Digital Comic Suggestions/Got a new iPad...now what?
Torchsong
Posts: 2,794
So I splurged on myself and got myself one of those newfangled iPad thingys the kids are into. I've successfully set up the Marvel, DC, Comixology, Comic+, and Viz apps on it, and I'm resolved to actually support "the digital initiative" by buying at least one or two titles Day and Date of release.
One of these is easy - Demon Knights. I enjoy it, and I know I plan to buy the trade when it hits. So digital makes sense - I can read and enjoy the story then buy the trade for the "physical copy". I'm also a subscriber to Shonen Jump Alpha, which delivers weekly comics to my pad.
What do you guys (if any of you actually do) read digitally now? I'm thinking I can afford to do maybe one more title. I'm tempted to give Marvel a shot again just so I can compare the differences.
One of these is easy - Demon Knights. I enjoy it, and I know I plan to buy the trade when it hits. So digital makes sense - I can read and enjoy the story then buy the trade for the "physical copy". I'm also a subscriber to Shonen Jump Alpha, which delivers weekly comics to my pad.
What do you guys (if any of you actually do) read digitally now? I'm thinking I can afford to do maybe one more title. I'm tempted to give Marvel a shot again just so I can compare the differences.
Answers
1) I want them to be cheaper (I just can't justify the same price when I don't get a physical copy)
2) I really want a subscription model - I know I want to buy Batman and Spider-man every month. But it's so easy to forget that a new issue is out. Two months could easily go by before I remember. I want to subscribe and have that issue automatically download to my iPad when it's ready. Newstand already supports this feature, so the publishers just need to activate it.
Bry
1. buying an iPad
2. Buying substantially more comics from their company than I currently do, if not the entire line.
I would especially do both of those if I could actually download and own the digital copy rather than be "renting" it.
As for readers, avoid iBooks for now if you read on a small mobile device. They don't have the nifty "panel follow" that the others have yet.
Bry
I'm with you all on the lower price. Maybe I'll wait for the monthly $1 price drop before picking up Demon Knights. A subscription service would be the ultimate way to go, no doubt.
This is a huge step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned.
1) Many more people and non-comic readers are browsing the iBook store than are checking out Comixology. So there is more chance of exposure here.
2) Marvel keeps more of the money and therefore can charge less if they so chose. Apple takes 30% of anything sold via an iDevice. Comixology takes another 50% of what's left over (at least that's my understanding, but different companies might have different contracts). So that's not much left for Marvel. With iBooks, Marvel only surrenders that 30%, leaving the rest for themselves.
3) While it's still DRMed, I have more confidence that Apple will be around in the years to come than I do in Comixology. And we know from Apple's track record that they are not in favor of DRM, so likely they will be pushing the publishers to abandon it as soon as possible. Hooray for freedom.
So go check out the iBook store and see if they having anything you want. Encourage Marvel (and others) to make more things available.
Bry
Bry
I get your point but dislike the thought that everything has to go through Apple. There are so many other devices on the market. Competition is a good thing. I buy and load my media through many different means, including iTunes. And with publishers having more distributors to choose from the prices might drop to a healthy level for all.
But when they start using other companies (like Comixology) that are distributed through the app store, then they have to pay two middlemen. This doesn't make any sense at all. Now that Apple is allowing them to release their books in the iBook store, they should do it and either lower their prices or keep more of the money for themselves, thus making digital more profitable.
In the world of tablets there are very few devices that are gaining any traction at all other than iPad, so for the sake of discussion I'm just going to leave those out and only speak for Apple. I'm all about competition because it only makes my Apple products even better year after year.
Bry
- Holy crap is it ever nice reading comics on this pad! The retina display really makes the colors pop where paper might have muddied them down. This isn't meant to be a slam on paper (I *will* still be buying this in trade format, after all), but damn things looks sweet on this thing.
- I do think $2.99 is still a bit pricey for it. In the future I probably will wait a month to save a buck (and maybe buy more in the process!)
- I also subscribe to Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha which speaks to the subscription model Bryan talked about. Once a week I get 160 pages of comics delivered to my Viz app to download. They're up there for one year (I'm not buying, I'm renting) so it's on me to view said book within that year. So there's no ownership, yet for a nominal fee I have tons of comics to read. I'm so far behind it's not even funny...
Comixology has sales all the time, i check it every day just to see whats on sale. Marvel has one-day $.99 on Mondays and Fridays. I got Siege this way, as well as some issues of Amazing-Spider-Man. DC Has weekend sales pretty frequently. Their biggest so far was for St. Patricks day, they had all versions of the Green Lantern title, Green Lantern Corps, Green Arrow (last 2 series and Longbow hunters), Emerald Warriors, the whole lot for $.99. Before that was Blackest Friday where they had all the Blackest Night and tie-ins on sale. They have sales on indie books during the week over 3-day spans. I got most of Morning Glories this way. I'm pretty happy with the sales they have, I'm usually looking for stories I love to buy digitally, or stuff I haven't read but comes highly reccomended.
You can get the first story at http://graphicly.com/01-publishing/utopiates
I'm thinking I might grab WWH and Geoff Johns' Superman and the Legion Story. $5 for WWH beats the $25 Marvel wants for their trade.
I only just got one so I haven't dipped in yet, and it's such a tiny screen I'm not convinced yet that I'll particularly enjoy reading comics on it.
and then I got this:
who said the world is a village???
L-) :(( :-??