequities in the comics industry by offering a more creator-centric business model.

The company's core mission is to align the interests of creators with the publisher. To achieve this, DSTLRY provides its "Founding Creators" with an equity stake in the company. Furthermore, an additional 3% of company equity is reserved for creators who release projects within the first three years, with allocation based on title performance. This model ensures creators not only retain 100% of their intellectual property rights but also share in the overall success of the DSTLRY brand their work helps to build.

DSTLRY's business operates on a hybrid physical-digital model. It publishes premium, oversized single-issue comics that are distributed through traditional comic book shops. Simultaneously, it sells digital versions directly on its website, dstlry.co. A key feature of its digital strategy is the creation of a secondary marketplace. Digital single issues are sold for a limited one-week window, after which they can only be purchased from other users on DSTLRY's platform. This approach, intentionally designed without the complexities of NFTs or cryptocurrency, allows digital comics to be ownable and resellable collectibles. Creators receive a percentage of the revenue from every resale, establishing a continuous income stream.

The company launched with an impressive roster of celebrated creators, including Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Tula Lotay, Jock, and Becky Cloonan, among others. Its debut publication, "The Devil's Cut," released in August 2023, served as an anthology showcasing the talent signed with the publisher and set the stage for future series. The company has secured significant seed funding, totaling $7.4 million as of August 2024, from investors including Kodansha USA, Groupe Delcourt, and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, which will be used to expand its content deals and enhance its digital marketplace.

Keywords: comic book publisher, creator-owned comics, digital collectibles, David Steinberger, Chip Mosher, comiXology, creator equity, digital marketplace, The Devil's Cut, physical comics, creator rights, secondary market, comic book investing, limited edition comics, Jock, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Tula Lotay, Becky Cloonan, creator royalties, publishing innovation, collectibles market, sequential art, graphic novels