Twitter Updates for 2010-06-30

• The three most hated words of any comic book fan: "bold new direction" #
• @btpcast bad idea #
• @petergkrause they usually go together lol in reply to petergkrause #
• @VanetaRogers didn't see this coming in reply to VanetaRogers #
• I'm ok with the Wonder Woman costume, but the rest CRAP! #
• @batmansgirl I think its a terrible idea and don't think it will stick. There there is the wonder if JMS will stick around to finish in reply to batmansgirl #
• @RokkRevolution don't forget the extra large rifle in reply to RokkRevolution #
• @KevinL007 Hasn't WW sales always been that way? in reply to KevinL007 #
• @RokkRevolution That and bandoleers full of ammo and you are set in reply to RokkRevolution #
• The Wonder Woman new direction may be stressful, but thank GOD the Legion of Super-Heroes is back the way it should be!! #
• @batmansgirl but yet The Twelve wasn't, which was the only Marvel thing I was reading at the time. in reply to batmansgirl #
• @RokkRevolution @KevinL007 I'd buy that! in reply to RokkRevolution #
• @ScottCederlund same here, but at least we are working in reply to ScottCederlund #

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Twitter Updates for 2010-06-26

• Thinking of doing my own podcast. Any thoughts? #
• @acomicbookgirl our Vizio tv is awesome! in reply to acomicbookgirl #

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SCOOP: Marvel’s Digital Payment Letter To Freelancers Bleeding Cool Comic Book News and Rumors

Whomever was the first to announce royalty payments to creators aside, looks like DC is ahead of the curve of actually implementing it.  Lots of fluff and “working on it” is all I see here.

So it really looks like DC took so long to get in the game because they were getting all the royalty stuff figured out BEFORE they got in the game.  Marvel looks like they did just the opposite.  I wonder if they will give back pay for the digital stuff already sold?

SCOOP: Marvel’s Digital Payment Letter To Freelancers Bleeding Cool Comic Book News and Rumors

SCOOP: Marvel’s Digital Payment Letter To Freelancers
Submitted by Rich Johnston on June 25, 2010 – 10:00 am (0) comments

Bleeding Cool was the first site to run DC’s letter to freelancers concerning digital payments in full. Now we’re doing to the same with Marvel. The following letter was sent out to Marvel’s exclusive freelancer talent on Monday, June 21st, as part of a new communication missive. Non-exclusive talent will receive the letter this coming Monday, as news about digital “incentive payments” will then be released by an official source.

First Joe Quesada addressed the troops saying;

Hi Gang,

Y’know, one of the coolest things about being a part of the Marvel family is recognizing just how extended the family is. Thanks to the leaps and bounds of technology, it’s even easier for those of us here in New York to work with folks all over the country and overseas. We’ve got most of the continents covered and we’re just waiting on Antarctica. Heck, some of you are in a different day than me. How’s the future? Do you guys have Hover Boards yet?

And there’s the point. There’s a lot of stuff to know and an amazing amount of information that is useful to you. Here at the office, we have it all flow past us. We’ve got pretty ready access to getting the questions we all have answered. What’s new with the company?What’s changing, what’s not? What resources are available to me? And, more close to
home, when can I expect my pay? What’s Marvel offering to make my life easier? But forthose of you not in the office, you might feel left out of the loop and oceans away. So we want to fix that. This is the first of a new newsletter email we’ll be sending out periodically to you… our life’s blood, the folks that help make Marvel tick. In it, we’ll do our best to provide answers to your questions. If we’re really good at our job, maybe even before you ask ‘em.

Did you know we’re in the process of building a SketchUp 3D library of everything from Cap’s shield to Avengers Mansion? Are you hip to the fact that we’ve got a print program for our exclusive talent that allows you to easily order special edition prints for you to have at shows and appearances? There’s all kinds of stuff to share. The plan is to make sure we let you know all about it. Oh, and if you have any suggestions, we’re all ears.

So, if you’ve got a question? We want to answer it. If it’s something that you feel your fellow freelancers would want to know too, drop us a line and we’ll include it in the next newsletter. E-mail George Beliard at XXXXXXXXX and tell him I sent ya.

