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  • THURSDAY JUNE 2 2011 9:05 PM

Things I Like That You Might Like Too: DC Comics Going Digital

Submitted by SG_Blog

Edited by nicole_powers

Tags: Blog, Books, Comics, Entertainment, Geek, Internuts, Music, TV

by Aaron Colter

There's been a collective pants shitting in the comic book industry this week as DC Comics announced that they would relaunch nearly every series this September as a #1 issue, making the content available for download on the same day as print versions hit stores.

Shop owners are crying the death of the industry, and other publishers are trying to play catch-up. Meanwhile, DC Comics is taking a huge gamble on its latest venture. It's no secret that the company has been playing second-fiddle to Marvel Comics, now backed by the giant Disney corporation, and cleaned house to make room for new executives from a more traditional background that owners Warner Bros. found necessary.

As harsh as it may sound, DC Comics can't be supported by serialized issues that are sold to only a few hundred thousand costumers, at best, every month. The real money made by Batman, Superman, and all the other beloved characters, is in stupid shit, like T-shirts, movies, action figures, cartoons, and anything else you can slap a logo on to make it appeal to children and nerds.



I grew up going to Mile High Comics, and if it weren't for a local shop like it, I probably wouldn't be the fanboy I am today. I feel bad for any comic store going through rough times, but digital comics should not be the scapegoat. If anything, store owners should be mad that they've been pushed poorly executed, multi-title crossovers and bloated sales figures for the last twenty years with a non-return market dominated by the distribution monopoly called Diamond.

I think DC Comics is smart to put the ongoing stories of characters that act as international property cash cows out to the people in a format that is as easy as possible to consume. Look at iTunes; anyone can find an illegal download of just about any song they want, but Apple makes shopping so simple that's it's worth $0.99 just to save the time to get what you want instantly.

And the beauty about the comic industry now is the same as the music industry ten years ago - you don't have to give a fuck if all you're concerned about is good entertainment.



Batman is rad, but honestly, I haven't picked up an issue of a recent Batman series in years, even though my favorite comic writer Grant Morrison is at the helm of the story. Know why? I don't give a shit about new Batman stories in the same way I don't give a shit about new Rolling Stones records.

Artist create. It doesn't matter what format or distribution system, it doesn't matter how much money is involved or who's label is on the final product. Personally, I like reading comics in a physical format. I'm on a goddamn computer all day, so I like to relax with something tangible. Also, I prefer graphic novels over individual issues. At the moment, the only ongoing book I know I'll pick up each month is Hellboy: The Fury, and that's because Mike Mignola is one of the best creators in the history of the medium.



Still, there's something to be said browsing the racks at a local comic shop and finding a gem, in the same way I love wondering around old books stores or record stores. The awesome locations, the amazing artists, they're not going anywhere, not if you support them. Floating World, Bergen Street, Desert Island, Isotope, Tate's - these places have learned to adapt to a changing clientele, and powerhouses like Newbury have combined other aspects of pop-culture into their store to level sales.

Solutions like BandCamp for musicians and TopatoCo for cartoonists will arise when more traditional means fail, and until we all become particle robots connected by a hive-mind network, there will still be places for us to interact with one another and enjoy the things we love.

Now get off the fucking Internet and read a book in the sunshine.

***

If you have something you like that you think I might like too, please email me: youmightlike [at] gmail [dot] com



What I'm reading: The New York Five, SuperF*ckers, Sky Doll: Space Ship

What I'm listening to: The Blueprint by Jay-Z, Sea Change by Beck, Let It Bleed by The Rolling Stones

What I'm drinking: Fred, Grand Cru Abbey, Hop Stoopid

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Comments
lalomartins

lalomartins

Germany
May 2011

JUN 04, 2011 02:55 AM

+1.

However, I think the prices they're asking for are insane, bordering on the wilfully criminal.

I understand charging the same as the paper version for the same-day release. That's an appeasement measure to provide some incentive for people to keep going to the shop. It's kind of shooting their own foot, but might be necessary.

