Potential read-of-the-day: Mark Millar explaining why he’s against simultaneous day-and-date print and digital releases for comics:
I really think day and date release is a disastrous idea and makes no economic sense at all to comics as a business. It’s potentially ruinous for comic stores, and in the long term it’s not going to do publishers any favors either. I see the attraction on a very superficial level. They think they’re cutting out the middle men and all the guys taking a piece of their gross, but there’s an equivalent number of hidden costs in digital too, and it’s short term thinking to obliterate the life-blood of the medium.
There’s a lot, lot more in the piece itself, which I highly recommend checking out.
I can see where Millar’s coming from, but I think he’s wrong in a number of places; if nothing else, I think the experience of DC’s New 52 launch has pushed back significantly against the idea of simultaneous print/digital releases as “potentially ruinous” for comic stores, considering print sales rose dramatically across the line (in the short-term, at least. Long-term, of course, it remains to be seen what’ll happen), and I think he’s ignoring a sizable new audience by writing off digital as a tertiary market akin to movies playing on television years after release – Haven’t both Marvel and DC indicated that digital audiences seem to be in addition to, and not replacing, the direct market readership in their experience?
That said, I kind of love his commentary about the importance of good direct market retailers:
Retailers are as big a part of comics now as the characters or the creators. They’re not just an outlet. These are carefully crafted communities and owned and staffed by people with a genuine passion for what they’re doing in a way that the ‘Amazon Also Recommends’ box isn’t quite going to match.
Seriously, go read the piece. Agree or disagree with him, I think this might be the kind of thing we need more of to have a real conversation about where digital fits in with the current comic industry, and where it should fit in going forwards.
November 24th, 2011 at 5:28 am
the thing that i can never get past in these arguments is that whether you (creators/companies) sell digital copies or not, they are being created and distributed anyway. the only difference is that no one makes any money off of it. and i think the music industry has proven with itunes is that even if there is an easy, illegal way to procure the same product, there are many, many people who will pay, provided they have someone to pay.
November 24th, 2011 at 9:24 am
while its not really relevant to digital comics its probabbly worth noting that millars analogy to tv rights doesnt make work considering that dvd sales and selling tv rights actually make more profit for films than cinemas do
November 24th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Direct market disastrous, and main cause of the big collapse of comics last couple of decades. MAKE COMICS AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE AGAIN!