[...] reassure comic shop retailers concerned about the recent relaunch news, DC is holding a series of meetings around the country. Word has begun to spread that the news [...]

There are a lot of factors that have put comics in the situation they’re in, and yes, price and distribution are two of them. I share your hopes that the marketing is substantial and successful.

Truly, comics are just absolutely unable to gain new readership among people who are just in it for fun because of distribution and price almost exclusively.

Lucas – I agree. I have too much clutter, too many stacks of wood pulp in my life. I want comics cheap, easy and accessible via convenient means. This is like the difference between shooting someone an e-mail and writing them a letter in my eyes. And I think all my comics will be purchased digitally because, if this goes off well, the gauntlet has been thrown. Hey, publishers, I’m online, I’ll meet you there or else I won’t see you at all. I can’t be bothered to accumulate kindling any more than I can be bothered to to send a telegraph.

There are two ways this whole operation could go belly-up: the first is if DC doesn’t market this new launch to new readers of digital media heartily enough, specifically under the premise “Now is the perfect time to jump onboard, even if you’ve never read a comic before” If they don’t send that message, people will think it’s just another nerds-only revamp and won’t bother.

The second is if Generation Y is simply through with comics altogether, which could also be a possibility. I mean, the nickelodeon died off, Vaudeville died off, musical theater is in death throes outside of a loyal contingent of New Yorkers and obsessives… there’s a real chance this medium is just finished. If that’s the case, I think comics will still be published in increasingly smaller and smaller increments, never entirely dying but never flourishing again. But, before we get to that point, we should at least give digital media a good, hard go.

A title like that, or even less superhero connected like Frankenstein, Men of War, and probably Animal Man are books that have no chance in the comic shop market. What will be interesting to see is if there is an audience for comics who will support things like that in digital form (because it sounds cool, has a hero that looks like them, etc.) and the like.

Also isn’t the plan to still discount them $1 4 weeks after release?(not enough but at least its a start)

I’d like to think that that will change once digital becomes more established, but that will take a while.

IMO comics retailers should work as hard as they can to get up-front commitments from their regular buyers because I find it doubtful that DC’s reboot is going to be bringing new customers into the shops, no matter how DC might spin it to the retailers.