That future is coming soon as Diamond Comic Distributors (DCD) – the world’s largest distributor of English-language comic books, graphic novels and related pop-culture merchandise – joins forces with iVerse Media – the pioneer of digital comics and creators of the popular ComicsPLUS reader – to empower 2,700+ brick and mortar comic shops to sell digital content.
Plans call for day-and-date digital editions to sell exclusively at comic shops for 30 days for about $1.99, with “Digital Plus” editions – digital copies available with the purchase of a hard copy – expected to sell for $.99.
Thanks to a simple but technologically robust code redemption system, retailers will need only an internet connection and a printer to participate. They will have no inventory risk or carrying costs and will retain a significant portion of each sale, with billing occurring on their regular DCD invoices. Retailers with websites will also be able to profitably sell a wide range of digital back issue comics and graphic novels.
Diamond Executive VP and COO Chuck Parker had this to say: “Digital comics are creating opportunities for publishers to grow the comic market. Our task, as we see it, has been to structure a program that empowers comic retailers to play a role in this growth and, at the same time, make money selling digital content. We think we’ve accomplished that with this initiative, and we look forward to feedback from retailers and publishers alike to help us succeed in this endeavor.”
iVerse CEO Michael Murphey added: “We are proud to be helping Diamond develop systems which will immediately enable comic shop retailers at any level of technical ability to easily sell digital comics. We are also very excited about the potential of this new venture to create many creative print-to-digital and digital-to-print promotional possibilities.”
Publishers already on-board with the program include: Ape Entertainment, Archie Comics, AspenComics, Bluewater Productions, Broadsword Comics, Hermes Press, IDW Publishing, Moonstone Comics, NBM Publishing, Papercutz, Red 5 Comics, Studio Foglio, Titan Books, TOKYOPOP, Top Cow Productions and Top Shelf Productions. Talks with other publishers are continuing, and the first comic shop digital editions are slated to debut in July, 2011.
“Direct Market retailers have always been IDW’s most important market and we’re very pleased to be working with Diamond and iVerse to include them in the digital distribution of our books,” said Ted Adams, CEO/Publisher IDW Publishing.
- Why would you go to a brick-and-mortar retailer to buy a digital alternative? – If you prefer the printed form of comics (and I certainly do), I fully get why you would still go to a store to get your product. But why would you travel to a store, only to purchase a digital copy you can get directly on your device of choice? Does anyone think that had Sam Goody or Tower Records offered MP3s on flash drives at their stores, it would’ve saved the record stores from obsolescence? Can you imagine driving to Borders or Barnes & Noble to download a copy of the book you want, instead of downloading it directly to your device?
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The myth of “day and date” as a differentiator – The “big” news of this announcement is that you can procure comics on “day and date” digitally instead of waiting. The argument goes that if you want to read comics from these publishers, you have to go into your LCS (local store) and pay for them, or else you have to wait. Unfortunately this is tantamount to ignoring the reality of the digital market. How many people, that want digital instead of printed comics, are going to go to a physical store to buy those copies, particularly when it’s far too easy to procure illegal scans of these very same comics on “day and date?”
- Fighting piracy – Following on the last point, the comic book industry seems to be sticking its head in the sand the same way the music and movie industries have done as it relates to digital piracy. A LOT of piracy is about convenience. Apple iTunes didn’t stop illegal music downloads, but it did create a conduit to stem the epidemic. It allowed for BILLIONS of dollars in music sales to stay in the proper hands. And it did that by MAKING LEGAL ACQUISITION OF THE CONTENT AS EASY, IF NOT EASIER THAN THE ILLEGAL METHODS. Does anyone think that making someone go to a comic store, buying rights to a digital copy, and then making them go back home to access that copy is EASIER than the illegal alternative?
