The problem with digital media is that it can be taken away or changed at a push of the metaphorical button . There is no guarantee that the thing I bought won't vanish from the service I use do to some change in copyright
@@Adam-nz3ix It did happen to some polish webcomics from the early 2000s now the only existing copies are the printed ones because the domain stopped being paid like bug city a parody of sin city. It also happened to games like Scott Pilgrim vs the world with got discontinued due to copyright disputes or GTA SA with is impossible to play the version with the original soundtrack legally. Those are just a few examples if it happens to other online media it can and will happen to online comic books . When it comes to DC I can think of the whole Batpenis controversies or one of the big 2 just wanting to get more money or have a copyright problem that would force them to delete some comic book from the service.
@@Adam-nz3ix Not sure about comics specifically, but Amazon has already done this with books on the Kindle. io9.gizmodo.com/amazon-secretly-removes-1984-from-the-kindle-5317703
That happened to me twice in my lifetime. Because I didn't read the fine print I lost most of my original purchases on Comixology before Amazon bought it. Then it happened again when the Playstation Network voided all of my PS3 and Vita digital purchases.
It has and will only happen more frequently. Going digital enables the rightholders to assert you have a license to view their intellectual property, rather than you own a copy of their work. And every media-oriented license agreement provides no rights to the purchaser, only a list of open ended things that you can do to revoke the license and prevent you from access. This fact alone motivates the rightholders to steer their customers towards digital, potentially moreso than pure customer demand would. Intellectual property laws are the problem here, not digital media.
I use a Chrome add-on (works with Chromium Edge as well) to download my ComiXology purchases as CBZ files. The other store I buy from, the 2000AD Shop is more civilized and lets me download a DRM-free CBZ for every purchase.
A few weeks ago Amazon came out said that you don't own digital media and remember what with Itunes. Never forget with psychical media you have it as long you want it, but with digital, it can disappear at any minute for any reason.
Which is EXACTLY why my GDrive (including a significant comic collection in addition to my physical collection) is backed up to a physical, external hard drive that I keep on a shelf.
I'm 23 now, got into comics at 19 and I've never bought a digital comic. Mainly collect omnibuses. The book market has shrank as much as its going to and has stabilised and vinyl records have come back. Physical media will always have a market even if it becomes a more niche one, regardless of generation
The main reason I choose digital comics over physical is space. I have a small room already filled with other interests and being able to purchase a comic/graphic novels/trades and read them on my tablet seems like a no brainer. If I love the comic after reading it then I will purchase a physical version of it too. I don't think digital will be the be all end all of comics, physical copies will always stick around. Even though music is mainly digested through streaming, CDs and Vinyls still sell, though sadly not as muchm
A part of me likes having hard comics I freaking put them on my wall but I can't lie I have at least eight or nine gigs of comics right now and it's that slowly growing
The day western comics embrace the current Shonen Jump model in the west is the day I give up print. $2 monthly payment =entire catalogue and you get the new issues day and date as print. It just makes sense. Create your trade collections a month after an arc wraps and release them that way. Or embrace the stand alone graphic novel more. Loved Image’s recent releases Pulp and Dracula Mother F**cker. Really enjoy that format for comics
the problem with OGNs is that most artist are too slow and probably can't release 2 trades in a year. Compare that to a mangakaka's out put, they put out a 200 page trade 3 or 4 times a year.
As soon as you add motion to a digital version, it simply becomes a poorly done animated short film. In Understanding Comics, McCloud explores the connection between comics and film as examples of sequential art, and what you're describing here is essentially an end to comics in favor of animation. Eventually, 'improvements' would lead to the total elimination of static panels. So what you're really saying isn't that comics are changing, but that they are ceasing to exist. Re: trade paperbacks, you are absolutely correct. As a former obsessive collector/store owner, I can affirm that nobody would buy them for any reasons but those you mentioned. I actually had a theory in the '90s that they would become increasingly valued, however, as they were the new 'disposable' form of comics consumption, and while everyone was preserving individual comics, nobody was being careful about the condition of their 'graphic novels'. But now with the transition to digital, I guess only hardcore collectors will bother with print copies, so only truly rare physical comics will retain their value.
Who the hell adds motion to comics and still calls it a comic Motion comics are animations of comics. Or they are straight up animations. I enjoy motion comics, but forcing comics that werent designed to be motion comics to be motion comics in print titles sounds very insulting to the original vision. Fan comics eat your heart out, Berserk motion comic exists for a reason and its really good.
I prefer physical media for nearly every medium. Always go for it. But being here in Doha, Qatar there is no comic shop and I can't get issues via mail. So it is digital for me by default till I am back in the states...
I prefer a physical copy, I still buy CDs and Vinyl when I can but more and more bands only have digital albums and I have reluctantly bought several and will as time goes on. I do feel like there may always be a place for physical comics, the kindle and other digital book readers was thought to kill off physical books but those products have waned and books are still being sold, similarly while CDs are in the decline Vinyl has become quite popular, also many kickstarter and similar websites have shone that people will buy extra for a physical copies
My thesis supervisor wrote his dissertation on digital comics. Largely, he cited interactivity and audio as being a completely unique dimension to digital comics, as while things such as audio can be implied in printed comics, they can be actually included in with the digital. The interactivity part he compared to a form of game or interactive art instillation. Since I study time with physical comics, we tend to argue that interactivity point. Time doesn't move in a comic unless you turn the page.
@@StrangeBrainParts Welcome to my headache. Time is implied through the art, through dialogue and through turning the page, but does not actually exist. Keep up the awesome work, I'm watching your Dark Knight Returns video while studying right now. :)
@Mikayla J. Laird : We share that headache. It was something I decided to explore due to one of your videos a few months ago. And then, after a manifesto that would get me committed, I had to admit, you are on one TOUGH journey. Thanks for watching! I hope my humble offerings are good noise. :)
@Mikayla J. Laird : You are not alone in that madness. I applaud your efforts. It's something that I've tackled more than a few times before pausing for significant amounts of time. I don't know if what I have down is genius or just complete gibberish. Ha ha ha.
Pile into the Wayback Machine! Because further back than the "back in the day" you might be thinking of, there's what Graphic Novels originally were. The content was original stand alone stories & art. Much like a movie made for the direct to video market. The opposite of what came in the 80's, many were later reprinted in multiple single comic issues. An example would be Don McGreggor's SABRE, or DETECTIVE'S INC. reprinted in 2 to 3 comic issues. Sometimes they were used to launch a new series, much like a pilot episode does for television. The format seemed to be largely inspired by Manga, or European printing. Allowing for format, printing and paper stock experimentation. As the direct market took off in the U.S., this was commonplace. Graphic Art, Novel length stories. At the same time, Collected Editions started up for all the reasons you mentioned. Convenient and economical, etc. So at the time, Howard Chaykin's adaptation of STARS MY DESTINATION was considered a Graphic Novel, RONIN, DARK KNIGHT and WATCHMEN were originally comic serializations reprinted in Collected Editions called Trade Paperbacks. Those 3 books, by the way, were also among the first to be sold in national bookstore franchises such as WALDEN BOOKS, B. DALTON, and BARNES & NOBLE. As this became more lucrative, the "writing for the trade" followed. Now, Trade Paperback/reprint/collected editions are the rule, the original stand alone content the exception. In the U.S. at least. You covered almost all the print vs. digital pros & cons so well! Here's one more to consider: while I looooooooove the comic shop/back issue bin hunt as much as anyone, there's also something to be said for DIGITAL PRESERVATION. Case in point: As a kid, I once owned a PHANTOM comic by Lee Falk. But it was printed on coarse manilla paper. Horrible quality. Two grades below coloring book paper. It eventually crumbled to pieces. At age 10, i didn't know it would do that. Thought to be irreplaceable, now I can go online somewhere, and read it whenever. >Whew!!< While tomorrow is inevitable, we're in a good place of balance right now. We don't have to rush headlong! Vinyl made something of a comback. In 2018 it was reported that Bookstores were having difficulty keeping up with the demand for printed books. This, in a world of downloads, audibles, and file sharing! If we can see the value of both, maybe we'll have the balance of options a little while longer...
In the early 90s, trade paper backs where amazing to find at the public library. X-Men: Asgardian Wars, Dark Phoenix Saga, X-Tinction Agenda, and Ed the Happy Clown were standouts for me, in addition to Watchmen and DKR. As far as purchasing tpbs, I wouldn't seek them out, but was happy when my dad bought me Starman and Morrison's JLA.
Sorry it has taken me so long to make any commentary on your video. You always do such a superb job, and I typically watch your videos the day they come out, but some personal events have come in the way, so I had to deal with them first. And now that I’ve sat down and watched this video, here is what I have to say. This is just my humble opinion, so keep that in mind, but there are only two good things about digital publication in this modern era. 1. Convenience, because I don’t have to leave my home, which allows for instant gratification, and 2. Buying digital saves space in my otherwise crowded home. And here are all the good things about physical publication that I, and most others, enjoy. Once I buy the printed copy, I own it for the life of the paper it was printed on, mistakes and all, and in many cases that means it will outlive me so that my children can inherit and read those things which meant a lot to me if they so choose. That’s probably the biggest downside to digital. It can be altered anytime the publisher sees fit, and yes I know they do that with Trade Paperback’s too, which is why most people do not buy them, or outright just remove them from being purchased ever again for whatever reason they so choose. Another thing I, and most, love about reading a physical copy is that I not only get to enjoy the art and dialogue, but I also get to feel the physical texture of the paper the comic was printed on, and smell the inks and paper too, so I become fully wrapped up in the comic in my hands. With digital, there is a bit of distance I feel, a coldness with the comic because all I feel is smooth glass if it’s on a reading device, or rubber covering plastic if I’m reading from my desktop computer as I use the mouse to scroll down the page on my PDF software. Smells? Well, that is just not something digital can produce at the moment, can it? With a physical copy, I can take it to a friend’s house and share the experience. Sure, I can e-mail the digital copy to them, but unless I’m physically with them, we cannot share in the experience together in the same room as we can with a physical copy. It’s not that big of a deal in the larger scheme of things, but the differences are quite substantial. The one downside of owning physical is running out of space if you are a collector like me. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m like you, I’m neither for nor against either form. Both are good, and digital is getting better with its presentation, but as someone who grew up with the physical comic in the 90’s, I honestly prefer physical over digital for the reasons I mentioned above. But I do own both physical and digital. And if someone prefers digital, that’s fine with me too. As long as people are buying and reading, that’s all that matters at the end of the day. Keep the art alive; and help keep the creators employed so they can continue to make this medium we all love so much.
I'm 53 and have loved comics my whole life. I've gone from single issues to trades to digital. In all cases I've easily transitioned due to convenience. I've always been in it for the story first, art second. The biggest drawback is in the art, specifically panel lay out, other wise digital is the way to go.
The only thing that seemed off to me was the comment that people don’t call them TPBs. Even though graphic novel is more common as an umbrella term,I still hear TPB quite often as well.
Buying movies on Blue-ray is still a think right? Maybe physical comics will be trades graphic novels in the future. Limited edition printings for full complete stories.
When comics transition to digital, I'm not sure how new readers could get introduced to comics. With no comic store to wander into, why would a young person ever pick up their first comic? What would bring them to a Marvel or DC website? I think without careful consideration on the part of the comic companies digital comics could easily end the industry.
Why would a kid ever watch a television show with the TV so conveniently parked in the living room? Why would a kid ever play a video game with the console so conveniently able to download the digital copy? If someone buys the child a digital reader, or has a laptop available to them to surf the internet and buy digital copies of comics, providing a gateway for them to get into comics, is it really the end of the industry? I don't think so. Yes, and sadly might I add, the physical stores are slowly going away. And one day, the physical comic will bite the dust as physical forms have done in other mediums of entertainment. But the medium in and of its self still thrives. And it will continue to do so as long as people are willing to spend their money buying comics.
@@DoppelgangerShockwave If that were true digital comic sales would skyrocket with tablet and smartphone sales. Pretty sure that's not the case. I always thought a good way to get new readers would be to include a free code to Marvel unlimited with their movies and movie merchandising.
