Comics The Digital Future of ASM

[Meehaul]

So, how many of you would prefer to buy ASM in a digital format, would purchase both digital and paper versions of the comic, or screw digital, you only want your comics on paper?

 

[iloveclones]

You don't really have the category that I would fall under. I guess choice 3 is close enough for jazz.

As long as they're selling it, I'll probably always buy Amazing in print. BUT, I would buy the digital also if it were cheap enough. Currently, $1.99 isn't cheap enough.

 

[Meehaul]

What if it were .99? And if so, would u still buy the paper book if it were 2.99?

 

[iloveclones]

Yes and no. Here's what I laid out in another thread.

I think a lot of this will shake out in the future. First adopters always pay a higher price. BUT...

One of the main problems of comics in general is that the product is too pricey for the audience that they were originally intended for (pre-teens and teens). Digital will be their opportunity to start picking up that market again. But not at those prices.

Here's a pricing structure that would entice me to run out and buy an iPad today:

*Early comics (released on Monday rather than on Wednesday) would cost cover price - I would reserve this for the ones I was really dying for.
*New comics (released on Wednesday) would cost cover minus 15%(same as LCBS's) - I would probably buy 3-5 comics a week, mostly outliers
*3 month old comics cost cover minus 25%
*6 month old comics cost cover minus 50%
*1 year old comics cost cover minus 75% - I would, most likely duplicate all of my top of the pile comics with these. AND, spend a fair amount of $$ on old, beloved runs.
*A sub to a comic gives you the digital free. Same with a TPB.
*Any Digital comic purchased/owned gives you access to a later Directors Cut, and Varient Covers.

And those prices would extend back all the way, so a comic that cost you 10 cents, the digital would cost you 3. Think about it. No-one is going to buy Amazing #12, 54, and 123. They're going to buy the run (or mini runs). By my calculation, it would cost around$200 to buy all of Amazing my way as opposed to the approx. over $800 that they're proposing. Still pretty steep, but doable.

Don't get me wrong, I don't expect anything like that in the near future. But I think that'll have to have something more along those lines for people to respond in any great numbers. AND, until they have a large catalog (of digital) comics, a lot of it's a moot point anyway.

It's really more dependant on me being assured that they'll have full content. In other words, I don't want to start paying 2,3,4 bucks a digital comic to find out that they've abandoned the particular platform in a couple of years, like they did with their CD-ROMs(pdf format), and now Digital Unlimited. If they came out and said, "We have the first 100-200 issues of Spidey, Avengers, Iron Man, X-Men, Thor, FF available now, and will have the entire runs within a year," than I could get behind it. But they've had Digital Unlimited for almost two years now, and they don't even come close to having full runs of almost anything. A good example: I started buying the Dark Tower series because I'm a King fan. I never read them, though, because DT is one of tthose series that I was always meaning to get to. This summer, I finished the series, and wanted to go back and read the comics, but I didn't want to dig through my stacks, so I figured I'd read the digital versions. But only the first issue of Gunslinger is available. Now, here you have a property that has lots of interest, has fans outside of the normal superhero fan, and has big name (King) attached to it. And is current. Yet no online version, which would be the easiest entry point for the comic fan who wanted to check out something different and the King completist who is afraid of comic book shops. All this tells me that they either never took Digital Unlimited very seriously, or it was badly managed. No-one wants to read the first issue of the Thor Simonson run, and then another issue 50 issues later.

MP3's have existed in pretty much the same format for how long now? It's time for the comics industry to get serious about digital content, decide on a format, and stick with it.

 

[Themanofbat]

I don't know... I'm such a purist...

 

[C. Pumpkins]

I love my paper. I like the fact that I don't have to plug it in to read it; plus, I own the paper, but with digital I'm owning a bunch of ones and zeros.

 

[Meehaul]

Pumpkins, do you feel the same way about music? Better to own the CD than just the digital download?

I'm curious as to whether people's approach to comics is (or will be) different from their approach to books or music. Comics is SUCH a visual medium and there is some perceived difference between "owning" a comic and just having the digital download, even if you also "own" it.

 

[Donald Thomas]

Pumpkins, do you feel the same way about music? Better to own the CD than just the digital download?

I'm curious as to whether people's approach to comics is (or will be) different from their approach to books or music. Comics is SUCH a visual medium and there is some perceived difference between "owning" a comic and just having the digital download, even if you also "own" it.