- Pricing remains problematic – Per the press release, new releases will be available digitally for $1.99 OR you can buy a digital copy for $0.99 IF you also buy the print comic. SIGH. There are two problems with this model, as I see it. One, if you’re a regular customer at a comic store, you’re probably not paying cover price for your comics. Pull lists and subscriptions are standard fare (and if you’re not getting a discount, shame on you for not shopping around). I have received anywhere from 15%-30% off cover price depending on the store arrangement over the years. So, you’re asking someone to come into the store and choose between a $1.99 digital version or, since they’re already in the store, a $2.09 to $2.25 physical copy (15%-30% off $2.99 cover price). Two, why would you buy a digital copy for $0.99 ON TOP of the physical copy on the day of release? If it was so important that you get the comic the week it comes out, aren’t you going to read it immediately? Why then would you need a digital copy too?
- Adding more layers to the distribution model versus streamlining it – You don’t have to go very far to find someone that wants to complain about Diamond. The middleman takes a big chunk of the economics of each comic book sold, and many store owners find it infuriating that they have, quite literally, no alternative. So why then would the store owners want to look to that same middleman to help fight against digital? On top of that, this deal brings together Diamond AND iVerse, which means store owners now have to share their economics with not one, but two middlemen. The power of the internet and digital distribution is in streamlining the distribution model, not making it more complex.
- The publishers involved are the ones who have least benefitted from the direct market model – With perhaps the exception IDW – which became a Premier Publisher last year – the publishers in the press release are ones who, generally, have not been well supported by the direct market on the whole. There are absolutely stores (like Challengers or Bergen Street Comics or Isotope) that aggressively support comics from all publishers, but the industry as a whole? Take a look at the monthly sales, the monthly market share, or look around your local store and ask yourself how infrequently stores stock books from those publishers aggressively? So why are these publishers giving the direct market day and date exclusivity? It’s not hard to conceive of digital sales eclipsing direct market sales for all of those publishers in short order, so why complicate the model by making their digital issues only available through physical store channels for the first 30 days?
- The major publishers have little incentive to join this partnership – The press release suggests that talks with other publishers are continuing, and obviously Marvel and DC are front and center in the list of publishers yet to join. Given DC and Marvel’s long relationship with Diamond and the direct market, maybe I’m wrong in thinking they won’t join up. But logically I have to wonder why they would willingly sign on when they have the marketing muscle and resources to market their digital wares DIRECTLY? That’s a lot of economics they would need to give up to the middleman, for no discernible expansion of their addressable markets.
Jason is a mutant with the ability to squeeze 36 hours into every 24-hour day, which is why he was able to convince his wife he had time to join the iFanboy team on top of running his business, raising his three sons, and most importantly, co-hosting the 11 O'Clock Comics podcast with his buddies Vince B, Chris Neseman and David Price. If you are one of the twelve people on Earth who want to read about comics, the stock market and football in rapid fire succession, you can follow him on Twitter.
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As soon as I heard about this I tweeted: “Diamond Digital sounds like an oxymoron.”
Obviously, I agree. This entire model makes very little since. However:
RE: “Myth of Day-and-Date as a differentiator” – I would rather have digital than print at the same price and I will not pirate a comic, so I guess I’m in the (probably extreme) minority of people who would be willing to go to a shop to buy a day-and-date digital issue. I’d obviously prefer to buy from my desk, but I’d rather buy digital than buy print if I have to go to the same location. I sincerely doubt there are enough people like me out there for this to work.
It’s unfortunate that there are still services willing to cater to the retailers at the possibly/likely cost of the future of the industry.
@stuclach I’m with you on the pirating issue, but the numbers (just like with music) suggest that tens of thousands of people don’t have such moral issue with it. In comics sake, virtually every issue that gets released is ready by more pirates than those who pay. For the industry not to accept that as an issue they have to deal with, baffles me.
This is just the goofiest thing. I won’t go to my LCS for a digital copy. I like my LCS, Midtown Comics, but I don’t go to Blockbuster for DVD’s anymore (thanks netflix), or to Tower Records for music (thanks Amazon), either.
Diamond just blew a lot of money on this.
