For Sale: Print
Marvel Comics on iPad
I have seen the future…and I am selling all of my books.
Okay, not all of them, but an awful lot of them. Books, comic books, magazines, and just about everything print. Y’see, I’ve had an Amazon Kindle 2 for over a year now. And don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing little machine.
But then I saw the iPad, and it changed the way I thought about books, particularly comic books.
Tablets have been around for quite a while. In fact, at work, we run tablet PCs with Microsoft Windows. It’s a nice technology, but for whatever reason, it just didn’t lend itself to reading full novels. Even comics were a little awkward, since you had to use a little stylus to turn the pages of a digital comic.
Apple’s iPad interface is amazing. It’s intuitive, pleasant, and fades quickly into the background. Admittedly, it’s not quite as good as the Kindle when it comes to reading plain text books. But it’s terrific for reading comics. And if they get that screen just a tiny bit larger on the next version — without increasing the total size of the device — it’ll be about a darn near perfect comic book reading experience.
Lots of comic book friends think this is just crazy, but I happen to think that it’s the way I’ll be consuming comics in the future. Sure, part of the comic book hobby is bagging, boarding, and saving your comics. But if you think about it, that’s just a tradition rooted in print and distribution.
Back in the early days, comic books were distributed on the news stand. If you wanted comics when you were a kid, you went to the nearest news stand, pharmacy, or convenience store and got your issues. The problem was that there were very few comic book stores, so it was difficult, and often very expensive, to find back issues of comic books. Scarcity increases price, so that’s the short version of why some old comics are expensive. More people want them than there are comics to buy, and suddenly, people are paying a million dollars for a single issue of Superman.
Because of this relative scarcity of back issues — and the fact that some comic book stories are one long serialized saga — people learned to buy and collect comics. A supporting industry sprung up that supplies bags, boards, boxes, and just about ever variation in between. Multiply that by a few decades of my personal collecting fervor, and I have a room that’s seemingly overrun with white boxes.
As I stare at the iPad, I wonder how many comics will fit on this device? Better yet, how many will fit on my Mac, which I can transfer over to an iPad or whatever device? How many boxes can I possibly clear out of my collection, and how much of my man cave will I be able to reclaim?
One by one, I have been getting rid of my regular books. I’ve donated them to book sales, shared them with friends, and have basically just purged many of my bookshelves. There are still keepers, but the vast majority have found a second life somewhere else.
High quality digital content is easier than ever to find. You can even do it legally through Amazon and Apple, which means that you’re not stealing from the pockets of your favorite writers or artists. The only thing that is changing is the distribution channel, and bookstores, comic stores, and newsstands are scrambling to adapt to this new profit model. Some will survive, but many will not.
In the meantime, I’m trying to figure out what to do with my comic book collection. It’ll be a few years before everything in my current collection is ready in the digital format. It’ll start with the mainstream publishers like Marvel and DC Comics, but it will move quickly to independent publishers. I’m a traditionalist, so if publishers offer comics on DVDs
The way content — including ebooks — is popping into the Apple iTunes store, I think the future is happening sooner rather than later. And that’s just fine by me.
In the meantime, does anyone want to buy some classic comics? Cheap.
Apple’s 10 Billion…eBooks?
Apple iTunes Store Sells 10 Billion Songs
Ten billion. That’s how many songs have been legally downloaded from Apple’s iTunes Store.
This is what that looks like: 10,000,000,000
If it look impressive, that’s because it is. And it is significant because it may represent a small victory in the war over digital piracy. Apple has made it easy and affordable to buy music (something the record industry didn’t do themselves). As a result, people have paid money for stuff that they can easily steal.
If you own an iPod, iPhone or some other Apple device, you know that the Apple iTunes Store is really, really easy to use. Plus, they sell more than just music. You can get movies and TV shows as well.
As the iPad comes out, Apple will begin to roll out ebooks, newspapers, magazines, and other new media content. It’s going to be a broad range of materials, many of which will be purchased by the download. (Currently there is no subscription model.)
From a content perspective, this is a huge opportunity. People have grown used to getting content for free on websites. Few websites have managed to get money out of their visitors. Marvel Digital and Disney Digital have online subscription models, but those are premiere brands with highly exclusive content resources and characters.