A couple of points, one of which you touched upon. 1) Vinyl recordings have been making a comeback. Apparently, some believe (and I am one of them) that their physical interactions with the album cover, the inner sleeve, the actual disc, and the turntable are worthwhile experiences that add value to the listening experience. 2) One of the most beautiful comic books I've ever encounter (and owned) is the Avengers Annual drawn by Michael Golden. Compare the printing (including the coloring) of the original book to later reprints produced with modern methods. In the original book, the printing process produced subtleties in shading that made the art appear as if vast amounts of Zip-a-tone had been expertly applied to the original art, when, in fact, it was merely a side effect of the (relatively primitive) printing process. Those subtleties are lost in the modern reprints (and presumably) in any digital file of the story. Something to think about.
I had no problem jumping to digital comics. The first time I saw an Android tablet, I knew digital comics were for me. Now I read them on my Surface or a 12" Samsung tablet. those screen sizes display a comic page size that is nearly identical to print. The transition worked for me, since a few years later a pipe burst in the ceiling destroying my entire 20+ year collection. All my digital comics are downloaded as CBZ or CBR files and backed up on two different hard drives with Microsoft's Sync Toy.
Shonen Jump is probably the way we'll see comics in the future. Specifically, their older audience spin-off, Jump+. It's online and has an app. Early and new chapters of major series are free for six weeks. New series are free until they get a following. New material is released every day. This is available in Japanese, English and Spanish at the same time. In the US, Jump has a second online/app service, where everything ever published by Viz is available to read for $2.99 a month. You are limited to 100 chapters a day. Both are for casual fans. In both cases, the trades are still available in print for hardcore readers starting at $9.99. Some weekly series get new trades every two months. I think we'll see a US publisher adapt to this before long.
I love collecting. I intern at firms while studying in a college and the stipend I get is usually divided into buying a comic for me or a manga for my girlfriend. The ironic thing is I collect the issues or TPBs I've already read and love. I read digitally because carrying books with you all the time is hard but I think I'll collect until I die. Can't wait for my children to look at my collection and think dad was cool.
I've tried reading digitally but I really don't enjoy the experience. Your closing remark frames the issue as prioritizing the story (digital) versus prioritizing the collection (physical), but I don't think that's fair. The vast majority of my reading is from physical copies that I borrow from the library. I want the physical reading experience, but I too prioritize the reading of the story, so owning that book in my collection isn't as important. That said, I do have a modest physical collection and like to have copies of the works I really love, but because the experiential aspect of digital doesn't fit me as a reader, I continue to pursue physical copies whether it's to own and collect or just to experience the story for a brief time. Great video as always, really enjoyed it.
I think digital comics are definitely the future and you can see this in what people that are younger are consuming in regards to comics. I’m 20 years old and most people I’ve met outside of my close circle of comic friends read manga. Not only do they read manga, they read it on their phones. I think comics need to focus on accessible stories with an ending in mind of they’d like to switch to digital and get a new reader’s base. In regards to digital comics as a different form than a physical comic, I’d agree. The endless scroll format of the web toon or other digital comics is a pretty unique and easy format for any digital viewing. I think the pinnacle of this format so far is in Michael Walsh’s webcomic “The Sleep Stories”. It’s free, I’d check it out. You’d get caught up in like 10/15 minutes
My issues with an all digital future was somewhat touched upon at the end but its the ephemeral quality of the product, the end of its democratization, and curation and preservation. I'll always point to PT, a digital only game, that was wiped from existence due to an over zealous owner. Video game preservation in general is having to figure out how to maintain works of importance and that idea of them being preserved in amber simply isn't true. If Marvel or DC finds some cultural issue with a work in the future, it could be changed or disappear all together. How many works would have been impossible to find and have historical context for if they weren't found in someone's attic later. That total control can have a lot of problems. Discoverability and the readers experience of stumbling across and odd comic that happens to be stocked should be protected but if all digital comics had just free access I can see that get exploited. I still remember the "its not a library" mantra from my early days but you were still allowed to thumb through something and see the whole work and mull over it in whatever capacity was necessary. Ultimately I like ownership. The ability to have for as long as I desire the work or to find something long out of print to enjoy. Where as the all digital future, you're only renting it.
I appreciate this video for its objectiveness. Like many, the joy of reading a physical comic is hard to explain. And the smell of a comic shop, with all that paper and ink. It 100% pure nostalgia fuel. But the fact is that digital is super convenient and years of learning to read on screen has trained my brain to be fine with it. Furthermore, before digitally sold media and digital back issue reprints(and even still today with some comics) the only way to read them was online bootlegs. So for many of us we had been reading online for a lot longer, just in less then legal ways. My only major issue with digital comics is that I very much dislike paying the same price as a print comic. I feel like the only one benefiting from that price is the distributor. I understand that one reason for that is to not price out the direct sellers and I respect that but I wish there was a way that the extra money the publisher made for my digital vs print copy went back to a local store somehow, instead of Disney or the WB just pocketing that extra bucks or so
In response to your last point, the experience of being a collector and the experience of being a comic story fan are separate things. There are many people who enjoy collecting regardless of story quality. So while these changes may be reconcilable for people on one extreme of this pairing of habits, those on the other are completely underserved. Moreover, most people are in-between, enjoying aspects of each of these pursuits. I would never have collected 32,000 comic books based on story alone, but I also would never have done it if I didn't enjoy at least some of the stories.
TREMENDOUS topic for a video, _uprated!_ to me, the purpose of a comic book is to bring joy, like a small piece of candy. what is the comic book that has done so, the one which is in a dark closet all its life like some jealously guarded trophy? in that vein, what could be more wonderful to those who work so hard to create, than to see their work widely distributed and more ubiquitously enjoyed than ever before? to me, seeing the little nicks and dings an old comic book gets over time is so beautiful. i can see how much joy it shared over the years with hundreds just like me. admittedly, for this reason, i intentionally own a small run of an old title for which i purposefully gathered only issues rated VF/G. *don't worry about the collector's market, it will always be here lol.*
There is going to be both, but the physical aspect will become a more premium/collector/connoisseur experience. Just like with movies or music. Vinyl is still popular, I'm pretty sure more popular than CDs. Lots of young people my age (20) collect vinyl. Blu-Rays as well. Many premium labels like Criterion, Arrow, Eureka or Second Run create collections made with care, with lots of extras and love put behind the restoration and the design of the artwork, boxes, the booklets. It's already like this with comics: especially oversized hardcovers, the Omnibus editions, the Absolutes... those are often better editions, with more extras and larger artwork than single issues, and the bargain price finds or expensive collection aspects are retained. At some point, the physical aspect will become the secondary aspect for collecting. I'm pretty sure the trades are selling better than digital still. The single issue monthly market will die out except for some premium versions like the the magazine-style Black Label books or more special ones like X-Men Grand Design. It won't be enough to sustain the comic shops (which are also not really a thing outside of the USA; here in my country, the comic shops are mostly focused on trades and omnis, rather than singles), but they will be able to help support libraries and bookstores. The problem with digital is the untapped potential that none of the major publishers bothered to expand upon, which results in a catastrophe wheh faced with a hard situation like the COVID pandemic. They wasted their time. Marvel Unlimited is a fantastic idea, but it was obviously made as an effort to fuck over comic shops by making it harder for them to sell back issues, and let Marvel force them to buy hundreds of the same issue in order to get a rare 1:1000 variant some lunatics are still willing to pay hundreds of dollars for (have they learned nothing from the 90's, an era I wasn't even alive to experience?). Just look at how popular manga is doing worldwide, Shonen Jump surely is the best equivalent of the Big Two. Same day release of translated versions! Readership in muuuch higher numbers than the American comics! Accessible and popular among teenagers! Instead of focusing on annoying pop up novelties like extras interrupting the story or sound effects, think of the other possibilities. Ability to make custom translations possible by having the in-app lettering customizable (kinda how the CC works on TH-cam) would make the comics more accessible to people around the globe, without them being at mercy of local publishers having to select the most popular titles and releasing them years after they have already been spoiled online. Accesibility options, like making the comics more attractive to people with disabilities - a reader which could help people with dyslexia? High contrast options, possibility to zoom in for people with sight problems? Options for the color-blind? There is so much potential in the digital medium, but none of the companies bothered to push it hard enough to innovate it. Not to mention the REAL positive sides to the trade-ification and digitalization - NO ADS! An add every 4 pages in the mainstream comics are terrible! It takes you out of the story constantly! Trades, omnis, digitals - they don't have that! Not to mention the price per issue is lower there too, and it is easier to access around the world due to a lack of specialized comic stores in the majority of the world, and books and digital devices being more widespread.
Web comics from the mid 2000s did actually begin to develop their own language and multimedia content. Korean web comics for example would sometimes use motion or sounds that would activate on certain triggers but weren’t constant throughout the work. However, I don’t know if this is still the case, as web comics kind of had a boom then busted as the internet became more monopolized by only a handful of huge digital enterprises. They are seeing a return though. For example, Web Toon is now the most popular platform for hosting web comics, and while their format is definitely uniquely designed for readability on a digital device, I’m not active enough there to say what kind of new “language” it’s bringing to the table. I will say I’m not totally opposed to digital replacing paper. The environmental impact of paper mills is severe, and needs to be phased out alongside other pollution-heavy industries. What I am more concerned about is actually a problem that exists right now, soulless monopolies and conglomerates limiting spaces smaller newcomers can fill. The internet is currently “owned” by only a handful of huge companies who pretty well have the final say in what can or cannot succeed (not in a literal dictatorial sense, but in terms of market influence and control). However, with the Disney buyout of Marvel and Fox (who would license properties to Dark Horse), DC having been owned by Warner Brothers for decades now, and of course the Diamond Distribution problem, we are seeing the exact same problem. Comic are no longer small enough to allow the Wild West environment that allowed the 80s indie/black and white boom to occur and thrive; they’re enormous engines of capital. The internet as it has developed, is a similar problematic environment as plethoras of independent sites and niche hosting pages like Newgrounds have given way to Facebook, TH-cam, and Google as not only the primary locations for finding content, but also known for buying up all smaller competitors. So the issue is not format, but creative control, license, and the inevitable sacrifice of integrity for profit that squeezes out the experimental as unsellable. Edit: there is a further ownership problem with digital however. As seen in Amazon’s terms of service, many digital works of literature are not actually owned by purchasers but instead leased or rented. This is opposite to physical in which purchased items are owned by the purchaser and cannot be taken away or withheld. Also, digital works are subject to disappearance. There are many great web comics which are now gone, vanished into the ether, lost to time, and inaccessible to future readers (Nothing Nice 2 Say, for example, which was my favorite web comic ten+ years ago but is now no longer hosted). And while cloud storage and backups/archives alleviate the issue, all that is needed is loss of a password, loss of a platform, or not to pay a website’s hosting bill for a potentially great series, especially one with a niche readership, to poof away forever. A publisher can also choose to delist or modify a work anytime. All this as opposed to print, which allows for a tangible record of something that cannot so easily be snatched from your hands.
I see the good and bad in both, personally. The digital experience is hardly traditional, but it's certainly more environmentally responsible and can allow me to collect and read limitlessly. I have found some fantastic stuff on a digital platform I never would have come across or been able to get my hands on previously. For me, my main sticking point is cost. I don't think I can ever accept paying the same dollar amount for digital as what I would physical. I collected the entire run of DC's Terrifics, and the last 2 issues were only made available digitally; this was early in the summer and I still haven't read them- I can't bring myself to pay $4 each for what I was getting physically. And yes, nothing...NOTHING can replace that smell, or the 'thrill of discovery' as you so ably put it.
17:52 Well, hey now, best not to assume you'll be able to buy it forever. I can see comic companies pull a 'Mario 3D All-Stars' and list comics for a limited time
A part of me love digital do the fact that it's open the floodgates for people to make their own comics people like me who thought they would never be able to break out in the business of their own can actually do it now get an Indiegogo or Kickstarter going the sad thing is although we get to follow in the footsteps of the greats as time moves on we might not be able to get our comics in the comic book stores is what a lot of people who create Indie comics would love to do I know if my comic finally gets off the ground I love to see it my local comic book store
I was fortunate enough to find your channel earlier in the year, through it I've found comics I've not visited, and re-read others with a new perspective so thank you. What are your thoughts on publishers distributing directly to the consumer? Like CD's and vinyl you now (more often than not) are purchasing directly from the band or their label. I feel like there is always going to be a physical version of the medium, but print runs might be far more limited in size. Whether this is due to "hardcore collectors", a smaller base of monthly consumers, and niche-speculators, there may be enough to warrant a physical version of the story. Or maybe I hope that's the way for my son and his children to have similar experiences with the physical medium I did...
