Q&A With Bill Amend, Creator Of FoxTrot (And Certified Geek)

As we noted yesterday, cartoonist Bill Amend has released three sets of his popular Foxtrot comic strips as $1.99 downloads. This move, prompted by the creation of Apple's iBooks Author software and, more important, the rise of the self-publisher, is probably one of the first times I've seen a "traditional" comic strip enter the e-book realm in this way. I wanted to find out what Bill Amend was thinking. Luckily, he played along. TC: What made you try this? How did this compare to the "traditional" book release system? Amend: The first time I played around with an iPad on launch day all I could think about was how awesome it would be to somehow get my comics on this thing. Unfortunately, the comic strip eBooks I'd seen all tended to be a little clunky for my tastes, so I assumed I'd need to build a custom reader app, which proved too big a task for me. And then iBooks Author came out and changed everything. You have no idea how much fun it was to make these things. I love working with the people at Andrews McMeel on my print books, but the finished product always feels like their creation more than mine. These iBooks are all my doing and it's a great feeling.

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