Heidi at The Beat spoke to Dave Bowen where he details the process. It’s as, if not more, ridiculous than I feared:
http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/02/10/exclusive-diamonds-dave-bowen-explains-how-they-will-sell-digital-comics-in-stores/
@wood His first two paragraphs are like brain teasers.
“Why would you go to a brick-and-mortar retailer to buy a digital alternative?”
Well, why would you go to a Target to buy an iTunes download? And yet Target sells iTunes gift cards, and doesn’t offer them only around Christmastime, either. Lots of convenience stores do too. Someone is clearly willing to buy music in that way. And given the way that Apple changed the game in a music biz that was scared s–tless by Napster, it’s only right that Diamond would want to imitate their model.
Plus, what is Diamond’s alternative? If they don’t offer a digital-purchase choice to brick-and-mortar retailers, then the natural progression of their business model is the death of the comic book store (maybe not now or anytime soon, but eventually). No one wants to see that, especially Diamond.
That’s not to say everything about this is good and/or smart – offering the book + digital for 0.99 extra seems crazy to me – but I think that your first complaint is without merit.
I’m sure, eventually, some day, in the future, digital will take the place of real comics. But it won’t happen until we collectors are all dead and buried.
Even then it won’t be 100% gone because you will always have people who prefer a physical object as opposed to a digital ‘copy’
You’ll always have collectors and you can’t collect digital ‘comics’.
Besides, I like my LCS. I’ve been going there for about 23 years now. Nothing can replace going to a LCS and talking to people about the news and comics everyone reads.
Yeah, I’m in the camp that if comics go 100% digital during my life then I simply walk away and re-read the thousands of comics I actually own. Real comics. Not digital ‘comics’
Yes, more digital comics done wrong! As I was reading, I was ticking off reasons in my head why this seemed to be a step in the wrong direction, but as I kept reading I saw that Jason had already made all of those points.
It seems like one of the concerns about offering digital content is that it will undercut the local comic shops which basically keep the industry afloat. This looks like an attempt to “solve” that problem by putting some of the profits in the hands of local comic shops while at the same time removing almost everything that’s appealing about digital comics. Oops.
Also, I keep hearing, mostly on this website, that comic readers are a dying breed. That needing to find and go into a local comic book store to even get into comics makes it hard to attract new customers. Digital is one way around this, unless you offer digital through the same comic shops you already were failing to get new customers to…
I want digital to succeed so badly, but I keep seeing it done so badly. Here’s hoping.
@mmyoung True about Gifcards, but those work on just about anything you want, Apps included. There doesn’t sound to be a whole lot of variety depending on what you choose to buy using Diamonds methods. It also sounds like there are two versions. A digital book for your computer, or an iVerse version. Not a ton of variety.
Especially since some books will seem to require you to go IN store just to buy them. That’s like iTunes requiring you to to Walmart to get the newest Arcade Fire download.
@mmyoung Your iTunes example is apples to oranges. Brick and mortar stores started selling those cards, AFTER iTunes became a huge threat to the sales of their physical copy. And while they do sell them, it’s only served to help offset a much larger decline in sales of the physical copies. But most importantly, you buy a Facebook bucks card or iTunes card to use HOWEVER YOU WANT IT. You don’t go into Target and buy an iTunes card for the latest Jay Z album specifically. Last but certainly not least, those cards are primarily sold as gifts, or as peripheral add ons to the purchase of the devices. Comic book stores don’t have that kind of traffic flow, most comic book store purchases are done for the person not as gifts.
@Zarathos81 I’m sure you are not alone. I too (as I said in the article) MUCH prefer hard copies. And I know many “collectors” like us would envision a scenario where we read the issues digitally and then buy the physical copy of the collected edition, for example. But the point here is that you go to your LCS to buy physical comics, not to buy digitial versions. You’re not the kind of customer they’re worried about losing.
@Wood – Has anything been confirmed/denied about the application of this model to something like DCBS (LCS with internet site), where they could offer the issues on their website? That way you could get some benefit of supporting the LCS, but not have to actually physically go to the store?
