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DC Gone Digital

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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:

--- Quote from: John C on September 02, 2011, 05:34:24 AM ---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.

--- End quote ---

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.

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