Digital Comics on the iPad
Here’s something I wrote back in 2011.
When Steve Jobs got on stage and pulled the little black cloth off the original iPad, the first thing I wanted to see on it was a Green Lantern comic. As a kid, I was a huge comic book nerd and the iPad seemed like the perfect vehicle to usher in the digital age of the comic book era. The big two comic book publishers were relatively slow to embrace the digital revolution but that’s changing. Last week, Marvel finally followed in DC’s footsteps and announced that the digital version of their periodicals would be available for download the same day that their analog brethren become available in stores. In addition, both DC and Marvel have started converting their classic books to iPad-friendly formats. For comic fans, this is a very encouraging change. It’s pretty obvious that the proliferation of the iPad signals a clear trend for digital publishing and if the big comic publishers didn’t get on board, they’d get left behind.
Something’s Missing
The availability of my favorite comics on my iPad is great, but something’s missing. If you collect comics, you don’t want just one or two of a run. You want to collect them all. Publishers need to embrace this mindset and take full advantage of the Newsstand feature in iOS. As a kid, it was fun to go to the shop to get the book the day it came out. It was always such a bummer to miss one. As an adult, I just don’t have time for that. Plus, the growing physical collection of comics is kind of a source of discourse in my household. As a fan, the addition of Newsstand support would make it easy to keep up with all of my favorite story lines. I could launch my Comixology app and all the titles I didn’t have time to manually download would be there waiting for me. I wouldn’t miss anything and I wouldn’t have to think about anything. The perfect combination. As a publisher, how nice would it be to have all those recurring subscriptions? Whatever profit the publishers lose by paying Apple, they surely will recoup with lower manufacturing and shipping costs. Plus, it’s not like the comic book shops don’t take a cut.
You Can’t Have Everything
All of this presents somewhat of an internal conflict for me. Some of my favorite memories as a kid come from comic book shops and swapping books with my friends. As the digitalization of comics becomes more and more popular — both with consumers and publishers — less and less books will be printed. That kind of sucks. The iPad does a lot of great things for experiencing comics. You can keep thousands of books with you at all times. Colors stay vibrant and images stay sharp through the years. If you keep your data backed up, you don’t have to worry about losing your collection. It’s pretty much everything comic lovers have wanted. As good as the iPad is at facilitating all of these things, there are a couple of things it can’t reproduce. Most notably, my favorite thing about comics — the smell. I love the way new books smell and even more, I love they way they smell after a few years. Nerdy, I know. But it’s true. Life is about experiencing things with all the senses you have and one of my favorite things about collecting as a kid was the smell.
Another casualty of the digital revolution would be the brick-and-mortar store. Comic book shops would all but completely go away. Some people would still buy physical books but that demographic is quickly shrinking. Without the demand for physical items, the store goes away. It happened with the rise of iTunes and music shops and it will certainly happen with comics, as well. Of course, a handful of shops that cater to the hardcore collector will remain, but the smaller ones will fade away and that makes me a little bit sad. I honed my negotiating and bargaining skills on my dad almost every weekend when I wanted to go to my favorite shop at Trader’s Village. I’ll always remember visiting Wizard Comics in South Dakota with Josh and Jordan. The thought that places like that won’t be around for future generations is a little disheartening, but such is life.
I’m just thankful that the publishers are starting to adapt and hopefully keep bringing us their stories for a long time to come. Regardless of the medium.