Praise Jesus, Wood, sing it! You are absolutely correct about the illogic of this plan, and the mind-boggling decision to loose it upon the comic book world knowing full well that it’s a bomb.
@kwoktalk This is for the PHYSICAL stores. If you read that link I posted from Heidi, the Diamond reps discusses the use of a printer, a physical display and Avery labels! (I kid you not).
I am one of these people who don’t want to read comics on another piece of equipment that I can’t afford yo buy or have to repair if it breaks. My love for comics has waned in the past few years and has led to me now only buying 2 books a month now, and to buy other things in collected editions. I am personally unhappy with comics nowadays, but enjoy keeping up to date by listening to podcast such as iFanboy and 11 O’clock comics, so either way this is just one of those things that’s leading me away from what I once trully enjoyed.
@Wood Absolutely. Piracy is prevalent and ignored, but shouldn’t be either.
If print comics are released day-and-date, they should include redemption codes for a free download of the issue, as many DVD’s are doing nowadays.
@iFanboy COME ON guys! If you want to actually talk about this thing and how maybe some thought has gone into it – we’re right here.
I’d love to hear Mr. Wood interview Mr. Murphey. Perhaps he can explain how he feels this is viable?
@lifesend Exactly. Instead you get the “privilege” of paying another $0.99 (or more) for the digital copy if you buy the print version. Mind boggling.
I guess they’re thinking of the $.99 version as like extras? Like bonus features on a DVD? I could see that as being a good place to stick back-matter that the companies use to fill out big anniversary issues and stuff, but then they would probably see that as less incentive to buy the print versions.
@stuclach Nice of Michael, but my piece was an op-ed. I have no doubt iVerse (and Diamond) have convinced themselves this idea makes sense. I simply disagree.
@Wood Fair enough.
digital comics have probably already missed their window to bring in a significant number of new readers. It is definitely the future for comics; however, since major publishers have made “baby steps” into the digital realm, there has not been significant media coverage to bring these digital books to the attention of large numbers of potential new readers–and there is already likely to never be such media to alert these potential customers now.
Instead of making a huge splash into the market–which would have certainly attracted significant media attention–the slow process got moderate attention at first and is now only news for established buyers/readers.
Digital is the future, yes, but unfortunately, i think a major window to bring in new readers is already passing the industry by.
@Jdudley Well, that window never closes. There’s no reason why new readers have to come on at the beginning of something. That’s a completist mentality.
I love the idea of hard copy + digital packaged together. When bands started releasing new albums on vinyl with a free digital download, I loved that too because you got something in its collectable and practical forms at the same time. But for me a perfect world would be where the price was worked in as one cost. I know it’s different for a lot of people but personally I don’t really care much whether my books stay at 2.99 or not. I’m not saying I’d love for every book to cost exactly $1 more and include digital, but it would be great if the market evened out in the future to where digital redemption was included with all hard copy issues at one cost. What I don’t want is to go to my LCS, pick up my issues, then have to pick and choose which ones I feel are worth spending and extra buck for in digital, which is what I would do…
@conor i agree that the window for readers to find digital books never really closes. The “major window” i was referring to was specifically the window for media coverage in the wake of a major digital push by publishers (ei-marvel/dc announcing a linewide digital release strategy–day and date or a few months later. Or a major, newsworthy splash into the digital realm)
Such a commitment into the digital realm WOULD have attracted a great deal of media attention 6 months or a year ago–I’m really not so sure it would now.
In that sense, i think the major publishers have missed a great opportunity to get their books into the hands of NEW readers
@Jdudley I respectfully disagree. I think the publishers, particularly the major ones, are feeling their way and once they feel they’ve got an optimal path, we’ll see massive resource poured into it. Remember Marvel had earmarked more than $10 million on digital initiatives alone last fiscal year. I would be shocked if they didn’t significantly raise their spending plans this year.
@Jdudley I still disagree for the reasons already stated. That media push can and will come at any time.
