hoopla

After Acclaim filed for bankruptcy in 2004, the fate of Valiant's comic library was a mystery. Just one year later, the rights were snapped up by an investment group with the intent to revamp and revitalize Valiant's properties. It took some time, but in 2012, Valiant Entertainment emerged with familiar faces ready to take the publisher into the future. Now, just three years later, Valiant is home to a host of critically acclaimed series, and soon you'll be able to read almost all of them with nothing more than a library card. Hoopla has already locked down deals with publishers like DC, Dark Horse and Image, but starting today, it will also count Valiant among the members of its comic book collection. As a partner of the public library system, the app allows anyone with a library card at a participating location to access thousands of comics, as well as movies, books and music. With the addition of Valiant, series like Archer & Armstrong, Bloodshot and X-O Manowar will be available digitally, giving Hoopla nearly as diverse a line-up as any of the the paid comic reading apps available on the market.

The Dark Horse Comics catalog is an incredibly extensive and diverse collection of books ranging from sci-fi to horror and manga to fantasy and everything between. Since it was founded in 1986, Dark Horse has been home to the likes of Hellboy, Aliens, Sin City, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Astro Boy, Blacksad, and a host of other fan-favorite characters and franchises. Now all those stories can be found at your public library thanks to a new deal with Hoopla, which will see 125 different Dark Horse trades and collections added to its catalog this week, with 900 planned by the end of the year. If you don’t know, Hoopla is a digital/streaming service that’s partnered with thousands of public libraries across the US to offer library members access to music, movies, books and comics through your mobile device. A month ago, Hoopla added Image Comics to its service, which already included DC and Vertigo, as well as IDW Publishing and Boom Studios offerings. Adding Dark Horse now means there will be close to 4000 comics alone within the app for you to borrow from the digital library.

Your local library is about to get an injection of Image Comics thanks to a new deal with Hoopla digital. Available through more than 4000 libraries in the United States and Canada, Hoopla offers a digital collection of movies, books, audio books, music and comics that bolsters your public library without the worry of being out of stock and the burden of late fees. We spent some time with the app this past week in advance of the new deal with Image Comics, and spoke with founder and owner of Hoopla digital, Jeff Jankowski, about the service and it's future as a place to find comics with ease.