It's Not Cheating... When Done Right (Or Taking a Bite Out of Apple)

4/29/14 UPDATE: Now that Amazon is purchasing Comixology and they’ve taken away in-app purchasing, there’s even more of a reason to support your local LCS and make your digital comic purchases through a retailer storefront! Ours is at https://missioncomicsart.comicretailer.com/

 

Us comic book people are a pretty loyal bunch. People are extremely loyal to “their” stores. I know. I bought comics from the same store, Amazing Fantasy for over 20 years. Part of is that every comic book store is very unique, and another part is that comics are a small enough community that it’s pretty obvious we’re all in it together. If we aren’t passionate about a comic, it’ll get cancelled.  If we don’t support a store, it’ll close.

So we love our comics, love our comic shops and love our comic publishers, because we don’t want to see them go away.

So how is the transition to digital comics going to affect this “circle of support”? The truth is we don’t really know.

There’s a lot of talk on the Interwebs about how cheap/free digital comics will bring in ten of thousands of new readers and “save” the industry. People bring up the piracy/4chan interaction fueled success of Steve Lieber’s Underground or the sales numbers on the game spin-off Pocket Gods comic and make conclusions about the messianic powers of digital comics. And there’s no doubt there is a lot of growth potential for digital comics. And with monthly comic circulation numbers in such a low state, creators like Brian Wood are understandably worried about the future of their careers.

But…

My own observations and the excellent insights of fellow retailer Brian Hibbs, lead to me believe that the real future of comics and digital distribution are going to be a lot more complicated and messy. I really can’t see a straight path to a new Golden Age based on the iPad. None of the publishers could survive on today’s digital sales. They need the predictable, “bankable” sales that the Direct Market provides.

From my vantage point, it seems that many of the people switching over to digital comics are hardly “new readers,” but in fact long-term readers looking for more convenience and freedom from their ever growing collections, which sounds perfectly valid. But it’s important to also continue to support retail stores, not just to see stores survive, but to see comics survive.

If you’re buying digital comics, buy from a retailer ComiXolgy store, Mission: Comics’ or really any other digital store. It’s admittedly a little complicated than just purchasing comics through the Comics app, but without taking these steps, 30% of what you pay goes directly to Apple who could care less about the comic book industry.

So here’s what to do:

1. Shop via the web on a retailer digital store - https://missioncomicsart.comicretailer.com/
   
2. Download comic (Sometimes you have to search for it first)
3. Enjoy reading!