The Carrier, an original graphic novel written by Evan Young and drawn by Luiz "Lula" Borges and Will Walber, is a graphic novel iPhone and iPad application developed by brothers Evan and Geoffrey Young of StopWatch Media.
The release of The Carrier as an iPhone graphic novel marked the first time that a complete creator-owned graphic novel was published exclusively in a digital format for that device. And now, with the iPad version available from Day One in the App Store, the first steps toward the future of mobile, digital comic book media have been taken.
Comics can be contained in a native mobile application, published in digital format first, unavailable in print, and supported by today's cutting-edge technology. Gone is the comic book direct market and industry sales model that has created an insurmountable barrier to entry for independent creators. Here now is an entirely new model, tapping into an enormous and growing mobile phone and tablet market, with none of the old guard distribution and retail barriers to getting your work out there and into the hands of your audience.
As a graphic novel, The Carrier is a globe-spanning action & espionage story about a man who has a briefcase attached to his wrist, but he doesn't know how it got there or what is inside it.
If you choose to experience the iPhone app, The Carrier is a multimedia experience that unfolds in real time over the course of ten days. Simply put, if something happens at 3:21 a.m. in the comic, you read it at 3:21 a.m. in real life. Additionally, The Carrier iPhone app also includes a ton of extras that are delivered through email, or by using geo-location services, or through Push notifications – all of which tap into the iPhone's innate and innovative new technological capabilities.
If you prefer the iPad version, purchasing the iPad comic will get you the entire story in an full-screen, optimized, page-by-page format. The Carrier on the iPad is a complete graphic novel as well, 122 pages in all.
For more information, feel free to visit The Carrier's iPhone app download page for instructions on downloading and installing, read our announcements in The Carrier's press release page, or follow The Carrier on Twitter.
If you have already installed The Carrier on your iPhone and have begun enjoying the experience, visit The Carrier's extras page to see what you may have missed... or what you have in store.