To further illustrate this point check out these titles and how digital comics can have a leg up on physical. Please note they all started out as physical and standard digital editions: www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/the-uniques/list?title_no=207400&page=1 www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/hexagon/list?title_no=546432
I disagree completely with the fatalistic opinion that 100% digital market is inevitable. Think of the market for books in library stores. When ebooks became a thing, it was predicted that physical books would vanish. However, we clearly see it isn't the case and will most likely never be. There is no reason two products, one digital and one physical, can't coexist. The reason mediums get replaced, like how VHS got replaced by DVDs, is because of technological improvement and overall technological obsolescence. However, there is no particular improvement between a physical and a digital copy of a book. With both, you gain access to the same product, except that in real life you have to buy a pen to underline things whereas a virtual product has this function implemented. Digital comic books is an added commodity, not a replacement. And the digital market is not in direct opposition with the physical market, that is not a proper way to view the very real interactions those mediums have together. Overall I believe the comic industry as a whole is misguided if it thinks digital is there to supplant physical sales: they work together to reach a broader market, much like books in library stores.
and yet the sales of cassettes and vinyl records are going up, despite them being far less convenient to use... Convenience is not the be all and end all. If a publisher decides to get out of physical comics, like say DC (hypothetical at the moment), while there is still a demand some other company will occupy the niche. Chasing a different market that may not exist may lead to a companies downfall. Suggesting that 'younger' consumers are used to reading on electronic devices, assumes that they read. At all.
As a reader from a "developing" / third-world country, I don't really have any romantic notions around The Fantastic Quest For A Real-Life Copy (That Can Be Resold Later Maybe) when digital allowed me to read a lot of these at all.
I buy digital copies of the current Marvel and DC stuff I want to read. I don't care about speculation or their value as collectibles. I do however buy graphic novels and back issues in an effort to maintain a physical library of comics that I can be proud to show off and share with friends.
Right now view devices are at the sour spot of too big/not big enough. This will be a non issue once devices get larger and more convenient. Imagine your twin screens now tilted 45 degrees and twice as big, and it's portable. That will be a game changer. Also, paper kills trees. I abs love your channel and publicize it on my humble blog
Physical comics take up so much space--space I don't have. So long as a digital copy of a thing is an actual file I can put on a hard drive and not a streaming thing that can be taken away when I purchase it, digital is the way to go.
The DRM system puts readers/licensees/customers of digital copies in a situation where cost for the right to read beyond their ability or willingness to pay for. Additionally digital distro systems,as far as I know, do not financially reward creators or publishers just the platforms.
I don't think the comparison to the inevitable march of music and movie formats at the start of the video is entirely appropriate. Another comparison is books, and print books aren't going anywhere. With music and movies, the progression of formats offered huge advantages in quality, convenience (e.g. non-degrading, streamable), and new features (e.g. selectable chapters and tracks) that are *very* obvious to typical users and newer formats are very close to being strictly superior to older formats (an example of the exceptions would be the ease of recording to VHS over DVD). In contrast, books have a more complex tradeoff between print and digital formats. Digital novels don't have the same sorts of obvious major benefits that digital movies do (the exception being ease of distribution but for popular novels that advantage is fairly modest) and most users feel that the print "user-interface" is superior (digital devices have unnecessary distractions, most screens are an awkward size for novels, printed pages give a sense of physical space that's very useful when reading long texts whereas screens can be disorienting). Written materials that aren't read front-to-back like references, newspapers, and textbooks do offer new features that are obvious to typical users and there we have indeed seen resources like Wikipedia largely supplant encyclopedias because they're more accessible, can be organized non-linearly, can be updated, and can be searched. Among these examples, I'd say comic books are closest to novels but with ease of distribution being a much bigger factor and the added issue of collectability as the video mentions. The ease and effectiveness of piracy also seems to play into format choices in interesting ways.
i think personally nothing is like paper. But I must say in this time why got to study on College, i more read digital. I have not enough space for my collection. I can hold up with the stuff I like, but it can Not fill up My Room.
I've read digital comics for more than 10 years (the pirate ones). I literally devoured them, I've probably read more comics in those 10 years than in the 30 previous years of comic book reading (25, as I read since 5, and learned to read mostly by myself through Spider-man and Superman). Yet, I still prefer the physical medium and strive to get the best stories in omnibus or trade format, digital platforms of online shopping have made this possible. I buy back issues whenever I can, in fact I prefer them (I wouldn't change my Morrison Doom Patrol run on back issues, for trades, and wouldn't buy the trades now that I have the back issues) but it's real hard to get them, specially in my town. Nevertheless, I don't think I'll ever pay for a digital comic. (It's the same with movies and series, I buy physical media, a lot of it, but my first watch tends to be of pirated digital copies.) And yeah, I've enjoyed the stories a lot, some of them are unavailable any other way, even in legal digital copies. There WAS a very real and tangible difference: the computer screen allows a comfortable view of near half of the page, and that precluded the appreciation of the composition of the page and made some other nuances of the narration clumsy, reduced the impact of splash pages and double-spreads, etc. (but enhanced the turn-of-the-page surprises). Of course these problems might be solved using a proper device or designing the comic to the screen. There's still another difference, reading isn't purely an intellectual experience, it 's also a sensuous experience, the feel of the cover and pages, the weight of the issue or volume, the SMELL. I hope physical comics survive in omnibus and trades, for those of us who love the sensuous experience of reading comics.
I believe print will reduce but not fall away all together. As you used records as an example of something fades away, they did at the emergence of the CD, but are and for the past 6-10 years have been more popular than they have been for the last couple decades. People will exploit the digital marketing of course but there will always be a market, grand or niche, for a physical copy and it would be irresponsible to, as you said, leave money on the table. Another issue with the sole production of nonphysical copies is editing, a solid issue can never change, or if there is a reprint one can look back and compare the differences, if a digital copy is altered and one had not saved the first day publication (or worse planned obsolescence/intentional file corruption after a certain amount of time to ensure a necessity for multiple purchases) it would be impossible for one to look back and compare style or story from day to day. Physical may wane but in my opinion it would, or at least should, never completely stop
I agree 100% about the trades. I always thought they were a last resort. To me they were anyway. Unfortunately I let all my books go so I read digital now. I can’t imagine starting over. I do buy paper still but I don’t have anything close to the start of a collection. I do collect fangoria and rue morgue books. I guess that’s something
Not every media has gone digital. I don’t see a lot of digital painting hung in peoples houses. Sure there are some But that’s not taking off for a reason. It’s just not the same thing. A digital screen showing you images artwork it’s not the same thing as the actual artifact itself. The work that someone literally worked on. Comic books are that same feel, though they are mass produced. It’s an artifact. Still ink and paper like the original. You’re gonna have to just age in a new generation of people who read “comics“ on digital devices. But they won’t be the same thin, they’ll lose that preciousness that made them so great. Now they’ll just be stories put out en masse.
In my experience, digital versions of German materials are no cheaper than their physical counterparts, so it's a no-brainer to prefer the physical versions. There's also a second-hand market, which means opportunities to buy cheaper or re-sell. So digital is only good for products from abroad you don't want to physically ship, since you save both on shipping and taxes.
I dunno I sort of disagree... Sure I miss having the physical books in my hands and smell the print (glossy print used to smell like perfume to me lol) but on the other hand digital comics don't require any real state to 'collect'. My actual collection had over 7k issues and a dedicated room to store it plus there's the need of constant care (lost more than a few to termites) and so on. To me it will eventually be similar to vinyl and MP3: collectors will still have their printed options but readers will prefer digital and overall digital will be the way to go for the reasons stated above. Also disagree regarding TPBs. I used to LOVE collecting entire runs of any tittles from characters I liked but when it became 'mandatory' to buy all issues of different comic to follow a story even when it wasn't a crossover (you had to buy all X Men comics to follow an story arc for instance) I sort of started to fizzle out specially when they started doing 'events' every year and many weren't even good... So I would eventually wait till something good was released and get the collected TPB only as it didn't matter to me what came before or after that arc. I suppose I went from collector to reader with time and circumstances and assume more done so plus majority can be casual readers anyway (brought in by movies and cartoons) so it'll make more sense to get compilations in digital format - and it's more eco friendly too. Anyway loved the video. Recently found the channel and am binge watching the whole thing - good content from someone who obviously love comics and very well made videos too :)
I mean vinyl has surpassed cds and even digital in some markets. If you look at the metal underground vinyl and cassettes go for stupid money. Maybe comic books will loose some of that print presence but there will always be people willing to buy it.
You mentioned that collecting depends on a good harddrive. But is it still true that you can't actually keep the file but have to read it on the provider's servers? There's no "collecting" to me, if I don't have the file (comic). I feel like I'm borrowing a friend's copy but still paying the cover price.
I dislike the dualistic separation of story and medium. Most of my favourite comics were both created physically and I read them in physical form and that is no accident.
why are comic companies so preoccupied by print vs digital? if printers and comic companies are so concerned with not making a profit anymore with print, why dont they think about diversifying their retailers beyond comic book shops or the selection of graphic novels from big bookstores? rather than juggling the idea of going full digital or not? why not start selling single issues again at places like safeway or 7-11? courting attention to places like laundromats or delis too? they already do that with toys and other licensed products. that way print doesnt need to die or be limited to the appeal of oldheads and nerds, or limited to just graphic novels at major book retailers. Ppl keep using film and music as examples but do you realize how much easier of a medium comics are to access in their physical form than either film or music, which needed a cd player or the like to experience whereas comic books you can just pick up and read as you would a Life or NatGeo magazine at the grocery checkout aisle??? tl:dr comic companies should try courting a diverse assortment of business to retail their products. I would like to see single issues again at safeway, or the convenience store, or the laundromat
Trust me most ppl prefer physical media even games The main problem is that physical copies are getting hard to find for older things Where I live ps2 and ps3 games are disgustingly over priced Keep prices reasonable ppl will always buy I promise u
Publishers should distribute digital copies that have been photographed from a printed master. I definitely prefer digital comics that come from photographed pages instead of purely digital comics.
Lol @ thinking digital and psychical are the same 1. You don't own what you "pay for" you lisence it thus it can be REVOKED without any warning, how many indie comic companies were there in the late 80s early 90s who's books still exist today?? A digital company goes out of business shuts down servers bye bye to your collection... 2. Probly the biggest for me, say an issues come out, someone on twitter complains about a panel or anything like that, now the company can just alter the digital version without an original existing, like misprints?? Not any more bucko, like your "collection" actually being worth something say good bye to that aswell. Thank fuck mangas my thing... Its funny you brought up music as I can see the same thing happening where you'll still have publishers producing limited short runs of books that will be come highly sort after collectors items to those who miss out on printing runs or Kickstarter campaigns just like psysical music products
@@residentgrigo4701 that argument defeats the purpose of going digital anyway imo, if your gonna pirate it what's the point of paying for a service at all... Thus why I said thank God I'm a manga boy, my collection is full of japanese printings and I read scanlations, and save them on a tablet for "prosperity" so im a custom to reading "pirated" comics online but I'm not interested in actually paying for something I can't hold in my hands or display of my bookshelf, plus if pirates where really that good and "archiving" anything lost media wouldn't be a thing 🤷🏻♀️
I don't think we will go full digital in many, many decades, I think physical collectors edition books will exist for years and years to come. I really should by some kind of tablet for reading digital comics, I'm already starting to get annoyed at the size comic book omnibuses and I don't even own that many, but I'm still gonna keep buying interesting editions of comics.
For me, digital comics are inherently justified by the fact they tend to get better discounts during sales and take up no physical space. Compared to the prices of importing physical comics, with taxes, exchange rates and other random fees, there's no contest that digital has had a very positive impact on my experience as a comic book fan.
That is my experience also. Specifically, I buy hard copies of single issues because day of release they are same price as digital but when I buy a trade it is usually through the digital marketplace because the right sale will get you a collected story for the price of of one single new issue. I feel like I have the best of both worlds and I wouldn’t like to see that change any time soon.
