Loving this thread over at Newsarama. Here's the guts of two posts I added there. So late, so tired.
Digital comics are (just) potentially a third revenue stream for publishers, after monthly comics and trade paperbacks - and just as digital music won't remove the desire for CDs, vinyl, etc, digitally distributed comics will in no way kill the paper comic. All this means is folks like me who don't live near a comic shop can have the thrill of reading a comic on the day it's first published as well as when it physically finally slaps down on my doorstep from a mail-order retailer. Plus, as the success of iTunes attests to, if you give someone the chance to do something easily and legally, they'd rather pay for it and stay legit than go bootleg and risk the penalties (and the hackers, and the viruses, and the spyware, and all the rest of the crap that comes with Peer-to-Peer).
That said, a comic retailer discussion about the digital distribution of comics was always going to be like a bunch of turkeys discussing Christmas. "I really don't approve of this Christmas thing at all" "Me
neither".
Well, let's remember as fans and readers that sometimes, what's good for the artform isn't neccessarily what's good for the retailers. Yeah, I'm sure most of them are good, honorable guys, genuine fans who went into the trade with the best of intentions. That said, digital distribution widens potential readership to anyone on the internet anywhere, anytime, as opposed to anyone who knows where their nearest comic shop is, knows their opening hours, and is committed
enough to travel to it regularly.
Never underestimate the power of the impulse sale. Where I am, it's half one in the morning and maybe I've a sudden hankering to read some ALL-STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN THE BOY WONDER. Perhaps I've just browsed some dude's blog and he said something about it that's totally piqued my interest about a title I've avoided so far, and will probably pick up in TPB form in a year or two (depending on whether this arc ever gets finished). Now, do I go to bed, get up tomorrow and drive for an hour to my nearest comic-book shop, and hope they have
the back issue? Nope, 'cus when I wake up tomorrow, I'll have forgotten about it and moved on to the next thing. However, if I could pop open a window right now at a website as easy to use as iTunes and download that issue, I'd do it. Hell - this is how I make half my purchases on iTunes anyway - come back half cut from the pub, get a hankering to hear Stevie Wonder's version of We Can Work It Out and go buy it from Apple.
Comic book distribution is already too narrow as it is. Digital
distribution could prove a renaissance for the form. The only problem I foresee - do all the major comicbook companies have the sense to go in together on this, form a united front, rather than try it on competing formats, competing sites, etc?