"It opens up a market that wouldn't necessarily be seen as a traditional comic market," Demory said of the launch last month.
Several companies are experimenting with putting printed material on mobile phones, including publisher HarperCollins, which disclosed this summer it would begin putting excerpts of new books on Apple Inc.'s iPhones.
Mobile comic books are still in their infancy in the United States - uClick says it's grown to about 55,000 readers a month in the first year of offering its GoComics service.
But it touches on two strengthening trends: Comic book creators looking to leap to the digital arena, where production and distribution are cheap, and the demand by wireless providers for data-rich applications to drive revenue.
"Obviously comics have a pretty large following," said David Oberholzer, associate director of content programming for Verizon Wireless, which offers GoComics along with competitors AT&T Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. "You want to mimic what's out there already and have that on your deck."
For $4.49 a month on Verizon, or $3.99 a month for AT&T and Sprint, subscribers can view nearly a dozen different traditional comic books. There's also a separate subscription service for Japanese comics called manga.
The comic books range from well-known names like "Bone" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," to up-and-coming books, such as crime genre "Umbra" and Hindu folklore-inspired "Devi." The comics site adds new chapters or issues for each title every week.
Jeff Webber, vice president of product development for uClick, the digital arm of newspaper feature distributor Universal Press Syndicate, declined to provide revenue figures, saying some of the 55,000 monthly readers include people using free trials.
But he said the company, which already lets people view comic strips on their wireless devices, is pleased with the comic book feature's growth and may allow users this fall not only to subscribe but buy whole issues over the phone.
Mobile comics have been a cellular mainstay for years in manga-crazy Japan, where some titles already begin life on cellphones before going to print.
Stu Levy, chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based TokyoPop, one of the leading US publishers of manga, said the domestic market is still way behind Japan. But he said he could see comics regularly being released in the United States on mobile phones before coming out in print in the next few years.
The GoComics reader displays each comic book a panel at a time, with larger typeface in word balloons.
