Zeb Wells and John Romita Junior ASM Preview

[TinkerSpider]

I don't disagree, but I do have concerns about the future availability of specific media in a digital-only world. A physical copy can be damaged or destroyed, certainly; but something that only exists digitally can also be taken away, erased from existence, etc.

-Pav, who thinks owning digital media is akin to owning a time share...

It would also ruin the comic collector/speculator market, as that depends on the future scarcity of issues driven by degredation/loss of physical copies thus driving prices of those copies up in the aftersale market. Digital copies don't degrade.

But every single digital copy would need to be wiped off the face of the planet for the item to be and erased and forever gone, however. A digital product can be copied ad infinitum without any loss of integrity. As long as one digital copy exists, it can be reproduced. The issue would be proving ownership, which is something a technology like blockchain could solve - except blockchain relies on encryption and people are speculating when quantum computing comes on line, it will make encryption ineffective.

But that's a worry for a few more years to come...

[Malachi]

I don't disagree, but I do have concerns about the future availability of specific media in a digital-only world. A physical copy can be damaged or destroyed, certainly; but something that only exists digitally can also be taken away, erased from existence, etc.

-Pav, who thinks owning digital media is akin to owning a time share...

Compare it to regular books. Reading a book in digital is a halfway mixture of borrowing a book from the library and buying it in pocket format. It’s a format where owning it isn’t as important as having read it. I don’t know anyone who keeps their pocket books or showcases them for a longer period. When a shelf is full it’s given to goodwill or to the garbage bin(well technically it’s sorted and sent to reused at a paper processing facility).

Digital is for those that foremost just want to read the issue. The price will have to be adjusted for that purpose. Perhaps we won’t own them as much as they will be connected to certain platforms. With an industry as comics with its collecting tendencies the physical copy will never truly disappear. Look at music. Many consume it through Spotify but there is still a market for owning physical copies as collectors have always been active in that market. I prefer vinyl, others buy cd.

[Mercwmouth12]

Compare it to regular books. Reading a book in digital is a halfway mixture of borrowing a book from the library and buying it in pocket format. It’s a format where owning it isn’t as important as having read it. I don’t know anyone who keeps their pocket books or showcases them for a longer period. When a shelf is full it’s given to goodwill or to the garbage bin(well technically it’s sorted and sent to reused at a paper processing facility).

Digital is for those that foremost just want to read the issue. The price will have to be adjusted for that purpose. Perhaps we won’t own them as much as they will be connected to certain platforms. With an industry as comics with its collecting tendencies the physical copy will never truly disappear. Look at music. Many consume it through Spotify but there is still a market for owning physical copies as collectors have always been active in that market. I prefer vinyl, others buy cd.

Plus this would be a major shift to a print is dead philosophy and would turn away consumers and crush LCS and even if it was a temporary thing would do considered amount of damage in other ways

[NC_Yankee]

Plus this would be a major shift to a print is dead philosophy and would turn away consumers and crush LCS and even if it was a temporary thing would do considered amount of damage in other ways

I think an all digital format can work with children and their parents ( Marvel Adventures etc), but for adults and even teens 15 and up it is a concept that will be rejected.

[Malachi]

I think an all digital format can work with children and their parents ( Marvel Adventures etc), but for adults and even teens 15 and up it is a concept that will be rejected.

Price is as ever a major factor. Lower the digital price to a reasonable level. Witch it isn’t on now because it would hurt LCS.

The music business lost a lot because it was greedy. Instead of going for mp3 and put a decent price on it it fought teeth and nails for the cd because it was much more profitable and of course retail stores sold them. Now we have close to zero cd retail stores. We have a collectors market but most of it is online.

Whatever happens in the future LCS will struggle. Even though there will be a demand for it’s products the question is if it won’t be bought mostly online.

[NC_Yankee]

Price is as ever a major factor. Lower the digital price to a reasonable level. Witch it isn’t on now because it would hurt LCS.

The music business lost a lot because it was greedy. Instead of going for mp3 and put a decent price on it it fought teeth and nails for the cd because it was much more profitable and of course retail stores sold them. Now we have close to zero cd retail stores. We have a collectors market but most of it is online.

