The Sleepers Awake
by Frank Santoro
Monday, April 5, 2010
We don’t do much “Comics Business” news here at Comics Comics, but I thought it was interesting to see this article run in BusinessWeek today. It’s about apps for the iPad that Marvel/Disney and other companies are offering for digital downloads of comics. I know the end of standard “floppy” comics is still a ways off, but when I read articles like this in the mainstream press I get antsy. If new comics day and comics shops start to go away because of downloads (recall how many record stores closed within a couple years of the iPod being released) we will all be affected somehow. Just sayin’. Not trying to sound alarmist or start some crazy comment thread section. My dad emailed me the BusinessWeek article and it made me think that if my dad is reading about it then something is really shifting.
Labels: the bizness
Comics moving to a digital platform could do a lot of good to the business model of selling stories in the comic book format by way of delivery systems and how the revenue percentages breakdown for publishers. I don’t think it’ll completely wipe out the printed form of comic books. Though, depending on the success of the digital versions, the printed form will probably have to adapt to a new marketplace, particularly for the Big Two, I think, to strike some kind of balance. Radio is still around in spite of TV. People still go to the movie theaters despite VHS/DVD/Blueray. Books have survived centuries of new media advancements. The fetishistic aspect of comic book collecting is a compulsion not soon destroyed.
My point is about stores going away. If periodical comics soon have both platforms it’s only a matter of time before sales of floppies go down which will affect the stores a great deal.
99% of comic stores are out of touch, lumbering dinosaurs and wouldn’t bother me one iota if they went away tomorrow, and the remaining 1% are the top of the line, could-hang-out-in-all-day type stores that will never go away, no matter how much the market shifts, because of their dedicated consumer base.
Yah, I hear you, but those old stores are where I hunt for my back issues. All over the states. And I would be sad if they went away. And, y’know, even a badly run dinosaur of a store still has an owner with a family and such, so that would suck if they took a hit.
For someone like you, who likes to dive into back issues, I think something like the iPad (and its equivalents) will only be a boon as likeminded people such as yourself scan and upload comics for others to read and check out (I think the morality of this with regards to the kinds of comics we’re talking about is moot — no one’s making any money regardless and the wider exposure can only help forgotten, obscure artists). I know the very act of searching and finding the physical object carries a lot of the fun, but I think the very concept of digital media has thrown a big question into a lot of people’s faces: which do you ultimately want more, to read/see/hear the art or to have/hold/own the art? ANYWAYS I wouldn’t get too worried about it yet.
Yeah, I agree with you about the stores shutting, Frank. Netflix has done extreme damage to the numbers of video rental places. The best, most intelligent of those stores still manage to survive and hopefully the same will be true for comic book shops. I think the ritualistic experience of going to the comic shop, sifting through back issues or perusing the “racks” or shelves, gathering a few choice items and reading through a newly purchased stack of comics at home is something that will continue. There’s enough diehards right now to keep the momentum consistent. But that is at least until a forthcoming generation, reared on the iPad or some other device’s system of acquiring comics and not accustomed to the comic book shop ritual, terminates it.
i really think that any brick and mortar store that has survived the last 15 years of predatory pricing from online sellers will be able to weather digital downloads. plus, the availability of the medium across multiple platforms could have a rising-tide-floats-all-boats effect in terms of getting people interested in comics who might then shop at a comics store for other items, instead of a zero-sum trade off between digital sales and print sales. hopefully, at least.
The idea that being able to scan a comic and read on an ipad easily, would be a boon for folks that back issue hunt, is kind of ridiculous. Half the reason for back issue shopping is the hunt. Going through that long box of impact and valiant comics and coming across an issue of Von Eden’s run on World’s Finest, is the main reason I do the back issue hunt. I love going through boxes of crap and finding the one awesome comic. I do it for the fun of it, and then buy the cheap shit and send it to a friend. I have an all Nino Creepy i found for a buck in a stack of Conan’s. How can clicking on an ipad replace the fun.
and not mention that the work doesnt read the same on a digital surface. I ain’t buying one and dont intend on it.
Robin, you need that Red Circle Sorcery issue with Toth?
Frank, even if the back issue shops go away it’s not like the back issues themselves are going to go away. Nobody is tossing them into a furnace. The shop near me barely sells an new comics at all, the guy’s bread and butter is the back issue market. That being said I know a couple of his big customers have switched to .CBRs almost exclusively for back issues, so it definitely hurts.
Word. We just got off on a back issue tangent. All I’m saying with this post is that once both the digital and the floppy format co-exist for new releases certain stores are gonna feel it. The release of the iPad made me remember the release of the iPod. There are still vinyl record stores, yes, but the good cd stores that carried vinyl also are gone here in Pittsburgh. Things change. I’m not trying to say “back issues will go away”, I’m saying stores will take a hit. A no brainer, sure, but just something I want to acknowledge with this post.
It’s amazing that you can still find shops like that today. It’s like coming across something from a Ben Katchor strip. I can go to Amazon or Half.com or some torrent site and find any book/comic I could possibly want, but I sometimes don’t want a particular book and just like looking through stuff as a way to kill time or as a way to find something I didn’t already know existed. Non-linear wandering is a huge part of how our brains process things, I think.
http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2010/01/intelligence_and_the_idle_mind.php
Hey Frank, I have finished my Toth books. I ended up having 4 books bound up of his stuff. Pretty amazing. I will bring one to TCAF for you to drool over and try and steal.
(self promo ahead) I had a couple of good conversations with Seth about collecting and the joy of the hunt and the loss that the internet brings to that. He finished off most his book collecting the minute he got a computer, but also told a story of how Chris Ware recently found some amazing old cartooning books from 19th century in New York. So maybe I guess the important thing to remember is to not give up the hunt.
Collectors and back issues will continue to exist, but that just isn’t the business model of many successful (i.e. surviving) direct market stores. I’m already worried about local comic book stores in Pittsburgh. I count many of the owners and employees of these businesses as friends, and there’s no doubt they are facing difficult times.
Hey Frank, i happen to need that toth, i’m gonna drop by Copacetic later today (picking up the Art of Jaime!), If you could/can drop it off at Bill’s that would be great. If not, i can have ya mail it out to me maybe?
….and, um, just what stores closed in Pittsburgh that sold cd’s and vinyl? None come to mind.
OK Phil, I’ll try to beat you there.
Brave New World had cds and vinyl.
forgot about brave new world, i keep thinking of them being above the old phantom, that’s wicked discs now i guess.
Picked up the comic, got vacation next week, will be reading that and many other things then. Thanks!