Technologies

New Comics Publisher Wants to Help Readers Feel Closer to Creators

Commentary: Why I’m excited about the publisher, called Dstlry, and the impact it could have on the comics industry.

Two former Comixology heads unveiled a new creator-owned comics and collectibles publisher Thursday called Dstlry. David Steinberger, co-founder and former CEO of Comixology, and Chip Mosher, former Comixology head of content, hope the new publisher shifts the industry around creator-owned comics and collectibles.

Dstlry will offer a limited number of physical and digital items for sale online and in brick-and-mortar stores. Owners of digital items will then be able to sell their items in the Dstlry marketplace, and the original creators will get a percentage of what the item sells for.

Dstlry’s logo.

Dstlry

Steinberger and Mosher told me in an interview they hope Dstlry can help alleviate pains some creators have felt in the comics industry when it comes to compensation. While some comic characters and stories make millions of dollars as a result of films, some creators have felt left out in the cold.

Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting, for example, transformed Bucky Barnes into the Winter Soldier in 2005. However, Brubaker wrote in his newsletter in 2021 that he feels he and Epting haven’t been adequately compensated for their work given the character’s success in multiple Marvel Cinematic Universe films and shows.

«For the most part all Steve Epting and I have gotten for creating the Winter Soldier and his storyline is a ‘thanks’ here or there,» Brubaker wrote. «I’ve even seen higher-ups on the publishing side try to take credit for my work a few times, which was pretty galling.»

Steinberger and Mosher saw these issues and wanted to be part of the solution by making sure creators are treated well so they can produce their best work for readers.

«We looked at all these problems creators had and we tried to fix that,» Mosher said. «We knew if we fix stuff for creators across the board, on a lot of different levels, then we’d be delivering the best thing for the customers.»

Ed Brubaker (pictured) and Steve Epting brought Bucky Barnes back to life as the Winter Soldier in 2005.

Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images

«Without [creators] there’s nothing, and they don’t always get treated that way when their material that they create becomes $100 million movies or billion dollar movies,» Steinberger said. Dstlry is about «honoring their contribution … there’s a joy in trying to correct what is currently out there.»

Steinberger and Mosher also said they hope Dstlry will bring the fun of collecting print issues to the digital space. They said when new issues of a comic are released, digital copies of the comic will be sold online at dstlry.co for one week until the next issue comes out.

«However many digital copies get sold between Wednesday and Tuesday, that’s it, never any more again,» Mosher said.

But people will still be able to get their hands on digital issues through the Dstlry marketplace, and mass market digital trade collections will be available more broadly. Physical copies will be available in local comic shops, too. Some creators will also be given complimentary digital copies of comics they can give out to fans.

Steinberger and Mosher said they hope this will help readers feel closer to all the creators that are publishing through Dstlry.

The list of Dstlry founding creators includes well-known writers and artists like Eisner Award winners Scott Snyder, Becky Cloonan and James Tynion IV. Dstlry’s advisory board consists of film producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, video game industry veteran John Schappert and tech strategist Mike Vorhaus.

You can find the full list of Dstlry’s founding creators at the end of this story.

Comic creator Scott Snyder — Eisner Award winner Scott Snyder is one of the founding creators of Dstlry.

Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

«Artistic growth is spurred when its creators are nurtured and properly compensated for their achievements,» Bonaventura said in a news release. «This new system and its shared equity model will provide an invigorating environment which will foster great storytelling.»

And understanding how to build that kind of environment is something Steinberger and Mosher said they developed in their tenures at Comixology.

«Learning how to work with creators at a high level and do the best for them, which led to the best products, was one of the big things I learned,» Mosher said, referring to individual issues.

«You want to have empathy for [creators],» Steinberger said. «You want to understand what they need, and try to deliver that every time.»

More details about Dstlry’s plans will be revealed later this year.

Comic books in a display rack — Readers will still be able to get Dstlry comics at comic shops if they want physical copies.

Getty Images

How Dstlry could affect the comic industry

The type of commodities market Dstlry is launching has a few advantages over other commodities markets.

Namely, other commodities depreciate in value after they’re used. Sneakers, for example, depreciate in value the second you put them on your feet. Cars also depreciate in value by as much as 9% to 11% as soon as you drive one off the lot, according to financial counseling firm Ramsey Solutions.

Detective Comics #27 featuring Batman on the cover — A copy of Detective Comics No. 27 sold at auction in 2022 for $1.74 million.