SBP - brilliant stuff, brother -- unflinching, well-stated & perfectly timed. i think you nailed it & i think you're speaking for a shit-ton of (mostly young) people who don't even know they're comic book fans yet. while the medium might not be the message in this case, IMHO it's almost certainly the medium that opens the flood gates. specialty stores are going under every day. but tablets sell with frightening regularity. Disney & AT&T have a vested interested in putting a new suit of clothes on an artform that was dangerously close to being totally bereft of new ideas. the iTunes Store, Amazon or Comixology might not be the malt shop on the corner, but it's the 21st Century's closest analog. Disney & AT&T didn't become the commercial behemoths they are because they couldn't figure out how to sell shit. consistently. to a very profit-rich demographic. the world over. we blabbed on Twitter but i wanted to officially make sure you got kudos on YT (where, y'know, it REALLY counts ... or it might be, hopefully, monetized). keep speaking your mind. you're sharp. steeped in the details, entertaining AND informative, & you keep this old man still really interested in a past-time i though i lost touch with in the grandiose excesses of the 90's. keep at it & i'll keep listeinng/viewing. you've made comics (in all mediums) fun, complex & rich with meaning again. and i can't thank you enough for that!
The problem with trying to treat digital comics as a digital medium is that it all inevitably bleeds into animation and is no longer a comic proper because it is more tightly controlled like an animatic or animated short but also lacks to nuances of those mediums and ultimately feels like a inferior hybrid of both comics and animation. its all a lame and gimmicky Liger of a medium.
I don't believe print is leaving anytime soon. If print is dead or dying, why does Amazon sell far more actual books than Kindle data? As for the new generation preferring digital, okay, but the majority also don't have the reading habits/tastes we do, as evidenced by the boom in YA comic trades (of assorted genres) with a complete story suits them better than superhero tales doled out in a monthly fashion. When I was a kid, EVERYONE read comics because we didn't have the vast assortment of entertainment options todays kids do. When I see kids/teens in a comic store, they're usually with a parent who got them into the hobby. Some older fans have made the switch to digital, but paper still sells more...for now(?).
I strongly disagree with the uploader's video comment,because the fact that physical books have been around since 1500's until now regardless of format advancement of digital. The physical format are more economicly viable in the market as it can be traded by collectors and or resold by retail vendors at a actual physical comic con event as physical books increase in value ,but digital online copies do not.As a matter of fact both the big two publishers make most of their overall sales from the printed matter and not so much from the digital matter.So in my opinion the physical book will never go out of existence totally as old school collectors will always advocate for it ,regardless if there are digital formats of that same book .
Digital media is endlessly reproduceable without any real work or investment of resources. The only worth they have is generated by the maker bringing it to life (and the server cost,electricity etc). So when i buy a digital only copy i see it as a donation to the maker and not really as a purchase
Yes, everything has gone digital. But that doesnt mean you cant get still get physical movies, music, and books. Hell, even 8 tracks are having a hipster resurgence. Physical copies of things will always exist.
I believe, there always will be market for physical It may be small, practically marginal, but it will be there Physical copy might be more convenient for being, well, physical. First, there is a lot of areas where usage of electronics is highly restricted. It can be security reasons, safety precautions or simply to reduce the amount of noise. It can be outright forbidden to have a device on you in these areas. But simple paper book is perfectly fine. Such places might seem like something rare, but it is, basically, any governmental institution, a lot of medical facilities and research labs. There might be some other facilities, but I don't know about them. For security related fields, professionals (and VIPs) might be outfitted with certified devices for day-to-day use. And certification is slow enough process for such devices to lag 10 to 20 years related to non-secure devices and some devices are simply too advanced to even get such license. Second, there might be a need for rationing and smart use of your device battery. Tourist might want to save charge for emergency situations or simply taking photos. The last thing you want is to find yourself with dead device in case of unexpected negative development, like being scammed with place to stay or getting lost on your way to hotel. And lets not forget about backpackers and other travellers for whom charging a phone is not an option at all. Travelling agents might want to avoid inconvenience of having to find a place to charge in some area they are not failiar with. Again, physical copy doesn't drain your battery, so you can safely read it en route or in the mountains. Third, and it is more a personal expirience then general observation, I find it extremelly difficult to read from any type of monitor in the sun. It has to compete and looses. Glares reflected at you, brightness being too dim, having to constantly adjust angle slightly etc. Reading a book from a phone in the park or on the beach on a sunny day is an opposite of "relaxing expirience". And I don't think I am alone in this problem. And, of course, there are people who simply prefer reading from paper. I read a lot of specialized technical documentation and I can say that digital reading is the best thing that happened to reading since the invention of writing. Convenience of having multiple books open at the time, searching key words and phrases, precise jumping to topics, chapters and pages. You can find more in ten minutes then with physical copy in ten hours. Not to mention the convenient way of sharing. If I need something my friend has, I just phone him and download the book 5 mins later from emailbox. But recreational reading? There is simply no way to beat the smell of paper, the feel of pages turning, the weight of the book in your hand.
As for comic shops that slowly die out... At home we don't really have mainstream geek culture the way you do in America. Remnants of Soviet pioneer movement became unaffordable for most families without direct support from government and became more of a clan thing were skills are passed with direct support of or directly from one of the parents. To clarify. USSR had a huge program of national education that included two separate parts. Compulsory school-college-university (and I mean compulsory, if your kids don't go to school -- you go to jail (afterwards it is more peer pressure)) and optional after (as in, after you've done your homework) school education that included everything from engineering courses, to electronics, to journalism, to woodworking. All completely free and encouraged. Parts of the system still exist, but the shape is extremely poor. USSR never really had communities built around something completelly recreational, like comics or board games. New wave of western pop culture fails to establish itself as it has to clash with deeply rooted soviet views on parts of it in general and prices that are not user-friendly. Basically, to get a geek in this environment you have to have an extremely precise combination of parents who don't think that reading comics/playing board-games/collecting figurines makes their kid gay, serial killer or gay serial killer, so they can be exposed to it at all, who make their kid get fluent in English and other foreign languages so they can make a jump from more kid-orented stuff you usually find in the local stores (now some better works are translated, but they are too few to be considered more then an odd experiment) to the more age appropriate stuff and for the kid to be able to pay an average monthly salary per item of their hobby as an adult. Also, there is this odd inconsistency of materials. Back when I was kid, there was a lot of comics for kids and young teens. Which is logical, as there was simply no adults to market this to. But now, there are works aimed more at young adults and mature readers, clearly aiming at those who read comics as a child, but no kid or teen material. So geek culture of all shapes has rough time here. However Geek-oriented businesses always have general side to them. For comics, the most common way is comic shop merged with cafe. It is a shop that has a very distinct dining area. So unless you have something extremelly personal against Iron Man, you can just get a snack there, wait for someone or have a date in an oddly decorated cafe. For geeks it is a meeting place and a shop of all related stuff. And, as an added benefit, those who are not interested in comics but like the food, can get interested after a couple of visits. So you can have your cake and eat it too. Comic shop lives and there are people getting converted. And they are rather successful. A lot even survived the recent shutdown
Your premise ignores the fact that digital fundamentally changes the medium. Old comics in digital are "electronic photocopies;" however, comics created exclusively by and for digital will no longer be "comics books," but something new. They have different tools, and different limitations. I hate digital comics, but I might feel differently about whatever this new thing becomes. Your point stands. It is coming.
Actually, the argument is in favour of digital comics becoming their own medium, rather than an extension of print. However, you do make a very valid point. Does that make them comic books? That is definitely a point to consider. I suppose it depends on the shape they settle into and whether they have unique qualities only available to a digital format. But that's a question only the future can determine.
Tpb's and graphic novels are the only way it can survive. The floppy industry just can not survive. It makes a lot of money, but how many times do people get mad and drop a run over and over? Then never come back? Look at the sales figures for each title. They ALWAYS trend down every issue, barring a few special runs out there, or your Image/indie stuff. It's all very unfortunate. But moving to TPB's is great. It also forces a writer to actually have a plan for their run /cough tom king cough/.
The collector's market will always been hounding for new things. But so do speculators. And that's no good for the asshole like me who just wants to read the shit for the story. I quit floppies almost a year ago now. The joy was gone. It's cumbersome and horrid.
I haven’t watched the video yet (in case this was brought up), but Marvel was caught censoring the cigars (a favorite of Wolverine and Nick Fury) out of digital copies of Uncanny X-Men. If that doesn’t immediately scare you, what more will it take? Physical media is essential to preserving history and forming a connection with the medium. When reading a comic digitally; I feel nothing. Instead of ending floppies, Marvel and DC need to do some self reflection and fix their problems from the inside, instead of putting a band aid over the actual issue; poor management. Stop the political stuff, make comics cheaper, no more 2-3 “events” every year, and actually take fan criticism and critique seriously. If a book isn’t selling, don’t act like it’s “right wing trolls” that are responsible for it. Also: Put comics back in stores. Put them in the toy aisle at Target, or in grocery stores and gas stations. Obviously not every title, but Marvel and DC can send their top 5 selling books to retail stores to put on display. Try to actually promote comics, instead of selling them exclusively at comic shops. That’s what’s hurting them.
This whole video needs to be enjoyed with a heaping helping of "this is how the world works now". Whether you like it or not, the retail industry and print publishing are going to zombify within our lifetimes. It's better for the bottom line of the companies whose business revolves around creating and selling these stories, and it gives independent creators the ability to enter the wider market much more easily than having to do a print run and go through a distributor before the first comic is sold. Vinyl records still exist and are still being produced but haven't been the dominant medium for audio consumption in 30 years, they have shrunken into a very niche market exclusively for true hobbyists that is subsidized by the commercial success of the digital release. The same thing is going to happen to comics. Get used to it. Disney and Time Warner (also, stop calling them Marvel and DC when discussing them from a business perspective, those are brand names for intellectual and creative properties that have to answer to a board of executives who run the show) are going to make decisions based on money - not sentimental value, not nostalgia, not the secondary market, not for any reason except for their bottom line and quarterly earnings. Movie theaters are in the same boat from the same companies for the same reasons, the Internet allows direct access to the consumer, almost eradicating the middle man entirely. The silver linings in all this? First, your physical comics are ACTUALLY going to become true collectors items once physical publication ceases, it may take a while, but scarcity creates value, just like how golden age comics became valuable in the first place. Won't happen immediately, won't ever be worth as much as golden age books, but you'll get there. Second, this is the best thing that could ever happen for independent creators, so if you have an artist or writer whom you like and support, they can tell their own stories and create their legacies without having to subjugate themselves to a publisher or editorial mandates.
@@Nono-hk3is Thank you. The creative decisions are made by Marvel and DC, but business decisions are made by executives for Disney and Time Warner. Getting the two confused is why Image imploded.
meh...thanks to digital, i have every single marvel/dc comic from 1935 -pres, so digital's good for me. besides, if i linger for real pages, i can just print a copy out.
The manga market opposed digital anything with a passion until rampant piracy forced its hand. Pirates even got the files before the actual things released. Famously with the ending to Naruto. Marvel too had that problem for a while as issues liked during "post-production". The manga industry caught up fast as it had to and now does digital better than either DC or Marvel. The US comic industry too will figure it out. Can´t be long now. Marvel Unlimited is quite the deal now for example. I am a librarian and couldn´t care less about the medium. I never read GoT but listen to all 5 audiobooks + the spin-offs and had the same basic experience as book readers. I and they had the same info in our heads when all was said and done. Digital comics are still comics just like Steam games are still games. Consume however you want but there are more upsides than downsides to digital. Unless the internet dies one day but who needs physical comics when society gives ups on us?
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
The problem with digital media is that it can be taken away or changed at a push of the metaphorical button . There is no guarantee that the thing I bought won't vanish from the service I use do to some change in copyright
@@Adam-nz3ix It did happen to some polish webcomics from the early 2000s now the only existing copies are the printed ones because the domain stopped being paid like bug city a parody of sin city. It also happened to games like Scott Pilgrim vs the world with got discontinued due to copyright disputes or GTA SA with is impossible to play the version with the original soundtrack legally. Those are just a few examples if it happens to other online media it can and will happen to online comic books . When it comes to DC I can think of the whole Batpenis controversies or one of the big 2 just wanting to get more money or have a copyright problem that would force them to delete some comic book from the service.
@@Adam-nz3ix Not sure about comics specifically, but Amazon has already done this with books on the Kindle. io9.gizmodo.com/amazon-secretly-removes-1984-from-the-kindle-5317703
That happened to me twice in my lifetime. Because I didn't read the fine print I lost most of my original purchases on Comixology before Amazon bought it. Then it happened again when the Playstation Network voided all of my PS3 and Vita digital purchases.
It has and will only happen more frequently. Going digital enables the rightholders to assert you have a license to view their intellectual property, rather than you own a copy of their work. And every media-oriented license agreement provides no rights to the purchaser, only a list of open ended things that you can do to revoke the license and prevent you from access.