As the iPad hits the streets, Apple is going to be working hard to get you to pay for content. Amazon already gets people to pay for ebooks and blogs on the Kindle, so there is a segment of the population prepared to pay for content.
No, don’t get me wrong. I am not looking forward to paying for stuff that I am getting free today, but that’s how it goes. Only so many websites and publishers can survive on the freemium model. Eventually someone is going to have to pay.
Sure, there will always be people who figure out a way to get stuff for free. In fact, many pirates don’t rip DVDs and MP3s because they want the media. They do it because they enjoy the challenge of cracking the code or beating the system. (And DRM doesn’t seem to work.)
With ereaders like the Kindle, Nook, and iPad, publishers are going to have to figure out a way to get people to buy digital books and magazines. Free is not a sustainable business model for most publishers. As the music industry will attest, it’s not going to be easy, but it is possible to get people to pay for media.
Price them right, make them easy to get, and maybe in a few years I’ll be blogging about how there were 10 billion ebooks sold on the Apple store.
LINKS – NOT NECESSARILY ENDORSEMENTS:
- Apple iTunes Store Records 10 Billionth Download, Gives Away $10,000 Gift Card
- 10 Billion Songs Sold by Apple’s iTunes Store
- Simon & Schuster Issues Digital Piracy Policy
- Publishers Fear eBook Piracy, But Shouldn’t
- Piracy, Avid Readers and New Business Models
5 Reasons Disney Digital Matters
Disney Digital Publishing Interface
It’s unlikely that kids entering elementary school today will graduate with a backpack full of books. eBooks are quickly becoming a more cost-effective way for schools to distribute educational materials to students. Books and kids? That’s history.
Disney recently launched the Disney Digital Books service, making a portion of their back catalog available online. Disney, which is associated primarily with movies and theme parks, also has a pretty active publishing division.
Here at Words + Pictures = Web, we’ve listed five reasons that the Disney Digital Publishing portal is going to be pretty darn important for consumers, marketers, and content creators:
1. Tiny steps to a world of paid content.
Like most content creators, Disney wants to get paid for their content. This is a tough concept for many people, since we’ve grown accustomed to getting everything free online. At $8.95 per month, this subscription feels a little high for a new launch, but many parents are willing to plunk down serious cash for anything that seems to have some educational value. This subscription model is retraining people’s expectation for free content.
2. Traditional media begins to strike back.
Disney has a huge backlog of content. They’ve done a pretty good job of getting movies out of “the Vault,” but they haven’t done as much with the publishing division. They are launching with 500 title with a promise that there’s more to come. For the past dozen or so years, new media companies have enjoyed a pretty competition-free environment. Now that Disney and traditional media companies are getting smarter about their backlog of content a lot more content will be moved out of the archives.
3. EReader technology inches forward.
Disney is acknowledging the inevitable future of ereader technology. Even though this is launching on the browser, the digitized assets will probably be reformatted for the next generation of ereader devices. Disney’s relentless quest for customer experience will push the boundaries of ebooks and influence improvements in ereader technology. Disney’s branded content will expose more people to digital books. When the right ereader is available, Disney will modify their content for that platform. With Disney’s connection to Apple, we’d expect to see a content deal through the iTunes store, especially if Apple releases the mysterious iTablet.
4. Story extras are no longer extra.
Disney’s digital books are multimedia enhanced, offering more than a flat, linear experience. Kids today expect to interact with their content. These books offer interesting features, including an integrated dictionary. That’s the kind of minimum experience it’s going to take to engage the next generation of readers.
5. Traditional media wants you back.
Disney’s purchase of Marvel Comics opens them up to a gigantic library of titles and characters. It’s unlikely that Disney will put many Marvel properties on the Disney Digital Books site, but they will probably share technical expertise. Last year Marvel launched the Marvel Digital service with thousands of back issues of Marvel comics titles. Disney isn’t satisfied with the silver screen and the TV screen. They want your computer monitor and your mobile devices too. And for the younger audience, they’ve got stuff for boys, girls, parents, and young-at-heart adults. Traditional media companies want you back, and they are going to work hard to win back your attention.