I agree with everything that @Wood said – good article. Here are my two cents.
Since I live over 1,000 miles away from any comic-shops that offer comics in English ( I live in Estonia and we have no comic shops at all), the emergence of digital comics always felt like a blessing to me. I can’t wait for the day when you can get every issue that comes out on paper digitally the same day. Even if the price was the same as the psysical copies, I would at least have an option to get issues istead of waiting for months ( or more) until a trade comes out. I could order issues from England, but the shipping cost and the long wait just doesn’t justify it.
Offering digital comics is a great thing for international customers like myself, but having to go to the shop to get them kinda defeats the whole purpose of “digital”.
Regarding iVerse’s offer, even if Wood can’t take this issue up with them, I’d really like to see someone from iFanboy have a meaty, intelligent discussion on the viability of this strategy. I might have to stop by my LCS on a day other than Wednesday to see what the shop owner thinks.
Way to expand readership by making digital comics available to anyone and everyone, and not just the people who are ALREADY BUYING COMICS.
I can understand the hesitation to cut retailers (LCS owners) out of the equation. They’ve been the major proponent of sales for decades, and it could be conceived as a big “F*** YOU!” to them if they were just dropped like yesterday’s news.
While it doesn’t make sense for the publishers financially, if they’re set on keeping the middle men, why not offer an iTunes-like hub for digital comics, with a subscription service offered by participating LCS’ to recieve a discount through that particular shop’s “digital store”? THEN readers could be offered a credit (as someone else mentioned) toward the collected edition.
That being said, it’s baffling that the one avenue that could most certainly help the market grow and GAIN READERSHIP is being stifled before it even really gets off the ground.
The only legitimate reason I can think of to buy a stub in person is if you are a cash only person. Sort of how kids buy Xbox Live points or WOW subscriptions because the do not have credit card access.
Reading the interview @wood linked to makes me think there is ONE good thing about it. Were I hearing about Morning Glories and WANTED to buy it and my LCS didn’t have it I could get a digital copy instead. So as a consolation prize it kind of works
The one plus side with digital is that there would no longer be such a thing as “first printing”, “second printing” and “sold out” so thats good. I guess if they had stations in the store where you could only download content….that would just be dressing up Direct Market in a new outfit and calling it a new thing. I just don’t see any logical reason to drive to a store and load something on a USB. That defeats the purpose.
when it says retailers need a printer to participate….are they trying to create a print on demand system in the shop? Because that would be really really bad for so many technical reasons.
@wallythegreenmonster no…they would print a code on a label and then affix the label to a sheet for the buyer. The buyer would then input said code into his device to pull up the digital comic. A true picture of simplicity, if there ever was one.
Princess Leia: The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.
Now replace Tarkin with Diamond and star systems with readers.
And I guess Princess Leia with Wood but that might be stretching the metaphore.
Some of this sounds like the idea of digital downloads coming along with the purchase of vinyl records. Those come at no additional cost to the list price.
@Wood I talked to one of the owners of the comic shop I have gone to since my childhood and the topic of Digital Comics came up and he asked whether or not they would survive the onslaught of Digitalization of Comics and I simply said to him people in there twenties like myself and the older group of comic book fans will always come into the shop for our comics. Digital Comics will never replace that feeling you get from holding a comic book and turning the pages with your hands and the excitment of finding out what happens next. 🙂
The reason I want day and date digital is because I CAN’T go to an LCS and buy these issues. This is much more like getting a digital copy with a Blu-ray when you go to Best Buy than it is like an iTunes download. This is a clear example of how the industry does not work. Digital should reach a larger audience, people who don’t go to an LCS. Diamond is a relic that has been slowing losing its audience for years. Imagine only being able to buy a paperback book from Borders. But, thankfully we don’t. If I want a digital book, I can download it to my kindle. They don’t make me go to a store to get my ebook. Hopefully this is a huge misstep that they learn from, but I doubt it. Personally, I buy every day and date DC and Marvel do. I just wish they would take the chance with main titles and include subscriptions. The apps still have a lot of growing to do, but plenty of people have been loving them. They just want NEW content, not 10 ear old Batman Beyond issues.
