Internet personality Abhay talks about online comic purchasing:
Well, some people hate reading stuff off a screen– and maybe there’s something to that beyond preference. Some brain state type thing that I’m unaware of– I know they used to say TV’s put a brain into an alpha state, but I don’t know how good the science is of that, or if that’s true of computers. I don’t know. I’m sure they have their own legitimate reasons. I’m sure Marshall McCluhan could say something interesting about reading in hot mediums v. cool mediums (if he were alive) but I never really understood any of that stuff too much– he was funny in Annie Hall though…
To me, digital comics have three distinct advantages that paper don’t:
1. With the digital copy, it’s easy to archive, organize, and retrieve for re-reading or to check a prior issue. For someone like me with no memory, I like being able to pull up every issue of Title _____ with a mouse-click instead of having to keep the ugly stupid things in my apartment.2. The art displays physically bigger on the screen than it does on paper. The comic page fills up the screen. I find that exciting, personally. I just personally respond to how they look on a screen.
3. You can’t flip ahead to the last page and ruin the comic. Or… you can but it’s much harder. And it turns every page into a right page, if that makes sense. So anytime you turn a single page, the next page can shock you, while with regular comics, the shocks should ideally be on a left page.
But you lose a lot of things, too. Double page spreads are annoying. Layout possibilities narrow. And a lot of the design work that good artists do where the whole page has a certain design to it, you miss out on with the digital copy. There’s no right answers so…
But the digital copy doesn’t necessarily replace the physical copy, anymore than a newspaper strip’s daily availability negates the appeal of the collected editions. They could just be a complementary or even separate market, the same way trades haven’t replaced monthlies or OGN’s didn’t make serials go away or whatever.
Much, much more at the link, as Abhay and others discuss Pullbox and other possibilities.
January 4th, 2007 at 9:49 am
For me, it’s a vision issue. I have bad vision, I’m now middle-aged and have worn bifocals for 10 years already, and my eyes are getting worse. I need special reading glasses just to keep the computer screen clear enough. I work on the computer more than 8 hours a day already. I need to rest my eyes from the screen, and I can’t do that if all comics are online. I read some webcomics, but I prefer print, because it doesn’t hurt my eyes as much. I also get eyestrain headaches already. For those of us who are older, it’s really not simply preference for print as it is NEED for print.
January 4th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Kat has a valid point although I wonder why it’s harder to read things on a (large) screen than in print. The images and lettering can be bigger on the screen and yet I also find it more difficult to read than print. Heck, everyone I work with always finds it easier to read a printed document than reading the on-screen version.
Also there’s the physicality of a floppy/OGN/TPB. It’s not some virtual thing that only exists as binary data on some hard drive. You can pick up a comic and hold it in your hands. You can read it pretty much wherever you are, instantly go to the page you want without having to boot up a PC, let others read it without them having a PC and the software to view the comic and so on.
Pretty much the same reasons why digital data hasn’t replaced books, newspapers and magazines. At least, not yet.
January 4th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
What’s going to happen to comic conventions if there are no physical copies of books to shell out?
January 4th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
You know why Marvel and DC aren’t embracing the jump to online comics? Pirating. If you don’t like Civil War enough to buy it but you still want to read it just to know what’s going on with Marvel(or you like it, but can’t get the new issue because of this week’s recent problems with shipping to the west coast), I’m sure you could find it on BitTorrent and download it illegally, for free. However, not too many people are used to reading their comics online therefore a lot of people don’t consider that avenue so they will have to buy it if they’re so inclined to just find out what happened. Its safe to say that a significant number of sales of Civil War are customers just trying to keep abreast of things in the Marvel U, like myself. Once more and more consumers become comfortable with reading comics online, what’s to stop them from just stealing a copy of it instead of paying for it?
When the online comic becomes a more prevalent force in our world, so will illegal downloading. Even though there is bound to be DRM from the most publishers, cracking it and putting it up on the P2P networks and BitTorrent sites will be all that much easier because Marvel and DC will have already scanned the issue for everyone to repost. Its this drop off in sales that keep the Big Two from taking the next step.
If and when it happens, expect to see more Brick And Mortar stores close with the monthly output of the Big Two probably cut down in half. Titles like She-Hulk and X-Factor will probably be the first to go, with the X and Spider-man titles thinning down to 2 a month. Probably the only ones to benefit from putting their comics online are the independent publishers.