Since I’m a cheapskate who likes saving money, I’m always about paying less, especially when it comes to digital (you’re cutting out a lot of middlemen, so by all means you shouldn’t be charging as much), but as someone totally new to comic books, I have to disagree with a lot of the veteran sentiments here. Digital comics, even if they’re priced the same as physical copies, are a big draw for a newbie like me for several reasons:

1. Convenience. I’m not someone who frequents the comic shops, and considering the crowd I’ve seen there before, I’m not sure I’d want to frequent them. I’m not trying to be mean, but since I’m not someone you’d consider to be the “target demographic” for comics, I’d stick out like a sore thumb. I don’t want the attention.

2. Space. I have enough clutter in my house as it is, so starting up a comic collection would take up a lot of room and attract a lot of dust, fast. Keeping everything digital keeps it nice, clean, and organized. I’m also not planning on being a serious collector, so for the one or two series I’d like to read each month, digital works for me.

3. Availability. If you have a tight schedule or don’t want to drive 20 minutes to find the nearest comic shop, only to discover the issue you wanted is on back order, digital is a nice solution for getting day-one access without the hassle.

So overall, coming from someone who is a newbie, owns a tablet, and is very interested in the strides DC is taking to expand the universe by including more diversity and dropping some of the continuity baggage, I think they’re taking at least a few right steps. Like I said, I’m always about paying less for stuff, but I certainly think that as a working adult I can spare $3 a month to read an issue here or there.

[...] spots before midnight (the official print release time)? They provide better service and a LOT better pricing — $4 for a double handful of digital pages? [...]

[...] is now the same as if you would buy a hard copy of the issue in a store unless done so via the combo pack DC will be offering for only a dollar or so more. ($4.99 will get you a physical copy of the comic as well as a code to [...]

[...] histories are of limited value. Plus, they’re now competing with digital (although, given the too-high pricing, not as much as they might have had to worry [...]

[...] a comparison! For $3.99, you can get almost 200 digital pages of manga, or 40 pages of online superheros. The Viz app, although limiting its audience technically by not providing Android or web versions, [...]

The majority of comic shops are now located in major metropolitan areas. Those of us who don’t live within a reasonable driving range either have to order our comic online or buy them digitally.

When I heard about the recent news about DC relaunching the books, I thought this would be a good time to check out some books which I haven’t read in years due to all the back history and continuity weighing the characters down. But when I heard about the prices the digital versions would be, I can’t help but wonder why DC would take such a major step forward only to take two steps back with the pricing.

I realize comic shop retailers are a vital part of their business, but if comic publishers are going to grow their readership then they need new readers which digital comics can give them. I have no evidence to back this up but I can almost guarantee there have been more people trying or getting back into comics because they are available digitally compared to someone finding a comic book store, let alone venture into one. That isn’t meant as a knock against comic shops but as I mentioned earlier, comic shops are few and far between. And even then, few are on the level of, say, The Beguiling or The Golden Apple.

So I applaud DC Comics for taking the plunge into digital comics but they seriously need to reconsider this whole pricing thing or it will all be for nothing.

The fact that the old way stopped working back in 1992 and it’s just taken until now for the corpse to stop twitching.

I mean, how does the big two make money at digital?

They’re lacking the printing shipping and storage costs for physical copy. There’s a good chunk of the cover price gone right there. I’d be surprised if the digital distributor’s cut came out to anywhere near that. But you never know.

If they really want new readers, they need to do the one thing they’re not:
Offer non-superhero material (This would have been a better market for their Minx line than the direct market). Offer it at a price that may entice the curious. Offer it to people who aren’t them and people like them.

That is: They’re all fans, these comic publishers. They all come from fan culture. They think like fans. And fans want everyone to like the same things they do, just on the their terms. They don’t want to change anything in order to appeal to the public. They want to public to go to them. That’s why they’re offering yet another Wonder Woman comic that no one was interested in before and won’t be interested in again. Because maybe THIS time everyone will admit they were wrong and the fan/ creators DO have perfect tastes in entertainment.

So as a way to entice new readers, they will fail to gain traction with digital no matter how cheap they offer it, simply because they’re not changing a damned thing about what they do. It just looks like they are to the comics bloggers because any change, no matter how superficial, is scary to a fan.

Meh.

I can “maybe” see it being helpful to the little publishers, the indapendents.

“I suspect that DC didn’t want to look like it was burning bridges in the Direct Market. If this doesn’t work, they’ll need that outlet to survive. (Of course, if they set things up from the start so they won’t work, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.)”

Exactly. I mean, how does the big two make money at digital? I guess I’m too old to get this stuff but if no one wants to pay the hard copy price for digital and if all the people saying hardcopy is dying or dead or soon to be dead are right and everything eventually goes digital, then won’t that mean a huge drop in profits for the big 2 and less money for the creators as well?

I guess this all hinges on the idea that more people will be fans of comic books because they’re digital and more easily available or something. But won’t the people that never liked comics still not like them? Are there really that many people out there with this nagging curiousity about comics who have been waiting for digital so they can read one? Won’t it be relatively the same audience? Where are the numbers that encourage people to think that digital will bring in an audience massive enough to offset the lower prices that the companies would have to sell them at to get this new audience? (these aren’t rhetorical questions by the way, I’d really like to know because I really don’t get it. I feel like my parents trying to figure out the dvd player)

This seems like a clear display of complete lack of faith in the future of digital by comic companies. And I can’t blame them for wanting to cover their buts on this.

On the other hand, I really don’t need to get back in the habit of buying superhero comics, so this is probably a good development for me.

I would have done such a deal anyway….

Now I’ll just wait to see what sounds good and get the TPBs.

MC, interesting. I wasn’t aware of that experiment. It does seem to me as though comics is one of the few media where a buyer would want both print and digital copies (given the collectibility aspect).

Sadly, I don’t find it terribly surprising that DC are keeping the price-parity with the print editions but it most likely means that the initiative will be ultimately be a failure in terms of attracting new readers since I can’t imagine most people paying that much for a comic book.

I’m also wondering if all of the new launches will be $4 oversized issues like Justice League though. If they are, I think would be another bad move but that just seems par for the course for DC at this point, which is disappointing because the day-and-date digital kind of got me hoping that DC would take some actual chances and maybe improve the overall comics market and instead of just pandering to the DM.