Now, I’m going to let David Bogart kick-off this edition talking about a biggie. Recently, we announced the Marvel App for the iPad to much fanfare. What does this mean to you? Well, I’m not going to spoil it – I’ll let David fill you in. But I’ll say this much… remember that bright future I was talking about up top? Yeah, i think this is definitely a part of it.
Now where’s my Hover Board? See ya in the funny books!

And David Bogart (the man who made me the man I am today) followed with;

We were very excited by the positive feedback the Marvel Comics App received during the release of the Apple iPad. Many of the press reports and reviews mentioned how great the comics looked. Digital formats and distrdmtion are a great opportunity for Marvel to reach new fans and to present your amazing work on new platforms.

Please know that Marvel is working to include digital comics in the Marvel Comics Standard Talent
Incentive Plan.

We plan to make incentive payments for downloadable digital comics by the beginning of August, after the San Diego Comic-Con. Digital downloads of comics – such as through the Sony PSP, and the Ipad/Iphone/Ipod Touch devices – are sold to consumers on a per issue basis, and we can more easily calculate the revenue tied to specific issues.

The incentive plan for digital comics available in subscription services – the Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited service on marvel.com – is more complicated, since consumers are granted access to a great number of issues for one flat fee. Our goal is to finalize a plan by the end of this year to pay subscription-based digital comic incentives.

The email continued with links to CGI models of various Marvel buildings and props, and links to an online version of the Official Handbook To The Marvel Universe from 2004-2007 full of extra visual reference material for characters as well…

Newsarama.com : So… Who IS COMIXOLOGY, The Digital Comics Leader?

Another great article by Vaneta Rogers

Newsarama.com : So… Who IS COMIXOLOGY, The Digital Comics Leader?

So… Who IS COMIXOLOGY, The Digital Comics Leader?
By Vaneta Rogers
posted: 24 June 2010 05:31 pm ET

One year makes all the difference.

When ComiXology launched its “Comics by ComiXology” iPhone app in July 2009, the company appeared to be one in a crowd of developers. After all, there was more than one way to read a comic on Apple products.

But one year later, and ComiXology is all over the news because of its involvement with Marvel and DC. The two leading publishers have chosen ComiXology as a partner in their digital program, and the company is working with more than 30 other publishers, as well as holding exclusives with more than one creator.

So who is ComiXology? Where did they come from? And what are they up to next?

Business Plan

David Steinberger, CEO of ComiXology, grew up as an avid reader of comic books. He founded the company with another comic book fan and a friend because they saw an opportunity for comics to utilize digital technology.

In 2006, Steinberger entered a business plan competition at NYU, where he was a student and eventually got his MBA. His startup, then called “Iconology,” won the top prize, which gave him funding to launch the ComiXology software.

“That’s how I got started,” he said. “We won a few thousand bucks from the Stern Business School to get going.

“I can tell you, though, that we never, ever expected all of this to happen. In the business plan, we were very careful to say that our vision does not wholly depend on Marvel and/or DC being a part of it. Meaning, we never expected this to happen,” he said with a laugh.

“So to be here, feeling like we’re just getting our legs under us, feeling like we’re just getting started, and yet we’ve done the thing that nobody thought, or nobody who invested in us or judged us in a competition was led to believe that we could do? It’s just surreal,” he said.

Retailer Software

ComiXology first entered the digital world as an online tool for retailers at retailers.comixology.com. Comic shop owners subscribe to a service that allows customers to view previews and place orders right there on the website.

Because of ComiXology’s relationship with retailers through its online service, the company has always been very active in promoting print comics as well as digital. All of its apps have a “BUY IN PRINT” link on each comic, and clicking on this button takes the digital reader to a list of comic shops near their current location.

This existing relationship with retailers has given ComiXology an advantage as it heads into the next stage of digital comics.

“We’re in a unique position where we’re friends with publishers, and we have a great consumer service, and we sell services to retailers on top of that,” Steinberger explained. “And our retailers, when they work with ComiXology, when their customers purchase a digital comic book, our plan is for the retailers to actually make revenue from the sale of that comic.

