Digital Comics (discussion)
(re-posted from the BumbleKing Forums)
I'm happy to see that we finally have some real options for legal digital copies for the books coming out now, but I was wondering from the community what they've seen and how they feel about how they're shaping out. Personally, I do like the options we have now, but I'm not completely satisfied with the shape they're taking....yet. There's some things I believe could be presented better, there's some opportunities I think that are being missed, but we're REALLY early in this distribution model and just as we can see with the newspapers, things are still taking shape. I think it's really important however that readers understand these changes as they're happening, because the publishers are learning too at the same time.
This all comes down to how do you want to consume these stories.
You can choose to use the traditional method (which I still continue to do) and pick up your hard copy at your local comic shop, book store or order by mail. You now have a hard copy in your possession that your own. You can read it at home, on the bus, at work, where ever the urge hits you. That's the up-sides. The down-sides can come in depending on your point-of-view. Even recycled, you are consuming the book using dead trees. Books are susceptible to damage and aging. Over time the best kept books will deteriorate, not to mention what a pain it is to dig out old issues to re-read from storage. Space is also a factor once you reach 200+ issues and multiple spin-offs. You can't exactly take your entire collection on a bus or plane to read, not to mention the risk off damaging your books in said situations.
Then there's the costs of production and distribution. Each issue has alot of factors that go into the making of the book that have nothing to do the creators. These are the actual factor that end up deciding how much each issue costs. Mass-printing is expensive. So expensive in fact alot of publishers print in Canada due to the exchange rate. Exchange rates are not set in stone however, and fluctuate based on the value of the dollar. Additionally, you have to transport all those copies out to all the different stores everywhere you have to sell your book. That cost can change depending on the price of gas and any number of transportation factors, not to mention driving yourself to the store to get the book. And not every copy that been printed sells, resulting in lost revenue that can put continued publication of a title at risk. Then there's the ads. They help to offset the costs of publishing on a large scale. Honestly, like alot of readers I've really just trained myself to ignore them to the point I almost don't even see them, but thats not what advertisers want to hear.
So how does Digital Comics differ from all this. One major difference is probably the thing that terrifies publishers the most. The cost of copying and distributing each issue is virtually "0". Just like coping any file on your computer or making a post on a forum, the instant a publisher decides to publish a comic online for sale, it becomes instantly available to anyone anywhere with an internet connection. No need for any printing press, distribution trucks, wholesale distributers, your product is instantly in the hands of your consumer with no excess units.
On the consumer side, this could allow the reader enormous flexibility. You can read your entire comic collection on your computer. smartphone, iPod, laptop or tablet. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to have your entire collection stored on your device. With any internet connection you could even use an account with the service of your choice and simply view your collection stored on their servers using cloud storage.
There are some down-sides however. Currently, this is an extremely new model, so things are not exactly set in stone yet. There is no standard for how these comics are distributed, meaning formats are not universal if you buy your comics from different places. Think of it like the growing pains of digital music. A file with DRM from one site might only play on one type of player, versus .mp3 that is fairly universal. This could present a problem if say one site decides to have a weekly deal and can only be viewed in their comic viewer. The service you buy your comic from may not be available for your device, or you can only store so many copies of your book. This could become a problem is your computer crashes, data is lost, or your site's service goes out of business and shuts down it's DRM servers. It also enters this "gray" area where you may not know what you actually "own". You may only own a license to view, meaning there is the full possibility that some services could require that you purchase the right to view a title on each device you own. (see the current "New York Times" model)
Additionally for people like me, it means I'm buying my comics twice. While I appreciate that the cost of digital copies drops to 0.99 after 2 or so months. I'm not very keen on the idea of paying full price twice. While I would love the idea of Archie including a coupon or voucher in each book for a digital copy of the comic I just bought, it's not something I see happening immediately. Also while it is my legal right to make backups of my purchases [u]for my personal and private use[/u], spending a week or more scanning the 500+ comics books in my collection just in case my house burns down is not exactly what I consider fun and something I would gladly pay a reasonable fee to a publisher to do for me.
There are however some opportunities that are being, ....well, passed-over in all this. Being on the internet makes you part of a global community, not a national. In the services that I've tried so far, all of these to my knowledge are only available in the US. Additionally, while the comics themselves have been created digitally for some time now, the digital comics themselves from what I can tell are simple scans of the hard-copy books. If this process is built from the digital level, there is no reason the title can't be translated into any number of languages or distributed globally. I know a number of people outside the US who would love to read the book, from the UK to Brazil, Spain, Russia and Japan. The possibilities for growth of the title's audience is mind-blowing to me, but they're not going to pay $10 an issue to have is shipped to them. They would have to consume the comic digitally.
While I hope this doesn't sound like a rant, it is my hope that it does help people think about the idea a little clearer and starts a discussion on the topic. I've also added some of the services I've found so far and hope to hear from the rest of the community on what their thoughts are.
