Boom! comics' new series available as downloads on the same day as in stores
Doktor Tchock sez, "Myspace and Boom! Studios teamed up to release each issue of the new comic North Wind simultaneously with the release date for brick and mortar stores. Issue 1 is up now and you'll be able to grab the .cbz of each issue of the 5 issue mini-series in the following months. An interesting approach to digital distribution."
Boom! does a fine line in zombie comix (see Zombie Tales Vol 1 and Death Valley) and they've got a really net-savvy approach to pushing the ole funnybooks.
I've been saying for years that comics publishers should -- at a minimum -- put up downloadable comics after they disappear from the stands, so that people who are coming to the serial after it starts can catch up. The trade paperbacks help here, but usually there's a 2-3 issue gap between the collection and the singles. That means that if you're not a Comics Person and you walk into a bookstore and buy the first collection of Thrilling Underwear Pervert Stories (issues 1-6) get hooked, and decide to brave a comics store for the first time to pick up issue 7, you'll generally find that they're up to issue 9 or 10, and that 7 and 8 aren't for sale and can't be ordered.
The result? You go back to the bookstore in a couple months and look for the collection -- maybe. If you remember. The alternative? The publisher could spend approximately $0.00 and post downloadable singles 30 days or even 60 days after they hit the stands. Now when you go to the store and say, "Have you got TUPS #7?" the Comic Book Guy can smile and say, "Nope, but you can get it free online, and when you've read it, come on back here and I'll sell you #8. By the way, did you know that new comics come out every Wednesday? We usually get a lot of people in on Weds, spruce up the store, set out some collections of other comics you might not have heard of. Also -- would you like me to set aside future TUPS issues for you? As well as collections?"
Yes, a few cheapskates might opt to substitute downloads for singles. But those cheapskates are likely either retired people, students, or other people of limited means -- and if they come into money (say, by graduating and getting a job), they'll be back with their wallets. In the meantime, it's not as if the people who buy their issues in Mylar bags are going to give up on collecting -- Action Comics #1 has been floating around online since the mid-Nineties and the value of the physical object hasn't dropped as a result.
And by optimizing the experience for spenders -- people who drop $25 on a collection in a bookstore that you might be able to convert to weekly comic-store customers -- you churn in fresh customers while still providing a good, low-cost way to get into the medium for kids and students. Link (Thanks, Doktor Tchock!)
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There's also all those people who are unwilling to shell out money for things like comic books or movies that they haven't already seen and know they like.
I think this notion that freeloading students are going to turn into comic store regulars once they get a proper job is basically flawed.
The torrent sites are already full of people whose entire collection of movies (for example) are rips of DVDs. My guess is they hardly ever set foot in a store, no matter how friendly the staff.
Why go back for the hard copy of #9 of Underpant Pervert when you can wait a couple of weeks for it to come online for free? You didn't miss the first 8 issues when you didn't know it existed. The two week wait isn't so bad.
Y'know, Radiohead can tour to boost their income. But how will XXX stars make money when their DVDs are immediately torrented and their paysites are ripped clean and passwords freely traded?
:)
You should write to Marvel executives, who launched a pathetic low-resolution no-download read-online subscription-based service with an horrid flash client and issue at least 6 months old and started a RIAA/MPAA style campaign against torrent sites and sites who linked to cbr/cbz files.
I'd just like to say that I am one of those people who, after discovering .cbz downloads, went from reading trade paperbacks they got from the library to having comics set aside for them at their friendly local comic book retailer.
I've also started buying James Kochalka's books since he freed his daily Sketchbook Diaries from being locked behind a subscriber wall.
Well, Tigerbomb, it's not just an empty theory -- it's personal experience from working in a science fiction bookstore for several years. The fact is that kids go from buying used stuff and selling it back to you for credit, to buying used stuff and keeping it, to buying new paperback, no buying new hardcovers -- as their income expands.
Unless, of course, they grow up to be writers / artists, then they stick with buying the used stuff for life. ;)
I think this is a great idea ... hell, I think that selling .cbr versions of a company's comics is still a great idea (as Slave Labor has tried to do, a bit, with http://www.eyemelt.com/). I'd buy tons more stuff if I could get it a bit cheaper and read it on my computer.
I think the difference is that these kids were buying used stuff. It's how I started my music collection - 25 years ago.
What are 15 year olds doing [i]today[/i]?
If you've [i]never[/i] paid for media because you get [i]all[/i] your music/movies/comics for free online, why would you change that as you get older?
Yes, the Marvel Digital comics thing... They went from licensing the titles to be sold as a collection. 0 years of Spider-Man on 1 DVD or 44 Years of Fantastic Four.
These are now sadly discontinued in effort to control the digital market. i have checked into it and talked with people who bought in (for a short time) The comics on offer digitally are for online reading only (bad), While they have have a braod range of titles, the depth is not there. You cannot read a 40 year run of Avengers(bad). The resolution, as stated above sucks(bad). all around not the answer we (The fans of comics) were looking for.