But then after 4 weeks the price drops... by one dollar. WTF? With no printing or shipping costs or retailer's cut, why can you possibly need to charge $1.99 for a file? A file containing one, usually continued, story? Have you seen the economy recently?

My take is that, unless they figure out their pricing, this initiative is doomed to failure. They can charge these absurd values and sell about 10k copies a month (that's total, not per title), or they can charge something like 30 to 50 cents and sell tens of millions and revitalize the industry.

RudieCantFail

RudieCantFail

I'm lost
January 2006

JUN 04, 2011 04:46 AM

SG_Blog said:
If anything, store owners should be mad that they've been pushed poorly executed, multi-title crossovers...the last twenty years...



This was one of the big reasons I stopped buying comics back in the late 90s. At $2.50 and upwards per comic, I couldn't afford to buy issues of titles that I otherwise didn't care about, just so I could keep up on the story of the one or two lines that I did enjoy.

I think a 100%, start-from-the-beginning reboot of their longstanding lines is a good idea as well. The first comic I ever bought was the rebooted X-Men #1:
zoom image
Of course, this wasn't a real reboot. It just continued stories and character interactions that had been going on since the 60s. I'm the kind of person who likes to start a story at the beginning, not halfway through with hardly any idea of who the characters are, or why they are acting towards one-another the way that they are. Of course the issues containing the real start of the X-Men story were hundreds of thousands of dollars, so not possible to go back and read the story from the beginning.

I quickly lost interest in the X-Men, but I loved Jim Lee's artwork, so when he started Wild C.A.T.s at Image, I picked up those comics because not only did they have an artist whose work I liked, but I could start the story from the beginning. I also started reading Gen13 (J. Scott Campbell is my all-time favorite artist), and Backlash (Brett Booth is almost as awesome as Campbell). But, what killed it for me was when Image would do their Wildstorm crossovers, and I had to buy a bunch of issues of their other comic lines that I didn't give a shit about, just to keep up with the three that I did. When Lee stopped drawing Wild C.A.T.s, Campbell stopped Gen13, and Booth stopped Backlash all around the same time, I just said "Fuck it." The stories were just too mediocre to hold my interest without my favorite artists. I haven't bought any comics since.

It wouldn't be a bad idea if comic book companies put up downloadable copies for sale of their old issues (like the really old ones). So that people who wanted to read an old story line, or view the work of an artist that they really liked from back in the day, could see some of those classic issues.

lalomartins

lalomartins

Germany
May 2011

JUN 04, 2011 06:08 AM

RudieCantFail said:
It wouldn't be a bad idea if comic book companies put up downloadable copies for sale of their old issues (like the really old ones). So that people who wanted to read an old story line, or view the work of an artist that they really liked from back in the day, could see some of those classic issues.



You realise they do, right? Not all old issues yet, but there's a lot already there. Both Marvel and DC.

malkav11

malkav11

Saint Paul, MN
July 2003

JUN 04, 2011 12:09 PM

I'm finding tablets work really well for electronic comics, personally. I have a 10.1" Viewsonic gTablet (Android-based) and it's pretty much like holding a graphic novel in my hands except there's room for entire runs of multiple comic series on the internal storage alone. It's pretty much doing for comics what my Kindle did for books. (Although, should they develop faster refresh, color-capable e-ink or similar technology, I'd probably just use a putative future Kindle for both.)

RudieCantFail

RudieCantFail

I'm lost
January 2006

JUN 05, 2011 11:09 PM

lalomartins said:

RudieCantFail said:
It wouldn't be a bad idea if comic book companies put up downloadable copies for sale of their old issues (like the really old ones). So that people who wanted to read an old story line, or view the work of an artist that they really liked from back in the day, could see some of those classic issues.



You realise they do, right? Not all old issues yet, but there's a lot already there. Both Marvel and DC.



Actually, no I didn't. Had the internet been around when I was into comics originally, I might have thought to look for such a thing. My interest in comics was so thoroughly destroyed, however, it's not something I would have thought to look for now.

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