How Marvel, DC Comics move into the digital age

[Rob]

Or as I like to call it... incredibly stupid comic publishing executives still don't get it... continue ostrich syndrome... pray for Steve Jobs to save them.

By way of the Chicago Sun-Times

http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/2111569,dc-marvel-digital-comics-031910.article

Am I alone here or are these not the dumbest people this side of a music executive?

[Dragon Powered]

Actually, I don't see it as all that silly.  They say they are waiting for the wave of media devices to settle on a format that would be ideal for reading digital comics.  Right now there are dozens of ways to get them, and none can be considered ideal.  We as webcomickers experience this first hand.  We try all kinds of different publishing ideas hoping to find our bit of nirvana, but what might be wildly successful for one comic doesn't work at all for everyone else who tries it.

Reading comics on the printed page feels completely different than reading them online, or on a tablet or a 2.5 inch phone screen.  It feels natural, and spending an afternoon turning the pages of great printed comics is more pleasurable than spending the same time clicking the 'next' button.  I'm sure that's one reason why fans buy our printed versions.

Naturally they want to protect their product as well.  As soon as they put something out there a huge chunk of people are going to steal it, so they want to find a way to monetize that.  I can see their reasoning.

[Rob]

I must respectfully disagree.

In business you either adapt or you get left behind. First DC Cancelled CMX. Now they've cancelled Zuda. Both of those exercises, while from a content perspective were focused on bringing in new and independent creators they were an opportunity to establish a standard at which to present comics for DC to work off of. Instead of playing with that and taking a leadership role in the digital conversion they instead looked upon these projects as failed experiments because they didn't make loads of money and cancelled them.

How many different phones came out last year? Last month? Last week? How about PC's? How many different kinds of monitors? What about televisions?

Waiting for things to change until the "right time" is like "Waiting for Godot". Especially with technology. It will never arrive.

And so many of them seem be waiting for the killer device, that killer infrastructure to just magically come along and save them. To marshal them into the digital publishing age when they show no desire to be there on their own steam. They want that perfect solution, no piracy, lot's of profits and they want to protect their brick and mortar business model. The idea as far as they are concerned is if whatever happens digitally doesn't increase the overall sales rather than pulling from column A (that brick and mortar distribution) and adding to column B in comparable amounts (column B being digital publication sales) it isn't worth the risk to the established brick and mortar infrastructure.

I mean... honestly, I don't want to come off too cynical and I don't know how many corporate exec types you know but I can tell you from my own personal experience that these guys don't give two mouse farts in the wind about the brick and mortar "institutions" they wax so romantically about. If they could be guaranteed a dramatic, sustainable profit increase they would sell out those stores they care so much about in about ten seconds. Maybe less. And not lose a moment's sleep over it.

The brick and mortar distribution model works for them. It's their safety net. It's what they run back to every time they dip their toe into digital publishing and find the water too cold. They are afraid of them and afraid for them and it's as simple as that. The relationship is symbiotic and they don't want to lose that safety net in case they screw up the digital part and destroy the brick and mortar in the process.

Reading on a printed page only feels natural to us DP because we are old. LOL. There is a whole generation coming of age right now that have read more on line that they have in print and their kids... I'll be surprised if they will know what a book looks like. Look at how much digital distribution of content has changed in the last ten years... imagine how much it will change in the next ten.

While I agree that the tactile sensation of reading a comic in hand is preferable as a comic fan I can tell you that I stopped buying them a long time ago because the prices were too high, I didn't have room to continue to store them all, the stories were getting repetitive and I was tired of the trip to the store when I felt there was more engaging content for free on line.

Gunnerkrigg Court for example has one of the best stories I've ever read in comics. Powerful, relate able characters with fantastic settings and engrossing story lines. For free.

I grew up reading Batman, Superman... my favorite The Flash. DC was always my preference and I'm still interested in the characters enough to check out the Wikipedia plot aggregates from time to time.

But here is what comics needs to do to recapture my business (and not just mine... these moves would bring many people back and intro a whole new generation to the stories and characters we all loved growing up).