This fact alone motivates the rightholders to steer their customers towards digital, potentially moreso than pure customer demand would.
Intellectual property laws are the problem here, not digital media.
I use a Chrome add-on (works with Chromium Edge as well) to download my ComiXology purchases as CBZ files. The other store I buy from, the 2000AD Shop is more civilized and lets me download a DRM-free CBZ for every purchase.
A few weeks ago Amazon came out said that you don't own digital media and remember what with Itunes. Never forget with psychical media you have it as long you want it, but with digital, it can disappear at any minute for any reason.
Which is EXACTLY why my GDrive (including a significant comic collection in addition to my physical collection) is backed up to a physical, external hard drive that I keep on a shelf.
I'm 23 now, got into comics at 19 and I've never bought a digital comic. Mainly collect omnibuses. The book market has shrank as much as its going to and has stabilised and vinyl records have come back. Physical media will always have a market even if it becomes a more niche one, regardless of generation
The main reason I choose digital comics over physical is space. I have a small room already filled with other interests and being able to purchase a comic/graphic novels/trades and read them on my tablet seems like a no brainer.
If I love the comic after reading it then I will purchase a physical version of it too. I don't think digital will be the be all end all of comics, physical copies will always stick around. Even though music is mainly digested through streaming, CDs and Vinyls still sell, though sadly not as muchm
A part of me likes having hard comics I freaking put them on my wall but I can't lie I have at least eight or nine gigs of comics right now and it's that slowly growing
The day western comics embrace the current Shonen Jump model in the west is the day I give up print. $2 monthly payment =entire catalogue and you get the new issues day and date as print. It just makes sense. Create your trade collections a month after an arc wraps and release them that way. Or embrace the stand alone graphic novel more. Loved Image’s recent releases Pulp and Dracula Mother F**cker. Really enjoy that format for comics
the problem with OGNs is that most artist are too slow and probably can't release 2 trades in a year. Compare that to a mangakaka's out put, they put out a 200 page trade 3 or 4 times a year.
As soon as you add motion to a digital version, it simply becomes a poorly done animated short film. In Understanding Comics, McCloud explores the connection between comics and film as examples of sequential art, and what you're describing here is essentially an end to comics in favor of animation. Eventually, 'improvements' would lead to the total elimination of static panels. So what you're really saying isn't that comics are changing, but that they are ceasing to exist.
Re: trade paperbacks, you are absolutely correct. As a former obsessive collector/store owner, I can affirm that nobody would buy them for any reasons but those you mentioned. I actually had a theory in the '90s that they would become increasingly valued, however, as they were the new 'disposable' form of comics consumption, and while everyone was preserving individual comics, nobody was being careful about the condition of their 'graphic novels'. But now with the transition to digital, I guess only hardcore collectors will bother with print copies, so only truly rare physical comics will retain their value.
Exactly! Motion comics aren't comics. They're crap animation.
Who the hell adds motion to comics and still calls it a comic
Motion comics are animations of comics. Or they are straight up animations. I enjoy motion comics, but forcing comics that werent designed to be motion comics to be motion comics in print titles sounds very insulting to the original vision.
Fan comics eat your heart out, Berserk motion comic exists for a reason and its really good.
I prefer physical media for nearly every medium. Always go for it. But being here in Doha, Qatar there is no comic shop and I can't get issues via mail. So it is digital for me by default till I am back in the states...
I prefer a physical copy, I still buy CDs and Vinyl when I can but more and more bands only have digital albums and I have reluctantly bought several and will as time goes on. I do feel like there may always be a place for physical comics, the kindle and other digital book readers was thought to kill off physical books but those products have waned and books are still being sold, similarly while CDs are in the decline Vinyl has become quite popular, also many kickstarter and similar websites have shone that people will buy extra for a physical copies
My thesis supervisor wrote his dissertation on digital comics. Largely, he cited interactivity and audio as being a completely unique dimension to digital comics, as while things such as audio can be implied in printed comics, they can be actually included in with the digital. The interactivity part he compared to a form of game or interactive art instillation. Since I study time with physical comics, we tend to argue that interactivity point. Time doesn't move in a comic unless you turn the page.
I started analyzing time in comics...and spent 2,400 words explaining time itself before realizing it's a property that doesn't exist in a comic. :)
@@StrangeBrainParts Welcome to my headache. Time is implied through the art, through dialogue and through turning the page, but does not actually exist. Keep up the awesome work, I'm watching your Dark Knight Returns video while studying right now. :)
@Mikayla J. Laird : We share that headache. It was something I decided to explore due to one of your videos a few months ago. And then, after a manifesto that would get me committed, I had to admit, you are on one TOUGH journey.
Thanks for watching! I hope my humble offerings are good noise. :)
@@StrangeBrainParts to know I'm not alone on this rediculous research trip is a huge comfort. 😊
@Mikayla J. Laird : You are not alone in that madness. I applaud your efforts. It's something that I've tackled more than a few times before pausing for significant amounts of time. I don't know if what I have down is genius or just complete gibberish. Ha ha ha.
Pile into the Wayback Machine! Because further back than the "back in the day" you might be thinking of, there's what Graphic Novels originally were. The content was original stand alone stories & art. Much like a movie made for the direct to video market. The opposite of what came in the 80's, many were later reprinted in multiple single comic issues. An example would be Don McGreggor's SABRE, or DETECTIVE'S INC. reprinted in 2 to 3 comic issues. Sometimes they were used to launch a new series, much like a pilot episode does for television.
The format seemed to be largely inspired by Manga, or European printing. Allowing for format, printing and paper stock experimentation. As the direct market took off in the U.S., this was commonplace. Graphic Art, Novel length stories. At the same time, Collected Editions started up for all the reasons you mentioned. Convenient and economical, etc. So at the time, Howard Chaykin's adaptation of STARS MY DESTINATION was considered a Graphic Novel, RONIN, DARK KNIGHT and WATCHMEN were originally comic serializations reprinted in Collected Editions called Trade Paperbacks. Those 3 books, by the way, were also among the first to be sold in national bookstore franchises such as WALDEN BOOKS, B. DALTON, and BARNES & NOBLE.
As this became more lucrative, the "writing for the trade" followed. Now, Trade Paperback/reprint/collected editions are the rule, the original stand alone content the exception. In the U.S. at least.
You covered almost all the print vs. digital pros & cons so well! Here's one more to consider: while I looooooooove the comic shop/back issue bin hunt as much as anyone, there's also something to be said for DIGITAL PRESERVATION. Case in point:
As a kid, I once owned a PHANTOM comic by Lee Falk. But it was printed on coarse manilla paper. Horrible quality. Two grades below coloring book paper. It eventually crumbled to pieces. At age 10, i didn't know it would do that. Thought to be irreplaceable, now I can go online somewhere, and read it whenever. >Whew!!<
While tomorrow is inevitable, we're in a good place of balance right now. We don't have to rush headlong! Vinyl made something of a comback. In 2018 it was reported that Bookstores were having difficulty keeping up with the demand for printed books. This, in a world of downloads, audibles, and file sharing! If we can see the value of both, maybe we'll have the balance of options a little while longer...
In the early 90s, trade paper backs where amazing to find at the public library. X-Men: Asgardian Wars, Dark Phoenix Saga, X-Tinction Agenda, and Ed the Happy Clown were standouts for me, in addition to Watchmen and DKR. As far as purchasing tpbs, I wouldn't seek them out, but was happy when my dad bought me Starman and Morrison's JLA.
Sorry it has taken me so long to make any commentary on your video. You always do such a superb job, and I typically watch your videos the day they come out, but some personal events have come in the way, so I had to deal with them first. And now that I’ve sat down and watched this video, here is what I have to say.
This is just my humble opinion, so keep that in mind, but there are only two good things about digital publication in this modern era. 1. Convenience, because I don’t have to leave my home, which allows for instant gratification, and 2. Buying digital saves space in my otherwise crowded home.
And here are all the good things about physical publication that I, and most others, enjoy. Once I buy the printed copy, I own it for the life of the paper it was printed on, mistakes and all, and in many cases that means it will outlive me so that my children can inherit and read those things which meant a lot to me if they so choose. That’s probably the biggest downside to digital. It can be altered anytime the publisher sees fit, and yes I know they do that with Trade Paperback’s too, which is why most people do not buy them, or outright just remove them from being purchased ever again for whatever reason they so choose.
Another thing I, and most, love about reading a physical copy is that I not only get to enjoy the art and dialogue, but I also get to feel the physical texture of the paper the comic was printed on, and smell the inks and paper too, so I become fully wrapped up in the comic in my hands. With digital, there is a bit of distance I feel, a coldness with the comic because all I feel is smooth glass if it’s on a reading device, or rubber covering plastic if I’m reading from my desktop computer as I use the mouse to scroll down the page on my PDF software. Smells? Well, that is just not something digital can produce at the moment, can it?
With a physical copy, I can take it to a friend’s house and share the experience. Sure, I can e-mail the digital copy to them, but unless I’m physically with them, we cannot share in the experience together in the same room as we can with a physical copy. It’s not that big of a deal in the larger scheme of things, but the differences are quite substantial.
The one downside of owning physical is running out of space if you are a collector like me.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m like you, I’m neither for nor against either form. Both are good, and digital is getting better with its presentation, but as someone who grew up with the physical comic in the 90’s, I honestly prefer physical over digital for the reasons I mentioned above. But I do own both physical and digital. And if someone prefers digital, that’s fine with me too. As long as people are buying and reading, that’s all that matters at the end of the day. Keep the art alive; and help keep the creators employed so they can continue to make this medium we all love so much.
"Making a informed choice"
It's the most important part.
I'm 53 and have loved comics my whole life. I've gone from single issues to trades to digital. In all cases I've easily transitioned due to convenience. I've always been in it for the story first, art second. The biggest drawback is in the art, specifically panel lay out, other wise digital is the way to go.
Confirming your perception of early trade paperbacks - it was spot on
The only thing that seemed off to me was the comment that people don’t call them TPBs. Even though graphic novel is more common as an umbrella term,I still hear TPB quite often as well.
@@Glassandcandy I agree
Buying movies on Blue-ray is still a think right? Maybe physical comics will be trades graphic novels in the future. Limited edition printings for full complete stories.
When comics transition to digital, I'm not sure how new readers could get introduced to comics. With no comic store to wander into, why would a young person ever pick up their first comic? What would bring them to a Marvel or DC website? I think without careful consideration on the part of the comic companies digital comics could easily end the industry.
Why would a kid ever watch a television show with the TV so conveniently parked in the living room? Why would a kid ever play a video game with the console so conveniently able to download the digital copy? If someone buys the child a digital reader, or has a laptop available to them to surf the internet and buy digital copies of comics, providing a gateway for them to get into comics, is it really the end of the industry? I don't think so. Yes, and sadly might I add, the physical stores are slowly going away. And one day, the physical comic will bite the dust as physical forms have done in other mediums of entertainment. But the medium in and of its self still thrives. And it will continue to do so as long as people are willing to spend their money buying comics.
@@DoppelgangerShockwave If that were true digital comic sales would skyrocket with tablet and smartphone sales. Pretty sure that's not the case. I always thought a good way to get new readers would be to include a free code to Marvel unlimited with their movies and movie merchandising.
A couple of points, one of which you touched upon. 1) Vinyl recordings have been making a comeback. Apparently, some believe (and I am one of them) that their physical interactions with the album cover, the inner sleeve, the actual disc, and the turntable are worthwhile experiences that add value to the listening experience. 2) One of the most beautiful comic books I've ever encounter (and owned) is the Avengers Annual drawn by Michael Golden. Compare the printing (including the coloring) of the original book to later reprints produced with modern methods. In the original book, the printing process produced subtleties in shading that made the art appear as if vast amounts of Zip-a-tone had been expertly applied to the original art, when, in fact, it was merely a side effect of the (relatively primitive) printing process. Those subtleties are lost in the modern reprints (and presumably) in any digital file of the story. Something to think about.
I had no problem jumping to digital comics. The first time I saw an Android tablet, I knew digital comics were for me. Now I read them on my Surface or a 12" Samsung tablet. those screen sizes display a comic page size that is nearly identical to print.
The transition worked for me, since a few years later a pipe burst in the ceiling destroying my entire 20+ year collection. All my digital comics are downloaded as CBZ or CBR files and backed up on two different hard drives with Microsoft's Sync Toy.