ComiXology - http://www.comixology.com/
- for Google Chrome Web Store
- for Android
- also on iOS AppStore
Graphic.ly - http://graphic.ly
- for Google Chrome Web Store
- for Android
- also on iOS AppStore
iVerse Media - http://www.iversecomics.com/
- currently only on iOS AppStore
I'm happy to see that we finally have some real options for legal digital copies for the books coming out now, but I was wondering from the community what they've seen and how they feel about how they're shaping out. Personally, I do like the options we have now, but I'm not completely satisfied with the shape they're taking....yet. There's some things I believe could be presented better, there's some opportunities I think that are being missed, but we're REALLY early in this distribution model and just as we can see with the newspapers, things are still taking shape. I think it's really important however that readers understand these changes as they're happening, because the publishers are learning too at the same time.
This all comes down to how do you want to consume these stories.
You can choose to use the traditional method (which I still continue to do) and pick up your hard copy at your local comic shop, book store or order by mail. You now have a hard copy in your possession that your own. You can read it at home, on the bus, at work, where ever the urge hits you. That's the up-sides. The down-sides can come in depending on your point-of-view. Even recycled, you are consuming the book using dead trees. Books are susceptible to damage and aging. Over time the best kept books will deteriorate, not to mention what a pain it is to dig out old issues to re-read from storage. Space is also a factor once you reach 200+ issues and multiple spin-offs. You can't exactly take your entire collection on a bus or plane to read, not to mention the risk off damaging your books in said situations.
Then there's the costs of production and distribution. Each issue has alot of factors that go into the making of the book that have nothing to do the creators. These are the actual factor that end up deciding how much each issue costs. Mass-printing is expensive. So expensive in fact alot of publishers print in Canada due to the exchange rate. Exchange rates are not set in stone however, and fluctuate based on the value of the dollar. Additionally, you have to transport all those copies out to all the different stores everywhere you have to sell your book. That cost can change depending on the price of gas and any number of transportation factors, not to mention driving yourself to the store to get the book. And not every copy that been printed sells, resulting in lost revenue that can put continued publication of a title at risk. Then there's the ads. They help to offset the costs of publishing on a large scale. Honestly, like alot of readers I've really just trained myself to ignore them to the point I almost don't even see them, but thats not what advertisers want to hear.
So how does Digital Comics differ from all this. One major difference is probably the thing that terrifies publishers the most. The cost of copying and distributing each issue is virtually "0". Just like coping any file on your computer or making a post on a forum, the instant a publisher decides to publish a comic online for sale, it becomes instantly available to anyone anywhere with an internet connection. No need for any printing press, distribution trucks, wholesale distributers, your product is instantly in the hands of your consumer with no excess units.
On the consumer side, this could allow the reader enormous flexibility. You can read your entire comic collection on your computer. smartphone, iPod, laptop or tablet. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to have your entire collection stored on your device. With any internet connection you could even use an account with the service of your choice and simply view your collection stored on their servers using cloud storage.
There are some down-sides however. Currently, this is an extremely new model, so things are not exactly set in stone yet. There is no standard for how these comics are distributed, meaning formats are not universal if you buy your comics from different places. Think of it like the growing pains of digital music. A file with DRM from one site might only play on one type of player, versus .mp3 that is fairly universal. This could present a problem if say one site decides to have a weekly deal and can only be viewed in their comic viewer. The service you buy your comic from may not be available for your device, or you can only store so many copies of your book. This could become a problem is your computer crashes, data is lost, or your site's service goes out of business and shuts down it's DRM servers. It also enters this "gray" area where you may not know what you actually "own". You may only own a license to view, meaning there is the full possibility that some services could require that you purchase the right to view a title on each device you own. (see the current "New York Times" model)
Additionally for people like me, it means I'm buying my comics twice. While I appreciate that the cost of digital copies drops to 0.99 after 2 or so months. I'm not very keen on the idea of paying full price twice. While I would love the idea of Archie including a coupon or voucher in each book for a digital copy of the comic I just bought, it's not something I see happening immediately. Also while it is my legal right to make backups of my purchases [u]for my personal and private use[/u], spending a week or more scanning the 500+ comics books in my collection just in case my house burns down is not exactly what I consider fun and something I would gladly pay a reasonable fee to a publisher to do for me.
There are however some opportunities that are being, ....well, passed-over in all this. Being on the internet makes you part of a global community, not a national. In the services that I've tried so far, all of these to my knowledge are only available in the US. Additionally, while the comics themselves have been created digitally for some time now, the digital comics themselves from what I can tell are simple scans of the hard-copy books. If this process is built from the digital level, there is no reason the title can't be translated into any number of languages or distributed globally. I know a number of people outside the US who would love to read the book, from the UK to Brazil, Spain, Russia and Japan. The possibilities for growth of the title's audience is mind-blowing to me, but they're not going to pay $10 an issue to have is shipped to them. They would have to consume the comic digitally.
While I hope this doesn't sound like a rant, it is my hope that it does help people think about the idea a little clearer and starts a discussion on the topic. I've also added some of the services I've found so far and hope to hear from the rest of the community on what their thoughts are.
ComiXology - http://www.comixology.com/
- for Google Chrome Web Store
- for Android
- also on iOS AppStore
Graphic.ly - http://graphic.ly
- for Google Chrome Web Store
- for Android
- also on iOS AppStore
iVerse Media - http://www.iversecomics.com/
- currently only on iOS AppStore