“I can already coordinate user names with retailers. For example, if you have bought digital from ComiXology and you shop at Isotope, I probably know that,” Steinberger explained. “So we can coordinate with retail locations. We’ve actually been tracking sales since January.”

That’s not to say the retailer affiliate program that DC announced yesterday will have anything to do with ComiXology’s retailing subscribers. “What we’re doing for DC is much wider. It won’t be tied to paid subscriptions on ComiXology,” he said. “All retailers will have the ability to take part in it.”

iPad Launch

When the “Comics” by ComiXology app launched on the iPhone OS, it already had 20 publishers on board and an exclusive from Robert Kirkman. Because it was among the first to utilize Apple’s new in-app purchasing, Comics by ComiXology became the leading multi-publisher app soon after its launch and has held onto that spot ever since.

Within months, other creators had jumped on board, and the company now has more than 30 publishers available on its app. With a kids app being launched this summer, and their website integrating digital comics with their apps, the company has been busy expanding its stronghold.

But ComiXology’s commitment to software for Apple devices paid off earlier this year when Apple announced it would release the iPad, which greatly enhanced the digital comics reading experience.

Suddenly, Apple’s devices looked like the place to be. And ComiXology was already there.

By the time the iPad hit stores, ComiXology had partnered with Marvel to launch its new app, and soon after, they were able to pick up DC Comics.

Winning DC

“We really didn’t think we could pull off DC after we got the Marvel app. We just figured they’d go with someone else because, you know… they’re supposedly arch-enemies,” Steinberger said. “But that’s not how DC saw it.”

But more significantly, the addition of DC to the Comics by ComiXology app rounded out the selection in a way that was really needed.

“It was the number one complaint we got,” he said. “‘Where’s DC? Where’s DC? Where’s DC?’ We get emailed that about 25 times a week, in one form or another,” he said. “And to be able to pull it off and be the only ones that offer DC on the iPhone OS and the iPad, and to be able to have them on our website and store, and to be making a web store for them is beyond my wildest dreams, really.”

After Marvel chose ComiXology as a partner in its iPad program, the user response was so great that the company had to quickly upgrade its server because of the demand. On Tuesday, Steinberger said the company had prepared for the influx of users it expected for Wednesday’s launch of the DC app.

“We expanded our server capacity incredibly well,” Steinberger said with a laugh.

Single Channel?

With yesterday’s announcement, ComiXology is definitely in the lead as the iPad/iPod/iPhone market shakes out. But other companies, including the much-anticipated but as-yet-unavailable Longbox Digital, are entering the marketplace, and that doesn’t even take into account all the digital comics providers on other devices.

A single channel would certainly streamline purchases and be advantageous for the market. As creator Jonathan Hickman told Newsarama yesterday, “I think it’s a mistake, and one that marginalizes an emerging market, not to have a single channel from which to buy.”

Whether or not ComiXology ends up being that “single channel” remains to be seen, and Steinberger isn’t taking anything for granted.

What’s Next?

“I feel like, after Wednesday’s announcement, we should be just cracking beers open and taking the weekend off, but that’s just not going to happen,” Steinberger said. “There are thousands of things we need to be doing next. The retailer affiliate program alone is a huge deal.

“It just makes me feel like we can really do something here,” he said. “That’s silly, I guess. From the outside, I keep getting told we’ve done something. But the worldwide market is out there. It’s ridiculously big. Marvel and DC haven’t made great penetration into the worldwide market. And we have the kids app, and the website tools, and we have so much work to do.”

But Steinberger acknowledges ComiXology’s accomplishments are worth celebrating, although he prefers to call those accomplishments “feedback.”

“This is the best kind of feedback we could ask for, for whether or not we were going in the right direction. I guess that’s the biggest thing for me. The question of, did we make the right choices to focus on the print market? And information about comics? And connections to retailers? And retailer tools? Was that really the right base for moving into digital comic books and binding all of this together?

