Geek Syndicate
DIGITAL PIRACY IN COMICS
As a comic fan, I’ve often thought a lot about how print comics fare when the internet making digital comics and even digital piracy more prevalent. I’ve had quite a few conversations with friends and fellow comic readers about the subject. It was after one such conversation with my friend Michael that I wanted to know not just what I thought or what my group of friends thought about digital comics and digital piracy, but rather what the people who bring us the floppy pages of comic joy that we read every month thought about it, and how they felt it was helping or hurting them and their livelihoods. After a brainstorming session in which I attempted to boil down the digital controversy to just two questions, while leaving them open ended, I sent out a flurry of emails. For those creators that were kind enough to reply and answer the questions posed by this comic fan, I sent these questions: Digital comics are making a huge impact on the comic industry. How do you think they’re affecting print comics and the industry as a whole? Digital piracy is also a big topic in the comic community. What do you feel is the overall effect of piracy on comic sales, both digital and print? Do you feel like it wins over enough fans to make it possible to overlook, or is the effect totally negative?
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The responses were varied and interesting. Below, I’ve broken down the responses by question as answered by each comic creator, and even one comic fan and friend. Let’s see what they had to say about the first question. ”Digital comics are making a huge impact on the comic industry. How do you think they’re affecting print comics and the industry as a whole?” Digital media is changing the landscape for every outlet: music, video and print, so comics are being swept into that maelstrom just like everything else. The intensity of that change is reflected in the fact that comics are a smaller industry, so even a small shift in sales due to digital adoption causes a lot more upheaval than would be required to unbalance a bigger industry. The good side of it is access to a much larger audience and the chance for more people to get their work out to market thanks to fewer barriers to entry. The down side of it is that traditional distribution channels and sales outlets are struggling to find stable financial ground as things shift over. The market is ‘flattening’ with smaller titles generally selling better than before, but the top end titles doing a lot worse. More titles seem to be needed to keep the market moving forward rather than a fewer number of best sellers. It increases diversity in the industry’s offerings, which is great, but it’s also a lot harder to manage. For individual creators and the reading audience, there are a lot of great opportunities created by
the adoption of digital comics and the global digital marketplace. For publishers, distributors and retailers it’s a tougher market that they need to get on top of in order to make the most of it. Jim Zubkavich, writer of Skullkickers and Pathfinder Only positively. I’ve yet to see a shred of evidence that they’re taking away from print sales more than they’re simply bringing more revenue into the market. Print number continue to shrink for smaller publishers, but just looking at the digital royalty statements on one of my titles, IRREDEEMABLE, I can report massive growth over the past year. Massive. Mark Waid, writer of Kingdom Come, Irredeemable, Indestructible Hulk I think we’ve only just begun to see their true impact. At first there was a lot of talk about how digi F?6?W2v?V?B6???&??R&??B6?W2?'WB?F????V&?6?W'2?B&WF??W'2&R&Vv?????rF?6VRF?BF?N( ?2??BF?R66R???r??N( ?2VW7F????b??rF?gV????FVw&FRF?v?F?v?F?&??B6?W2?B??RF?RGv?V?V?V?G27W?'BV6??F?W"?????W7F?F??????F???r&B6?6??R?bF?RF?v?F??&??B&V?F???6??2???r2WfW'???R?2?V???FVBV??Vv?F?&R????fF?fR?B66WBF?RgWGW&R?F?v?F??2F?RgWGW&R?b6??72???F?V'B&?WB?B?'WBF?BF?W6?( ?B?V?&??B?BF?&V7B?&?WB&WF??W'26?( ?B7W'f?fR??N( ?2?W7Bv???rF?F?R6??RF?W7F?V?B?B&?7F?fRF????r??WfW'???^( ?2'B???W?W7?6?F??w&?FW"?bf??G&??G2?v?6???6??72VF?F?"B?t?