Whatever happens in the future LCS will struggle. Even though there will be a demand for it’s products the question is if it won’t be bought mostly online.

You are correct about the music business ( and you can say the same thing for DVD’s). But there is a big difference between comic books and CD’s and DVD’s That is volume. There are well over 1000 various Spider-Man comics. Compare that to any artist ( even the most popular ones ( Elvis, Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson and The Beatles in music and John Wayne, Tom Cruise and Dwayne Johnson for films as examples)).

[Malachi]

You are correct about the music business ( and you can say the same thing for DVD’s). But there is a big difference between comic books and CD’s and DVD’s That is volume. There are well over 1000 various Spider-Man comics. Compare that to any artist ( even the most popular ones ( Elvis, Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson and The Beatles in music and John Wayne, Tom Cruise and Dwayne Johnson for films as examples)).

Yes and I don’t want to equate them.

A big factor is also hardware. Now days most people have a cellphone. That has had an major impact on our music listening habits. But even before that people had started the habit of listening on portable devices. You wanted to bring your music with you.

Comics are different. While people might want to read them on the subway, train or busses you don’t go for a walk, train or run while reading a comic. Comic is mostly a stationary experience that many enjoy at home.

Another difference is again hardware. I have a iPad. Owned one for some years now. Without it doubt I would entertain reading comics or books digitally.

So unless everyone has access to a functional hardware to read digital comics then we can’t transfer our habits. So It’s not enough to own or have access to a device, you also must have a pattern of using it and feeling comfortable using it. So you just transfer one hobby into another for easier access.

I am not counting computers here, either stationary or laptops. It seems the future is becoming more and more portable anyway. Perhaps when everyone own and use a device in their everyday then comics can be transferred to it. Children can form habits. Adults continue them. But you need price, easy acess and already available hardware to make any larger shift in our habits. And that is just to make a move to primary digital. As said before physical comics and TPB’s will continue.

[Mercwmouth12]

A big issue for me is also with the delays but having the solicits for the Month then a couple of days later delay those a full month out and possibly more

[SplinteringHeart]

I don't disagree, but I do have concerns about the future availability of specific media in a digital-only world. A physical copy can be damaged or destroyed, certainly; but something that only exists digitally can also be taken away, erased from existence, etc.

-Pav, who thinks owning digital media is akin to owning a time share...

I agree Pav for exactly those reasons. I don't trust digital media..

I paid for mp3 individual tracks and some albums from Google Play..I could play them offline, anywhere anytime...Google Play got taken over by YouTube and you can’t download and play offline without paying a monthly subscription to YouTube...and what's more, my Google tracks that came over now keep going "on the blink", and plenty have disappeared..

[Mercwmouth12]

I agree Pav for exactly those reasons. I don't trust digital media..

I paid for mp3 individual tracks and some albums from Google Play..I could play them offline, anywhere anytime...Google Play got taken over by YouTube and you can’t download and play offline without paying a monthly subscription to YouTube...and what's more, my Google tracks that came over now keep going "on the blink", and plenty have disappeared..

It could potential happen where digital may be an option for a small time IF the paper shortage becomes a big enough issue

[SplinteringHeart]

If there is a point where due to the paper shortage that a decision is made to temporarily go digital for a while while it would be good for getting series'out there would be .shot shift and worse case is a series that needs a large sales count such as ASM to succeed would greatly suffer and no telling what would happen then

Your mention of temporary digital takes me back to the pandemic during lockdown...Marvel did for a while turn some books over to digital only with the proviso that paper copies would come later, after..can't remember if that was in trade paperback or the individuals, the titles chosen were either not the "big hitters" or titles that were short runs or were ending anyway..

[NC_Yankee]

It could potential happen where digital may be an option for a small time IF the paper shortage becomes a big enough issue

I doubt it happens for the big sellers. For example: IF things become bad, they can always cut ASM down to once a month. Would it be popular? No but if the choice is that or angering subscribers (especially long time collectors) that is the “lesser of two evils.”

[Matt Rat]

Apparently the same day they're releasing ASM#2 (the 25th) they're also releasing a hardcover edition of the first half of JMS' run