On Sunday evening, Marvel Comics and the ComiXology digital comics service surprised the Internet with an offer to download over 700 free digital comics from the publisher, all of which were number #1 issues. Neither Marvel nor ComiXology were apparently prepared for the amount of interest in downloading all those free issues. The result was that the ComiXology website and its many apps, including one for Microsoft"s Windows 8, suffered outages from the influx of traffic. The apps and the site have been slow to totally inaccessible since Sunday evening. Today, ComiXology is now puling the plug, at least for now, on the free comic book offer.
While the free comic book event was supposed to last until late in the day on Tuesday, a post on the ComiXology blog by its CEO David Steinberger simply states:
We’re still struggling to keep our systems up. The result is that you aren’t getting your comics when and where you want. We don’t like letting you down. Our teams are working around the clock to resolve these issues so that you can have the experience you’ve come to expect.
While the free comic book offer has been suspended, Steinberger does say that it will return, adding, "We’ll be communicating with you as often as we can and deeply appreciate the outpouring of support we’ve seen from our customers while we right the ship."
Source: ComiXology | Image via Marvel