“I feel like Marvel and DC have said ‘yes,’” he said. “And it’s the best confirmation that we’re going in the right direction, that we’re making the right decisions. It’s crazy to step back and realize where we are, but it makes me very excited to see what is next, and what we can be doing to make all of this better in the next step.”

Quote of the day | Christine Valada, on digital royalties for creators | Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources – Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment

‘Nuff said.  Put up or shut up Marvel!!

Quote of the day | Christine Valada, on digital royalties for creators | Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources – Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment

Quote of the day | Christine Valada, on digital royalties for creators

* Posted on June 24, 2010 – 04:00 PM by Kevin Melrose

“This is certainly welcome news for DC creators, who have benefited from DC’s long-standing policy of equitable compensation over the long-term. Marvel has reproduced works in various electronic formats for years, and I can assure you that my husband hasn’t seen a goddamned dime for any such use of Giant-Sized X-Men #1 or anything else he ever created for Marvel. Meanwhile, royalties from DC for a relatively minor character got us through the worst of our past 15 months of hell. Until Marvel takes the steps that DC has to compensate the creators who made the company great, all it is doing is blowing smoke. Anyone who thinks Marvel is the better place to work is just deluding themselves.”

– photographer Christine Valada, wife of veteran writer and editor Len Wein, on DC Comics’ announcement of creator royalties for digital sales

DC digital fallout: Royalty war | The Beat

So the truth comes out, DC pays people a LOT better than Marvel

DC digital fallout: Royalty war | The Beat

DC digital fallout: Royalty war
13 Comments POSTED ON Jun 24 2010 AT 4:25 pm BY The Beat

Lots of reaction and ripples from yesterday’s announcement that DC was at long last joining the digital world with their DC Comics apps for iPad, iPhone and PSP. One of the more amusing developments came from the news that DC was definitely including creator royalties for digital sales, as announced in a widely leaked memo to freelancers:

Subject: A message from Jim Lee and Dan DiDio.
June 23, 2010

To our fellow creators,

Today we set in motion arguably the most significant program in the modern history of DC Comics. Through concurrent but separate partnerships with comiXology, the leading digital comics app developer, and the Sony PlayStation Network Comics Store, DC will now, for the first time, be offering for sale to fans all over the world digital issues featuring the world’s greatest characters. We chose the Sony PlayStation Network Comics Store and comiXology as the first two partners to distribute our titles because of their incredible marketing reach and technological expertise in authoring and optimizing the traditional narrative of print comics into digital form. In short, they make digital comics a pleasure to read whether you are reading them online on your computers, on your iPhone, on your iPad or on your PSP.

As we make this announcement it’s worth noting that, although DC is not the first major publisher to enter the digital comics arena, we are the first to announce a participation plan for talent, thereby setting the industry standard in that regard. Details of our initial compensation plan will be mailed to you in hard copy for your records and should be arriving next week. In broad strokes, the compensation is calculated on a net receipts basis in order to accommodate the various reporting structures of our digital publishing partners. Most importantly, we assure you that your participation in these digital works will be equal to or exceed the participation levels that you currently receive under our additional compensation plan for print.

There are other significant ways our digital program differs from those of our competitors and these differences underscore our belief that this new digital channel will improve our ability to better market and sell comic books to several new kinds of comics readers. Whether they be kids or lapsed fans or new fans coming into the art form through their love of comic book characters in film, TV or videogames, we are convinced our digital program will grow the entire business, not just for DC, but for our traditional book channels and also allow you, the creators, to reach more readers than ever in recent memory. To that end, you will see a wide and diverse selection of digital comics being offered in the upcoming weeks–hopefully some of your very own work!

All the best–

Jim Lee and Dan DiDio
Co-Publishers, DC Comics

This was a clear — and welcome — play to creators fretting about making money in this digital era. But meanwhile, across town, Marvel’s CB Cebulski was pooping in the punchbowl on Twitter:

>yawn< (Not because I’m tired, but because I just saw today’s “news”.)

I’m not sniping at DC, just correcting misinformation that’s being sent out freelancers, some who work for both companies.

Sorry, DC, but despite what your nice letter says, you are NOT “the first to announce a participation plan for talent” for digital comics.

