Mobile content and technology company, HWW Limited (ASX: HWW) and local mobile content development company Loop Wireless have launched what they claim is the world's first purpose built mobile comics site.

The comics site, called Kraash!, has been released on Optus Zoo and hosts a range of comics spanning genre and design styles, from an international team of artists under the banner of Loop Wireless, all designed specifically for mobile.

Kraash! is claimed to be the first purpose-built mobile comics site in the world and will launch on the Optus mobile portal Optus Zoo and StarHub in Singapore later this month. Comic lovers can subscribe to all six titles including:

-          Chicks with Guns, the adventures of buxom crime fighter Barbra Gun;

-          Flat, geek filled misadventures;

-          Suits, designed for the corporate world where scruples are left at the front door;

-          PFB, about an alien that looks like a pink fluffy bunny who’s out to steal your brain;

-          The Supe, about a wannabe super hero, who isn’t, and

-          Ciphamor, set in an alien world where two heroes have to fight against ancient traditions to find their true destiny.

The comics were created and written with an edgy, irreverent, politically incorrect and black sense of humour, aimed at a youth audience.

Subscribers to the services will be able to access the Kraash! series via their carrier portals on their handset.

Loop Wireless CEO and co-founder Gavin Bullen says, “Kraash! came about when we saw the number of independent comic titles that never really saw the light of day.  The market’s growing obsession with 2.5G & 3G mobile phones, gave us the opportunity to deliver this exciting content straight to a huge group of mobile users.”

HWW provided all the technical development work for each of the carriers’ sites, content ingestion, subscription management and content scheduling. “Using our experience gained from developing successful mobile content services such as yourMovies and yourTV, we were able to introduce Loop to the carrier and participated in joint presentations,” says HWW’s head of mobile, Jennifer Wilson.

Loop is also finalising negotiations to launch the Kraash! channel in the USA and continues to attract new titles to the Kraash! catalogue. Many of Kraash!’s contributors have worked on major comic brands including Marvel and DC Comics.

Kraash! comics’ contributors are a group of local and international artists including Australian Andie Tong who is now based in London.

The Australian developed comic strips were specially created for mobile. This means that the story lines were carefully developed with a cliff hanger at the end. Subscription costs a maximum $4.00 per month and each title is updated every week.

A strip has on average 9 frames, and each frame is hand drawn by graphic artists and illustrators. The strips have to be resized to meet the differing requirements of each handset so it was important to develop specifically for the mobile environment, by using cropped images, strong colours and easy-to-read fonts to suit the small and multiple screen sizes of the mobile phone. Currently the comic strips appear still, although there are plans for animation in the near future.

Kraash! has also just launched on Telstra’s new i-mode service.