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I'm a Mac lover. I'm sure this appalls many of you, but I'm not a big tech guy, and Macs are right in my comfort zone. I love my MacBook and my iPhone, but even I couldn't give less of a shit about the new iPad (since it's an off amalgamation of the two Apple products I currently own). That is, until I saw Gizmodo's article on Panelfly's upcoming iPad-specific comic book app, which looks like if it isn't the future of American comics, it should be.
Seriously. It's got a big color screen, an easy interface for flipping through books, and it'll be easy to navigate. There'll be no printing cost, prices can go down from $4 a goddamn comic (seriously, that's absurd) and likely more people will get into Marvel and DC titles when they're only $1 or $2 a pop in an easy-to-browse iTunes-like store. Seriously, assuming that the iPad has 1/4 of the success the iPhone and iPod have had, if Marvel and DC don't get on this thing immediately, they're crazy. All the small publishers should already be begging Panelfly to be a part of this thing.
46 comments
Comments
kevin n. said:
If kids start reading comics again because they're cheap and easy to download then bully for them but There's no chance I'm spending 400 dollars on something just to read comics. I don't care if it does save me 2 bucks an issue.
If that's *all* you're going to use it for, yes, it's stupid. Thankfully, that's not the only thing it does.
Madness Monk replied to kevin n.:
But if you're saving 2 bucks an issue, once you've read 200 comics on it, it's paid for itself. :-) Then it's alllll gravy...
Geoff said:
As I've said before, I'm fine with reading comics on my laptop - I long ago dumped my back issues and just downloaded CBR versions. Just make it easy for me to get those and I'LL PAY FOR THEM.
It's not hard.
Jerry said:
Why not wait for a color kindle that would be half the price? Oh wait... do they already have them?
Anyway you hit it right on the head... I have a laptop and a PDA/Phone. There is no reason for me to spend $600 on the iPad. But, if you don't have either of those, iPad is a no brainer... well sort-of. You could always buy a tablet PC with a keyboard.
Quixotico replied to Jerry:
...and a webcam, multitasking, standard and sensibly-priced peripherals, Flash (and thus a full Internet experience), and the ability to run any damned application you feel like, not just the ones Apple feels doesn't cut in on their business or you don't need or maybe want.
fishbulb said:
I just flip my macbook sideways and click through downloaded comics with the mouse button. PROBLEM SOLVED.
jeffers said:
This isn't really anything new, virtually the exact same service has been available on the psp for months now, this one just has a bigger screen, and tbh if I wanted to read a full size comic, I would go out and buy the actual comic. Mind you though I am annoyed by the fact that dc haven't gotten involved in the psp version, everyone else seems to be on there. Put simply I still see no real reason to buy anything iphone related
Quixotico said:
Yay, comics at half price with a $500+ upfront investment.
Arsenal said:
Does the app actually cover the big name comics or is it just independent or small publisher's comics?
And if it is DC/Marvel are they new issues or is it like the marvel webcomics that are just disjointed random issues
MattK said:
This is why I've not even considered getting a Kindle or any of those other e-book readers.
aak7268 said:
This is what would make me buy in, 100%.
Also, ComiXology, the other iPhone comic app maker, has an iPad app in the works:
kenshiro said:
As a lifelong and rabid Apple hater, I'm waiting for sony or amazon to make something to make my comic buying and reading life easier. Also, they would probably make something not as damn restrictive as apple.
ZADL said:
As a lifelong and rabid Apple lover, this still isn't enough to make me want to buy an iPad. No Hulu plus wrong aspect ratio makes for a device that I have no desire for. Plus my iPhone already does everything else it does.
539 said:
This is the type of thing that kills people actually treasure hunting for comics, the experience of buying them and flipping page to page reading them.
Why would people want to desensitize themselves so much?
