DC Gone Digital

[John C]

I'm in a hurry, this morning, but quickly, I wanted to mention that I went digital with the big DC reboot and bought the flagship Justice League #1.

...Eh.

First problem, it took forever to figure out where to buy.  ComiXology is apparently where, but you'd never know that scraping through the DC Comics site.  Does that mean ComiXology is the new Diamond, who'll make or break the indies?

Second problem, four bucks!?  Really?  For a normal-length story that's supposed to bring in new customers?  That's digital and removes Diamond, paper, and shipping costs from the final price?  And I don't get a download in return?  This ain't gonna stop any piracy, that's for sure.

Beyond that, technically, on a netbook screen, the best way to read the comic is in what their reader calls "guided" mode, which tries to show you the story panel-by-panel, and different perspectives of large panels (zooming and panning).  It's clever, but it's going to take time for artists to realize that this is their target, rather than the rectangular printed page.  It must look like garbage reading one of those stories where characters cross over panel boundaries.

And the story itself is...I don't know, it's not anything I would've led with.  I didn't want this to be anything like a "review," but it's basically two unlikeable characters getting to know each other, with heavy exposition, and a lot of muddy action that...I don't know, does that count as a plot?

Oh, and the dialogue looks like Geoff Johns just trawled the popular message boards and assembled the story from what he found.  So there's a lot of "look how stupid our concept is, but we realize it's stupid, so that makes us cool" meta-commentary, which I can absolutely do without.

Anybody else have better luck?  If this was any indication of the future experience, I doubt I'll be back for the next issue, personally, which I hope isn't the prevailing reaction, for DC's sake.

(If anybody thought the final costumes were bad, by the way, you'll change your mind after you see the sketchbook in the back.  My stars, THOSE are bad.  What the heck is it with Jim Lee and fussy, hard-to-draw costume elements?  And why would it be OK for Aquaman to look like HR Giger was involved, but Superman can't have trunks?  Argh!)

[Yoc]

Thanks for the review.
I expected 'Download HERE' to be the annoying element, not the hard to find one.

[johndesmarais]

Second problem, four bucks!?  Really?  For a normal-length story that's supposed to bring in new customers?  That's digital and removes Diamond, paper, and shipping costs from the final price?  And I don't get a download in return?  This ain't gonna stop any piracy, that's for sure.

For what it's worth (and I realize it's not much) the price of DC's digital comics will drop by one dollar a month after their initial release.  So, if you can wait a month you can save a buck.

JD

[Yoc]

If we wait two months is it $2 off?
Does this mean the return of the 25c bin?  That's where I got all my Atlas-Seaboard books.

[John C]

Actually, a declining price is something I've been suggesting to anybody who'd listen to me.  I still think four bucks is too expensive to start, but as long as the price goes down, it's an improvement.

My assumption has always been that piracy exists because it's much cheaper, easier, and faster to get the scans than the comics, at least to the people who would actually buy the comics at all.  And I really think that, if a comic company can do something to fix those three issues, it's entirely possible to "compete with free," especially when you can guarantee the best possible quality product.  But four bucks on an unadvertised website without a download for your trouble ain't it, unfortunately, and I worry that this will be viewed as a "failed experiment."

Oops.  Rambling again.

[Yoc]

I agree the price remaining so high while overhead drops seems greedy.
I hope someone tracks how many shops close their doors, especially if Marvel follows the DC lead.

[John C]

I think that's actually WHY the price is so high, Yoc.  It's not greed--we're talking about peanuts for Warner Brothers, who'll keep DC's doors open forever just to have movie ideas to grab--but rather a sort of informal bargain with the comic shops or possibly a formal deal with Diamond that they won't undercut price.

My worry isn't so much for the customer, but about the customer.  This sort of pricing could make their comics entirely unprofitable, meaning they and other companies will look at it and say, well, if DC couldn't make money with digital comics, then there's really no point in trying.