Time to once again describe my dream project.
Maybe Marvel will pay attention.
Marvel Age
A Digital Comic Collection.
We begin with Nov of 1961 (for me the birth of the Modern Marvel Superhero with the publication of Fantastic Four #1. Each disc would hold approx. 1 year of Published Content. The content would be divided into months. We could experience the birth of the marvel age just as kids of that generation did, only without the threat of missing any issues.
I dream of something like this not only as a fan of comics, but as a research tool.
Cheers,
Don
I spend about 200-250$ a month on comics (I really don't care for the term "underwear perverts" no matter how cool or hip certain people think they are) and have been massively unimpressed by Marvel Online's stuff.
I want to read them on planes. No net connection, no Marvel Online. I want to read them on the subway. No net connection, no Marvel Online. The resolution is terrible and the flash client is verrrrrry slow to refresh.
As a 43 year old professional, I do vote with my wallet and will be letting my subscription lapse and going back to the torrents until Marvel gets it right.
The thing about the DVD collections that featured 44 years of the Fantastic Four, etc., is that they were interesting but ultimately sucked compared to what you can download.
First, the scans, especially for older issues, were just crap compared to the sort of quality you see in the illegal versions on filesharing networks.
Second, the scans were in PDF format rather than cbr or cbz so that they could put DRM in there.
Third, the DRM was incredibly stupid. Basically the DRM involved a watermark that would appear if you printed the comics. Hello...the customer for this is the sort of person whose going to read the comics on their monitor, not print out thousands of pages (besides which the DRM is trivial to get around). Folks who want print are going to go with the trade paperbacks.
I would be really surprised, btw, if the download market has significantly affected retailers. I know I do spend less at my comic book store than I did 10 years ago on *comics*, but I'm spending far more than I should on action figures, t-shirts and assorted stuff (just as Marvel is making far more on its movie business than it is on the actual sales of comics -- there was a half-joking/half-serious idea floating around back when Spider-Man 1 was such a huge hit that Marvel would get out of publishing altogether and just do licensing because that's where its bread and butter is).
I've, on several occasions, attempted to get into comic books but the $3.95 price tag always drove me off when I was only getting 32 pages and only part of a story. I'd much rather pay $15 for a good novel.
Huzzah!
As a cartoonist by trade, it has been enormously depressing watching the industry (led by non-artists, for the most part) fail dismally at any new ideas on promoting our work. It seems at times that the powers that be care extremely little for the industry that they run- and the complete cluster-F of comic distribution is a major part of that. People say that a lot of comics are oblique to the new reader- but a big part of fixing that is just making the actual acquisition easier.
Comic readers have long known about the Wednesday release- but really, who else does? it's a strange day and an important one- arrive on Thursday, and many comic book stores will be sold out of the best and most popular comics (Fables, Y the last man, and The Walking Dead are good examples of this). Where does this leave the reader- and possible new regular patron? Frustrated, angry, and without a purchase. Comic book stores have long been the epitome of bad customer service- and now they are also the victim of bad distribution from the top.
One of the best and defining features of comics is the serial- while not for everyone, it is a reason for people to get hooked, and go into the comic book store weekly; and hopefully, explore other comics, as well. Digital distribution of old issues keeps people up to date and more likely to be able do have good experiences in the shop, instead of infuriating ones.
A little bit of a rambling comment, i know, but for those of us that are tired of seeing our beloved industry fall further and further behind, I thank you for posting these kinds of posts.
Cory sez, "But those cheapskates are likely either retired people, students, or other people of limited means...."
Or they're the totally neglected market of disabled comic fans like me who get infinitely more from digital than paper comics. I can't hold the comics up to my face to see the fine details, so zoom capabilities are a godsend. I'm sure the same goes for people with vision problems.
There's also plenty of extras they could add to digital comics that just aren't possible on paper. Give us creator commentaries, pop-up footnotes, character dossiers ("Gee, I've never seen THAT Long-john Vigilante before." *click* "Oh, so THAT's what's-his-name."), and turn the "Letters" page into a "Videos" page!
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Tigerbomb sez, "But how will XXX stars make money when their DVDs are immediately torrented and their paysites are ripped clean and passwords freely traded?"
House calls? >;)
When I was a poor student I got my favorite comics each week. Now I wait for the trade books for exactly the reasons described in the O.P. Life is busier for me, sometimes I'm gone for weeks - and without weekly trips to the store I cannot keep up. So I've basically stopped reading comics since I can never get the early issues of a series once I learn about it. So I just wait.
If I could download and catch up I'd probably be eager to get the story right when it came out, but that sort of anticipation needs to be created - and it's not being created for me since I'm just to busy and out of the loop to know.