@Wood –well that makes sense….but still…you walk into a store on a wednesday get your pull list, hand over 20 or 30 bucks, and all you get is a really simple lottery ticket like thing in return? hmm i dunno.
Its like a digital solution with none of the convenience. Being able to buy comics anywhere any time of the day. If i could buy my pull list Wednesday morning when i’m in an airport traveling or at my desk at work instead of trying to find time to duck out during a busy day….thats what i’d want.
Plus no one seems to have made the point that the iverse engine is a piece of shit.
This just seems like the publishers are making all their decisions based around whats best for the LCS’ instead of whats best for the publisher and their fans. I get the need to stay loyal to the shops, but at some point loyalty begins to work against you. History shows that when you are preoccupied with whats happening in the rear view mirror you don’t move forward. Its not Marvel and DC’s responsibility to figure out how all these little independent shops will stay in business. The smart/good ones will survive. The rest will go away…as it should be.
Really, I’m not sure why the publishers are bending over like this. The shops are NEVER going to stop stocking Marvel and DC, and how many shops that are struggling right now are even STOCKING non-Marvel/DC in any significant quantity. MOVE FORWARD.
@gobo –true point. If the shop is like “WELL IN PROTEST WE WILL BOYCOTT MARVEL and DC!!” In retort, Marvel and DC say “Congratulations on going out of business!”
I think a lot of people are missing the point here. This is not intended to reach a new audience, nor is it intended to service people who want to switch to digital for the convenience. This is intended to sell comics to people who are already coming into comic shops. Sure those people would probably rather buy a hard copy, but since most stores dont stock a decent supply of small press comics, thats not really an option. plus while 1.99 isnt cheap, im more likely to try something new at that price point more than 2.99 (or 3.99 with IDW) This could get books in front of a faithful comic buying audience that wouldnt otherwise see them. I am at the comc shop every week. i browse there. i look for things there. I only go to itunes when i am looking for something specific, i buy it and leave. If my store doesnt stock a comic, i wont know to go look for it on itunes or wherever, but if there is something in a retail location (where i am already buying comics) that i can buy and take home, that would work for me. Retailers often wont try smaller books because of the risk, but this is really no risk to them. I still think this will fail, but mostly because i think retailers wont take advantage of this.
It would be great if it printed out a QR Code or something scannable by your phone’s camera so I don’t have to type anything in, I can just point my phone at it and BOOM, comic.
At least it’s another option.
I don’t see why people are particularly upset about this. It’s imperfect, sure, but it’s ANOTHER digital option.
I like the Einstein quote about how insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different option. But that quote could also apply to all the nice folks who still say that day-and-date and a $0.99 point are the ONLY way that digital is worthwhile.
It strikes me as so odd that many people who enjoy reading trades, or who often talk about having a backlog of comics that they’ve yet to get around to reading, would say they cared so much about date-and-date. You guys couldn’t be trying to kill the direct market quicker (before it dies a less problematic natural death) if you tried.
Just because something seems more “cutting edge” doesn’t mean that it’s the best option. Most people who download most things aren’t sitting there at their computers waiting for the new Gaga single to come on iTunes the second after midnight or whatever. Getting things as soon as they come out is a very “physical” phenomena. People wait outside of stores to get the new Harry Potter book. They don’t keep refreshing Amazon to download the newest ebook as soon as it finishes being upload by someone on the other end. There’s a reason why paperback books sell more than their hardcover versions: because most people don’t even find out about the existence of something they’d like to read (or listen to, or watch) until long after the work has been produced.
