Tag Archives: Digital Comics

Speed Reading: DC1M, 80s Cartoons, $2.99 Comics & More

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Some weekend linkblogging…

Speed Reading: Comics and the Internet

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Digital comics and piracy have been a hot topic over the past week, starting with Mark Waid’s speech at the Harvey Awards last weekend. His main two points: copyright is a balance between the creator and society, and file sharing is here to stay – so the industry is better off harnessing it instead of futilely trying to destroy it.

At Newsarama, Vinnie Bartilucci sums up the fallout from Waid’s speech, then asks the key question: can piracy become profit? He draws the obvious comparison to the music industry, in which MP3 sharing sites gave way to a legitimate market spearheaded by Apple’s iTunes store, and considers how digital distribution changes the market.

Finally, at Comics Alliance, David Brothers is frustrated with the comics industry’s overly-cautious approach to digital comics. The time for dancing around the issue is over — just kiss digital comics on the mouth, already! Instead of sabotaging their own efforts for fear of what will happen to the paper market, he argues that the industry should jump in with both feet and take advantage of the opportunities that digital distribution will bring.

DC Comics Goes Digital

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Big news: DC Comics has launched a digital comics program, starting with the iPad/iPhone and the Playstation network.

And by launched, I mean launched. As in, you can download the app and buy comics right now.

I’m really looking forward to the day when they expand this to more platforms (desktop PCs, Android and Windows–based tablets, etc) and start reaching into their back catalog. I’ve griped about the lack of Golden Age Flash reprints before, and the Bronze Age is also virtually invisible in reprints (though at least with comics from the 1970s and 1980s, you can usually find the back-issues at a reasonable price).

I haven’t had time to read all the interviews, but I’ll definitely be reading them tonight:

With Jim Lee so heavily involved in this project, I can’t help but think of a moment at WonderCon this year. Saturday was the day of the iPad launch, and the Apple Store in San Francisco is just a few blocks from the convention center. Jim Lee was conspicuously missing from the DC Editorial panel. He showed up partway through the panel and stood in the Q&A line, where he planted a few questions…and then pulled out the brand-new iPad that he had stood in line for that morning!

Sadly, judging by ComiXology’s new releases, DC hasn’t brought Flash to the iPad just yet. But I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.

Update: Comics Alliance has another article I won’t have time to read just yet, on why this is a big deal.

Cross-posted at K-Squared Ramblings

Kindle DX: A Digital Comics Platform?

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Kindle DXAmazon has announced the Kindle DX, a new version of their e-book reader with a 9.7-inch screen. Unless I’ve got my numbers wrong, that makes it larger than the standard manga page, though not quite as big as the standard American comic book page. And it’s only 1/3 of an inch thick, comparable to a typical trade paperback.

This could be the first e-reader device suitable for simply taking comics formatted for the printed page and transferring them to a tablet. No need to break it down and show one panel at a time like most iPhone or Android comics. No need to zoom and pan. Just transfer the whole page.

Sure, it’s only black and white, but there are plenty of comics produced in B&W, or reformatted for printing in cheap collections like Marvel Essentials or DC’s Showcase Presents series.

Imagine 30 years of Justice League of America or Spider-Man in the space of the latest trade.

The only drawback is the steep price tag: at $489, I’m not picking one up anytime soon.

(Cross-posted at K-Squared Ramblings.)

Best Price Point for Digital Comics?

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Newsarama is running a poll on the best price point for downloadable comics, following up on Filip Sablik’s recent column. Is it free? 99ยข per comic, like iTunes? Subscription bundling?

The problem is that I can’t pick an option on the poll, because for me, it really depends on the device.

Reading Hexed on the G1

If we’re talking comics chopped up for small-screen viewing (iPhone, for instance), then I would prefer free with ads. Unless a story is initially designed for that format, it seems more like a way to sample new series — something iVerse is clearly targeting with their current Android material, offering most first issues for free and then charging for the subsequent ones.

If we’re talking the hypothetical tablet-sized device that displays comics at a comparable size to present-day print comics, then I’d be a bit more willing to pay $0.99 off the bat, or possibly a $5.00/month subscription for more than 5 books.

If we’re talking downloadable comics to display on the desktop computer screen…now that I think about it, probably free. I read a lot of webcomics, but I’ve never once paid for a subscription even to gain access to archives. (I have, however, donated to a few cartoonists, and bought print collections of several series.)

So… how much would you pay for digital comics?