JUNDO: a new frontier in Italian comics

Entering in the Italian publishing world is difficult, especially in the comics field, if you are a rookie. For this reason a young group of writers and artists decided to organize and create a new community “to break the barriers of the comics world”: this community is called JUNDO.

This platform aims to cut the intermediary between artists and readers, giving space to products of any genre, from horror to comedy, from sci-fi to fantasy and slice-of-life. Similar to the format of online publishing services such as the app MANGA PLUS by Shueisha, the works are divided into chapters published over regular intervals of time. Each week there is a new publication, which can be the first chapter of a new series or a new chapter of a series that started earlier!

Page of the series "Carnival Chaos"
from Google Play Store

Since its debut in December 2020 up to date, the JUNDO library features 15 works, with an interesting variety of art styles, narration styles and themes, and this is its strength, the richness of diversity of the contents. Another characteristic of JUNDO is the future possibility of buying a physical copy of the comic you read once its publication will be complete on the platform. The printing of the comics will be funded by the price of the monthly subscription of 1,99 euros, and the subscribers won’t pay the shipping expenses. The profit from the books minus the production costs will belong to the artists, following the spirit of allowing them to keep the rights of their own creations and earn as they deserve. What’s more, new artists can pitch their stories or propose themselves as cartoonists! The team picks the artists, pairing cartoonists and writers, and if you are not chosen you will receive feedback with their reasoning and what you can improve for the future.

Preview of the app
from Google Play Store

You can create a JUNDO account that will allow you to have one month of free trial to read anything you want, and if you are satisfied you can subscribe for 1,99 euros per month. JUNDO is available on its website as well as its mobile app for Android system and on iOS. JUNDO’s staff usually promotes the platform and its development progress on its instagram and facebook pages, where they publish previews of the soon to be published series as well.

Personally I am very happy about this initiative, it’s a new way for artists that struggle to enter the publishing world, and a new channel to express the creativity of whoever wants to tell a story.