Zap! Pow! 0101001110100111! Comics digitize up!
September 1, 2010 8:12 PM   Subscribe

When 2010 comes to a close, there's no question what the biggest comics news story of the year will be: digital comics. It's the only story that stands a good chance of affecting every publisher; no matter who you are or what you publish from superheroes to manga to art comix, the iPad and the pending flood of affordable tablet computers will let you sell all of it to a brand new audience.
Please, Just Kiss Digital Comics On The Mouth Already
posted by Artw (18 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: poster's request. -- jessamyn



 
You are totally smitten with your girlfriend, but you should dump her because your friends say the new girl is hotter? No, I don't think that's an apt comparison.

But digital comics on the iPad are pretty damn great.
posted by robcorr at 8:30 PM on September 1, 2010 [1 favorite]


Didn't Tom Hanks invent this in "Big"?
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 8:35 PM on September 1, 2010 [5 favorites]


I don't know about "apt" but it's fucking stupid. Seriously. There's like ten thousand other, better, less so fucking loaded comparisons he could've made. Seriously. He absolutely derailed the discussion by utter tonedeafness. Is it a Scott Pilgrim reference, maybe? I don't know. It's shitty fucking writing, that's for sure.
posted by griphus at 8:36 PM on September 1, 2010 [3 favorites]


"Don't think this is an apt comparison?"

Prescient.
posted by vidur at 8:45 PM on September 1, 2010


so, like, clarify your residuals and reread that boilerplate?
posted by mwhybark at 8:46 PM on September 1, 2010


"They're the person trying to break up your marriage."

So, digital comics are like bad people?

"What I'm saying here, and the point of that New Girl in the Building example, is that the comics industry needs to be more flexible. Don't choose one over the other; just hook up with digital comics and the Direct Market at the same time."

This should really have come with the NSFW tag.
posted by vidur at 8:53 PM on September 1, 2010 [2 favorites]


.cbr is basically the best format in ever.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:55 PM on September 1, 2010 [5 favorites]


... digital comics are fast, convenient, easy, cheaper, and (if we're being completely honest here) sexier than a lot of retail stores ....

This argument, alone, is not bolstering your claim that they're somehow more worth "committing to".
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:59 PM on September 1, 2010 [1 favorite]


"You don't have to worry about Comic Book Guy behind the counter questioning if Mike Carey and Peter Gross's "Lucifer" is "about gay stuff or what," asking you if that volume of "Prison Pit" is for your boyfriend, little lady, or going off on you for buying "New Warriors" because it supports Marvel's disgusting liberal, anti-troops agenda."

So the theory is that comic vendors have actually been keeping sales down by antagonizing or intimidating their clientele or otherwise making buying comics in person an unpleasant experience? Interesting.
posted by longsleeves at 9:00 PM on September 1, 2010 [2 favorites]


The best thing about digital comics is you can draw little moustaches and monocles and cigarettes on all the characters without ruining the book! Picture Wolverine pouncing through the air towards you - RAAARRRGH! - with a top hat and all his claws are dildos.
posted by turgid dahlia at 9:02 PM on September 1, 2010 [12 favorites]


Fuck this. I've requested the post be deleted.
posted by Artw at 9:02 PM on September 1, 2010 [2 favorites]


.cbr is basically the best format in ever.

As I understand it, it's just a RAR file containing sequential PNGs or JPEGs, optionally with an xml file containing tags or other metadata. Not that I know of an obvious improvement to be made, but it's a pretty bare-bones way to go about it. It certainly doesn't embody any particular cleverness the way RAR, PNG, or JPEG do. Or did you mean it was the best format because it's simple and (basically) DRM-free?

(I say basically because technically the RAR file could be password protected)
posted by jedicus at 9:03 PM on September 1, 2010


Except that if your manga has naked titties, you ain'ta gonna be selling it for the iPad, because Steve Jobs is a prude.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:03 PM on September 1, 2010 [1 favorite]


Fuck this. I've requested the post be deleted.

I know the idea of Dildo-Wolverine may be shocking but it's just make-believe dude :-/
posted by turgid dahlia at 9:05 PM on September 1, 2010 [8 favorites]


I haven't read, say, 99% of Will Eisner's "The Spirit"

Heretic!

I reacted to the "hot new girl" metaphor pretty much the same way everyone else did, but I also thought, "Gee, I must be old."

The comics biz has been on a downhill slide ever since they priced themselves out of the adolescent market. I don't see that vicious circle of low circulation -> low ad revenue -> high retail price -> low circulation ever ending. Digital comics are going to be feeding on the dying carcass.
posted by Jimmy Havok at 9:06 PM on September 1, 2010


It's like reading an article written by a metahuman named Captain Douchebag, and by writing it and publishing it he has given away his own secret identity!

Captain Douchebag!
posted by humannaire at 9:09 PM on September 1, 2010


Fuck this. I've requested the post be deleted.

What?

Except that if your manga has naked titties, you ain'ta gonna be selling it for the iPad, because Steve Jobs is a prude.

Yeah. Although someone could write a generic CBR reading app or something.
posted by delmoi at 9:11 PM on September 1, 2010


Anyway, I've always thought that comic books just cost too much money for the entertainment minutes/$ they are terrible. But apparently the economics of printing and distributing paper in small volumes pretty much makes it impossible to go much lower. E-comics selling for 10¢ or something might be worthwhile.
posted by delmoi at 9:13 PM on September 1, 2010 [1 favorite]


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