Digital Comics

Since it was brought up in the podcast, I figured it can be elaborated on a bit more on a thread.

I have nothing against digital comics, I just wish they were in the DVD-Rom format.

When the 11 cd set of The Amazing Spider-Man issues was released, I got it for Christmas that year. I thought it was great because:

A: I couldnt afford the individual issues

B: They were complete scans from the cover to the last page. I happen to be a fan of the old ads
that used to appear in the older comics and now I have them on a disc so that I can see them
anytime. Not just the ads, but the letters pages as well as the Bullpen Bullitens. Those
never get reprinted.

Then the same company was able to streamline the technology and released collections of The X-Men, Fantastic Four, Captain America, Iron Man and the Avengers.

These things sold for only 40 dollars and had over 500 issues in them. I really don't care for the way Marvel is doing the digital comics now, and I wish they would go back to the company that made the dvd-roms. The company is called GIT Corp. and besides Marvel books they have also done Mad magazine, National Lampoon as well as an incredible Star Trek comic dvd-rom that has every Star Trek comic from the Gold Key series up to the Malibu stuff. The only Star Trek comics not included in the set are the one put out by IDW. Everything else is there and again the price on this is less then 40 dollars on Amazon.

That's my 2 cents on digital comics. If they sold collections on dvd-roms, I am for it. The way Marvel is doing it currently, I am against. I want to own the comics and I want them complete with the original letters pages and ads.

Crap. I meant to bring these things up last night. I agree that THIS is the way to go. One flat price and you get an entire library of books you can read any time. This is something I can get behind. The "problem" as I see i is moving forward to new comics being available exclusively in digital form. While it's a good thing for folks who don't have a comic shop handy, it could kill the direct market. Then again, those folks that DO have the LCS wil likely still go that route over digital, but that's just my estimation.

FUCK DIGITAL COMICS!

Now that I got that out of the way...I do see that digital comics can be useful and that there is a market for them, but I don't see it becoming the only way to get comics. You can't collect digital comics. The collector's market is what helps spark interest in comics. I know that comic companies don't make money off back issues but it's those back issues that gets some people interested in comics. When it comes to con's what are you going to do, get your laptop signed? Think of how empty a con floor would be with all the empty space that was once filled by dealers.

Ultimately I think digital comics will be around but I can't see it replacing print comics. It's almost like the argument of trades vs. monthlies.

I don't see Marvel going back to GIT in the foreseeable future, since the prices now are much higher (show me someone who can read ALL issues of ASM in one month, which cost some one digit number). They also don't have to use a third party to reach customers.

Basically, I think the way Marvel doing it is in the right direction (minus dumping the CD-Rom deal), although it has yet to reach its full potential.

I have no problem with digital comics existing, but I don't see them replacing floppies. If for some ungodly reasons digital does take over, then I'll stop reading comics. I like the option to be comfortable while I read, not forced to hunker down in front of a computer monitor.

I like the idea of being able to check out some really old issues that the everyman isn't able to afford the physical copy of (ie: ASM #1, etc.) but I don't think it will permanently replace the physical medium the way mp3s have to the record industry. CDs never had a resale value that increased over time, with the rare exception. As long as there's a collector market, it will never replace the direct market, much like TPBs haven't killed single-issue sales. Its just one more way to reach the market.