I also think the motto of “Digital Comics are the future” is rather limiting. There’s more to the future than digital anything. Equating “the future” with whatever sort of distracting entertainment we like is somewhat psychologically troubling. What will future anthropologists say of our species? “Oh, yeah, America was involved in various foreign wars, their financial system was crumbling. But oh look here on this message board at the same time, there was a contingency of people who acted as if their everyday lives were tied in any meaningful way to whether comic books would come out digitally that Wednesday or a few weeks later. They bickered about whether $0.99 or $1.99 was the ‘perfect’ price for a digital comic book, while at the same time the value and very integrity of the U.S. Dollar as the world’s reserve currency was being questioned by financiers across the globe.”
Besides that, in most ways, digital is already here. It’s not the future. Digital has been here for a while now. We’re not going to get MUCH more digital than we are now, not in the sum total of things. Digital’s changed a lot of our lives, but it hasn’t changed “everything”. And many smart people don’t want to turn themselves into borgs as much as possible. But more than that, digital comics are already here. They’re not the future. They’re here. And they’ve not changed things much at all. They’ve not attracted many new readers for the simple reason that there isn’t really much of an untapped audience out there. Most people who don’t read comics in physical form wouldn’t want to read them digitally either. And it’s not like these non-readers are unaware of comics’ existence. They see them all the time in bookstores, and they see comic book movies. But they don’t actually want to read them.
The most effect digial comics have had and WILL HAVE is on pre-existent readers who are particularly attracted to all things “cutting edge”. And that’s fine. But I think too much of this digital-centric OBSESSION has clouded a lot of otherwise smart critics’ ability to rationally understand what’s going on around them in the medium, what has changed, what won’t, what doesn’t matter, what does.
As far as the future of comics goes, financial and demographic trends are far more important than whether the newest Green Lantern hits the internet in a legal way on the same hour that it comes out in the thousand or so comic shops left in existence. Does anyone even remember what happened in Green Lantern number…oh…21? Or Iron Fist #19 from a few years ago? Issue by issue, comics have become so disposable anyway. Once a comic is out, it doesn’t matter whether it came out that Wednesday or not. Ultimate Spider-Man #1 has been available digitally and online FOREVER now, and has NOT attracted many outside readers. So what difference does it make whether Ultimate Spider-Man #179 isn’t available digitally date-and-date, or if it only becomes available a month later?
Josh says that he forgets what he reads a few days after reading it. I don’t blame him. Most comics internet people are the same way. And studies have shown that digital reading excellerates forgetting processes and leads to lack of retention and critical engagement with reading materials of all sorts. In such an environment (which is the inevitable environment for large segments of the population who go along with new trends NO MATTER WHAT, unquestioningly), what does any of this digitization day-and-day / pricepoint stuff even matter by comparison? If you forget what you read anyway, what do the circumstances of your reading matter?
If any single comics reader would simply hone his or her ability to read and think critically, and then to remember what he or she has thought about, that right there would produce more positive change for that person than an entire flood of digital comics would. People are very intent on wanting to download a deluge of digital comics as soon as possible for as cheaply as possible. But they already have stacks of comics that they haven’t read yet. And they’ve not trained their minds to remember much of what they read anyway. They just want to consume, it seems. This is the mass delusion of crowds, folks. I know I’m exaggerating a bit, but that’s what we’re trending towards.
As to why publishers are working so hard to keep the direct market alive, its pretty easy to see why. Many people dont realize (I didnt until recently) that despite a decade of mp3s and ipods, digital music sales are only about a third of the total music sales. Thats it. Despite everyone declaring the CD dead, its still beating the mp3 2 to 1. Check out any Walmart, Target, Best Buy etc. If CDs werent selling they wouldnt be in thse locations. those sales are dwidling to be sure, but its clearly not happening as fast as everyone seems to think it is. If those numbers were reflected in comics it would be disatrous. If comic shops lost 1/3 of their sales to digital, most of them would go under. that loss couldnt be made up in other product (one big reason why record shops are mostly a things of the past, those other stores can sell a variety of other products to make up for any loss in music). While you can argue that its survival of the fittest, If enough comic shops go under Diamond goes under, and then the direct market is dead. that means that 2/3 of comic sales are gone. Would the increase in people coming into comics through $.99 day and date comics (which most of teh pro digital people seems to think is the ideal situation) make up for that? Eventually its very possible, but not a certainty, and it may not be quick. If i proposed to you to lose 2/3 of your income over the next few months, but it would return soon (but i cant say exactly when) and then it would grow much bigger down the road (again i cant say exactly when), and I have no hard evidence to support this, only my own certainty. would you do it? Thinking about the future is important, but not you have to be careful not to sacrifice your present.