So, even if you don’t watch Disney movies or plan to read Disney ebooks, the Disney Digital Books portal will probably have some impact on your content-consumption habits. Not today, of course. But this business initiative opens the doors for other content companies to get more aggressive online, particularly with their formerly printed materials.
Depending on how you look at it, this may be the next generation of The Wonderful World of Disney. But if you’re Disney’s competitor, it may be the scariest story you’ve read in a long time.
Amazing 600
Amazing Spider-Man #181
In June, 1978, I went to Collector’s Comics in New Jersey and bought a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #181. On that day, I promised myself that I would buy every issue of this comic for the rest of my life. (Taking an oath at 11 years old is a quaint notion, but bear with me, this story goes somewhere.)
Flash forward to 2009, when I recently bought a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #600.
Let’s consider a few things about the comic series Amazing Spider-Man, which was originally launched March, 1963.
- The original comic (cover price 12 cents – March, 1963) is now worth an estimated $40,000.
- Issue #600 was cover price $4.99 (in 2009) and can probably be purchased for about $4.99 today.
- Both Stan Lee (writer) and Steve Ditko (interior artist) of Amazing Spider-Man #1 are still alive today. (In fact, I recently saw Stan Lee at the Long Beach Comicon.)
- Despite a few starts and stops, Amazing Spider-Man has been running one consecutive story line about the same cast of characters. Amazing Spider-Man #600 featured characters and situations that were originally started in the 1960s.
Amazing Spider-Man #1
And here’s the point I have been working toward. For the most part, Amazing Spider-Man was published as a monthly print magazine. Recently, Marvel Comics has accelerated that schedule, but the majority of the issues in this series were monthly.
From the year of my personal oath to buy every issue of Amazing Spider-Man (starting with #181) until roughly now (#600), approximately 31 years have passed. On a monthly schedule, it takes Marvel Comics around 8 years to reach a 100th issue milestone. Looking forward, it would take Marvel Comics until around 2017 to release Amazing Spider-Man #700.
And that makes me wonder…
- In what format will I buy Amazing Spider-Man #700? Will it be a print publication? Or will it be an eBook? An eComic? Or something else entirely new and unique?
- Considering the ages of Stan Lee (born 1922) and Steve Ditko (1927), is it possible they will be alive to celebrate issue #700 in 2017? With modern medicine, this is no longer unimaginable, right?
- If the first issue was 12 cents and the 600th issue was $4.99, how much will I pay for the 700th?
- If it’s an eBook, will it be less expensive, since there’s no printing and distribution cost?
- Will Marvel Comics print an electronic version and a print version for nostalgic purposes? Certain musicians still release vinyl albums, despite the fact that most people buy CDs or just downloads of their music.
Amazing Spider-Man #600
When you consider this accomplishment, it’s amazing (pun intended) that the mainstream media didn’t make a bigger deal about issue #600.There were a few news stories and articles, but not much, considering how much impact the Spider-Man character has had on popular culture.
From a pop culture perspective, Amazing Spider-Man #600 was a pretty impressive milestone that probably should have made the cover of Entertainment Weekly. Speaking of Entertainment Weekly, the July 24, 2009 cover featured the cast of the Iron Man 2 movie. Iron Man is yet another Stan Lee creation that was published by Marvel Comics. Also published in March 1963, the same month as Amazing Spider-Man #1.
To make it even more significant (and newsworthy), Stan Lee even wrote a short Spider-Man story for the 600th anniversary issue. Not bad for an 87-year-old guy.
If you’ve made it this far in this post, you may be wondering if I kept my personal promise to buy every issue. The short answer is “no,” I did not. I stopped reading comics for many, many years and rediscovered them in college. I’d missed a lot of those comics when they first came out, but went back and bought them as back issues.
It would be silly of me to try to estimate the impact Stan Lee’s Spider-Man has had on pop culture, and what sort of significance the character will have in coming years. From comics to movies to television to toys, Spider-Man is just about everywhere in pop culture.
Flash forward. And in 8 years, I’ll be buying a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #700. The issue will probably be an eBook. Hopefully there’s a print version for nostalgia buffs like me. But either way, no matter what it costs, no matter how it’s delivered, no matter how it’s written, I’ll buy it.
I promise.
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