Shonen Jump is probably the way we'll see comics in the future. Specifically, their older audience spin-off, Jump+. It's online and has an app. Early and new chapters of major series are free for six weeks. New series are free until they get a following. New material is released every day. This is available in Japanese, English and Spanish at the same time.
In the US, Jump has a second online/app service, where everything ever published by Viz is available to read for $2.99 a month. You are limited to 100 chapters a day. Both are for casual fans.
In both cases, the trades are still available in print for hardcore readers starting at $9.99. Some weekly series get new trades every two months.
I think we'll see a US publisher adapt to this before long.
I love collecting. I intern at firms while studying in a college and the stipend I get is usually divided into buying a comic for me or a manga for my girlfriend. The ironic thing is I collect the issues or TPBs I've already read and love. I read digitally because carrying books with you all the time is hard but I think I'll collect until I die. Can't wait for my children to look at my collection and think dad was cool.
I've tried reading digitally but I really don't enjoy the experience. Your closing remark frames the issue as prioritizing the story (digital) versus prioritizing the collection (physical), but I don't think that's fair. The vast majority of my reading is from physical copies that I borrow from the library. I want the physical reading experience, but I too prioritize the reading of the story, so owning that book in my collection isn't as important. That said, I do have a modest physical collection and like to have copies of the works I really love, but because the experiential aspect of digital doesn't fit me as a reader, I continue to pursue physical copies whether it's to own and collect or just to experience the story for a brief time. Great video as always, really enjoyed it.
I think digital comics are definitely the future and you can see this in what people that are younger are consuming in regards to comics. I’m 20 years old and most people I’ve met outside of my close circle of comic friends read manga. Not only do they read manga, they read it on their phones. I think comics need to focus on accessible stories with an ending in mind of they’d like to switch to digital and get a new reader’s base.
In regards to digital comics as a different form than a physical comic, I’d agree. The endless scroll format of the web toon or other digital comics is a pretty unique and easy format for any digital viewing. I think the pinnacle of this format so far is in Michael Walsh’s webcomic “The Sleep Stories”. It’s free, I’d check it out. You’d get caught up in like 10/15 minutes
My issues with an all digital future was somewhat touched upon at the end but its the ephemeral quality of the product, the end of its democratization, and curation and preservation. I'll always point to PT, a digital only game, that was wiped from existence due to an over zealous owner. Video game preservation in general is having to figure out how to maintain works of importance and that idea of them being preserved in amber simply isn't true. If Marvel or DC finds some cultural issue with a work in the future, it could be changed or disappear all together. How many works would have been impossible to find and have historical context for if they weren't found in someone's attic later. That total control can have a lot of problems. Discoverability and the readers experience of stumbling across and odd comic that happens to be stocked should be protected but if all digital comics had just free access I can see that get exploited. I still remember the "its not a library" mantra from my early days but you were still allowed to thumb through something and see the whole work and mull over it in whatever capacity was necessary.
Ultimately I like ownership. The ability to have for as long as I desire the work or to find something long out of print to enjoy. Where as the all digital future, you're only renting it.
Tbh, even though i prefer reading the physical edition of comics, like trade paperback, I always read comics on my phone and computer.
I appreciate this video for its objectiveness. Like many, the joy of reading a physical comic is hard to explain. And the smell of a comic shop, with all that paper and ink. It 100% pure nostalgia fuel. But the fact is that digital is super convenient and years of learning to read on screen has trained my brain to be fine with it. Furthermore, before digitally sold media and digital back issue reprints(and even still today with some comics) the only way to read them was online bootlegs. So for many of us we had been reading online for a lot longer, just in less then legal ways.
My only major issue with digital comics is that I very much dislike paying the same price as a print comic. I feel like the only one benefiting from that price is the distributor. I understand that one reason for that is to not price out the direct sellers and I respect that but I wish there was a way that the extra money the publisher made for my digital vs print copy went back to a local store somehow, instead of Disney or the WB just pocketing that extra bucks or so
"Moebius collections"? Yay! And speaking of, how about some Jean Giraud reviews?
In response to your last point, the experience of being a collector and the experience of being a comic story fan are separate things. There are many people who enjoy collecting regardless of story quality. So while these changes may be reconcilable for people on one extreme of this pairing of habits, those on the other are completely underserved. Moreover, most people are in-between, enjoying aspects of each of these pursuits. I would never have collected 32,000 comic books based on story alone, but I also would never have done it if I didn't enjoy at least some of the stories.
TREMENDOUS topic for a video, _uprated!_
to me, the purpose of a comic book is to bring joy, like a small piece of candy. what is the comic book that has done so, the one which is in a dark closet all its life like some jealously guarded trophy? in that vein, what could be more wonderful to those who work so hard to create, than to see their work widely distributed and more ubiquitously enjoyed than ever before?
to me, seeing the little nicks and dings an old comic book gets over time is so beautiful. i can see how much joy it shared over the years with hundreds just like me. admittedly, for this reason, i intentionally own a small run of an old title for which i purposefully gathered only issues rated VF/G.
*don't worry about the collector's market, it will always be here lol.*
There is going to be both, but the physical aspect will become a more premium/collector/connoisseur experience. Just like with movies or music. Vinyl is still popular, I'm pretty sure more popular than CDs. Lots of young people my age (20) collect vinyl. Blu-Rays as well. Many premium labels like Criterion, Arrow, Eureka or Second Run create collections made with care, with lots of extras and love put behind the restoration and the design of the artwork, boxes, the booklets. It's already like this with comics: especially oversized hardcovers, the Omnibus editions, the Absolutes... those are often better editions, with more extras and larger artwork than single issues, and the bargain price finds or expensive collection aspects are retained. At some point, the physical aspect will become the secondary aspect for collecting. I'm pretty sure the trades are selling better than digital still. The single issue monthly market will die out except for some premium versions like the the magazine-style Black Label books or more special ones like X-Men Grand Design. It won't be enough to sustain the comic shops (which are also not really a thing outside of the USA; here in my country, the comic shops are mostly focused on trades and omnis, rather than singles), but they will be able to help support libraries and bookstores.
The problem with digital is the untapped potential that none of the major publishers bothered to expand upon, which results in a catastrophe wheh faced with a hard situation like the COVID pandemic. They wasted their time. Marvel Unlimited is a fantastic idea, but it was obviously made as an effort to fuck over comic shops by making it harder for them to sell back issues, and let Marvel force them to buy hundreds of the same issue in order to get a rare 1:1000 variant some lunatics are still willing to pay hundreds of dollars for (have they learned nothing from the 90's, an era I wasn't even alive to experience?).
Just look at how popular manga is doing worldwide, Shonen Jump surely is the best equivalent of the Big Two. Same day release of translated versions! Readership in muuuch higher numbers than the American comics! Accessible and popular among teenagers! Instead of focusing on annoying pop up novelties like extras interrupting the story or sound effects, think of the other possibilities. Ability to make custom translations possible by having the in-app lettering customizable (kinda how the CC works on TH-cam) would make the comics more accessible to people around the globe, without them being at mercy of local publishers having to select the most popular titles and releasing them years after they have already been spoiled online. Accesibility options, like making the comics more attractive to people with disabilities - a reader which could help people with dyslexia? High contrast options, possibility to zoom in for people with sight problems? Options for the color-blind? There is so much potential in the digital medium, but none of the companies bothered to push it hard enough to innovate it.
Not to mention the REAL positive sides to the trade-ification and digitalization - NO ADS! An add every 4 pages in the mainstream comics are terrible! It takes you out of the story constantly! Trades, omnis, digitals - they don't have that! Not to mention the price per issue is lower there too, and it is easier to access around the world due to a lack of specialized comic stores in the majority of the world, and books and digital devices being more widespread.
I'm still of the mindset that I want to own a physical version of the things I like (movies, music.....comic books).
Web comics from the mid 2000s did actually begin to develop their own language and multimedia content. Korean web comics for example would sometimes use motion or sounds that would activate on certain triggers but weren’t constant throughout the work. However, I don’t know if this is still the case, as web comics kind of had a boom then busted as the internet became more monopolized by only a handful of huge digital enterprises. They are seeing a return though. For example, Web Toon is now the most popular platform for hosting web comics, and while their format is definitely uniquely designed for readability on a digital device, I’m not active enough there to say what kind of new “language” it’s bringing to the table.
I will say I’m not totally opposed to digital replacing paper. The environmental impact of paper mills is severe, and needs to be phased out alongside other pollution-heavy industries. What I am more concerned about is actually a problem that exists right now, soulless monopolies and conglomerates limiting spaces smaller newcomers can fill. The internet is currently “owned” by only a handful of huge companies who pretty well have the final say in what can or cannot succeed (not in a literal dictatorial sense, but in terms of market influence and control). However, with the Disney buyout of Marvel and Fox (who would license properties to Dark Horse), DC having been owned by Warner Brothers for decades now, and of course the Diamond Distribution problem, we are seeing the exact same problem. Comic are no longer small enough to allow the Wild West environment that allowed the 80s indie/black and white boom to occur and thrive; they’re enormous engines of capital. The internet as it has developed, is a similar problematic environment as plethoras of independent sites and niche hosting pages like Newgrounds have given way to Facebook, TH-cam, and Google as not only the primary locations for finding content, but also known for buying up all smaller competitors. So the issue is not format, but creative control, license, and the inevitable sacrifice of integrity for profit that squeezes out the experimental as unsellable.
Edit: there is a further ownership problem with digital however. As seen in Amazon’s terms of service, many digital works of literature are not actually owned by purchasers but instead leased or rented. This is opposite to physical in which purchased items are owned by the purchaser and cannot be taken away or withheld. Also, digital works are subject to disappearance. There are many great web comics which are now gone, vanished into the ether, lost to time, and inaccessible to future readers (Nothing Nice 2 Say, for example, which was my favorite web comic ten+ years ago but is now no longer hosted). And while cloud storage and backups/archives alleviate the issue, all that is needed is loss of a password, loss of a platform, or not to pay a website’s hosting bill for a potentially great series, especially one with a niche readership, to poof away forever. A publisher can also choose to delist or modify a work anytime. All this as opposed to print, which allows for a tangible record of something that cannot so easily be snatched from your hands.
18:50 He said it! he said it!
I did indeed!
Leonardo DiCaprio clicks and points *
I see the good and bad in both, personally. The digital experience is hardly traditional, but it's certainly more environmentally responsible and can allow me to collect and read limitlessly. I have found some fantastic stuff on a digital platform I never would have come across or been able to get my hands on previously. For me, my main sticking point is cost. I don't think I can ever accept paying the same dollar amount for digital as what I would physical. I collected the entire run of DC's Terrifics, and the last 2 issues were only made available digitally; this was early in the summer and I still haven't read them- I can't bring myself to pay $4 each for what I was getting physically.
And yes, nothing...NOTHING can replace that smell, or the 'thrill of discovery' as you so ably put it.
17:52 Well, hey now, best not to assume you'll be able to buy it forever. I can see comic companies pull a 'Mario 3D All-Stars' and list comics for a limited time
A part of me love digital do the fact that it's open the floodgates for people to make their own comics people like me who thought they would never be able to break out in the business of their own can actually do it now get an Indiegogo or Kickstarter going the sad thing is although we get to follow in the footsteps of the greats as time moves on we might not be able to get our comics in the comic book stores is what a lot of people who create Indie comics would love to do I know if my comic finally gets off the ground I love to see it my local comic book store
I was fortunate enough to find your channel earlier in the year, through it I've found comics I've not visited, and re-read others with a new perspective so thank you.
What are your thoughts on publishers distributing directly to the consumer? Like CD's and vinyl you now (more often than not) are purchasing directly from the band or their label.
I feel like there is always going to be a physical version of the medium, but print runs might be far more limited in size. Whether this is due to "hardcore collectors", a smaller base of monthly consumers, and niche-speculators, there may be enough to warrant a physical version of the story. Or maybe I hope that's the way for my son and his children to have similar experiences with the physical medium I did...
To further illustrate this point check out these titles and how digital comics can have a leg up on physical. Please note they all started out as physical and standard digital editions: www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/the-uniques/list?title_no=207400&page=1
www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/hexagon/list?title_no=546432
The only reason I'm reading digital Is that my wife doesn't want boxes and boxes all over the house. I do miss the feel and scent of paper
I disagree completely with the fatalistic opinion that 100% digital market is inevitable. Think of the market for books in library stores. When ebooks became a thing, it was predicted that physical books would vanish. However, we clearly see it isn't the case and will most likely never be. There is no reason two products, one digital and one physical, can't coexist.
