http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/0...ital-big-deal/

Enjoy, iUsers.

Rep to you sir. Nice find.

Rep!

and about time!

I'm floored. Somehow DC ninja'ed this out in the middle of the night with absolutely no fanfare, and immediately shoved everyone else's face in the dirt.

Broad content appeal? You've got everything from Tiny Titans to DCU to Fables.

Price point? Excellent.

Day-and-date? Underway.

Support brick-and-mortar? Covered.

Creator Royalties? You betcha.

Nailed it in one, it seems!

-J

Comic Book Creators Respond to DC DIGITAL COMICS Plans

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/comi...al-100623.html

I kinda saw it coming when DC and Marvel teamed up to take down some of the pirate sites last month. DC previously seemed to have a laissez faire attitude about such things, so I suspected something was up.

It's the same foot that's been in the grave for the last twenty-plus years. Just moved a few inches more.

Yes, sooner or later they're going to tip over and fall, but the singles format has historically been incredibly stubborn.

The next few inches will come from the remaining DC questions:

1) What are their plans for cycling books into the digital pile?
1a) What will be the window before new books appear online?

If I knew that, say, Streets of Gotham would appear online after a six-month to one-year window, I'd drop it from my pull list.

2) Will they be launching an "all you can eat" program like Marvel?

Marvel's one-time payment system makes that kind of archive possible; DC's royalties system might make it nigh-impossible to manage the accounting. Which is a shame, because the Marvel library is incredible.

-J

Which kind of bothers me. Call me a Luddite or somesuch, but nothing will be able to simulate holding an honest-to-goodness funnybook in my hands. Ditto e-readers v. books.

March of progress and all that, I know, and I know that it is a practical, forward-thinking approach, but it still saddens me a bit.

I agree with this. I can't get into e-readers because I like the look and feel of an actual book/comic book in my hands. Nevertheless, I downloaded the DC app to my iPhone and it is a neat tool to have. No way will it ever take the place of the real deal, though.

DC and Marvel would be colossally stupid to give up retail space to be all digital. I wouldn't be counting out floppies just yet.

Let's stop thinking the sky is falling because of digital and try and think of it as an expansion. Or not.

But that's how I think of it.

I've said the only thing that'd get me to buy an iPhone was if they could make one in the shape/decor of a Mother Box.

I don't disagree with you. I just think it's not as eminent as it seems.

When you think of the constantly rising costs of paper, ink and postage it makes sense that DC and Marvel would try to eliminate or mitigate these costs. However, it is better to have a physical presence in the marketplace than not, so it's not going to be anything close to an overnight transition.

As far as my iPhone goes, my daughter rules the screen. That's all the dressing I need there.

Abrupt changes never work. If they were to suddenly offer only digital one day then they'd lose a lot of money. This is just the start of a very long and drawn-out transition that will take years, if not decades, to complete. The majority of their consumers aren't ready to give up the physical books, yet, so they won't. When the majority becomes digital readers (and the sales will show who the majority is), they'll speed up the transition.

While I love the idea of going digital, I just have a hard time focusing when I'm reading something on a screen. If there's a lot to read (or process, in the case of art) then I have to print it out to go through all of it. That's one of the market shifts, though. The printing of material will move to the option of the consumer instead of the obligation of the manufacturer.