Digital Comicry

Remember the Webcomics Worth Checking Out reboot I promised? It's still going to happen. Promise. In the meantime, take this in it's place. Naked.

There are many different ways to get your comic fix. You can get a newspaper and read the "funnies" (most are available through their distributors' website), go to your local comic book store and throw down your hard-earned cash, or put on your eyepatch and pirate your favorite titles. But there are also webcomics, which are strips on the intarwubs, and Marvel recently started a digital service for their titles.

I'll be honest, I have pirated comics in the past. New titles, older things that I wanted to check out, other various things. It's obviously less risky than plunking down money for something you might hate. But, it is illegal. All the major publishers have registered complaints in the past, and some sites have been shut down because of it. But that's digression.

What I want to talk about is: Is Digital the way for Comics to go?

I think, possibly, yes. Here's why.

First off, as I said, you can read basically every newspaper strip online for free. No need to page through pointless news just to find a half a page block of grainy pictures that you can't even email to the other people in your office. If I read newspaper strips, this is how I would do it. But I don't. Because they are lame.

Instead, I read webcomics. A bigger selection of topics, better art, and the creators can do whatever they want. Also free. Everyone wins.

Now, Marvel's Digital service. I was intrigued at first. But the price, among other things, pushed me away. Here's what they offer, basically...

• Certain special issues, like first appearances or very good runs.
• New issues, like 6 months ago.
• Online exclusives.

The price isn't bad. Annually it's $59.88, or $9.99 a month. Not bad, really. I'd be onboard if the newest issues were instantly available. But they aren't, and I like my shit on time. That's the biggest drawback for me.

Pirated comics are similar, except they are free, you can keep them forever, and they are on time. If you don't care about legitimacy and have some free hard drive space, then this might be the way for you to go. I'm not going to list any of the sites that are available here on the blog, but meet me out back in a couple hours and I'll hook you up.

If Marvel didn't charge for their service, would I use it? Yes. Why not?

Should other publishers follow Marvel's lead and offer similar services? Or, go through a third-party that would offer all of their titles through a similar program? I think so.

Publisher's make the bulk of their money, I would assume, from physical sales. That money covers printing, distributing, and paying the creators. The digital versions obviously don't need to be printed or distributed, so there's money saved right off the rip. The $$$ they make off the digi-program would probably be split between site maintenance and the creators. I think we all can agree that maintaining a website, for a company like Marvel at least, is probably cheap. But what do I know?

But think about e-readers, like the Kindle, for a second. Their size is similar to that of a comic book, with zoom and scrolling functions. Imagine they start having color screens, with much higher resolutions. What if you could access these digi-comics on your e-reader all the time, like you currently can with your physical library? If the comics were up to date, with a full library, and available from all the major publishers, then I'd totally be on board for that too. If I had this future-Kindle, that is.