CBR: Pipeline - Jun 8, 2010

[CBR News]

Is Marvel's day-and-date "Invincible Iron Man Annual" release a good test of digital delivery? Should Marvel buy Comixology next? And what are the craziest retailer reactions to the news? Augie rounds it all up.


Full article here.

[Travis Seitler]

I'm pretty confident that within the next decade, we'll get to the place where single issues will only be available digitally, and the print market will be nothing but TPB-size collections of those digital issues.

I've been on the publisher side of things, and this is really the only direction the market can move in if it's going to survive.

[stewart48]

I'm surprised that marvel doesn't say the higher price is because there aren't any advertisements, as a cop out.

Will the new day and date comic have ads and how do the advertisers feel.

Joe said its going to be a dollar more after buying the book in three parts.

[mistergoodman]

>Marvel needs to buy Comixology. If they control the platform, they get ALL the money.

Nope. Apple gets 30% for all in-app purchases.

Marvel buying Comixology seems like a pretty bad idea. That way leads to a Marvel store, a DC store, an IDW store, a Dark Horse store-- lots of hassles for readers and less ability to discover new comics. Imagine where music downloads would be if instead of an iTunes store, we had a Warner Brothers store, a Motown store, etc...

[Bricolo]

High prices that are lower than today's prices got me out of my massive addiction. Shoot, even when I was collecting, my comic book shop had been giving me 60% off, then it was 40% then 20%. Do comic shops still offer discounts to subscribers like this? If the price is as suspected, then those what subscribe will be saving money by supporting their local store and avoiding downloads.

Regardless of this, I think there should be ads in those downloadable comics, what is the problem with that? If it keeps the price down, then a few pages of ads are ok, I can't see a problem and expect them. I even want them when I am buying a comic, though I want them to look like old ones.

[zeno99]

Release the comic in three parts? Have the digcom cost more than the printcom? It sounds like Marvel is stalling, plain and simple.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

>Marvel needs to buy Comixology. If they control the platform, they get ALL the money.

Nope. Apple gets 30% for all in-app purchases.

Marvel buying Comixology seems like a pretty bad idea. That way leads to a Marvel store, a DC store, an IDW store, a Dark Horse store-- lots of hassles for readers and less ability to discover new comics. Imagine where music downloads would be if instead of an iTunes store, we had a Warner Brothers store, a Motown store, etc...

OK, 100% after Apple's cut, then. On the other hand, it's not impossible to sync up PDFs offline onto an iPad or iPhone. If someone simplifies that process, then you have something like the Amazon bookstore. You buy the reader from the iTunes store, but the reading material is purchased separately and then synched up. Not a perfect road, but it brings that other 30% in house and allows Marvel, et. al. NOT to worry about Apple's issues with "adult content."

And I agree with you that a separate reader for each publisher would be a horrible thing. But, then, how many things have more than two companies agreed on in the last decade? Putting HTMLComics down. What else? Attending San Diego each year? These are not companies that would ever come together for the common good of the industry, sadly. I think separate stores are inevitable for the Big 2 or 3. I think lots of smaller publishers are more likely to come together to join forces digitally in distribution.

-Augie

[stewart48]

>Marvel needs to buy Comixology. If they control the platform, they get ALL the money.

Nope. Apple gets 30% for all in-app purchases.

Marvel buying Comixology seems like a pretty bad idea. That way leads to a Marvel store, a DC store, an IDW store, a Dark Horse store-- lots of hassles for readers and less ability to discover new comics. Imagine where music downloads would be if instead of an iTunes store, we had a Warner Brothers store, a Motown store, etc...

This is pretty easy to get around though. Every marvel app is connected to a users account on marvel.com it doesn't take much for a person to buy an issue from marvel.com and then be able to download it through the app. Any purchase made directly through the app would require a fee to apple. So if marvel did by comixology and made a web based store they would be able to pocket more.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

I'm surprised that marvel doesn't say the higher price is because there aren't any advertisements, as a cop out.

Will the new day and date comic have ads and how do the advertisers feel.

Joe said its going to be a dollar more after buying the book in three parts.

After the lengthiest conversation I've ever had on Twitter in my life, Kurt Busiek pointed out today that Joe Quesada mentioned in his CBR interview (OK, so I haven't read the whole thing yet), that the print version of the Annual is actually at a special price already. An 80 page comic generally goes for $6, and so $6 is a price break for print retailers.