539
Maximo said:
Print and Comic industry need a serious overhaul. I think digital books is the way to go, you can't hold a pc or a laptop wherever you like and still be comfortable. Also the appstore can actually help people make money by making it harder to pirate stuff. Right now most comics survive off low production cost, and sell merchandising, this certainly isn't for everyone.
tommy said:
THEY WILL NEVER reduce the price of comics!
Thats absurd. They'll reduce the cost of comics back to $1 when pigs fly, and when the oil companies reduce gas prices to $1 a gallon
coconut monkey replied to tommy:
They've been doing this on PSP for a while now, like someone above said before. The prices are between 99 cents and 2 bucks. And they have marvel comics. So they are willing to lower the price.
hezaa said:
This is the thing I was waiting for! I kept telling people, "I'm not buying it until I can also download comics (legally) on it.
winrar!
ero said:
I read the IDW GI Joe stuff on my Touch, and it's the only reason I'm considering an iPad.
stewbacca said:
AS tech savy as the like to be I will never see a day when I would rather read from a screen than hold that piece of paper in my hand----
Man I cant wait till they make 3-d mini projectors so they can just sell action figures images for a 1.00.
jason said:
Sounds like a variation of the electronic comic book that Tom Hanks designed in BIG.
Suz said:
Yes, I'm waiting for this to become industry standard so I can get back into reading comics when they come out, either at a buck a pop or (better yet) on some subscription model a la Netflix.
I love paper comics, but they're too expensive, hard to keep up with, and I long ago found myself unable to justify the boxes and boxes of stuff I really didn't want to keep but couldn't get rid off without just tossing.
Now I only buy stuff I know I want to keep and wait for trades for everything else. A solid download market could revitalize the monthly-issue.
'Stater Nuts said:
When it drops in price it'll be worth it. Especially if they release old stuff in digital TPB style bundles. Like all of Identity Crisis for $6, while new stuff can come out at $2 an issue.
Plus, my biggest love about switching to digital comics is having my entire comics collection with me anytime I want it.
Once I get some more disposable income, I'll put my money on an Ipad.
coconut monkey said:
The iPad isn't best machine out there, but it will lead to other tablets getting made. Google is already working on a tablet OS. So while this may not happen for the big companies now, digital distribution will happen. And I'll tell you why; you can take the tablet into the bathroom. That is why the tablet is the key to comic digital distribution.
Quixotico replied to coconut monkey:
Tablet computers have been around for decades. Seriously, the GRiDPad was released in the late 1980s. Tablet-oriented operating systems, too.
The iPad isn't even starting a revolution of Tablet PCs, either. Their entering in at an early stage, but other companies (HP, IBM) have been pushing that technological envelope for years now.
Matt said:
STOP SAYING $2 AN ISSUE! You should already be getting your books through DCBService and paying a $1.75.
$1...downloadable. None of this marvel digital monthly fee crap - though my habit is way more than $20 a month, so it might be worth while.
Matt replied to Matt:
oh, anyway - what I meant to say, but lost my train of thought...which serves me right for posting at work...was that the advantage isn't so much cost, but not having to drag around all that paper. I'd rather buy hard drives to store it than bags and boards and boxes anyway.
Spazweez replied to Matt:
To each his own, I guess. I'll grant there might be something cool about having access to all of your comics via a handheld device. But then again, I've never had to boot up my collection or worry about it crashing. Sure, you back it up. But having experienced multiple and concurrent drive failures, I'm comforted by the knowledge that decades of my favorite books can't be wiped out by a misplaced magnet.
539 said:
It comes full circle now. We've went from stone tablets to printed media back to tablets.
539
Baltimoron said:
Just because I love to piss in cornflakes...
The iPad is not going to replace the floppy as the lifeblood of the industry. Why not? First off, cost of entry. The thing's going to be too expensive for most people to buy. It'll very much be a symbol of youthful affluence and its sales (and therefore rate of adoption) will be affected by the credit crunch. The runaway sales of electronic doodads over the past decade was largely predicated upon people being allowed to incur debt in place of real disposable income.