I’m thrilled I can read my DC Comics digitally now and this really shows the new age @JimLee00 and @GeoffJohns0 are ushering in for them!

Marvel editor Tom Brevoort joined in the sniping:

So today, DC invented the digital comic and payments for same. Interesting approach, taking a leadership position from the back of the line.

While public ribbing is par for the course for these crosstown rivals, it did raise the question of why DC is comfortable publicly announcing their incentive plans, which Marvel can only do so via passive-aggressive snark on a social networking platform.

After doing a little digging, we found out what really happened. It seems that on Monday of THIS WEEK, Marvel sent out a letter to its exclusive talent announcing a royalty program for their digital publishing — something that had been missing before. The plan is thus far only the promise of royalties — none have been paid — and hasn’t been announced to non-exclusive talent yet. The timing would suggest that Marvel got wind of DC’s impending announcement and wanted to head off any questioning by Marvel talent.

This does raise the larger question of Marvel’s entire royalty program, however. While Marvel creators we talked to were all happy as a clam with their compensation deals, and Marvel is winning the propaganda war for overall creator satisfaction and talent development, they are definitely wayyy in second place as far as royalties go. Their existing royalty program runs for a few years, as opposed to DC’s which runs in perpetuity. Also, and more famously, Marvel pays NO royalties on foreign sales, despite the huge success of Marvel properties around the world.

DC does. And that’s a very significant amount of income for creators.

The question of Marvel paying digital royalties for digital comics is one that had been uncomfortably bandied around in some interviews with Joe Quesada and others. The fact that Marvel has had to quickly pony up the announcement of a plan with DC announcing theirs shows that both companies consider digital publishing a key component of their future — not including creators in the payout simply isn’t a option for the future pixelated world of comics.

From where we sit, if Marvel and DC want to get into a war over who treats creators better and pays more royalties — it’s one of the BEST thing that could happen for comics.

UPDATE: I’m informed that the announcement to talent
was part of a long planned roll-out which included other information. If nothing else, this proves two things:

a) Marvel is very serious about making sure its creators are paid fairly for digital publishing

and

b) Marvel freelancers are a lot more tight-lipped than DC creators!

Newsarama.com : Comics Creators Respond to DC DIGITAL COMICS Plans

Read the rest of the article at the link below…

Newsarama.com : Comics Creators Respond to DC DIGITAL COMICS Plans

UPDATED: Comic Creators Respond to DC DIGITAL COMICS Plans
By Vaneta Rogers
posted: 23 June 2010 02:33 pm ET

With the announcement today that DC Comics has entered the digital comics marketplace, one of the more interesting aspects of the program — for the industry’s talent, anyway — was that DC will have a royalty program for creators when one of their digital comics is purchased.

DC has often been praised as a creator-rights leader for its royalty program, with former publisher Paul Levitz even winning an Eisner Award for his humanitarian work on behalf of creators. So creators weren’t shocked by the announcement, but were reacting positively nonetheless.

The internet has also been abuzz about the future of comics now that both major publishers are dedicated to digital comics.

So we went to the creators to ask:

- What is your overall reaction to the news of DC’s digital program?
- Do you have knowledge about or a reaction to the plan to pay royalties on digital sales?
- When do you envision the digital model being the industry’s dominant from of distribution? 2 years, 5 years, 10, or never?

What follows is the response, which we’ll be updating throughout the day:

Newsarama.com : Comic Book Retailers React to DC DIGITAL

Newsarama.com : Comic Book Retailers React to DC DIGITAL

Comic Book Retailers React to DC DIGITAL
By Vaneta Rogers
posted: 24 June 2010 10:59 am ET

After DC Comics’ announcement Wednesday morning, digital comics may be the talk of the industry. But what role they play in the future of comic book retailing is the real mystery.

Newsarama talked with retailers and their representatives to examine how the digital marketplace is impacting comics now and in the future.

Retailer Affiliate Program

Part of the mystery behind DC’s announcement is this new “retailer affiliate” program DC is working on with ComiXology. According to the publisher, the system will reward retailers when digital comics are sold, although details of how are still being ironed out. To the company’s credit, they’re speaking directly with retailers about it.

