The Comic Industry by and large needs to begin putting heavy investment into finding the best way to make the digital format work.
They need to look at recent history to see how the Music Industry struggled to catch up to the digital age. Musicians discovered that they could remove the moguls and forge their own path.
What was the Music Industries solution?
Sue everyone. Thats how they tried to solve it. Instead of working to create their own Digital distribution format that would work with the ipod format as well as the other standard formats thereby cutting apples hold on the Industry.
Sadly they never did this and the music industry is finding itself increasingly pushed into the closet where we all put things we don't need anymore.

The digital revolution for comics has begun and if interested parties do not work quickly they will find it harder to make a place for themselves later on.

Next year the federal Government plans to start taxing the Internet. It will be at this point that new ip's will sink or swim.

DC and MARVEL are using their respective setups for two different reasons.
MARVEL while they are preparing for digital are really just using their web comics to try and build a larger base of comic buyers. Using current tech to draw people over to an older format.

DC/ZUDA on the other hand is using theirs to Farm for new talent and to test different comic formats (different genres) They are also about to start using that site to test some new Vertigo titles without having to make the enormous investment that a new comic brings about.
This is all fine and good mind you as a few of the ZUDA creators have gained notice that will be bringing their creations to a wider audience.
Sorry in advance to those who may disagree, but all comic creators should create with the potential idea of expanding their creation into other media. That is the only way these days to get a truly diverse fanbase.
Disagree with me? Ok but you should take a look at the Japanese. They have created all of their product with the Intent of expansion beyond the original form. 2/3's of the Japanese population reads comics. All kinds of comics. They are turned into Anime, TV shows, Novels and Films. And unlike America, these things are considered "SERIOUS" entertainment.

America is at the cusp of this happening now. Comic fans have been growing up for decades so acceptance has spread beyond comics. The films are now reaching a level that they have to be considered serious entertainment. The world at large is starting to finally see what comic fans have known for decades.

Back in 199586 I came up with a three year plan for creating an online comic company. A low cost subscription service that also took into account later releases inside of brick and morter outlets through encrypteddigital devices like flashcards and jump drives followed by a third release format of collected anthologies or Trades.
It was ahead of its time back then but now is the perfect time for it.

Also when considering Digital Comics, None of the responders here have even looked at it beyond the comfort zone of Print format.

But...Robert Kirkman has. Yes you read that right. He may be putting it on TV right now, but look at the MTV cartoon adaptation of Kirkmans Invincible. All that is is a flash animated reproduction of his comic. With voices music and sound effects. It looks and sounds like a cartoon, but it is really just a Digital comic.

Heck just look at the Animated WATCHMAN comic on itunes. That is just one guy doing all of the voices with canned sounds. and it rocks.

As the cost of Tech comes down and the abilities of the common person becomes more diverse, It will become much much easier for indie creators and large publishers alike to make their own books just like this.
That will make Digital comics a successful and financially rewarding format for creators to work in.

Stop approaching this with a pessemistic view and try to be more optamistic about how to make it work.

The software we need that you talked about is here. The magazine industry is using it:

http://www.zinio.com/publishers

http://www.nxtbook.com/products/magazines/index.php

I talked to one of the reps at nxtbook last year, and he said they were very interested in getting into the comics market. Check their reader out and see what you think. And it's not as expensive to set up as people would think either.

Effective marketing will be key. Indy creators need to learn the marketing toolset that the digital magazine market and other digital media (Music, movies, MMORPGs,etc.) utilizes.

Comics are a niche medium now. You are correct about that. That's okay. The niche market is in now. But with innovation and hard work, we can grow the artform back to a medium enjoyed by millions.

My main point is that Indy creators need to capitalize on what digital has to offer now, and grow with it from the beginning, instead of letting Marvel and DC be the ones to lay claim to the new medium. We can always migrate already digital product to multiple delivery systems (IPhone, Laptop, Kindle Color,etc.). We just need to start laying the foundation NOW. Thanks Royal and everyone else for a great discussion.

Carnal Comics will continue to publish and sell our comics via mail and online to fans of our books all over the world.

We have no illusions about what this will do to our sales to Diamond. For us adult publishers its a double hit. Not only is their adult catalog going to be very hard for consumers to get to, but the higher benchmarks make it very unlikely for almost all the adult publishers to get Diamond to carry our new products. We have always been a niche in the larger market. That niche has for all intents and purposes been wiped out as far as Diamond is concerned.