Aloha,
You know how I feel about this subject. I don't think paper is ever going to be obsolete, but electronic readers and possibly even hand held devices like Nintendo DS and others, may one day revolutionize the way the average person reads.For me, I can see them doing like they do with some computer mags. You get a disk of games and apps with the mag. I can see buying the paper comic and getting a mini disk of the comic for your computer for one price.Or even being able to download the comic to your computer like they do music. Even with music downloads, CD's have not become extinct. There's room for both. Digital compliments paper rather than replaces IMO.
But, with smaller paper print runs of comics, all of our collections will become more valuable.Look at the 3 people who paid over a million for the first Superman and Batman.There will never be a digital comic that goes for that kind of money. So paper comics will always keep if not increase in value as we get more into digital books and ebooks.
Spidey rules

 

[SpideyInATree]

As technology progresses and the world of digital comics progresses we are going to have a generation of comic readers that only do read their comics digitally. Be it on their computers, iPad's, or PSP's, etc.

As of right now I think that digital comics still have a long, long way to go. Comic book fans are a pretty stubborn lot when it comes right down to it. Comic fans love their floppies. I know that I do.

However, one positive thing about digital comics will be the fact that I won't have to bag and board it, then put it in it's rightful place in the long box. It will save space in my comic room and no more comics piling up in my room, haha!

I chose the choice of "Eventually". Because as of right now the only things that you can purchase digitally are some of the Indie titles and Marvel only has older stuff on sale. I don't think I've seen any of the newer comics available. Though as the years pass and things progress I can see myself reading comics digitally.

Positives: 1. Cheaper. The floppies are pretty much all to a 3.99 price tag. Because of this I've had to seriously make some cuts in what I read and the standards of what I'm looking for. I've dropped some pretty good titles from my pull list simply because I need to save money. If I'm buying a digital comic for 1.99 I'm saving two dollars right there and I'll have the ability to read all those titles that I want to.

2. Better visually. I have no seen an iPad yet but I use my girlfriends iPod Touch from time to time and an iPad is basically a GIANT iPod touch. From what I've heard from iPad users is that the comic art comes through so much more brilliantly than it does on the printed page. I was listening to Bendis being interviewed on the World Balloon podcast and he was saying how amazing the artwork looks on the iPad and how a lot of the art suffers due to the printing quality on some of the pages. So, that's something that has me looking forward to digital comics...better resolution on the artwork.

3. Space. With digital comics I won't have piles of comics all over my room. I won't have long box after long box stacked up and trying to figure out a bigger room I can put them into.

As of now we will all enjoy our floppies. However, a few years down the road we may be seeing a huge shift from heading to the comic shop to hitting up the digital comics store and downloading your pull list in an instant.

It will all be very interesting to see....

 

[Themanofbat]

I voted "Never!!!"...

I need my paper book fix...

 

[iloveclones]

I'm kind of a Luddite when it comes to these things. I don't own an ipod and rarely send texts (maybe 20-30 a month.) Hell, I still sometimes mourn the loss of MS-DOS.

That said, this comes very close to me being a first adopter. I long ago got over my wariness of reading on a computer. And a lot of the times, I think it looks better.

I do love my Wendnesday trips, though. And nothing can replace that new comic smell....

 

[Themanofbat]

I'll probably get into it after it's the new cool thing to do with comics and they've moved onto something else...

I'm just starting to get into CD's these days, though I still prefer vinyl records...

 

[C. Pumpkins]

Pumpkins, do you feel the same way about music? Better to own the CD than just the digital download?

I'm curious as to whether people's approach to comics is (or will be) different from their approach to books or music. Comics is SUCH a visual medium and there is some perceived difference between "owning" a comic and just having the digital download, even if you also "own" it.

I love me some analog sound too, but I move around a lot so I don't have the vinyl. I still enjoy my CDs, but ideally you still need a player to listen to them, unlike paper comics or books for that matter.

The digital age of MP3s rule though, I listen to all kinds of stuff now that I've always wanted to check out but didn't have the time or money. And I also stumble across local acts that I probably would of never heard of.

Owning information is inherently weird to me, I haven't really embraced the concept yet. I feel like I own the hard drive or maybe even the software, but content is just content to me.

 

[Themanofbat]

I listened to Joe Jackson's Still Standing album this morning.... on my record player.

 

[C. Pumpkins]

Good for you. Does the record player wind up too? Ha. No, I get it, I'm just not the analog purist that a lot of my friends are. I do love listening to the warm crackly background. It's like having a wood stove or something.

 

[Donald Thomas]

Aloha,
The one thing I think many of us are forgetting, this generation of comic book readers already has Marvel Unlimited Digital Comics.They are being introduced to the digital comic book medium as we speak.Think about a child born today, 3D TV will be their norm. Same with digital comics as a concept. Marvel has a yearly and monthly subscription to their Digital Library.I haven't heard of it being a losing business concern.
Spidey rules in ALL formats

 

[SpideyInATree]

Plus you'll have some of these kids using only digital comics and it may open a door for some of them to want to even buy the floppies or hardcovers, etc. In the long run going digital falls into favor of the comic book industry.