Digital Comics - Update

I mentioned before that I thought digital delivery of comic books was the wave of the future.  Well, since that time I have purchased a tablet computer and have begun to read my comics this way.  I have to say, it’s everything that I thought it would be.  The art is crisp, the delivery is quick and they are easy to read.  You have the ability to zoom in as far as you want and some comics even have a built in option to only display one panel at a time.  The amount of content out there is also quite staggering, and it’s not just new comics.  There are comics available that go all the way back to the 30’s & 40’s.  Not all of them are available, mind you, but I can see that as a possibility.

As far as pricing is concerned, from what I’ve seen it is definitely a bargain, especially if you don’t mind waiting a month for your new comics.  DC Comics, for example, releases their digital copies the same day as the print version, and at the same price of $2.99.  However, once the new issue is released, they drop the price on the preceding issue by $1, so if you wait a month you can get your new comics at $1.99.  That savings can really add up over time, and you might find yourself browsing more titles since you have a little more money to spend. 

I haven’t purchased any comics, though.  In right around 3 months of using the tablet I have not come close to exhausting the free content that is out there.  I have the apps for DC, Marvel and Comixology, more for my own sanity in deciding what I want to read that anything else, and there is just a huge amount of free issues out there.  On the plus side is that I’m reading comics that I wouldn’t have given a second look at in my FLCS, but since they’re free I figure “What the hey, let me check it out.”  Typically these will be first issues, or the start of a big story arc, to try and suck in new readers, which makes plenty of sense from a marketing stand point.

What’s the downside, you ask?  Basically, it’s the Wal-Mart problem.  Delivery, price and quality of digital copies of comics is such a great thing that they typical FLCS will be really feeling the pinch, if they aren’t already due to the economy.  Obviously the purists out there will want the print copy, but I never really collected comics for their value.  I was more interested in the stories and art, which digital gives me without the need to store the dang things.  Plus, digital issues make it easy to switch between comics than digging through the 7 boxes that I currently have in storage.  Once I start actually paying for these comics, I’m probably going to include replacing a few issues that I currently own with each purchase, and eventually go all digital.