Digital comics are they worth it ? disscussion and comments:

[theenglish]

JD wrote:

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Very cool, thanks for sharing that.
EDIT:

Like me. It's hard for me to get out to the comic shops near me, and my regular bookstores have an iffy selection of comics, so I never really had the opportunity to get into comics until I went digital.

In my case, Comixology allows me to buy comics internationally without a nasty shipping charge. I don't have to wait for the trades to come out on Amazon either.

I always said that I would go legit and give up my eye patch if I could get digital comics on the same day they were released and now I have to stick to my guns.

[Derishton]

I just bought my first digital comic - Justice League #1, so DC's plan is working so far, I guess. I thought it was a very good reading experience, letting it guide me from panel to panel. It took longer to read, which for me is a good thing.

[timothy]

picked up buck rodgers Issues #0 - 12 plus annual. if no one has read this yet they should, fantastic book.

[JD]

I'm planning on it eventually. It looked pretty fun when I skimmed through the freebie. From my skimming it looks like Dynamite has some pretty cool stuff, and each announcement I hear from them sounds cooler than the last.

[timothy]

I am going to star reading the red sonja books next. all so they the first bsg series fron dynamite entertainment.

[God Magnus]

I finally broke down and downloaded Comixology for the iPad and I have to say my experience has been very positive so far. I purchased "Justice League #1" and a few other comics including "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", something I've been meaning to get for a while. The cheaper price and my growing lack of storage space encouraged this choice.

I'm still buying certain titles in paper, I guess a nostalgic part of me wants to support the format and the stores that sell them, but for titles that I'm only mildly curious about, the electronic versions work.

[Derishton]

I'm thinking of the digital comics as a prelude to the trades, which I'll try to buy at comic shops when I can (not living very near to any). I wasn't really buying single issues very often, so I think it's a way of making my money help both the publishers and the small shops a little more directly.

[Myasishchev]

Man, I was looking just now... do you know when Action Comics goes sequential on ComiXology? Guess. #844. EIGHT FORTY FOUR. Superman? #681. Legion of Super-Heroes? That's a trick question, friends. It doesn't start at all.

Prior to that, they have about two dozen cherry-picked Action and Superman books. Oh, and Legion Lost (let me try to restrain my enthusiasm). Do they just not want to make money?

However, I will say that it made me laugh when, because of my script blocking software, the DC store threw up a giant picture of Barry Allen and told me I didn't have FLASH. That's adorable.

[theenglish]

They add something like four hundred back issues a week. If they don't have what you are looking for right now, it will probably be available in a few weeks or months. Complete back fatalities I imagine is the ultimate goal.

[Myasishchev]

They also charge too much for it. I know, I know, I'm a complainer.

Eventually, I suppose they'll emulate Marvel's unlimited policy with a price point that isn't insane.

ETA: But four hundred? Really? If they added four hundred a week, they could have the entire Legion run in a fortnight, and the entire Superman family runs in something like three months. Did they just start this?

[JD]

Well that number is spread out over dozens of series from dozens of different publishers. Besides, when it comes to something like this it only makes sense to me to focus on the most recent stuff, and then slowly add a few older issues here and there when you get ahold of them. As for people complaining about the price, I don't see where between $0.99 and $4.99 is that horrible. I mean sure it might be more than you payed for some of them when they first came out, but there is a little thing called inflation. As long as the regular price is the same or less than the cover price of a new issue, I'm happy. Hell, I'd probably still be willing to buy them if they charged a little more than cover price, simply due to the convenience of of the digital format.

[Myasishchev]

To be clear on the price thing, I have no issue with a comic that just came out costing $3. $4 is a bridge too far for 20-24 pages of story, but let's assume I have no problem with that, either.

I'm talking about old stuff. It's not an inflation issue*, it's the idea that as works recede into history, the price you can expect to demand for them decreases. This is very clear in film: a few months back, I bought a two-for-one DVD of the Bill and Ted movies for $5, because they are twenty years old and in the flat part of their long tail. It's difficult to reconcile three hours of classic cinema (oh, you know it) with a $1 price tag on an issue of Action Comics #252 (I know, I always use this example), which has only sixteen pages of Superman family related content because at the time Action was an anthology.**

It's even more difficult to reconcile that with $1 price point for comics that aren't even historically important.

This argument doesn't have as much force in a printed format, because of the heavy fixed costs, but in an electronic format?

*And surely you don't propose that comics' prices have been pegged to the consumer price index. Twenty years ago, comics cost $1.50. If we go cents/page, 1991 prices are even lower. But in any event we have not experienced 100% inflation since 1991.
**Of course, it's a little hard to reconcile buying a brand-new two disc Blu-ray of, say, Inception for $15 for the same price as five comic books that will take about half as long to read, but that's a different argument, really, and has more to do with the vicious cycle of comics-as-a-niche-interest.

[theenglish]

One thing about the digital downloads, is that although there is no printing costs associated with the product, neither are there advertisements. I agree that I would very much like to see a different price structure. I would love to see a subscription price for the back catalogue for example.

[timothy]

give em time this still new. I am thinking of reading fables since once upon a time will be airing soon. and they have all current issues aviable.

[JD]

^ You should. I read the first arc a couples months ago and I loved it. I just wish they had the graphic novel 1001 Nights of Snowfall available digitally.
If you like the series there is also a straight prose novel, Peter and Max, which is available for the Nook.