So, yeah, the math isn't all together wrong, but Marvel's publishing choice here is so far out of whack that it looks like they're sabotaging their own experiment by choosing the wrong comic. They're still so busy pandering to the retailers that they're screwing up their digital platform.

In other words: Invincible Iron Man Annual is Business As Usual, sadly.

I'm sure Marvel's ad department worked out a way to charge advertisers more to be included in the digital versions of the comics. I'm only half joking.

-Augie

[John Lynch]

This is pretty easy to get around though. Every marvel app is connected to a users account on marvel.com it doesn't take much for a person to buy an issue from marvel.com and then be able to download it through the app. Any purchase made directly through the app would require a fee to apple. So if marvel did by comixology and made a web based store they would be able to pocket more.

Apple can and does arbitrarily ban apps whenever it feels like it. I think this sort of behaviour would get them to bring down the ban hammer.

[Travis Seitler]

Apple can and does arbitrarily ban apps whenever it feels like it. I think this sort of behaviour would get them to bring down the ban hammer.

No they don't, and no this wouldn't.

[mistergoodman]

This is pretty easy to get around though. Every marvel app is connected to a users account on marvel.com it doesn't take much for a person to buy an issue from marvel.com and then be able to download it through the app. Any purchase made directly through the app would require a fee to apple. So if marvel did buy comixology and made a web based store they would be able to pocket more.

That's basically how Amazon works- you buy ebooks at their web site and then read them in your Kindle app. It's a clunkier way to go. I like your idea of doing it both ways- selling comics through the app (with Apple getting a 30% cut) and selling them on the web (with Apple not getting a dime, and the comics automatically downloading when you open the app). I'm not aware of anybody taking this hybrid approach so far, but I'm not sure why Apple would object. Especially with Steve Jobs being the biggest shareholder in Marvel's new owner.

[Travis Seitler]

Especially with Steve Jobs being the biggest shareholder in Marvel's new owner.

Which is an excellent point! Jobs is the majority shareholder for Disney, and Disney now owns Marvel. So really, there's no good reason whatsoever why Marvel comics aren't getting the same level of exposure through the iTunes Store that Disney & Pixar have been getting for years. (Plenty of bad reasons, but no good ones.)

BTW, if holding the bound pamphlet in your hands and turning the pages is such a superior way to read a comic... why are retailers freaking out about digital books so much? If reading a comic on an iPad is such an inferior experience (as they claim), then why in the world should it cost more than the "superior" paper version?

[mistergoodman]

Which is an excellent point! Jobs is the majority shareholder for Disney, and Disney now owns Marvel. So really, there's no good reason whatsoever why Marvel comics aren't getting the same level of exposure through the iTunes Store that Disney & Pixar have been getting for years. (Plenty of bad reasons, but no good ones.)

Well Apple did include the Marvel app on the demo iPads they shipped to reviewers prior to the release of the iPad, which resulted in a huge amount of attention to the app. But Marvel can't sell comics directly through iTunes, which only sells music and videos. And Marvel doesn't sell comics through iBooks, although I'd love to see them start offering graphic novel collections that way. Marvel only sells comics through apps you have to download, like Comixology, iVerse, and Marvel's own app.

BTW, if holding the bound pamphlet in your hands and turning the pages is such a superior way to read a comic... why are retailers freaking out about digital books so much?

Good question. The answer is: we're all being trained to go to the internet for entertainment, and we're spending more and more time reading and watching screens. Increasingly it's what we're most comfortable with, especially younger generations. While older generations wax nostalgic over the smell of paper, newer generations are equally attached to the warm glow of a computer screen.

Plus, the iPad is simply a great way to read comics. And it's only the first; many similar devices will follow.

[kozmo]

I have really enjoyed seeing the yin-yang cover image from the Iron Man comic on all of the articles about Marvel and digital comics. Every time I see that image, it reminds me of CrossGen - who had the digital comics app figured out a long, long time ago, before most people even had broadband. Disney bought out CrossGen - did they get the IP for Comics on the Web too?

True, CrossGen did not have downloadable versions of their books, but given how they spread works across multiple platforms, they probably had a plan for it. CrossGen had issues and went out of business, but that doesn't mean that everything that they did or all their ideas were bad.