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For those that don't know, there is a community of comic readers that are
scanning comics and putting them online in one method or another.
I have seen a few pro's comment on this, virtually all of them negatively.
Many fans come out strong against it as well. THEFT IS THEFT is a common
argument used. Yet many comic fans still continue to download and read
scanned comics. Is this bad for the industry?
It doesn't appear so, as comic scanning/downloading is probably at an all
time high and the comic industry is doing much better than it was years ago.
While there are certain shifts going on, over-all sales are up.
Does this make sense then? Why are comic sales up when people can just
download their favorite comics?
Well, I think we need to look at why people are downloading what they've
downloaded. Are not people downloading books thinking "Yay! Now I don't have
to buy them!" I'm sure there are some. I know I've done it. But my belief is
that the vast majority of people downloading comics wouldn't have bought
those books anyway.
See, as many of you already know, the Direct Market is horrible for trying
new material. Unless your retailer is willing to take a gamble and buy books
for the shelf, you don't get to browse through different comics. Typically
retailers will buy books if it's similar to something they are already
selling. If it's Marvel/DC with a familiar creative team on a familiar
character then it's a safer bet to gamble on it, then an unknown book by
unknown publisher and unknown creators.
And as many of us know, it's a little daunting asking our retailers to buy
an unreturnable comic just so we can browse through it and *maybe* buy it. I
know I feel obligated to buy anything I ask for. I know some retailers take
credit cards info along with pull lists so that you *will* buy what you ask
for. As a result, interest level in a book has to be quite high for us to
actually say, yes we will pre-order that book and buy it. But for many
books, some interest is there but not enough to buy sight unseen.
Another reason for downloading comics is expense. Either because of limited
finances or because they only have a slight interest in the material, it's
not worth it for the readers to buy the book. Other reasons could be the
books are just hard to find, or not worth (to the downloader) the pain in
the ass it takes to get them. With older books they are very expensive and
out of reach of the reader.
I suspect a lot of downloading is browsing, books that people heard are good
and they're checking it out to see if it's indeed good or not. This way
nobody has to purchase a book they don't want. Now granted, most of what's
being downloaded are superhero comics. That's due to the tastes of both the
scanners and the downloaders. But some variety is out there if you search
for it.
I think a lot of the fear is these downloads would have been sales had they
not been available for free. This is where some in the industry makes their
mistake. Yes some sales may have been lost because of downloading, but in
all likelihood only a fraction of the downloads would have been sales.
Balancing things out are the positive effects of scanned comics. Some of
those that download comics will then buy the hard copy of the books they
really like. That way they can re-read it at their time and place of
choosing, like at night in a big comfy chair when somebody else is using the
computer.
There is always the chance that somebody will download a comic, like it and
see the creative team involved is now doing something new and will pick it
up at the comic shop. Then there are those of us who think the original scan
is quite shitty and buys a copy so they can make a better one. I know I
personally have bought books specifically because I downloaded it first.
I believe one good thing about the current downloading community is finding
brand new stuff is a bit hard. Most of those that do the actual scanning
only do books if they're over a year old. They are comic fans too and don't
want to hurt the industry. I think the industry would be hurt quite a bit if
the latest X-men was easily available online the same day it came out.
That said, I believe a lot of the worry comes from what has happened to the
music industry. Like a lot of people, we figured the music industry wouldn't
be hurt that much if I just downloaded this one song or album. Today locally
I see the local music stores either go tits up or switch to DVD stores.
Every time I walk into one, the staff looks at me with hatred, knowing I
probably download/burn most of my music instead of buying it there.
But one thing to remember, comics are different than music. Some people are
worried that downloading comics will hurt the comic industry ala downloading
and the music industry.
This isn't likely to happen as with music, you can burn them to a CD put it
into your walkman and take it with you. All for the cost of a blank CD.
With comics you could print them out and take them with you, but that's
quite expensive and it would take quite a bit more effort to print them on
both sides and staple them together so it somewhat resembles a comic book.
Until somebody comes up with ultra fast/cheap printer, paper and color ink
that's plentiful enough you can print out entire runs of comics quickly and
without having to go back to the store for ink, I think comics will stay
online and won't do any serious damage to the comics industry.
I should also say, props goes to Marvel for capitalizing on the scanned
comics situation. They've been putting out comics on CD's and are about to
do a major 10 CD collection of Spider-Man books, going from Amazing Fantasy
#15 and issues #1-500 of Amazing Spider-Man. While it's possible to get this
online, it would take a while to get them and you never know about the
quality of what your getting. These books are from Ralph Macchio's
collection and are at least advertised as good quality scans. It would be
worth it to Spider-Man fans to buy this than try to find and spend days or
weeks downloading 501 issues online.
Regards,
Jamie Coville
2004-09-30
http://www.TheGraphicNovels.com
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