The reason mediums get replaced, like how VHS got replaced by DVDs, is because of technological improvement and overall technological obsolescence. However, there is no particular improvement between a physical and a digital copy of a book. With both, you gain access to the same product, except that in real life you have to buy a pen to underline things whereas a virtual product has this function implemented. Digital comic books is an added commodity, not a replacement. And the digital market is not in direct opposition with the physical market, that is not a proper way to view the very real interactions those mediums have together.
Overall I believe the comic industry as a whole is misguided if it thinks digital is there to supplant physical sales: they work together to reach a broader market, much like books in library stores.
and yet the sales of cassettes and vinyl records are going up, despite them being far less convenient to use... Convenience is not the be all and end all. If a publisher decides to get out of physical comics, like say DC (hypothetical at the moment), while there is still a demand some other company will occupy the niche. Chasing a different market that may not exist may lead to a companies downfall. Suggesting that 'younger' consumers are used to reading on electronic devices, assumes that they read. At all.
As a reader from a "developing" / third-world country, I don't really have any romantic notions around The Fantastic Quest For A Real-Life Copy (That Can Be Resold Later Maybe) when digital allowed me to read a lot of these at all.
I buy digital copies of the current Marvel and DC stuff I want to read. I don't care about speculation or their value as collectibles. I do however buy graphic novels and back issues in an effort to maintain a physical library of comics that I can be proud to show off and share with friends.
Right now view devices are at the sour spot of too big/not big enough.
This will be a non issue once devices get larger and more convenient.
Imagine your twin screens now tilted 45 degrees and twice as big, and it's portable.
That will be a game changer.
Also, paper kills trees.
I abs love your channel and publicize it on my humble blog
Make an informed choice while you still have one.
Physical comics take up so much space--space I don't have. So long as a digital copy of a thing is an actual file I can put on a hard drive and not a streaming thing that can be taken away when I purchase it, digital is the way to go.
Digital comics can never replace the physical human experience of feeling, smelling comics and humans will always crave the human experience.
I don't think that physical media will ever completely disappear .
The DRM system puts readers/licensees/customers of digital copies in a situation where cost for the right to read beyond their ability or willingness to pay for. Additionally digital distro systems,as far as I know, do not financially reward creators or publishers just the platforms.
I don't think the comparison to the inevitable march of music and movie formats at the start of the video is entirely appropriate. Another comparison is books, and print books aren't going anywhere. With music and movies, the progression of formats offered huge advantages in quality, convenience (e.g. non-degrading, streamable), and new features (e.g. selectable chapters and tracks) that are *very* obvious to typical users and newer formats are very close to being strictly superior to older formats (an example of the exceptions would be the ease of recording to VHS over DVD). In contrast, books have a more complex tradeoff between print and digital formats. Digital novels don't have the same sorts of obvious major benefits that digital movies do (the exception being ease of distribution but for popular novels that advantage is fairly modest) and most users feel that the print "user-interface" is superior (digital devices have unnecessary distractions, most screens are an awkward size for novels, printed pages give a sense of physical space that's very useful when reading long texts whereas screens can be disorienting). Written materials that aren't read front-to-back like references, newspapers, and textbooks do offer new features that are obvious to typical users and there we have indeed seen resources like Wikipedia largely supplant encyclopedias because they're more accessible, can be organized non-linearly, can be updated, and can be searched. Among these examples, I'd say comic books are closest to novels but with ease of distribution being a much bigger factor and the added issue of collectability as the video mentions.
The ease and effectiveness of piracy also seems to play into format choices in interesting ways.
i think personally nothing is like paper. But I must say in this time why got to study on College, i more read digital. I have not enough space for my collection. I can hold up with the stuff I like, but it can Not fill up My Room.
I've read digital comics for more than 10 years (the pirate ones). I literally devoured them, I've probably read more comics in those 10 years than in the 30 previous years of comic book reading (25, as I read since 5, and learned to read mostly by myself through Spider-man and Superman).
Yet, I still prefer the physical medium and strive to get the best stories in omnibus or trade format, digital platforms of online shopping have made this possible. I buy back issues whenever I can, in fact I prefer them (I wouldn't change my Morrison Doom Patrol run on back issues, for trades, and wouldn't buy the trades now that I have the back issues) but it's real hard to get them, specially in my town. Nevertheless, I don't think I'll ever pay for a digital comic. (It's the same with movies and series, I buy physical media, a lot of it, but my first watch tends to be of pirated digital copies.)
And yeah, I've enjoyed the stories a lot, some of them are unavailable any other way, even in legal digital copies. There WAS a very real and tangible difference: the computer screen allows a comfortable view of near half of the page, and that precluded the appreciation of the composition of the page and made some other nuances of the narration clumsy, reduced the impact of splash pages and double-spreads, etc. (but enhanced the turn-of-the-page surprises). Of course these problems might be solved using a proper device or designing the comic to the screen.
There's still another difference, reading isn't purely an intellectual experience, it 's also a sensuous experience, the feel of the cover and pages, the weight of the issue or volume, the SMELL. I hope physical comics survive in omnibus and trades, for those of us who love the sensuous experience of reading comics.
I wonder if they will make a filter to make comics look more vintage with the 4 color printed style.
Is there a collector market for 90s comics? Like at all?
I believe print will reduce but not fall away all together. As you used records as an example of something fades away, they did at the emergence of the CD, but are and for the past 6-10 years have been more popular than they have been for the last couple decades. People will exploit the digital marketing of course but there will always be a market, grand or niche, for a physical copy and it would be irresponsible to, as you said, leave money on the table. Another issue with the sole production of nonphysical copies is editing, a solid issue can never change, or if there is a reprint one can look back and compare the differences, if a digital copy is altered and one had not saved the first day publication (or worse planned obsolescence/intentional file corruption after a certain amount of time to ensure a necessity for multiple purchases) it would be impossible for one to look back and compare style or story from day to day. Physical may wane but in my opinion it would, or at least should, never completely stop
I agree 100% about the trades. I always thought they were a last resort. To me they were anyway. Unfortunately I let all my books go so I read digital now. I can’t imagine starting over. I do buy paper still but I don’t have anything close to the start of a collection. I do collect fangoria and rue morgue books. I guess that’s something
Not every media has gone digital. I don’t see a lot of digital painting hung in peoples houses. Sure there are some But that’s not taking off for a reason. It’s just not the same thing. A digital screen showing you images artwork it’s not the same thing as the actual artifact itself. The work that someone literally worked on. Comic books are that same feel, though they are mass produced. It’s an artifact. Still ink and paper like the original. You’re gonna have to just age in a new generation of people who read “comics“ on digital devices. But they won’t be the same thin, they’ll lose that preciousness that made them so great. Now they’ll just be stories put out en masse.
I'm sure there'll be a revival for the medium amongst enthusiasts much like vintage games and computers
In my experience, digital versions of German materials are no cheaper than their physical counterparts, so it's a no-brainer to prefer the physical versions. There's also a second-hand market, which means opportunities to buy cheaper or re-sell. So digital is only good for products from abroad you don't want to physically ship, since you save both on shipping and taxes.
This reminds me of themes in The man in the high castle (the book) and Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance.
I dunno I sort of disagree...
Sure I miss having the physical books in my hands and smell the print (glossy print used to smell like perfume to me lol) but on the other hand digital comics don't require any real state to 'collect'. My actual collection had over 7k issues and a dedicated room to store it plus there's the need of constant care (lost more than a few to termites) and so on.
To me it will eventually be similar to vinyl and MP3: collectors will still have their printed options but readers will prefer digital and overall digital will be the way to go for the reasons stated above.
Also disagree regarding TPBs.
I used to LOVE collecting entire runs of any tittles from characters I liked but when it became 'mandatory' to buy all issues of different comic to follow a story even when it wasn't a crossover (you had to buy all X Men comics to follow an story arc for instance) I sort of started to fizzle out specially when they started doing 'events' every year and many weren't even good...
So I would eventually wait till something good was released and get the collected TPB only as it didn't matter to me what came before or after that arc.
I suppose I went from collector to reader with time and circumstances and assume more done so plus majority can be casual readers anyway (brought in by movies and cartoons) so it'll make more sense to get compilations in digital format - and it's more eco friendly too.
Anyway loved the video. Recently found the channel and am binge watching the whole thing - good content from someone who obviously love comics and very well made videos too :)
I mean vinyl has surpassed cds and even digital in some markets. If you look at the metal underground vinyl and cassettes go for stupid money. Maybe comic books will loose some of that print presence but there will always be people willing to buy it.
3:29 I wish they just replicated that look, much better art. Although it is nuch better then some DC reprints.
You mentioned that collecting depends on a good harddrive. But is it still true that you can't actually keep the file but have to read it on the provider's servers? There's no "collecting" to me, if I don't have the file (comic). I feel like I'm borrowing a friend's copy but still paying the cover price.
I dislike the dualistic separation of story and medium. Most of my favourite comics were both created physically and I read them in physical form and that is no accident.
why are comic companies so preoccupied by print vs digital?
if printers and comic companies are so concerned with not making a profit anymore with print, why dont they think about diversifying their retailers beyond comic book shops or the selection of graphic novels from big bookstores? rather than juggling the idea of going full digital or not? why not start selling single issues again at places like safeway or 7-11? courting attention to places like laundromats or delis too? they already do that with toys and other licensed products. that way print doesnt need to die or be limited to the appeal of oldheads and nerds, or limited to just graphic novels at major book retailers.
Ppl keep using film and music as examples but do you realize how much easier of a medium comics are to access in their physical form than either film or music, which needed a cd player or the like to experience whereas comic books you can just pick up and read as you would a Life or NatGeo magazine at the grocery checkout aisle???
tl:dr comic companies should try courting a diverse assortment of business to retail their products. I would like to see single issues again at safeway, or the convenience store, or the laundromat
Trust me most ppl prefer physical media even games
The main problem is that physical copies are getting hard to find for older things
Where I live ps2 and ps3 games are disgustingly over priced
Keep prices reasonable ppl will always buy I promise u
Well stated.
Publishers should distribute digital copies that have been photographed from a printed master. I definitely prefer digital comics that come from photographed pages instead of purely digital comics.
Obstacles to *producing* in digital are mainly interface issues: not everyone can afford a two thousand dollar tablet, right?
Lol @ thinking digital and psychical are the same
1. You don't own what you "pay for" you lisence it thus it can be REVOKED without any warning, how many indie comic companies were there in the late 80s early 90s who's books still exist today?? A digital company goes out of business shuts down servers bye bye to your collection...
2. Probly the biggest for me, say an issues come out, someone on twitter complains about a panel or anything like that, now the company can just alter the digital version without an original existing, like misprints?? Not any more bucko, like your "collection" actually being worth something say good bye to that aswell.
Thank fuck mangas my thing...
Its funny you brought up music as I can see the same thing happening where you'll still have publishers producing limited short runs of books that will be come highly sort after collectors items to those who miss out on printing runs or Kickstarter campaigns just like psysical music products
It was very easy to save a digital copy to then print it and pirates will take care of archiving 99% of all early releases anyway.
@@residentgrigo4701 that argument defeats the purpose of going digital anyway imo, if your gonna pirate it what's the point of paying for a service at all...
Thus why I said thank God I'm a manga boy, my collection is full of japanese printings and I read scanlations, and save them on a tablet for "prosperity" so im a custom to reading "pirated" comics online but I'm not interested in actually paying for something I can't hold in my hands or display of my bookshelf, plus if pirates where really that good and "archiving" anything lost media wouldn't be a thing 🤷🏻♀️
I don't think we will go full digital in many, many decades, I think physical collectors edition books will exist for years and years to come. I really should by some kind of tablet for reading digital comics, I'm already starting to get annoyed at the size comic book omnibuses and I don't even own that many, but I'm still gonna keep buying interesting editions of comics.
For me, digital comics are inherently justified by the fact they tend to get better discounts during sales and take up no physical space. Compared to the prices of importing physical comics, with taxes, exchange rates and other random fees, there's no contest that digital has had a very positive impact on my experience as a comic book fan.
That is my experience also. Specifically, I buy hard copies of single issues because day of release they are same price as digital but when I buy a trade it is usually through the digital marketplace because the right sale will get you a collected story for the price of of one single new issue. I feel like I have the best of both worlds and I wouldn’t like to see that change any time soon.
Where is the puzzle image of the woman taken from?