[Yoc]

I think that's actually WHY the price is so high, Yoc.  It's not greed--we're talking about peanuts for Warner Brothers, who'll keep DC's doors open forever just to have movie ideas to grab--but rather a sort of informal bargain with the comic shops or possibly a formal deal with Diamond that they won't undercut price.

Ok so DC is sorta trying to keep the shops half alive by continuing to gouge the ever dwindling customers.
The customers who seem to be the last thing they worry about.  ie- giving them the best deal for their dollar.  Sure publishers care about them trying to milk them dry as fast as possible but they seem to forget they started as a cheap disposable entertainment that was afordable to collect once apon a time and now readers really have to think 'is that book worth $3-5 bucks for just 20 odd pages?'  The answer is 'no' more and more.  

I wonder how many more people show on a Free Comicbook Day than a normal day?  Is dropping the price and quality of the paper, etc perhaps an idea?  When shopping at the grocery store a VERY prevaling trend is 'give them less' with a slightly cheaper than normal price and let them think they are saving money.  The optics of a higher price just doesn't work there.  Perhaps comics need to figure out how to give more for less.  Hell, huge b&w manga collections sell like crazy from what I hear, how about trying that in America?  As long as they made sure the Story was top notch why wouldn't that work here too?  What's another X-men book to Marvel?  Call it the X-Men Manga Collection - sell it dirt cheap and maybe include a free prize like they do on UK magazines?

Blockbuster just called it quits when they couldn't see the writing on the wall when it came to ease of use and distribution.  Comics have managed to avoid becoming the next 8-track but come on guys, you are circling the bowl fast here.  People are only loyal so much and you are far from 'the new thing' here.

[Roygbiv666]

I do find it interesting that DC's game plan doesn't seem to address what every nerd on the interwebs says are the problems with the comics industry. Instead, they focussed on new #1s, high collars, and changes to continuity. Did they even try to address the issue of comic availability (in remaining mom and pop shops, 7-11 type stores, Wal-Mart, etc.) and the basic concept of supply and demand - if they can get demand up, they can get the prices down? No. Or maybe they did and it just didn't work.

How much does allocating about 2 square feet for a spinner rack in a store cost the store in order to recoup it with sales.

Also, take a lesson from drug dealers (at the least the kinds I know about, the ones on "Law & Order" and "CSI", and ... "Barney Miller"): get the kids hooked with free samples and make them a customer for life.

No, those high collars and no undies will really save the market.

[John C]

What I meant, Yoc, was by keeping the digital prices high, they aren't taking any move that can harm the shops.  It's stupid, but this is the sort of thing businesses pull.  Rather than evolve, the publisher refuses to give discounts so that the shops are "competitive."

But yes, I think it would also kill the shops (by frying their profit margins to pennies), but going back to cheap paper, high availability, and low prices should be able to pull some nice distribution.  Sorry, I mean that would work IF the stories were readable (Justice League #1...wasn't).

Actually, you know what might work well?  Use the gift card model.  I'm not sure how to handle the security aspect, but as long as we're talking digital anyway, imagine the something like a greeting card (also a scam business, but whatever...).  You get a mini-cover and the other three "pages" might be a well-designed preview of the issue.  You get to the counter and the magnetic strip inside gets "activated" like a normal gift card, except that you can now use it to access the full comic.

Paper costs are negligible, or should be.  Stores (supermarkets) don't worry about kids loitering around reading the comics instead of buying them.  The preview is usable as something to occupy the kid for a few minutes while checking out.  Geeks have something to collect and stockpile.  Marketing gets someplace they can use their variant covers and junk that nobody really cares about.  They can be dumped if not sold.  And if the price can be low enough, you should be able to do frequent give-aways to the little kids and otherwise make up the lost margins with volume.

The opposite model I could see working well is the Showcase Presents model recast as sort of a mega-anthology:  Rather than a few bucks per issue, just give me the entire week in one enormous volume (cheap paper, possibly no color) for a low price.  It could easily work out to most customers paying more, overall, but I think most people would go for it.  I mean, at fifteen bucks, sure, I only bought it for the Blue Beetle story, but there's probably a bunch of other decent stuff in there that I wouldn't have read otherwise...

