Ximo Turns Four Mobile Apps Into a Daily Comic Strip
The Appstrip by Ximo is a 2014 United States digital campaign created by Wing New York for Spanish illustrator Ximo Abadía, using four free Google Play apps arranged side by side on a mobile device to deliver a new comic strip to users' home screens every day via automatic update.
Launched in April 2014, the campaign set out to promote Abadía's graphic novels — most notably Clonk — by turning the mobile home screen itself into a serialised publishing platform. The mechanic was deliberately participatory: users downloaded four individual apps named, in sequence, "The," "Appstrip," "By," and "Ximo," placed them in the correct order, and enabled automatic updates on their Android devices. Each night the apps refreshed, and a new comic strip panel assembled itself across the four adjacent app icons, greeting the user the following morning. Beyond the daily strip, tapping any of the four apps opened a portfolio view where visitors could browse Abadía's wider body of work, purchase original pieces, and download daily strips as wallpapers.
The campaign operated exclusively in the United States market through the Google Play store, reaching Android users on the most widely distributed mobile ecosystem available at the time. The concept required no subscription, no paywall, and no recurring action from the user after the initial setup — the strip simply arrived, day after day, on the surface of the device most people look at before anything else in the morning. The Appstrip by Ximo earned a Clapboard Score of 72 out of 100, reflecting strong conceptual originality within a niche creative category.
Ximo Abadía is a Spanish illustrator and comedian whose professional identity centres on graphic storytelling rather than consumer product commerce. The strategic challenge for Wing New York was therefore precise: how to build a sustained audience relationship for an independent creative practitioner in the United States, without the distribution infrastructure of a traditional publishing house. The Appstrip answered that question by treating the mobile home screen not as an advertising surface but as an editorial one, embedding the comic strip directly into the daily rhythm of the device rather than competing for attention within a feed or a browser tab.
The timing was acutely relevant. In 2014, mobile advertising in the United States was expanding rapidly alongside surging app engagement. According to Press Opera, global mobile advertising revenue was projected to reach $31.5 billion in 2014, up approximately 75% from nearly $18 billion the prior year. Entertainment app installs grew 273% in 2014, according to data reported by techcrunch.com, signalling that audiences were actively seeking content experiences on their phones rather than passively tolerating them. The Appstrip by Ximo positioned Abadía's graphic work inside that enthusiasm rather than beside it, giving users a reason to download and arrange the apps that was inseparable from the content itself. The mechanism also functioned as a lightweight subscription model: once installed, the strip was self-renewing, creating a daily touchpoint with no marginal effort required from the audience. For an independent illustrator building an international following, that compounding daily presence represented a form of audience development unavailable through conventional print or social media channels alone.
The Appstrip by Ximo rests on a single, formally elegant idea: the four app icons, when placed in sequence across the Android home screen, together compose a comic strip panel that is refreshed each night and revealed each morning. The execution is not a notification, a push alert, or a sponsored post — it is the home screen itself, reorganised into a daily editorial object. Each of the four apps carries one word of the campaign title — "The," "Appstrip," "By," "Ximo" — so the act of arranging them correctly is simultaneously an act of assembly and comprehension, drawing the user into the work before they have tapped anything.
Ximo Abadía served as the illustrator, bringing his distinctive graphic-novel sensibility directly to the daily strips that populated the experience. The campaign was conceived and produced by Wing New York, with Favio Ucedo serving as Chief Creative Officer. Associate Creative Directors Facundo Paglia and Aurora Morfin shaped the concept alongside copywriters Marc Duran and Facundo Paglia and art directors Anthoni Rodriguez and Marc Duran. Producers Cheska Barneveld and Keyla Hernandez oversaw execution, with Lowekey Media serving as the production company. The soundtrack featured "All Along," written and performed by Ryan Hobler, whose work is documented at ryanhobler.com. The piece gave the campaign's promotional video an indie-press atmosphere consistent with Abadía's graphic-novel world rather than the register of a conventional app advertisement. The entire production was built around Google Play's native update architecture, using no proprietary technology — the innovation was entirely conceptual, embedded in how existing mobile infrastructure was repurposed for sequential visual storytelling.
The Appstrip by Ximo accumulated 3,096 views, 16 likes, and 1 comment in its archived record. No verified performance data regarding app download volume, daily active users, or conversion to graphic novel sales is publicly available for this campaign. No finalist placements or wins have been identified across Cannes Lions, the Effie Awards, The One Show, D&AD, the Clio Awards, the Webby Awards, or WARC for this work.
What the campaign's structure does make legible is its compounding logic. A user who downloaded and arranged all four apps became a daily reader of Abadía's work without any further action required, transforming a one-time installation into a persistent content relationship. In a United States mobile entertainment environment where, according to techcrunch.com, entertainment app installs grew 273% in 2014, the barrier-free Google Play distribution model aligned the campaign with real audience behaviour rather than aspirational media habits. The campaign's reliance on Google Play's existing automatic-update infrastructure also meant that the daily strip delivery carried no ongoing production cost beyond illustration — a meaningful consideration for an independent creative practitioner promoting graphic novels rather than a funded media property. The core proposition, that a home screen could be repurposed as a serialised comic-strip canvas, remains structurally sound as a model for independent artists seeking sustained digital presence in competitive entertainment markets.
The Appstrip by Ximo is a 2014 US digital campaign that used four free Google Play apps arranged side by side on an Android home screen to deliver a new comic strip every day. Users downloaded apps named "The," "Appstrip," "By," and "Ximo," enabled automatic updates, and received fresh comic panels each morning without any further action.
The Appstrip by Ximo was created by Wing New York for illustrator Ximo Abadía, with Favio Ucedo as Chief Creative Officer. Associate Creative Directors Facundo Paglia and Aurora Morfin led concept development, supported by art directors, copywriters, and producers from Wing, with Lowekey Media serving as the production company.
Ximo Abadía and Wing New York used four separate apps so that each icon, bearing one word of the campaign title, would compose a comic strip panel only when arranged in sequence. The format turned installation and arrangement into a participatory act, making the home screen itself a daily editorial surface rather than a conventional app destination.
The Appstrip by Ximo was created to promote Ximo Abadía's graphic novels, particularly Clonk. Beyond delivering daily comic strips, each of the four apps linked to Abadía's portfolio, offered his work for purchase, and allowed users to download daily strips as wallpapers, extending the campaign into a direct sales and discovery tool.
No verified award wins or finalist placements for The Appstrip by Ximo have been identified across Cannes Lions, the Effie Awards, The One Show, D&AD, the Clio Awards, the Webby Awards, or WARC. The campaign earned a Clapboard Score of 72 out of 100, reflecting strong conceptual originality within its digital entertainment category.
The Appstrip launched in April 2014, when US mobile entertainment consumption was accelerating sharply. According to techcrunch.com, entertainment app installs grew 273% in 2014, and global mobile advertising revenue was projected at $31.5 billion that year, per press.opera.com. The campaign's free, frictionless Google Play distribution placed it directly inside that growth curve.
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