Joe Field, president of the retailer group ComicsPRO, said DC has been talking with the organization about the affiliate program and how to best approach digital comics so they benefit retailers.

“It’s sort of a mutual thing, to be honest,” Field said. “ComicsPRO and our board of directors are proactive in trying to talk to all of our suppliers about the near-term and the long-term future of the business, and seeing that digital is here and it’s something that needs to be addressed, we’ve had conversations with DC about it.”

David Steinberger, CEO at ComiXology, said the affiliate program has gotten interest from several publishers, but DC is leading the push toward its completion. The executive said it could involve a monetary reward for actual sales through comic store websites, or it could be a system where digital buyers are “matched” to their local comic book store, so sales to that customer can be tracked.

Field said he’s aware of what DC is considering, but can’t share details until DC begins the program. But he emphasized that DC has been very proactive in talking with retailers about the program, both inside the ComicsPRO organization and other retailers.

“I think there are a number of publishers that would like to do what they can to help storefront retailers promote sales in our stores as much as they are promoting their digital applications,” he said. “But I think DC tends to be the best practices leader when it comes to engaging the interests of their primary market, which is still the direct market.”

Among the retailers we contacted, confidence in DC’s intentions is high.

“Having talked previously with John Rood about digital comics, he stressed that treating retailers as partners in the digital space was a priority for DC, and today they’ve backed that up,” said Kendall Swafford, owner of Up Up and Away in Cincinnati. “I am eager to hear more, of course, but DC seems serious about finding ways that they, their creators and their retail partners all benefit from this brave new world.”

“I’m not really sure how a comic store can make money off digital comics,” said J.C. Glindmyer of Earthworld Comics in Albany, N.Y. “DC has always worked together with retailers to help promote their books, so I’m pretty confident this move will be a positive one that continues their partnership with retailers.”

Or as Joel Pollack, president of Big Planet Comics in Bethesda, Md., put it: “DC Comics is our friend.”

But Field said retailers will be watching DC and other publishers, because they care about the future of comics too. “I know DC has always thought it’s important to engage the retailer segment. They look at digital as being additive. And we are going to hold them to that,” he said.

Death or boon for paper?

Some comic book fans have stated a belief that publishers want to switch their business to all-digital. After all, it eliminates the added cost of distribution, and it gets comic straight into customers’ hands.

But Steinberger of ComiXology says the elimination of the existing comic marketplace would be a catastrophe for publishers, and fans who believe otherwise are off their rocker.

“They’re insane. They are so insane to say that,” he said. “They have no idea of the economics of this whole thing if they think DC or Marvel or any publisher would be better off without the retailer space. That’s where they’re making their money!

“Yes, digital comics can be a part of their overall market, but everyone is better off if the digital market is an added market,” Steinberger explained. “More customers instead of less. More customers going to comic book stores. More customers buying comics. To think otherwise is just insane.”

To that end, retailers shared several anecdotes about customers coming into their shop to buy something after having sampled it online.

“When Marvel’s digital app came out, within the first few days, someone came in and said they read the first volume of the New Avengers on Marvel’s app, and they couldn’t wait for Marvel to upload the rest of them, so they came in and bought the next several volumes,” Field said. “To me, that’s additive. That’s window shopping, buying a small thing, and then coming into the stores because the material is attractive enough to want it now.”

Steinberger said a lot of retailers who subscribe to the ComiXology retailer program have communicated that customers come in asking for comics they don’t carry, because they saw them on a digital outlet.

“That’s the great thing about the retailer tools in our apps, that take you to your local store,” Steinberger said. “Retailers say they’ve sold things that they wouldn’t have put on a shelf. People discover things digitally that they didn’t even know there were comics for.”

Steinberger said the ComiXology plan has always been to grow the comic book marketplace through digital. To that end, the company includes a “buy in print” link on all its apps that leads digital consumers to their closest comic stores.

“All of our business models,” Steinberger said, “from our original business plan to the research and plans we have now, shows print comics growing, not fading. And the digital market growing along with it.”