Secondly, the major cost in the comics production process is creative. Diamond's direct market system has made distribution relatively efficient and inexpensive, while the Canadian printers who crank out the actual books do so for pretty cheap (despite affording their employees higher wages and a standard of living superior to their American counterparts [insert plug for socialized medicine and retirement insurance here]). Bendis and Brubaker aren't living in solid gold houses and driving rocket cars, but they don't work for peanuts either. Day and date digital releases probably won't be that much cheaper than paper floppies.
Finally, there might be just enough adoption of the iPad among more well-off comics readers to hit that sweet spot where it's not making the publishers enough money to sustain them while taking just enough cash away from the direct market to kill a significant portion of local comic shops. This is made all the more possible by the fact that there's already a .cbr reader app for the iPhone and it won't take much to put it on a Pad. Piracy hasn't done any favors for the comics industry, but the ease of piracy combined with the appeal of a portable screen the size of Apple's new gizmo stands to have anime industry-like effects by taking away the key comics buyers with real money.
Rob said:
Cool now I can read them and hear music at the same time.
oh wait...
Bobo Fett said:
My one problem with this is you can't resell the digital comics. I ended up picking up Chew #1 for cover price, went back and got a second copy. Read one and e-bayed both. It kept me getting comics for a few weeks. Can't sell a copy of an e-comic. noone will pay for your i-pad copy of Giant Size X-men 1.
David replied to Bobo Fett:
You can't resell it, but you also aren't paying $2.99 to $4.99 either. The cost of producing a comic is really high. Besides the cost of paper and printing, there's Diamond's cut and the retail owners as well.
DC and Marvel could cut all of that out. They've both been forced to cut back on pages, so with prices being cheaper they can offer more pages.
Plus, comics from the 60's and 70's could be offered at even greater discount prices (since DC and Marvel don't pay royalties for these comics).
ZeroCorpse said:
Yeah. All is great until the publishers find a way to make digital comics with three different foil covers and start inserting all sorts of "digital collectibles" into the sales. Then your $2.00 per issue turns into more, and you need to get two of the same issue to get all the panels or features...
-
Believe me, they'll find a way to gouge us.
Adam said:
They can lower the cost without going digital. Honestly, I hope digital comics never become a dominant medium. I love my comic shop, and I would hate to see it go out of business.
Buddy Scalera said:
It should be interesting to see if Marvel Digital Comics starts adding new books to their service. They have a lot of older titles, which can help you catch up on your Marvel reading pretty fast. Hopefully DC follows suit and starts to publish their titles online for a subscription.
Buddy Scalera - http://wordspicturesweb.com/?p=655
Joss replied to Buddy Scalera:
iPad does not support Flash, which - last I checked - is what Marvel uses to run its digital comics. Marvel would need to convert all of its digital comics to HTML5 (or whatever that platform is called).
Dr. Rocketscience said:
A lot of you are falling for/perpetuation the Fallacy of the E-book- that is, the idea that printing and distribution costs make up a large percentage of the cost of a book. Rob implies it's 50-75%. It's not. In reality, it's closer to 10%. Digital comics on tablets like the iPad won't get us back to the days of 10¢ comic books. Nothing will. Sorry.
Gasstank said:
I'm sold because reading digital comics on the crapper using a laptop is neither entertaining or pleasant at all.
Ron Fontes said:
Anyone remember BIG? At last, the $600 comic book! So the downloads are theoretically cheaper, you still have to buy the toy at some absurd price, continually upgrade the software and the device. And you can't trade or collect comics that are invisible electronic wisps that could go poof! if your battery dies. Phooey.
Captain Obvious said:
Ipad sux.
I'm waiting for a color tablet that plays flash, has a web browser, and some actual multi-tasking. Joss Whedon forbid I actually want to listen to music and do ANYTHING ELSE at the same time. Apple's answer = "just use your ipod." Ugh, those things sux too.
The iPad doesn't support several very common file formats, ya know, like adobe flash. Probably not even jpegs.