Spencer Weiner/Getty Images

With Dstlry’s model, people should be able to read a digital comic as many times as they want, then sell that comic on Dstlry’s digital marketplace for the price they bought the comic for, or higher. Looking to physical comics as an example, Detective Comics No. 27, which introduced Batman in 1939, sold at auction in May 2022 for $1.74 million. Granted, that’s an extreme example that most new comics won’t replicate anytime soon. But Dstlry wants to create a system where creators still make money from the sale — and resale — of their comics at any time.

That also means if you get into a digital series a few months after it launches, you’ll likely have to pay a higher price for an early comic in that digital series. You’ll probably have to pay more for a physical copy of that comic, too, since those are also sold in limited quantities, but that’s also often true of traditional publishers.

Admittedly, this could create a predatory resale market. That could happen if people buy as many digital copies of a comic as they can, then once the comic goes out of print, they ask for an absurd amount of money for the digital comics on the Dstlry marketplace. However, this kind of speculation led to a comics industry crash in the ’90s. People who hope to get rich from the resale of these digital comics will have to invest wisely and understand that some of the largest payoffs come after years of waiting.

The resale of digital comics on Dstlry’s marketplace should have a benefit over physical copies of comics, though.

With physical copies of comics you need plastic covers and storage space to help keep comics secure and safe, and you’ll have to be vigilant about how they’re stored if you plan on selling them after a certain amount of time.

Digital copies of comics are limited only by the amount of space on your device. And if Dstlry offers cloud storage, people won’t even have to worry about that.

An e-reader displaying a book shelf — Maintaining and transporting your digital comics is easier than their physical counterparts.

Getty Images

Besides those advantages for readers, Dstlry’s benefits for creators seem obvious, and it addresses an issue some people in the sneaker community have pointed out.

Nike made over $46 billion in revenue in 2022. Footwear made up about two-thirds of that revenue, at $29 billion. The sneaker resale market alone was estimated to be worth about $10 billion in 2021, according to Axios. It isn’t known how much estimated value Nike sneakers have on the resale market, but you can see there are huge profits in the resale market that companies like Nike are cut out of.

With Dstlry’s model, each time a digital item is resold, a percentage of that sale goes back to the creators. That means creators will benefit from their work weeks, months or even years after their digital series ends. Though the percentage of an item’s resale value that creators will receive hasn’t been disclosed at this time, any percentage is better than none.

I’m not expecting Dstlry to fix issues in the comics industry overnight, or even by the end of the year. Systemic changes take time and a lot of buy-in from others, like creators and readers.

However, I believe creators should get the full benefit from their work. It’s ridiculous that someone can get rich off something a creator made while that creator gets little or nothing in return.

I’m hopeful for Dstlry, and I plan on supporting the publisher and its creators in the future.

For more on comics, check out the best comic to read if you’re sick of superheroes, Scott Snyder’s creator-owned comic Dark Spaces: Wildfire and a graphic novel that imagines what it would look like if Jan. 6 succeeded.

Here’s the full list of Dstlry’s founding creators:

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Jan. 25 #959

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Jan. 25, No. 959

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Really, New York Times? The paper noted for being rather sedate actually put the words SUB and DOM next to each other in today’s NYT Connections puzzle. Of course, they didn’t mean what they could have meant, and they did not end up in the same category, but still. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Like an understudy.

Green group hint: Delete is another one.

Blue group hint: Like penne.

Purple group hint: At the end of words.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Act as a backup.

Green group: PC keyboard keys.

Blue group: Pasta shapes.

Purple group: Suffixes.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is act as a backup. The four answers are cover, fill in, sub and temp.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is PC keyboard keys. The four answers are alt, enter, menu and windows.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is pasta shapes. The four answers are bowtie, ribbon, shell and tube.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is suffixes. The four answers are ate, dom, hood and ship.

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Jan. 25 #693

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Jan. 25, No. 693.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle was a bit tricky at first, although the answers are fairly short and simple. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: The straight and narrow

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Not curved.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

KITE, KITES, CITE, CITES, LONG, NOTE, NOTES, PATE, PALE, BATE, SPOT, POTS, LION, LIONS, STEAK

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

CANE, POLE, POST, BATON, DOWEL, STAKE, PICKET

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is STICKYSITUATION. To find it, start with the S that’s the bottom letter in the far-left row, and wind straight up, one over and then straight down.

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Technologies

Every iPhone 17E Rumor and Leak That I Found: Dynamic Island, MagSafe and More

Apple’s reportedly releasing a lower-priced iPhone 17, and it might offer notable improvements over last year’s iPhone 16E.

Key Takeaways:

Features: Apple might include MagSafe on the iPhone 17E.
Release date: Possibly as soon as February.
Price: There have been no leaks about price increases, which is good news at this point.
Design: Could get the Dynamic Island and look more like an iPhone 15.