Like Apocalypse’s mantra, it’s survival of the fittest. Much like Tower Records and Sam Goody, comic shops have had a good run, but it’s time for them to ride of into the sunset. There’ll still be a place for a few of them, much like there are still a couple of record stores here and there. They’ve just got to adapt or die.
To DC, Marvel and other companies that sale digital comics: I’m not going to pay cover price for a three year old issue of a comic. I know good and damn well it doesn’t cost you nearly as much to produce said comic in a digital format. Why not pass some of those savings on to me instead of trying to dick me over. Have you learned nothing from the music industry?
Diamond has a virtual monopoly on comics distribution.
LCS have a virtual monopoly on monthly comic purchases.
Comic book stores are niche market. Propped up only by these monopolies.
In the future I expect there to be only as many of them as there are stained glass window stores or other such hand made crafts…or even welding supplies stores.
I’m pretty sure the point of the digital revolution was to get rid of distributors.
Creators with direct access to buyers and so forth.
This announcement seems counter-productive to that.
Having said that I will most likely avoid digital, since the entire art form of comics is based on the reader turning a page. Everything boils down to the physical object in your hand and having the pace and speed and amount of information controled by you physically turning the page. Good creators spin their craft by manipulating the page turning. Once things go digital page turning pages becomes archaic. Comics art form will need to evolve into something new and when they do I will probably be back for the new exciting medium that emerges, pageless, panel-less one that it may be.
@jokingofcourse I dont know what you’ve heard, but you still turn the page with digital comics. Just instead of turning you swipe. The exact same effect is achieved.
@conor may have missed my point.
there is no reason to have a steering wheel on the entirely computer controlled space shuttle…and having one is a bit silly.
keeping the art form created entirely for print and making an exact computer mimic of it is a bit sad…just get the book.
if you want a steering wheel fly a plane. if you want a spaceship push buttons.
all of this may be off topic of this post. so perhaps another day and another post.
@jokingofcourse — the point of the digital revolution was NOT to eliminate the distributor as you assert. Look at iTunes, Amazon….all of the apps out there to aggregate content. etc. Its more of a delivery tool and a new creative medium.
@wallythegreenmonster Thanks for the reply. I liked your use of caps.
My apologies. I must be a bad communicator as my points seem often missed.
You are correct.
Aggregators are the future.
However, history is, people created their own websites and content first, for people to see directly. Aggregators / big business came after.
Its TV guide.
No need for TV guide when there was only 3 channels.
Now with 600, there is a huge need.
Just because they are out there and dominant does not infer their a prioiri status.
“Point” perhaps should have been “possibility of”
Not too disimilar from the creator owned argument. more money in the hands of the creators.
Hopefully that was more clear, but i fear not.
posting is perhaps not my strong suit.
there’s no point me trying to say something witty and erudite in an attempt to open people’s eyes about how sterile and bleak this future will be, i’m only bothering to comment at all so that the historians will know some people at least were not suckered into meak obeisance with promises of Star Trek technology and soma.
… wow
Who knew wanting a product cheaper, more conveniently and in a way that could greatly benefit content creators would be meak obeisance.
Love me some soma though.
@gobo — +2 points for for vocab word of the day. =)
This is laughable. If the publishers don’t want to be in the digital comics business then allow individuals to setup virtual comic book stores to sell their product. Please don’t try and make a comic book store something that it is not. Unfortunately, the more desperate they fight against the inevitable the more their image and bottom line will suffer. Embrace and adapt.