(A Showcase-style format also gives the opportunity to stabilize production problems.  If an artist is running slow, one month, just grab some old story from the archives and herald it as a special treat.  Since there's no real "theme" for the book, it doesn't even need to be related to the missing feature!)

Anybody know what modern comic budgets look like?  Page rates for writers and artists could easily make either model more or less sound, obviously.  I mean, if you get a quarter per issue (sell at a dollar, the retailer takes about half, and the distributor half again), that could require too big a volume if the production costs are too high.

[Yoc]

Yeah, I caught your drift on keeping the price point John.

And I like both your ideas.  I see a parallel to the birth of Cd's vs LPs.  Purists still want the lp and can even find it if they want to pay a premium.  Why not digital and a premium paper.  Give the digital product out cheaper or perhaps as a gift card like you suggested (I like the idea a lot actually, the card could be sold anywhere and given inside a birthday card or something) OR if you are a mad collector you can buy the much more expensive printed version by mail order or via your comic shop which now must be a lot more impressive since they had to seriously look at their own business model and evolve or die.
I get the feeling though DC hopes the iPads, etc really take off and we all buy each issue like an 'app'.  It might work even and lose the need for any actual store but that's for sure a kiss of death to LCS.

[johndesmarais]

I do find it interesting that DC's game plan doesn't seem to address what every nerd on the interwebs says are the problems with the comics industry. Instead, they focussed on new #1s, high collars, and changes to continuity. Did they even try to address the issue of comic availability (in remaining mom and pop shops, 7-11 type stores, Wal-Mart, etc.) and the basic concept of supply and demand - if they can get demand up, they can get the prices down? No. Or maybe they did and it just didn't work.

How much does allocating about 2 square feet for a spinner rack in a store cost the store in order to recoup it with sales.

Also, take a lesson from drug dealers (at the least the kinds I know about, the ones on "Law & Order" and "CSI", and ... "Barney Miller"): get the kids hooked with free samples and make them a customer for life.

No, those high collars and no undies will really save the market.

The problem comic publishers face with putting product in places like 7-Eleven and Wal-Mart is the deal the distributors who have the contracts to services those types of stores saddle them with.  Unlike Diamond, these periodical distributors will demand return rights on unsold merchandise - which is a cost that a comic publisher just isn't able to absorb.  And, as comic publishers (as compared to other magazine publishers) lack the clout to force these periodical distributors to change there terms, they can't really do anything about.  So, while you will occasionally see comics in stores like those, they will never be the major outlet that they once were in the days before comic specialty stores.

[narfstar]

Larger distribution means higher ad costs. Product placement can even beat advertising. Or ads that are fun. Get the price down to a price that would go completely to the store and let the ads pay for the publication. This is what is essentially done with newspapers. Look how much paper you get for fifty cents. That money goes to the shop the ads pay the real price.

[Yoc]

Going points Narf and I like it in some ways but with product placement you also find advertisers starting to demand actual story content control as well.  'Have three costume changes and a new Batmobile in the next movie and we'll see more toys.'

[John C]

But Yoc...Rom.  Dazzler.  Masters of the Universe.  The Super-Mobile.  Secret Wars.  I'm no fan of that sort of thing, but it has ruled the roost before in various ways.  Comics were written around either a specific product concept or re-engineered to make them more "toyetic," as they say.

However, I'm not sure ad-supported comics are the way to go, given that newspaper and magazine publishers are crying poverty.  Not that it can't work, but it obviously doesn't work the way it has for the past fifty years or so.  It probably needs a serious re-think.

Although, I guess, if we're doing the "buy the card to access the comic," advertising can be a little more blatant and extensive, rather than just a page sitting in the book.  And if they're something like the old Hostess ads (that is, a brief quickie cartoon starring the hero of the comic), people might actually pay attention to them.