Well, this is interesting: DC Comics and ComiXology have released a digital only “omnibus” collection of Warren Ellis and John Cassaday’s Planetary, collecting the entire 27 issue run, along with the 8 page preview story, in one $24.99 digital edition.
The new format – apparently only available for a couple of weeks as part of an experiment, according to ComiXology CEO David Steinberger – somewhat addresses concerns on the part of some critics that the current model of releasing single issues digitally is unwieldy, overly expensive and more complicated for those wishing to read a complete story than it has to be. It’ll be interesting to see how the omnibus – which is cheaper than buying the individual issues, but just slightly (never mind, it’s $1.99 an issue, not 99 cents like I misremembered) – fares in the digital marketplace, but I hope it succeeds, selfishly. I know that I’d rather buy digital collections than individual issues making up an entire run of a particular story.
July 8th, 2011 at 10:38 am
I’m not sure what you mean when you say it’s only slightly cheaper than buying individual issues; Planetary is $2 an issue on Comixology, making the omnibus just under half the price of buying the entire series in single issues.
This is great news, one of my favorite books of all time. I’m so on this.
July 8th, 2011 at 10:51 am
Wow, you are entirely right. For some reason, I thought it was 99 cents an issue.
July 8th, 2011 at 6:45 pm
Great idea, but they need to start advertising the file size along with the price. Some of us have limited monthly download allowances, and limited storage space.
July 8th, 2011 at 7:38 pm
don’t blame them for your file size issue, it’s 600+ pages what did you expect?
I’d love to buy “bulk” books like this in the app. I’ve heard good things about Planetary and will probably buy after I do some research. it’s $25 after all.
digital releases are the future of comics, I apologize for being snarky but that kind of negative talk about such a positive step is counter productive in a world where we all want to see more and better comics produced.
July 8th, 2011 at 9:31 pm
Gee, thanks for showing me how to be positive, Jim. I actually do expect them to be big downloads, which is why I was making the point. I would like to know before I commit to buy, how large the file will be. If it’s not a problem for you, perhaps you could just ignore my concerns.
July 9th, 2011 at 8:04 am
Thanks for posting about this. I’ve always wanted to read Planetary, and this is the perfect format for me to do so. Bought it last night and looking forward to reading it over the weekend.
July 9th, 2011 at 12:55 pm
I’ll probably buy this just to support the initiative and see more releases like this.
July 9th, 2011 at 8:38 pm
I bought this and it’s fantastic. Cassaday’s art is superb in the digital format. I hope hope hope this catches on. Daddy wants an Ex Machina Digital Omnibus, please.