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I just caught a few issues of Adam Warren's old LIVEWIRES comic and I realized (as have many, many, many people before me) that the way comics are published in the US sort of sucks.
Comics are about content delivery, like TV, but the reason comics cost so much money and TV is free are because of the physical problems of distribution. TV just sails through the sky and the networks make their money on advertising. Comics have to be physically moved which costs money, even though the publishers make the bulk of their money on advertising and licensing.
So why don't comics act more like TV? Comics are relatively cheap, and the big two (Marvel and DC) have recognizable characters who could survive some experimentation.
Why aren't there free digital downloads or subscriber-based downloads using widely-used comics reading software? Suddenly the distribution costs are gone. The fans can still get what they want, but the stories can be published in trades or digests for bookstores and direct distribution for those who want a hard-copy.
Titles like SLEEPER and GOTHAM CENTRAL would be so great with monthly downloads and collected trades that collect each arc. A comic like LIVEWIRES in a digest size with monthly downloads, or even RUNAWAYS, would probably do better in the marketplace than they do. These titles would take an initial hit in readership, but over the long-run the companies would see distribution costs drop, and they might find a new audience or a larger audience for their properties. It wouldn't work for every title but titles that sell 20,000 and under would be perfect.
If it cost $20/month to download a batch of 30 or 40 titles from Marvel/DC/Image I would happily sign on. And some titles like RUNAWAYS, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, ULTIMATES, EX MACHINA, WALKING DEAD or LIVEWIRES are titles I'd gladly blow $10-$15 a pop on digest-sized trades if they came out regularly every 4 months or so. I'd actually prefer this to the current distribution pattern.
So my question is, how would you want your comics in a perfect world? Or are you happy with the way things are (and realize that part of "the way things are" means that comics that drop below 15,000 will probably be canceled: SLEEPER, HUMAN TARGET, etc.) |
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