For years now, I have had friends who are fans of digital comics. And they keep saying, “THIS TIME FOR SURE digital comics will make it big!” I think that’s becoming less and less likely as the industry makes tentative steps forward.
As reported here at MajorSpoilers.com, DC Comics and DC Vertigo recently joined the GlobalComix digital app and website, which is described as “the leader in graphic fiction creation, distribution, and consumption.”
The site now provides a variety of DC and DC Vertigo’s biggest franchises like Batman, Superman, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and the Suicide Squad available to read on GlobalComix anywhere in the world.
DC is just the latest comics publisher to join GlobalComix, which has already signed up Vault, Image Comics, BOOM! Studios, Archie Comics, TOKYOPOP, NBM Graphic Novels, and many more!
“DC is responsible for some of the most respected and revered pop culture icons and we are thrilled to offer hundreds of their iconic stories to our readers across the globe,” said Christopher Carter, CEO of GlobalComix. “With 400 books totaling approximately 75,000 pages, DC and DC Vertigo fans will have a wealth of content at their fingertips.”
Readers with a paid subscription can access revered titles on GlobalComix via iOS, Google Play, or the web. Join the community at Twitter/X, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook to get the most up-to-date comics news.
For the last decade or so, I’ve been asking comics professionals about the future of the industry, and will digital comics be an important part of that. Literally every single one of them have said that they have no idea what the future of digital comics will be. Will we stop going to local comics shops and instead go to an FTP website and download the files over the Internet?
So far, that hasn’t happened.
Of course, I also remember not that long ago when subscription services were all the rage. Again, it seems like that “new trend” hasn’t really become a big part of the industry. I don’t even know if those companies are still around, sadly.
Hey, I’ll be happy if all these things take hold so we can keep the comics coming!
Until Amazon got ahold of comiXology not that long ago, it was apparently on an upward journey, ready to move comics to the next level, I was told. I have to say that those glory days, when I used that service a lot, have passed me by. Now, I can hardly find a comic on their website or app. In fact, I rarely get to buy ANY digital comics any longer.
Looks like GlobalComix is taking over the digital space comiXology used to control. I mean, I like their app, but I don’t hear a lot of fans who are rushing to buy their books on GlobalComix.
See, some of my friends have extoled the virtues of digital comics, that the colors would be much brighter and more easily read by fans on a computer screen than they can be on the printed page.
Of course, collectability goes right out the window with digital comics. Condition doesn’t matter when it comes to computer files, after all. You can print out as many copies on paper as you like, but it won’t be considered a “real” comic.
And I have yet to see a collector want a thumb drive with digital comic files on it. Really.
I honestly hope that digital comics do finally take off and become more popular. At this point, literally anything that would keep our beloved comics coming out each week is what I am hoping to see.
Granted, digital comics are a very different way of accessing comics. It means we need to keep our computers working optimally and keeping our hard drives and portable drives working well so we can open the comics we want to read on our laptops and desktops and all. Our screens need to be calibrated properly so the colors are true to what the creators want us to experience.
Computer files can be corrupted, and the files lost so that we would have to buy them again if we want to replace them on our machines. Or our hard drives can run out of space! I’ve also accidentally dropped a portable drive, which made it impossible to access it again, so I had to recreate or buy them all again.
But it still is possible to get them again! They just don’t have that magic word “collectible” associated with them! And that still is an important aspect of the business today!
I still use digital comics as a way of keeping current with a book I have missed out on a physical copy of. For instance, I recently had gotten into the new Jonny Quest comic, but my store never got #2. I read it digitally, then my LCS got in the physical copy this past week. I didn’t miss out on anything that way!
I just don’t see digital becoming what some of my friends who are comics fans like I am seem to think those comics will be. Maybe I need better friends!
What do you think? Do you buy more or fewer digital comics these days? Do you think the digital format will increase in popularity among fans? Or will they just be something the more computer literate among us will prefer? Whatever your opinion, feel free to share it in the space below!
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Wayne Hall creates the Wayne's Comics Podcast. He’s interviewed Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, John Layman, Kyle Higgins, Phil Hester, Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray, David Petersen, Christos Gage, Mike Grell, and Matt Kindt. On this site each week, he writes his "Comics Portal" column (general comics comments and previews) and reviews comics.
2 Comments
Thrive? No. Does it have a place in the ‘Industry’ ? Yes. Digital comics offer no collect-ability or investment ability, and as that is a large part of the ‘Industry’ it will never be a big part of it. The role it serves is for those that don’t care about their collection or value of the books that they have.. All that they want is to read that issue. The problem is that too many people have been burned by the ‘Digital Copy’ of things suddenly vanishing due to the company dying, or copyright owner pulling permission to publish, or whatever reason they can think of to remove your ability to even read the book. More and more people are realizing that they don’t actually own the ‘Digital Copy’ they paid for, they are just being given access to it until someone else removes that access.
All good points! Thank you for your insightful comments!