• Slash prices. This crap that Marvel is pulling with charging more for a digital comic than they do for the print version is insulting to consumers and pisses me off. Yes I get that you need to build the infrastructure to deliver digital content but you aren't going to do it on my back. No store and no printed version means no transportation/shipping, no raw materials, no middle men distributors and no sharing of profits with the store. Share that reduced cost with me and recognize that I don't have a permanent, tangible copy of the document by charging me less than the printed version and you'll get my attention.
• Do your best to protect yourself against piracy and then let it the hell go. People already pirate the comics by scanning them. People will continue to pirate your comics no matter what you do. Make it difficult for the common "Joe" to rip off your stuff and give it to all his friends and you will be way ahead of the game.
• Stop pussyfooting around waiting for that perfect way to present a comic digitally and make up your mind and DO SOMETHING. Millions of people read webcomics every day. Thousands of them. They don't always fit the screen. The websites are ugly and often broken. You have to scroll to read the entire comic and sometimes if you have a crappy monitor the colors might be a bit off. Those of us who want to read the story don't care. We continue to show up. Engaging, constant content has a way of making that happen.
• Stop acting so high and mighty ad get down in the dirt with the rest of us. By licensing out their trademarks to third parties they give away large chunks of their profits for merchandise sales for no reason other than they don't want to be seen as merchandise salesman. Open your own store, sell your own crap and use a fulfillment service to handle the heavy lifting. Keep more of your money. When someone comes to you with a great merch idea buy it off them rather than licensing them. Keep more of your money.
• Stop making shitty movies. It's shocking how bad the companies that make movies for a living are at making movies based on existing intellectual property. They ignore canon, hire directors who have never heard of the hero much less have read a comic book, bring in actors laughably wrong for the part, ignore the suggestions of the guys who have actually been successful in writing and creating stories for these characters for years (sometimes decades) and generally seem to do whatever they can think of to try and sink their own ship and piss of existing fans at the same time. The big comic book companies make asslodes of money. Get some investors, open a production company, make the movies yourself. Let the assholes you just fired distribute it for you. They'll be glad for the breadcrumbs and as crappy as they are at making movies they are fantastic at marketing them.

Ok that last one wasn't so much aimed at digital presentation as my unresolved rage over Spiderman 3. I mean, Topher Grace... really? The scrawny wimp from That 70's Show as Eddie Brock? What the F? And don't even get me started on emo Peter.

What the comics industry is doing is based upon the same failed ideas the music industry had before they got sundered by Napster and file sharing in general. They've been lucky so far that it's harder to scan in a comic book than it is to upload a CD but as technology marches on and leaves them further and further behind they are going to have a harder and harder time catching up. How long before the Comics version of the RIAA is suing college students for downloading Green Lantern comics?

I believe that may happen before we see any intelligent sea change in the comics industry with respect to digital publication.

And the IPad is not going to save them any more than AOL saved the internet. No matter how many times they use corporate buzz words to describe it and call it a "game changer" the only thing that will really change the game in digital publishing for the big companies is someone having the balls to make some bold decisions and take some chances.

This sort of thing is EXACTLY like what I saw back in the mid 90's when digital distribution of movies started effecting the video stores of the world (I was a store mgr for Blockbuster). We got marketing briefings back then that foretold the coming of pay per view, on demand and even things like Red Box almost fifteen years before they became ubiquitous. How many mom and pop video stores are gone now? Heck how many chain stores like Blockbuster are gone? I know of four in four towns that have disappeared. 2 Blockbusters, 1 Hollywood Video and one Tommy K's (Tommy K's is a somewhat large chain throughout New England although it's a lot smaller and moving into Tanning Stores now).

Even back then, 14 years ago, Blockbuster saw the writing on the wall and started doing everything they could to protect themselves from pay-per-view, on demand and heavy retail DVD sales by discounters like Best Buy. They got sweet price reduction contracts, sought legal guarantees on preferential release dates and started slashing overhead. It didn't work though. And in another ten years I can't see a "video store" type business being a viable business model anywhere. Technology and cost reduction, again through increased technology passed it by. Movie theaters have been able to stay in business (barely) because of the "experience" of going to the movies and sharing the movie with a bunch of friends and strangers. I don't think anyone can say that about a trip to the video store and I seriously doubt that will be the case for comic book stores (no matter how much Wednesday is like a "mini convention") who, for many of them, are already heavily invested in Manga, Role playing and Card Games and Miniatures, Licensed Merch and gaming accessories because comics aren't paying the bills and you need to diversify if you want to make ends meet.

And the same thing will happen to book stores and yes comic book stores eventually. Places like Amazon will continue to do very well but the cost of distribution and middle men in the supply chain will make the price of keeping brick and mortar viable untenable and unsustainable. I'm not suggesting print will go away. I don't think it ever will. But the time will come when it will be far more obscure. And that time is coming.

The only real question at this point... and I really feel the answer is up in the air, is whether or not the Comic Industry will survive the whirlwind when it comes. If they keep denying that it's coming I don't care much for their chances. There are too many of us already here doing too much good work. They are taking a real chance at being supplanted if they don't get themselves together.

