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The Digital Comics Revolution Begins…

Marvel becomes the first major comic book publisher to go digital. I have been trying for a few hours to get onto their website to check out their digital comics section that just opened today (to read some Ironman), but it appears as though I am not the only one with this idea. The website is bogged down and borderline crashing, so a review of the user interface will not be included in this article.

Television shows are included online to get people hooked on the newer episodes that are still to be aired, and a similar motivation is behind Marvel’s move: Show the fans where they character has been (for free), so they will be tune in (and pay money) to find out where the character is going.

But, does anyone really wanna pay for comic books anymore?
Comic book revenues have been continually going down, and really the only incarnation of the book that is doing well these days is the graphic novel, which is basically a more adult and longer version of the comic book.

Why is the comic book revenue down?
Well it’s is clear to this author that this is due to the fact that special effects in movies have caught up with what you could draw with a crayon and pencil and create with your imagination… So thusly why should you read when you can play video games and watch movies that revolve around the same fanciful stories?

Why don’t the publishers focus on producing films?
Becoming a production company, Marvel would become a powerhouse in the film community with films like the Spider-man and X-men franchises, and DC would jump right in with the extremely successful Batman and Superman series of films. All of the films listed in that batch have grossed record box office returns and all of that profit should, and rightfully so, go straight to the owners of the stories. Do they? No, because Marvel and DC have sold rights to many of the stories already and fail to move to the point where they can put up all the money themselves. This would be a smart move, giving them complete creative control over some of the most beloved characters of all time.

As for the books that they now publish?
Only the graphic novels turn a consistent profit these days, and honestly… they deserve to. The characters and stories are brilliantly developed and gloriously poignant and Frank Miller, specifically, has created some of the best work around. From 300 to Batman, Year One to Sin City, Frank has covered some of the most fanciful issues. And also in A History of Violence, John Wagner and Vince Locke covered real human issues that were beyond any comic book from the ‘Glory Days’ of Spidey and The Fantastic Four (though any real comic nerd would tell you that they covered tough issues in their own ways…).

If you noticed, all those novels mentioned have slowly but surely been turned into fantastic movies, generally of the same name, and adhere to the style and feel that the graphic novels had created. The feel and style not only were created by the moody pictures but the brilliantly worded dialog found in the “bubbles” of the action tiles.

In summary
Comics are dead. I mean look at the Comic-con; They don’t even talk about Comics in the traditional sense anymore… it’s all about comic characters on film, and heck… a lot of the time the films discussed there have no connection to comics at all…

So head over to marvel.com and check out what an endangered species looks like… before it’s too late…

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