This week, ComiXology, a digital comic startup, pulled 56 comic books from the App Store because they supposedly contain content that fails to meet Apple’s guidelines.
If you’re familiar with these comics, you’ll know they contain adult themes: sexuality (both heterosexual and homosexual), Satanism, and more. Some of the series that were removed include No Straight Lines, Chicken Soup for Satan, Angry Youth Comics, Black Kiss, and Omaha the Cat Dancer. What seems somewhat strange is that as of May 26, Apple still featured most of these titles in the iBookstore.
Chip Mosher, VP of Marketing and Public Relations for ComiXology, said that the company was advised that the books didn’t meet Apple’s content guidelines for the App Store, and were rejected for sale.
There was no other explanation given, particularly why those titles failed to meet the guidelines. The main problem is that there is a lot of vagueness when it comes to what media businesses can and cannot sell. Further, at this point, it’s uncertain whether Apple is being inconsistent or hypocritical, particularly since Apple is still selling those titles itself.
Don’t despair if you’re a fan of ComiXology: you can still purchase these books through the ComiXology website, with the added bonus for ComiXology being that the company gets to keep an additional 30 percent from the sale that Apple would normally take.