“I really think that the more people that are reading comics, the better comic book stores will do. What I’m looking at is the way that DC is setting this deal to potentially create hundreds of thousands of new window shoppers for comics,” Field said. “We just have to make sure digital comics are approached with that in mind.”

Day-And-Date

While retailers like the idea of an “affiliate program,” as well as the marketing that digital comics seems to accomplish, none of them are big fans of digital comics being released at the same time they hit stores.

DC is releasing Justice League: Generation Lost every two weeks in both comic stores and digitally, at the same price. Next week, Marvel is releasing Iron Man Annual #1 as a day-and-date digital release.

“It makes more sense if it’s a release that will support and stimulate sales of subsequent books,” Glindmyer said. “I would be more concerned if it was the first issue of an event series such as Brightest Day.”

“The one thing I do like is that it is at the same price, not a digital discount,” said Lisa Lopacinski, co-owner of Neptune Comics in Waukesha, Wisc. “At least this way paper and digital can go head-to-head. When the comics are available digitally at a substantially lower price than paper it drives people to digital in order to save money, more-so than because they actually prefer the digital format.”

When Boom! Studios recently announced a major push into digital comics, Marketing Director Chip Mosher specifically talked about the company’s intention to only release digital comics a month later than their street date. Retailers said they prefer that type of approach, because it acts as a marketing tool for the paper comic instead of a competitor.

“I would probably not be as supportive to publishers who would debut all of their books on line within an small window of its release date,” Glindmyer said.

It’s a Small Digital World

Most retailers also indicated they’re not overly concerned about digital comics because it’s such a small market. While they are vocal about how publishers approach the future and want to protect the marketplace, they don’t see any effect on their business in the short-term.

“Although I can’t tell you specifics of this, I have seen from a couple of different publishers what their actual digital sales are. And I can assure all of my retailer colleagues that it’s very minimal at this point,” Field said. “It doesn’t take a whole lot to become the #5 app on iTunes or the iPad.

“We’re just at the starting line for what sales can be digitally, but I think there’s a tremendous amount of allure to the window shopping that digital comics can be for print media,” Field said. “The financial model doesn’t make sense right now for us to be worrying so much about digital.”

Adam Casey, manager of Ssalesfish Comics in Winston-Salem, N.C., said his customers don’t even seem to be interested in digital comics.

“Does anyone really care about digital comics?” he said. “I know there’s been a lot of talk about the ‘future of comics’ and what-not, and there’s been a space race/arms race/cold war styled event going on by seeing which publisher can be the first to beam a comic directly into the head of a reader at 12:01AM on Wednesday, but is there really that much demand for a digital comics program?”

But Field said that while fear of the digital marketplace is unfounded, open discussion with publishers is important. “I think it’s a key for ComicsPRO and for other retailers to be a part of the discussion of what happens to our business, and what forms it takes,” he said. “We have to look out for ourselves, and being engaged in the conversations is part of that.”

Bug Already Fixed In DC Comics App Bleeding Cool Comic Book News and Rumors

Bug Already Fixed In DC Comics App Bleeding Cool Comic Book News and Rumors

Bug Already Fixed In DC Comics App
Submitted by Rich Johnston on June 24, 2010 – 10:35 am (0) comments

Yesterday Bleeding Cool ran the story about the launch of the DC Comics App for the iPhone and iPad.

But some readers found themselves unable to use this wondrous programme. It turns out there was some incompatibility with earlier iPhone and iPod Touch devices, the DC Comics App and the new version 4 operating systems that are rolling out. And as a result, some found that half way through reading a comic, it would snap back to the home page. An embarrassing glitch for launch day.

But quickitty quick, the Comixology squirrels got to work and fixed the problem. So if you are a sufferer of interrupted digital comic syndrome, simply update the Appand you should be back to reading your DC superheroics and destroying the direct market singlehandedly in a matter of moments.

More on DC Comics going digital, from the source

Looks like Newsarama and Comic Book Resources now have interviews from DC Comics executives about their push into digital comics.  Looks for an interesting read!

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