Bongo Shutters Simpsons Comics App

Bongo Comics announced in an e-mail that its Simpsons Store app, which enabled consumers to purchase Simpsons comic books digitally, will be shut down on April 30:

To our dedicated fans:

We regret to announce that, after more than a decade, the Simpsons Store app has come to an end across all platforms and devices.

We are no longer accepting any new purchases or downloads, but the app will still be available for use in its current state (which may include technical difficulties) until April 30, 2024, at which point the app, all in-app comics, and all other app-related content will no longer be available for use. Please enjoy the app until the servers shut down on April 30, 2024.

Thank you for supporting the Simpsons Store.

Its companion app, Futuramaland, will be shutting down on April 12.

Bongo previously sold its titles digitally on ComiXology before announcing it would be moving to its own proprietary service in 2015. Amazon killed off ComiXology’s standalone app late last year.

The news is the latest blow for Simpsons creator Matt Groening’s publishing ventures. Groening, who owns the show’s publishing rights, launched Bongo Comics Group in 1993 with four Simpsons titles. Its flagship series, Simpsons Comics, ran for 25 years and 245 issues before being discontinued in 2018, when the company ceased publishing monthly titles (it remains unclear if this had anything to do with Disney’s aquisition of 21st Century Fox). The following year, Groening debuted a new company, Bapper Books, which was to publish comics based on his Netflix series Disenchantment as a digital-first series. That ended up not happening, and the comics were not released until late 2023 by Titan Comics, shortly after the show had ended. Currently, old Bongo material continues to be republished in book form, with the third volume collecting the Treehouse of Horror series set to be released by Abrams Books in August.

The news is also an unwelcome reminder that you do not own the digital content you purchase.

In a highly unexpected move, The Simpsons is ending… its business relationship with comiXology.

Bongo Comics Group, the publisher of Simpsons Comics, quietly took all their stuff off comiXology, the leading digital comics retailer owned by Amazon. Nobody seems to know what led to this decision, and both sides are remaining tight-lipped about it. Here’s what they told Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter:

Chip Mosher of comiXology told CR, simply, “Bongo is no longer available on comiXology.” Susan Grode a partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, speaking on behalf of Bongo, said, “Thank you for your email. My client has no response regarding Comixology. Bongo has created the Simpsons Store app for its comics and trade books on iTunes, to be released shortly.”

It’s hard to say what’s a stupider name, comiXology or Simpsons Store.

Spurgeon says he was also told users who previously bought Bongo comics on comiXology will still be able to read their books, because that’s apparently a thing you have to worry about in the digital marketplace.

Bongo making their own app is a bold move for a company that didn’t even have a website until 2010. Grode’s terse statement does raise some concerns, though: she only mentions iTunes, with no mention of whether Simpsons Store will be available on Android, Windows Phone, or the web, like comiXology is. Also, calling it Simpsons Store (ok, maybe it’s a placeholder name?) leaves the digital fates of Bongo’s non-Simpsons output, like Futurama Comics and SpongeBob Comics, unclear. Because, come on, buying a SpongeBob comic from a Simpsons app would just be madness.

Ideally, the service would be under the Bongo name, and I’d love to see them digitally re-release stuff from their defunct Zongo Comics imprint, the underappreciated Heroes Anonymous, and maybe some uncollected Life in Hell stuff.

[The Comics Reporter]