[...] believed by most people, though denied by David himself. A kerfuffle quickly ensued, with little sane ommentary emerging out from amongst the people happily pissing on Scan_Daily’s ashes or [...]

[...] of the many questions coming out of the Scans_Daily shutdown was “Did it really help?” Many S_D readers have said that seeing comic samples [...]

[...] comics fan with a website popped up with an opinion on the matter. Here’s Brigid Alverson, Johanna Draper Carlson, Glenn Haumann, Tom Spurgeon, Christopher Bird (one, two — both getting my vote as the most [...]

The question is whether or not one of the largest comics discussion comms on LJ should’ve been something Marvel keyed into for free advertising rather than shut down.

I, personally, had given up on comics for a few years before exposure to s_d sucked me back into them. Two of of the first new ones that pulled me back in again where Blue Beetle and X-Factor, which I only started picking up because I saw them on the comm.

So, let’s do a breakdown of those shall we?

Blue Beetle – picked up at issue 16, when I saw it on S_D, bought issues until the series’ conclusion at #36. Bought 4 tpbs for myself, 2 as a present for my younger cousin when sales were faltering, because it was a great, easy-to-understand story. That’s $3 an issue, $20 a tpb. Total I spent at my local comic shop since Scans_daily got me hooked on the comic:
$180, for a comic struggling for sales.

X-Factor – Picked up at issue 20 and have been buying since. That’s 20 issues at 3 dollars a pop, plus 3 tpbs at 20 a pop. Total spent since I got exposed to the comic on scans_daily:
$120
(Such irony there)

Incredible Hercules- Picked up after people bitched a lot on s_D about World War Hulk but posted about this great thing that had started to come out of it: Hercules! Coming back to the forefront again, after a while of being kinda in the background. That’s 13 issues at 3 bucks, plus 2 issues of Mighty Avengers I only started picking up because Herc was in them:
$45

Now, I’ve gotten someone ELSE into buying Nova by linking them to the Nova tag on S_D. He still buys every month. I’ve also gotten exposed to other comics via word of mouth–but some of THOSE people that told me about those comics got into those comics on scans_Daily.

But even discounting such word-of-mouth, 3rd-degree-of-separation occurrences, scans_daily is directly responsible for making the Big Two and my local comic shop a grand total of:

$345

That’s not exactly chump change. That’s like, 20 tanks of gas, with my car. That’s enough to buy a dividend reinvestment plan at most companies, especially right now when stocks are low and it’d be a good time to invest. There are MUCH better things I could be doing with my money, but scans_daily was there, and it got me hooked on stuff, and so I cut down on other little pleasures to make sure I had enough for the life necessities and for my comics, which were like little monthly tidbits of joy–and part of the joy was going to s_d to talk to other people on release day.

So, I can’t produce empirical studies that it’s like that for everyone, but at least in one case, scans_daily was directly responsible for making Marvel and DC over 300 dollars.

Should something like that be shut down? Or should something like that be USED?

(And now I’m cutting out my Marvel books in quiet protest, since I was close to dropping them all anyway due to story choices, and them shutting down my fav discussion comm is just the icing on the cake, sooo, they’re not going to be making anything from me. Great sales plan, guys! =D)

They forget that I didn’t OWE them that 345 dollars, and I don’t owe them anything in the future.

Their products are not a life necessity. They can’t really afford to be pissing people off/not taking advantage of every bit of free advertising they can get, because fans are by no means obligated to buy their product when they can easily survive without it, especially right now when many are po’.

Sarah, one problem is that if you follow an LJ using a newsreader, some of them don’t understand the cut tag. Still, you should understand that if you decide to read an LJ that way.

OTOH, when I paid more attention to comics I’d get spoiled by the publishers’ marketing departments than fans.

The publishers have to love a market where the customers are such puppets that without even thinking about the established law of copyright they yelp “It’s infringement!” when sites like this are shut down, though. Next there will be someone announcing that Marvel *had* to do it because they’d lose copyright if they didn’t defend it.

[...] Also, I’ve been watching the discussion on the demise of Scans Daily at LiveJournal, and a lot of the arguments I’ve seen flying around have been perplexing (if not surprising). I can understand objections to scanlations and the sharing of full scans of comics (even if I think those objections often overlook some important points), but objections to the posting of partial scans and discussion baffles me a little. For some very sane discussion on the topic, check out Brigid Alverson at Digital Strips and Johanna Draper Carlson at Comics Worth Reading. [...]

Melinda, you just reminded me of how I picked up Lethargic Lad, which replaced the usual cover with the first page of story, because that little sample convinced me I’d like the book. I know the cover is a long tradition, but I’ve wondered why no one has tried to lure readers with a story cover. (Probably because the direct market has made the sales impact of covers moot.)

I have to admit, I find Gail Simone’s reaction interesting now that I’m reminded how she felt about Spoilt.

I think he has a pretty good point regarding spoilers, at least with regards to #39 & #40

No one is saying that S_D was the only place to learn about new comics, but for my money it was the best.

-LJ is one of the largest social networking sites on the net. Furthermore, plenty of non-comics readers are on LJ, so not only did it seem welcoming to n00bs who might have been curious, but it also lacked the “secret treehouse” atmosphere that a lot of other comics boards have.

-The interface is prime for sharing images and, unlike other forums, it is possible to hold multiple conversations on the same post without getting bogged down with quote boxes and having other conversations mixed in.

-Unlike Newsarama and CBR, who have their content fed to them by the publishers, S_D could be far more democratic. If only one person thought a comic was worth looking at (be it from the Big 2, small press, or webcomic), it could get face time.

-S_D was also frequently used to share comics that were out of print, especially ones that had never been collected into trades.

I agree it had its problems and should have had stricter rules and been better moderated, but it’s sad to think that such a vibrant community was shut down without warning and without a chance to fix itself.

You’re using a garbage edit of Wikipedia by a moron out for vengeance to defend your argument!?

Epic fail.

Tor is also making portions of their catalog available for free as well.