Broken Frontier

Welcome to VOX POPULI Week IV.

In case you didn’t know, there is a huge debate going on at comic book forums around the Interverse. “Another one,” you say? Yes—another one. “Okay… I’ll bite. What is the debate?” you ask. If you said “the future of comic books,” you are correct. Will floppies continue to be produced or will the internet—and more specifically, comics you can print on your home printer— eventually replace hard copies? Of course, the argument is pure conjecture, but it is still compelling nonetheless. In fact, I have found myself responding to more than one thread on the subject.

Please indulge me as I share a few reasons why monthly floppies will not be replaced by digital comic books.

1. Revenue

If you take a moment to check the Diamond’s Year End market share report, Marvel garnered 38.49% of the dollar share and DC collected 34.47%. “Okay… give it to us in English.” Easy translation: The Big Deuce are making bank. The top selling book of December, 2006, according to ICv2 was DC’s Justice League of America #4. Copies sold: 136,709. Feel free to peruse the link and check out how many copies publishers are selling. Are they as good as the numbers posted prior to the “Direct Market Movement?” Absolutely not. But they are exceptional nonetheless—for the “Big Boys.” I can’t speak of Marvel or DC’s deal with Diamond simply because I am not privy to it, but that will not stop me from speculating.

You see, the average small press publisher pays 70% of cover price of each comic book to Diamond to distribute their books. I can assure you, gentle reader, Marvel and DC are not paying what the rest of publishers are. In fact, it appears to me that small press is forced to remit this ridiculous amount to Diamond to compensate for the disproportionate distribution rates.

If you can show me paperwork to dispute this assertion, I will gladly offer a public apology in a future installment of VOX POPULI. Okay… I’m digressing. My point here is that publishers—at least the larger ones—are turning an exceptional profit for sales of their comic books. If they weren’t, don’t you think they would stop making them? After all, the bottom line is money. Publishers aren’t going to continue to take massive financial losses without applying a tourniquet, or, in this case, discontinuing making monthly floppies.

The whys of small press continuing to publish in the face of these disproportional odds, on the other hand, is a topic for a future column, so I won’t go there now.

2. Comics as collectibles

This is a rather “duh” point, but I’ll make it nonetheless. Stephen Geppi (Diamond’s owner and Baltimore businessman) publicly offered $1 million for Action Comics #1. Apparently, he was able to purchase one, as a copy appears in his new comic book museum. Without straying too far off topic, Geppi has poured millions of dollars into his museum. Do you not think Diamond has been a lucrative business venture for him? The point, however, is that comic books have continued to retain their value as collectible items. And fans? They continue to view comic books as collectibles.

Let me share a conversation that recently took place at my local comic shop as an example. I was standing in line to make my purchases when I overheard the guy in front mumbling under his breath.

- “Man… this book is shit.”
- “Excuse me,” I said. “If the book is shit—why do you continue buying it?”
- “Well,” he explained,” I’ve been collecting since issue #1. If I miss an issue, it will ruin my collection.”

To further illustrate my point, go to a comic book forum where a fan is slamming a particular comic book. Simply post “Then stop buying it!” and see what the reaction is. Many comic fans are not truly fans, they are collectors. Of course, many are both. I’m not trying to say that the world is bereft of comic book fans, though the number of true comic book fans seems to be declining. Superhero fans, on the other hand, continue to pop out of phone booths and eerie caves everywhere. This is not to say that I don’t purchase or enjoy several superhero books. It’s simply that superhero-exclusive fans really make it hard for the rest of the industry to thrive.

Returning back to topic, you ever try to bag and board a PDF comic book? I mean—what’s the point? If anyone anywhere can simply pay for a comic book and download it, comic books lose their collectible factor. Of course, it would save Mr. Geppi a considerable amount of money. Or not.

3. Viability

Is a digital comic book format truly viable? To answer these questions, I contacted the digital comic book and book outfit Wowio. I received a speedy reply from Wowio’s Editorial Director who said that she would forward my e-mail to the appropriate person. However, no one returned my e-mail.

Anyway, since a Wowio representative was not available to speak on behalf of the company, I decided to speak to a publisher about his experience with Wowio in particular. Said publisher reported that his comic book had been downloaded 10,000 times. His income from the downloaded book? Zero. Zed. Nunca. Seems the only ones making money at Wowio is Wowio. Now let’s be honest, folks… is a publisher going to continue to make his comics available if he is not generating any revenue from them?

Aside from that, the biggest complaint with comic fans about services such as Wowio was that viewers’ credit card numbers were asked for and the fact that printed comic books were not collectible. Of course, I’m basing this on several forum posts that I have observed while gathering my information. I honestly don’t see printable comic books as being a viable market. Okay… so you can read them for free. That’s great. I can see this as being used by fans to preview before buying, but never as an exclusive outlet for comic books.

There are several other factors that can be listed for why printed comic books aren’t going away anytime soon. I, however, would rather spark some conversation that we can continue on the forum. Sheesh, people! If I was slamming Mike Miller or Rick Olney, everybody and their little sister would be over there talking! Oops, I just named names. Bad Dwight. Please drop by the forum and let’s engage in some lively debate, people, before I name… well, just drop by.

Listen, I can sit here and type ad infinitum. What I would like to do in a forthcoming column is answer your specific questions about the industry. I don’t claim to know everything, but what I don’t know, I will find an answer to for you. I’m lucky enough to have many excellent friends who are more than happy to help me—and you—out. What I think is important may not necessarily be what you believe to be important. So send your questions to the e-mail address below and I’ll address them at a later date.

Oh, special thanks to everyone for making the launch of my new webcomic, The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo, an overwhelming success! The second page posted this past Saturday and many fine folks sent e-mails and PMs to tell me how much they are enjoying it. New strip every Saturday, please continue to read. It’s rather like the rabbit hole from Alice in Wonderland. Things get more curious the deeper you go. Okay… enough shameless self-promotion.

I’m happy to say that people are actually reading VOX POPULI!  Frederik Hautain tells me that this humble column has generated more traffic than Britney Spears’ newest muff shot, so we must be doing something right (uhm, that's Dwight's perverse fantasy at work, people. Though, in all honesty, it's not that hard to attract more interest than burbin' Britney these days - ed.).

Next week, I’ll be discussing the trials for writers trying to break into the biz. But fear not, my artist friends, we’ll be discussing your tribulations at another time. I promise.

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Dwight L. MacPherson is a creator, writer, editor, gadabout and poet. He lives in a taco stand with his three children in the mystical land of Tennessee. Dwight makes up for his deserted whereabouts by being present all over cyberspace:

- E-mail: dwightmacpherson@brokenfrontier.com
- Personal site: www.dwightlmacpherson.com
- Writer’s café site: http://www.writerscafe.org/profile.php?id=4190
- Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/dwightlmacpherson