[ran]

I was reading through your latest response, Rob, and I was in total agreement with you up until you said this:

and I seriously doubt that will be the case for comic book stores (no matter how much Wednesday is like a "mini convention") who, for many of them, are already heavily invested in Manga, Role playing and Card Games and Miniatures, Licensed Merch and gaming accessories because comics aren't paying the bills and you need to diversify if you want to make ends meet.

A small back story: I've been working at a comic book store for going on five years. Our store has been around for 20 years, and we've expanded to two locations in our city. The staff is small and pretty close knit, and the owner makes sure we all know where we're selling, and where we need work. We're doing pretty fantastic despite the economy--better than last year, better than the year before, and we are NOT the only game in town.

Our daily breakdowns are pretty comprehensive, and I can tell you without a doubt that despite the other stuff we sell (manga, statues, toys, card games, sports carts, wacky stuff), comics are our number one seller, each and every day. We don't have those things because comics 'aren't paying the bills', we have them because they draw different crowds and expand our customer base.

Years ago, when manga was a brand new thing that was hard to get (our store imported them--they were super expensive, and Japanese language only), we started to see our first waves of younger girls coming in to our store, on their own. I was one of them, actually. And now there's enough of a market for it that we bought out a vacant store next to our main store and opened 'The Anime Stop'--in our anime stop, we sell ONLY stuff from Japan--it has its own market, business is great, and it has been open for four years now. We have this whole new younger female audience who is just eating it up.

We invest in these things because we see a market for it--it's a pretty niche market at that. While there are other comic book stores in my town, none of them has our selection, and outside of those two other stores, the people in my city would have nowhere but online to buy them. You can't get D&D books at Walmart, and while you can get them at Chapters/Borders, you can't buy dice, or dice bags, or miniatures, or paints for miniatures, or brushes or game mats, or markers for those, and so on. You get the picture.

tl;dr Comic book stores don't sell stuff that's NOT comics because comics just aren't selling.

[Rob]

My assertion is that comics ALONE would not pay the bills. There's a reason that comics shops have those other items and it is as you said, to bring people who would not normally not come, in. To diversify. There's no doubt in my mind that comics are the best seller but my personal belief is that most comic shops would not be able to survive without the additional income from those diversifications and additional people, who are brought in who are brought in by those diversifications and buy other things but also buy comics.

There's also a theory right now regarding the lipstick economy that tries to explain why smaller purchase items like comics and conventions are doing so well. As the economy recovers chances are this boom won't last.

It's just my opinion though.

[Gibson]

There's also a difference that I've been noticing between comic shops in the US and in Canada. It's not huge, but it's there and it makes arguing finer points very dodgy. You're both right, I should say, and I've actually been to Ran's store. Cool shop.

But to the point about waiting for tech to be right, the iPad screen is the size of a comic book. I'm not sure how much more right they want it to be, it's the same size.

[Funderbunk]

I have to say, I always get the feeling people largely overstate the shift from buying analog to buying digital, from buying CD to buying MP3, from buying paper to buying e-books, etc. I have no numbers to back this up, but I think it's usually the vocal minority who does this making it seem a lot bigger than it is. The silent majority seems mostly content to buying a physical copy of their CDs, comics, novels, etc.

The shift is happening, but it's for the most part not from buying physical copies towards buying digital copies. For the most part it's from buying physical copies towards illegally downloading digital copies. People will always prefer what's free, but if it comes down to buying something I think they still much prefer something they can hold to something that, in the end, is still just a bunch of ones and zeroes that you'll probably lose the next time your computer crashes or when the service ends. Especially once the video game companies who have "you can only play when you verify your authentic account by connecting to our servers" type DRM start going out of business and people will lose products they bought. That's when it will really start to go downhill, because people will quickly start losing faith in digital products.

I know someone's going to bring up iTunes, which is really the only one that's properly succeeded so far, but iTunes works because they provide a service that buying CDs doesn't - picking individual songs. A lot of people don't want to pay for and have to wade through a lot of crappy songs because they like one or two, and you can't buy them all as singles.

I think the internet thinks it's far more important than it is. I always use movie hype as an example. Avatar was almost universally panned on the internet, but it still made almost 3 billion dollars. On the other hand, Snakes on a Plane was the biggest cult thing to happen to the internet, but nobody went to see it.

Of course, I might be wrong about all this and just wasted 20 minutes typing a reply that makes no sense whatsoever.