I have much more to say about all this, but I’l stop for now. SSC

Web comics is becoming to be an alternative. (I'm not talking about digital downloads. Just basic online presentation.) But hard copy (print) material versus digital copy (online) poses two different format. One reads up and down, while the other goes left to right to maximize monitor space. Then there's the iPod and other handheld devices that seem to be just cube display screen.

Online comic book publishers and creators like Zuda and Kazu Kibuishi (of Flight graphic novel - boltcity.com) provide their offerings as landscape or horizontal format.

So let's say, a comic book title ran as web comics. Then with due financial success, the creator decides to offer a collected version as print. It would be landscape format to maintain its original production work. Now how much of a different or turnoff would this printed format be for the average comic book reader and collector? And what do retailers think of book printed in this format?

My reason for asking this is that there are still publishers within the industry who believe in the golden rule of a "portrait" or vertical printing format. Some publishers say this is what customers are used to reading. And some believe this maximizes rack display at the stores.

Thanks for all your posts here. Your insights have been both informative and a motivational.

Infolad,

Well, let's be clear about a couple of points here. Without opening up the balance sheets on these projects it is impossible to say what is "working" and what is not -- at least, not in any monetary sense of the word. My personal guess -- I emphasize "guess" -- on the Marvel Digital Initiative is that it is a loss leader, losing money short term in order to corner the digital market when it actually "arrives." If it arrives.

That said, as I mentioned above, I agree with you that the near-term solution for indies is digital distribution. After all, what other options are there? However, I personally have my doubts as to what and what will not be monetized.

Regardless, I do believe indie publishers should be getting ready for the swap to digital, too. It WILL happen at some point (in some way) and creators should be ready.

But, in the meantime, it doesn't hurt to be practical. iPod + iTunes did TWO important things. One, it provided a REAL way to integrate music into your life. And, two, it SOLD music -- all in one spot.

Before iPod + iTunes, mp3s were just illegal downloads. Were any sales actually lost? Maybe. But two thousand illegal downloads does not equate to two thousand singles that would have otherwise been purchased. Moreover, how many illegal songs did you download and never listen to once? It was just a button click, right? Maybe, you'll get to it someday. Or not.

Either way, iTunes monetized what had been an essentially disparate arena with a winning combo of ease of use, functionality, and an aggressive pricing strategy.

Currently, without an iTunes-esque Clearinghouse to provide digital comics (and an associated device to play them back for people like me), the internet will simply be a cluster of random creators clamoring for attention. The noise will make it difficult for any single creator to get attention without an extremely aggressive marketing campaign. Compare this with a blurb in Previews. No fuss, no muss, and -- most likely -- at least some bare minimum of sales.

So, again, if the hardware is years off and we'll have to do without, we still need the software that makes it easy -- by which, I mean the iTunes-equivalent. Count Marvel out. They have their own thing. DC is still deciding -- by which I mean that Levitz has stated that the internet does not yet make any money -- so that leaves only Image, IDW, Darkhorse, Dynamite, and Boom! with the capital to make anything real happen.

And they don't have a vested interest as they are not in the habit of continuing to produce titles that are much below the Diamond benchmarks anyway -- i.e., they make comics for love but also they want to make money. That means making books that sell.

Finally, and it has to be said, sorry, but comics are by no stretch of the imagination a MASS medium. Comics are the textbook definition of NICHE MARKET. They have been for decades now. On a bad night, a bad network show reaches millions of viewers. The BIGGEST comic of the year sold well under 300K copies. This is a crucial distinction and it needs to be acknowledged.

Now, I know. All of this sounds negative. Long-term, however, there is GREAT news.

When a 4-color kindle finally makes the show, I believe that we are in store for a comic book revolution. The decades of contraction -- a shrinking direct market, diminishing readers, price hike after price hike -- will finally be overcome -- or at least have a CHANCE at overcoming them. This is because, for the first time in fifteen years, there will be comic books directed at and readily available to people who are not deliberately entering a comic book shop to buy them.

Why? Because these people will own a device capable of displaying comics and access to an online store capable of selling them. Just as the TPB market has tapped new readers by targeting bookstores, a 4-color kindle (or its superior offspring) will attract new readers by targeting owners of the technology -- who may or may not have bought it with comics in mind.

This is HUGE and cannot be understated. Yes, the cluster effect of purchasing will probably tend to consolidate widespread sales to a few well-hyped books -- this is a well-documented effect of internet sales -- but a niche medium can profit from exactly this kind of rising tide.

So, I think my ultimate point here is this. HANG ON. The next few years are going to be ROUGH for everyone. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Those who make it will find themselves in an enhanced position -- those who don't, well, it happens. Good luck all!