Apple might be continuing its lower-cost iPhone line, with an iPhone 17E reportedly releasing early this year. If that’s true, the sequel to last year’s iPhone 16E has a lot of room to step up.

Some rumors point to improvements borrowed from Apple’s iPhone 15, such as Dynamic Island and MagSafe. If these are true, it could make the lower-cost iPhone 17E a compelling value option with fewer trade-offs needed to hit a lower price.

Apple’s $599 iPhone 16E was a bit of an oddity when it was released last year. It replaced Apple’s $429 iPhone SE, effectively retiring the older iPhone SE design that included a home button with Touch ID. Apple’s new «budget» device was a pricier amalgamation, featuring the body of an iPhone 14 with a display notch. It also had the USB-C port from the iPhone 15 and the A18 processor from the iPhone 16 to support Apple Intelligence features.

To save money, Apple scaled back on features by including only a single 48-megapixel main camera and omitting Apple’s MagSafe clip-on capability (though it kept standard wireless charging). While the iPhone 16E is a solid starter iPhone, I found these omissions to be confusing, especially given that Apple increased the price of this entry-level iPhone from $429 to $599.

An iPhone 17E could follow a playbook closer to Samsung’s Galaxy S25 FE. It would have many of the same features as the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17, like the smaller screen notch and an A19 processor, along with smaller stepbacks to the hardware that might be less noticeable.

Apple hasn’t confirmed whether an iPhone 17E exists yet, but we’re keeping an eye out. Here are the rumors we’ve heard so far, with features that could help or hinder the more budget-friendly iPhone 17E.

iPhone 17E release date: February 2026

The iPhone 17E could be announced as early as February, according to a Mashable report citing the Digital Chat Station Weibo account. The phone is said to be launching in the first half of the year. This would align with the iPhone 16E’s February 2025 announcement, establishing winter as Apple’s preferred launch window for cheaper iPhone models.

There are even rumors suggesting the base iPhone 18 will launch in the first half of 2027, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.

iPhone 17E design: Gets a Dynamic Island

One aspect that made the iPhone 16E stand out was Apple’s new design, which featured the iPhone 14’s body, a USB-C port and a single camera.

The iPhone 17E, however, will allegedly look more like 2023’s iPhone 15, with a smaller Dynamic Island cutout, according to the same Digital Chat Station Weibo post. The iPhone 17E is rumored to have a 6.1-inch display with a cutout, including dynamically sized notifications for timers and app alerts, such as Uber pickups.

This design is corroborated by the Smart Pikachu Weibo account, which also notes that the iPhone 17E will have a 60Hz refresh rate screen rather than the 120Hz one seen across the iPhone 17 line and the iPhone Air. It’d be nice to see a 17E with a 120Hz display, dubbed ProMotion by Apple. But this is one area that could be less noticeable to people coming from a former iPhone SE or an older base model like the iPhone 14.

While Apple’s ProMotion displays have been available on Pro models for years — as well as on almost every Android phone that costs $300 and more — the smoother animations and always-on displays it provides won’t be as noticeable when switching from a phone that never had them.

iPhone 17E features: MagSafe wireless charging

It baffled me that Apple didn’t include MagSafe with last year’s iPhone 16E. The feature, which allows for sticking magnetic accessories like chargers and wallets without a case, has been on most iPhone models since 2020. It felt like a strange omission, since Apple contributed MagSafe’s charging and magnetic profiles to the Qi2 standard, both of which are on Google’s Pixel 10 phones, HMD’s Skyline, and the upcoming Clicks Communicator.

The iPhone 17E is rumored to have a glass back that supports magnetic wireless charging — likely meaning the phone would gain the ability to magnetically attach to MagSafe and Qi2 accessories, according to a report in The Information spotted by 9to5Mac. This would be a major improvement for someone coming to this phone from an iPhone SE or the iPhone 11, both of which do support Qi wireless charging but do not include magnets for attaching accessories and cases.

While we would need more details, hopefully the inclusion of MagSafe also means the iPhone 17E’s wireless charging speed would increase to at least 15 watts, matching the iPhone 15.

iPhone 17E pricing

We’ll keep updating this story as more iPhone 17E rumors arrive. While there isn’t much regarding the pricing of the rumored phone, last year’s iPhone 16E starts at $599 for a 128GB model. I’m hoping the iPhone 17E starts at 256GB of storage, like the base iPhone 17. Apple still sells both the 16E and the iPhone 16 at 128GB, with the latter starting at $699.