[Gibson]

I know someone's going to bring up iTunes, which is really the only one that's properly succeeded so far

It feels like you're being a little myopic when it comes to digital products and focusing too much on the "purchase" and neglecting the "rental". iTunes is maybe the only model that's worked successfully on a massive scale in buying music specifically, but that's only one kind of model for distributing commercial art digitally. Netflix has a huge and growing library of streaming movies, Hulu is doing very well offering streaming television, Pandora and Rhapsody and coming up as well. That's not even to mention the gaming platforms all have wildly successful online elements. All of this is one-time use and all successful models.

You're right that buying digitally is still the minority that is being made to seem bigger than it is by hype, and as someone who has run a retail CD/DVD seller for a few recent years, there is not the echoing chasm of customers, but even those retailers sell access to digital versions. It's not about a mass defection, but about a new method of delivery. Personally, I hope Marvel and DC stay off the internet forever, since as soon as they do it increases my competition to get noticed about a thousand-fold and the very industry if webcomics will be forever polluted, but in the meantime they're missing out on a section of comic readers, specifically webcomic readers who, seemingly for the most part, don't knock themselves out to read paper comics.

[Beyla]

Marvel's tried webcomics before, Gibson.  It did not pan out well for them, if anyone remembers the Wolverine strip.  The online is a different beast and the reading habits for browsing strips are different than the habits of sitting down to a 22 page chunk at a time.

[Gibson]

They're not on it now was my point. The fact that "the online" is different was also my point in that they're missing out on that audience. Also, not all webcomics are strips.

[JGray]

Indeed. Marvel is doing digital right now. DC has deals with both Apple and Sony. They're still exploring how to use the technology and, in truth, the technology is only now just catching up. Gibson made a good point. Tablet computers like the iPad are the first mobile technology (not counting laptops) made to order for comic books.

Will digital succeed? Will it overtake print? Who knows. The world's still in transition... especially the print world... and we don't know yet where the border between digital and hard copy will eventually land. Don't count out the publishers yet.

By the way, I liked Topher Grace as Eddie Brock. I thought he made a good, psycho anti-Peter. I just don't think Venom was good for the plot. As a villain he was tacked on.

[Rob]

By the way, I liked Topher Grace as Eddie Brock. I thought he made a good, psycho anti-Peter. I just don't think Venom was good for the plot. As a villain he was tacked on.

Heresy! Madness! Eddie Brock was like a crazy Flash Thompson. All muscle and good looks and CRAZY. There was never any threat of violence in Topher Grace's Eddie. He was just a whiny Peter who was willing to break the rules. The Sandman was the only thing that was well cast in that film but they made him too likable by trying to redeem him.

But opinions vary I suppose. I really like Topher Grace in other things I've seen him in. But you will never convince me that he was right for that role. 

[Gar]

I thought Topher Grace would have made a good Peter Parker, but now they can't cast him when the other guy dies

One thing print comics have over webcomics is that you can't collect webcomics in the same way as print comics. It's by no means the entire audience, but there are people who buy comics at least in part because of speculation on future collectors value. A guy I went to school with has a comics collection that's now worth over a quarter of a million Euro. Makes me wish I'd gotten into keeping stuff in cardboard-backed mylar bags when I was a kid.

[Funderbunk]

Actually, wasn't the original Eddie Brock pretty scrawny too until he started building muscle after losing his job? Anyway, I think Topher Grace did a good job on playing Eddie Brock. He was a sleazeball and a perfect character to get the idea that being bad works into Peter's head. Whether he and the special effects and the script did a good job on Venom, that's a whole other story. It doesn't really bother me too much, because I'm far too busy being bothered by what Fox did to Deadpool.

I know someone's going to bring up iTunes, which is really the only one that's properly succeeded so far

It feels like you're being a little myopic when it comes to digital products and focusing too much on the "purchase" and neglecting the "rental". iTunes is maybe the only model that's worked successfully on a massive scale in buying music specifically, but that's only one kind of model for distributing commercial art digitally. Netflix has a huge and growing library of streaming movies, Hulu is doing very well offering streaming television, Pandora and Rhapsody and coming up as well. That's not even to mention the gaming platforms all have wildly successful online elements. All of this is one-time use and all successful models.

Actually, I did forget to consider the rental option which is actually a really good model. I think it's because most of them are not available over here in the Netherlands.

[Gibson]

most of them are not available over here in the Netherlands.

That's a really good point, though. They're not available in Canada either. The irony is thick that so much piracy is based outside the US but when users try to access the material legally, they're denied it.