I read exactly one comic book (for an English class in college) before I turned 25. Then out of boredom I downloaded a couple .cbz's... never would've paid for a comic or even bothered to go to the library for one. A few years later now, and I just had to buy a new bookshelf, because the one holding my trades is too packed (so maybe the bookshelf industry should be lobbying for cbz's as well).
Cory, I think most of what you write is pretty naive.
First of all, creating and maintaining a professional website with reliable hosting of a lot of medium-sized downloads costs a hell of a lot more than $0.00 to a comic book publisher -- a lot of them are smaller companies with very few employees and often little web experience. It's not surprising to me at all how barebones most of their existing sites are (if they have a site at all).
Second, I agree completely with Tigerbomb. The vast majority of downloaders are never ever ever ever going to pay more than $0.00 for hardcopies. Most of the under 20s I know today really don't have the buying habit. Movies, music, comics, games -- all of this content is available free to them today and the urge to pay for it doesn't seem to magically appear when they get a paying job.
I'd bet you 50 times more people freeload forever than ever pay a cent.
The free taste is a good approach to get people buying. I don't think it's true that most people that download won't buy. I myself have given a few titles a spin through DBZ. I have found a few I like and go in search of the trades. I enjoy both digital and Paper based products...there are advantages to either...
It is true that that the DVD collections that have been available until recently were at times of a substandard quality as far as scans go. However, they also included all of the adds and letter columns. These things are important in a historical aspect.
Don
A superb notion, and one I dearly hope sees much more widespread adoption sooner rather than later. Give me a download I want, and I'll give you the money - I'm not in the least bit interested in paper. (Paper as an option, no problem - I'm simply wanting the option of only the digital copy, preferably without any inane DRM)
No paper = no printing, distribution, or mailing costs, only bandwidth fees = cheaper comics, or more money for the creators and publishers. I'd sooner pay the people responsible for the title than printers and drivers. (No offense to printers and drivers)
"It is true that that the DVD collections that have been available until recently were at times of a substandard quality as far as scans go. However, they also included all of the adds and letter columns. These things are important in a historical aspect."
And if you go to the warez sites, typically you can find almost all comics in multiple versions, including cover-2-cover versions with ads, and versions with noads as well.
The illegal versions also offer a lot of things that the legit ones don't. For example, the X-Men DVD was the worst because with many of the more recent storylines you can't really follow them unless you also are reading a number of other books. So there are a lot of compilations that have every book you need to read in the correct order for massive crossover storyline X.
http://airshell.com (They've been offline for some time now, but they're fine; the online version is the draft before language-clean-up)
http://www.onlinecomics.net/pages/
It's already there, if you just care to look. I found quite a few when I was making this "Christmas calendar" for my students:
http://fag.grm.hia.no/fagstoff/sveinon/advent/index.asp
(OK, it counts down to the exam and not to Christmas, but you get the idea. Click a number, and find the comic second from the bottom.)
If the publisher thinks it uneconomical to put the comics online for free, why not (for example) put a coupon of some sort in each dead-tree comic book that lets you have a certain number of downloads, or gives you a subscription for a certain amount of time. It could also give you a 10% discount on the next consecutive book to encourage people to spend money on the whole collection.
If "give it away for free" is too simple, there are lots of things that can be tried to entice the consumer into monetarily rewarding the seller for their hard work. If you're not the imaginative type, there's always ad-supported content. Control-freaking, silly DRM schemes, and brow-beating the customer seems unbelievably stupid though, and I don't exactly see that technique working very well so far...
#2 mentioned Radiohead, who gave their latest album away without an obligation to pay. #2 said they could tour to boost their income, but why would they need to? They made millions of dollars from that "free" album, while it's possible that if they had gone through a copyright cartel to sell that album, they wouldn't have seen a red cent.
Marvel comics in particular has taken a median approach. They now offer all issues to date (for some of their series like X-Men, Hulk, Avengers and a number of other headliners) for sale on DVD-Rom. $50 for every issue of The Incredible Hulk might sound a bit steep but, if you like what you see in the trades it's a steal.
We've recently added support for CBR and CBZ formats on Cruxy, an open digital marketplace, where anyone can sell any digital file at any price, all without DRM.
Here's a sample comic for sale - 50 cents and even licensed under Creative Commons: https://www.cruxy.com/info/13116
I've posted a page of the comic which explains Cruxy a bit better, to Flickr as well: http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2172395070&size=o
"Marvel comics in particular has taken a median approach. They now offer all issues to date (for some of their series like X-Men, Hulk, Avengers and a number of other headliners) for sale on DVD-Rom. $50 for every issue of The Incredible Hulk might sound a bit steep but, if you like what you see in the trades it's a steal."
Except the quality is crap *and* DRMed.
And its not a steal, because in order to follow what's going on in X-Men you typically have to be reading other X books which are not included on the DVD-Rs.
Also, and this may just be me, some of these DVDs are burned on dual layer DVD+-R (8.xx gb) and I had to go to 3-4 different machines before I could find one that would actually read some of the disks.