Newsarama is reporting that Marvel is planning to launch an online comics initiative later this week which, would potentially feature a launch with over 2500 comics, ranging from early comics, such Stan Lee era Amazing Spider-Man, to more recent offerings, like Young Avengers or House of M.Personally, I think it's about damn time someone pulled their head out of the sand and realized the internet is the future. Sadly, I see this dying in the skunk hole with too little, too late at too high a price. Early reports have Marvel pricing these comics at $9.99 A MONTH. On top of that, they intend on only allowing you to view said comics online through either your web browser or a proprietary software you'll have to download. Thus, you will be paying for something you will never own and, once your month is up, you can never look at again without paying more money. More after the jump.
If this comes to pass, Marvel will have basically killed any chance of getting money from me and possibly have killed the online comics movement. Even at the lowest listed price of $4.99 / month, if you happen to purchase an annual subscription, I can't see me throwing money away at a non-existant product. What's wrong with using an iTunes like interface where I can download a comic for 99 cents or say a 6 issue trade for $4.99 or some cheaper alternative? They could easily package the comics with high resolution scans and allow users to download them and view with either a proprietary imaging software or something like ACDSee or CDisplay or any other of the millions of free image viewing softwares.
What say you fellow comic readers? Willing to fork out $9.99 a month for eye burning, computer screen viewing comics that you will never actually own, in digital or phsyical format? Would you prefer an iTunes style interface, like I described earlier in the post? Do you have a better alternative you think would work? I'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts, so feel free to comment. No registration required, just post as anonymous if you like.
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5 comments:
Honestly, I really like this idea. I easily spend over $10 a month on Marvel comics anyway, and I use my laptop very often at home, so I have little to no qualms about this service. Now, if DC had a service like this, I would be overjoyed. Also, I would save a good amount of money each month.
Now that I think about it, it may save me money, but if I'm not buying printed issues, how will that affect the industry and my local comic shop? Perhaps I'm looking at this through too narrow of a viewpoint. Hmm.
I think it's a great idea for me to read on some back issues, and some Silver or Golden age comics I always wanted to read but never wanted to invest in. It's like an online library. I love it. $9.99/month is fine.
From one of the pieces I read on this, while it will initially be a mix of classics (first 100 FF, Amazing Spider-Man and Avengers and the first 66 Uncanny X-Men) it will have some newer stuff like Ultimates books, House of M and so on, as part of that 2500 comics.
They will then begin adding new comics to the lineup at no less than 20 titles a week. Mixed in with that will be old and new comics(I'm thinking probably like their digital comics they have out for free now, you get a couple comics from the last year or so, and a couple from the 70's and 80's or so).
The trick here, to save themselves, is that going forward, titles will be added to the archive after they are 4-6 months old(I've seen both 4 and 6 months as a timeframe here, so I'm not entirely clear).
I think if they can stick to this plan, it will maybe not be a runaway blockbuster that completely changes the industry, but it will be a solid moneymaker for them from the 'casual' fan who wants to read up on things or dig around the archives. Or people, like my 7-year old son, who is a comics fan ut doesn't care how current the comics are, he just wants to read them and we can't easily get to a store regularly.
If 9.99 is too much, then what is fair? For the price of 3 comics per month, one could read hundreds. It doesn't sound so bad to me. Maybe I want to read all the old Skrull stories, but I don't want to hunt them down on eBay, so I basically go to Marvel's all-you-can-read library. Cool!
My biggest problem with the $9.99 per month is that there's only so much time in the run of a day to read books.
Also, there's the whole burned out eye thing that staring at a monitor will give you. Say an average of 5-10 minutes per book, if load times are favourable, and you're looking at some long stare downs with a monitor.
On top of that, you don't get to own the book or even view it anyway you choose.
Yes, when you compare it to a regular book, $10 doesnt seem like the end of the world for "1000's" of books, but the format, age and viewability of those books doesn't seem to coincide with it.
I'll agree I haven't given the system a fair try yet, but just based on how lacking the trial service was so far, what with page time outs and general difficulty just connected to the books, I'm a little weary of how many books I'd actually get to read for that $10.
I also look at this from a collector stand point. Even if it's digital, I want to own what I pay for and view it under my own terms. But I do agree, if it's for your son or someone trying to just enjoy some comics for the first time or get back into it, this is probably a decent and affordable deal.
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