SBP - brilliant stuff, brother -- unflinching, well-stated & perfectly timed. i think you nailed it & i think you're speaking for a shit-ton of (mostly young) people who don't even know they're comic book fans yet. while the medium might not be the message in this case, IMHO it's almost certainly the medium that opens the flood gates.
specialty stores are going under every day. but tablets sell with frightening regularity. Disney & AT&T have a vested interested in putting a new suit of clothes on an artform that was dangerously close to being totally bereft of new ideas.
the iTunes Store, Amazon or Comixology might not be the malt shop on the corner, but it's the 21st Century's closest analog. Disney & AT&T didn't become the commercial behemoths they are because they couldn't figure out how to sell shit. consistently. to a very profit-rich demographic. the world over.
we blabbed on Twitter but i wanted to officially make sure you got kudos on YT (where, y'know, it REALLY counts ... or it might be, hopefully, monetized). keep speaking your mind. you're sharp. steeped in the details, entertaining AND informative, & you keep this old man still really interested in a past-time i though i lost touch with in the grandiose excesses of the 90's. keep at it & i'll keep listeinng/viewing.
you've made comics (in all mediums) fun, complex & rich with meaning again. and i can't thank you enough for that!
Na manga will survive
Comics will die because well...nothing good to read
And if digital technology is lost, due say to hacking or natural disaster, are the books replaceable or do we enter a new dark age?
The problem with trying to treat digital comics as a digital medium is that it all inevitably bleeds into animation and is no longer a comic proper because it is more tightly controlled like an animatic or animated short but also lacks to nuances of those mediums and ultimately feels like a inferior hybrid of both comics and animation. its all a lame and gimmicky Liger of a medium.
Is there an email to contact the page creator at?
I don't believe print is leaving anytime soon. If print is dead or dying, why does Amazon sell far more actual books than Kindle data? As for the new generation preferring digital, okay, but the majority also don't have the reading habits/tastes we do, as evidenced by the boom in YA comic trades (of assorted genres) with a complete story suits them better than superhero tales doled out in a monthly fashion. When I was a kid, EVERYONE read comics because we didn't have the vast assortment of entertainment options todays kids do. When I see kids/teens in a comic store, they're usually with a parent who got them into the hobby. Some older fans have made the switch to digital, but paper still sells more...for now(?).
I game on pc/ps4 I prefer digital over physical.
I strongly disagree with the uploader's video comment,because the fact that physical books have been around since 1500's until now regardless of format advancement of digital. The physical format are more economicly viable in the market as it can be traded by collectors and or resold by retail vendors at a actual physical comic con event as physical books increase in value ,but digital online copies do not.As a matter of fact both the big two publishers make most of their overall sales from the printed matter and not so much from the digital matter.So in my opinion the physical book will never go out of existence totally as old school collectors will always advocate for it ,regardless if there are digital formats of that same book .
Digital media is endlessly reproduceable without any real work or investment of resources. The only worth they have is generated by the maker bringing it to life (and the server cost,electricity etc). So when i buy a digital only copy i see it as a donation to the maker and not really as a purchase
Many years before digital rules
The mindless horde can go digital, I'll stick to physical thanks.
well presented. and your last argument rings true, son of Empedocles ^_^
but EMP and byebye comics.
Yes, everything has gone digital. But that doesnt mean you cant get still get physical movies, music, and books. Hell, even 8 tracks are having a hipster resurgence. Physical copies of things will always exist.
I rather buy a comic and actually hold it in my hands then have a digital copy
I believe, there always will be market for physical
It may be small, practically marginal, but it will be there
Physical copy might be more convenient for being, well, physical.
First, there is a lot of areas where usage of electronics is highly restricted. It can be security reasons, safety precautions or simply to reduce the amount of noise. It can be outright forbidden to have a device on you in these areas. But simple paper book is perfectly fine. Such places might seem like something rare, but it is, basically, any governmental institution, a lot of medical facilities and research labs. There might be some other facilities, but I don't know about them. For security related fields, professionals (and VIPs) might be outfitted with certified devices for day-to-day use. And certification is slow enough process for such devices to lag 10 to 20 years related to non-secure devices and some devices are simply too advanced to even get such license.
Second, there might be a need for rationing and smart use of your device battery. Tourist might want to save charge for emergency situations or simply taking photos. The last thing you want is to find yourself with dead device in case of unexpected negative development, like being scammed with place to stay or getting lost on your way to hotel. And lets not forget about backpackers and other travellers for whom charging a phone is not an option at all. Travelling agents might want to avoid inconvenience of having to find a place to charge in some area they are not failiar with. Again, physical copy doesn't drain your battery, so you can safely read it en route or in the mountains.
Third, and it is more a personal expirience then general observation, I find it extremelly difficult to read from any type of monitor in the sun. It has to compete and looses. Glares reflected at you, brightness being too dim, having to constantly adjust angle slightly etc. Reading a book from a phone in the park or on the beach on a sunny day is an opposite of "relaxing expirience". And I don't think I am alone in this problem.
And, of course, there are people who simply prefer reading from paper. I read a lot of specialized technical documentation and I can say that digital reading is the best thing that happened to reading since the invention of writing. Convenience of having multiple books open at the time, searching key words and phrases, precise jumping to topics, chapters and pages. You can find more in ten minutes then with physical copy in ten hours. Not to mention the convenient way of sharing. If I need something my friend has, I just phone him and download the book 5 mins later from emailbox. But recreational reading? There is simply no way to beat the smell of paper, the feel of pages turning, the weight of the book in your hand.
As for comic shops that slowly die out...
At home we don't really have mainstream geek culture the way you do in America. Remnants of Soviet pioneer movement became unaffordable for most families without direct support from government and became more of a clan thing were skills are passed with direct support of or directly from one of the parents. To clarify. USSR had a huge program of national education that included two separate parts. Compulsory school-college-university (and I mean compulsory, if your kids don't go to school -- you go to jail (afterwards it is more peer pressure)) and optional after (as in, after you've done your homework) school education that included everything from engineering courses, to electronics, to journalism, to woodworking. All completely free and encouraged. Parts of the system still exist, but the shape is extremely poor. USSR never really had communities built around something completelly recreational, like comics or board games. New wave of western pop culture fails to establish itself as it has to clash with deeply rooted soviet views on parts of it in general and prices that are not user-friendly. Basically, to get a geek in this environment you have to have an extremely precise combination of parents who don't think that reading comics/playing board-games/collecting figurines makes their kid gay, serial killer or gay serial killer, so they can be exposed to it at all, who make their kid get fluent in English and other foreign languages so they can make a jump from more kid-orented stuff you usually find in the local stores (now some better works are translated, but they are too few to be considered more then an odd experiment) to the more age appropriate stuff and for the kid to be able to pay an average monthly salary per item of their hobby as an adult. Also, there is this odd inconsistency of materials. Back when I was kid, there was a lot of comics for kids and young teens. Which is logical, as there was simply no adults to market this to. But now, there are works aimed more at young adults and mature readers, clearly aiming at those who read comics as a child, but no kid or teen material. So geek culture of all shapes has rough time here. However
Geek-oriented businesses always have general side to them. For comics, the most common way is comic shop merged with cafe. It is a shop that has a very distinct dining area. So unless you have something extremelly personal against Iron Man, you can just get a snack there, wait for someone or have a date in an oddly decorated cafe. For geeks it is a meeting place and a shop of all related stuff. And, as an added benefit, those who are not interested in comics but like the food, can get interested after a couple of visits. So you can have your cake and eat it too. Comic shop lives and there are people getting converted. And they are rather successful. A lot even survived the recent shutdown
The Marvel editions of the Miracle Man series are insulting.
Comics are like boobs, while they look good on a screen I prefer them in my hands.
Your premise ignores the fact that digital fundamentally changes the medium. Old comics in digital are "electronic photocopies;" however, comics created exclusively by and for digital will no longer be "comics books," but something new. They have different tools, and different limitations. I hate digital comics, but I might feel differently about whatever this new thing becomes. Your point stands. It is coming.
Actually, the argument is in favour of digital comics becoming their own medium, rather than an extension of print. However, you do make a very valid point. Does that make them comic books? That is definitely a point to consider. I suppose it depends on the shape they settle into and whether they have unique qualities only available to a digital format. But that's a question only the future can determine.
Once things got 100% digital comics will be worthless
My point also
Tpb's and graphic novels are the only way it can survive.
The floppy industry just can not survive. It makes a lot of money, but how many times do people get mad and drop a run over and over? Then never come back? Look at the sales figures for each title. They ALWAYS trend down every issue, barring a few special runs out there, or your Image/indie stuff.
It's all very unfortunate. But moving to TPB's is great. It also forces a writer to actually have a plan for their run /cough tom king cough/.
The collector's market will always been hounding for new things. But so do speculators. And that's no good for the asshole like me who just wants to read the shit for the story. I quit floppies almost a year ago now. The joy was gone. It's cumbersome and horrid.
Just devils advocate here but why should my company support a small buisness at the detriment of my company's growth
I haven’t watched the video yet (in case this was brought up), but Marvel was caught censoring the cigars (a favorite of Wolverine and Nick Fury) out of digital copies of Uncanny X-Men. If that doesn’t immediately scare you, what more will it take? Physical media is essential to preserving history and forming a connection with the medium. When reading a comic digitally; I feel nothing.
Instead of ending floppies, Marvel and DC need to do some self reflection and fix their problems from the inside, instead of putting a band aid over the actual issue; poor management. Stop the political stuff, make comics cheaper, no more 2-3 “events” every year, and actually take fan criticism and critique seriously. If a book isn’t selling, don’t act like it’s “right wing trolls” that are responsible for it. Also: Put comics back in stores. Put them in the toy aisle at Target, or in grocery stores and gas stations. Obviously not every title, but Marvel and DC can send their top 5 selling books to retail stores to put on display. Try to actually promote comics, instead of selling them exclusively at comic shops. That’s what’s hurting them.
This whole video needs to be enjoyed with a heaping helping of "this is how the world works now".
Whether you like it or not, the retail industry and print publishing are going to zombify within our lifetimes. It's better for the bottom line of the companies whose business revolves around creating and selling these stories, and it gives independent creators the ability to enter the wider market much more easily than having to do a print run and go through a distributor before the first comic is sold. Vinyl records still exist and are still being produced but haven't been the dominant medium for audio consumption in 30 years, they have shrunken into a very niche market exclusively for true hobbyists that is subsidized by the commercial success of the digital release.
The same thing is going to happen to comics. Get used to it.
Disney and Time Warner (also, stop calling them Marvel and DC when discussing them from a business perspective, those are brand names for intellectual and creative properties that have to answer to a board of executives who run the show) are going to make decisions based on money - not sentimental value, not nostalgia, not the secondary market, not for any reason except for their bottom line and quarterly earnings. Movie theaters are in the same boat from the same companies for the same reasons, the Internet allows direct access to the consumer, almost eradicating the middle man entirely.
The silver linings in all this? First, your physical comics are ACTUALLY going to become true collectors items once physical publication ceases, it may take a while, but scarcity creates value, just like how golden age comics became valuable in the first place. Won't happen immediately, won't ever be worth as much as golden age books, but you'll get there. Second, this is the best thing that could ever happen for independent creators, so if you have an artist or writer whom you like and support, they can tell their own stories and create their legacies without having to subjugate themselves to a publisher or editorial mandates.
Extremely good point about calling the publishers by their business names
@@Nono-hk3is Thank you. The creative decisions are made by Marvel and DC, but business decisions are made by executives for Disney and Time Warner. Getting the two confused is why Image imploded.
meh...thanks to digital, i have every single marvel/dc comic from 1935 -pres, so digital's good for me. besides, if i linger for real pages, i can just print a copy out.
The manga market opposed digital anything with a passion until rampant piracy forced its hand. Pirates even got the files before the actual things released. Famously with the ending to Naruto. Marvel too had that problem for a while as issues liked during "post-production". The manga industry caught up fast as it had to and now does digital better than either DC or Marvel. The US comic industry too will figure it out. Can´t be long now. Marvel Unlimited is quite the deal now for example.
I am a librarian and couldn´t care less about the medium. I never read GoT but listen to all 5 audiobooks + the spin-offs and had the same basic experience as book readers. I and they had the same info in our heads when all was said and done. Digital comics are still comics just like Steam games are still games. Consume however you want but there are more upsides than downsides to digital. Unless the internet dies one day but who needs physical comics when society gives ups on us?
Its like the digital copy of the monalisa ,its worthless
Not special and a cheap imitation