Comic book fans are often divided about fully digital comic books. The Paper Comic Fans sing praises to the portability and aesthetic properties of paper comics. The Digital Comic Fans argue in favor of cheaper comics and easier distribution models.What we need are a few comic books so amazing, so cool that they would be next to impossible for any fan NOT to go out and purchase them. Even the fan who swears they'll never buy digital while they can still get books printed on paper.
Here are five in no particular order:
The Team UpSure these days when two characters with solo books find their way into one another's book it can conform a bit to closely to a formula for it to be any fun at all. We've all seen it and know it well: characters meet, they disagree, they fight, they get over it and join up forces in the end.
There was a time when team up books, whether it was "Marvel Team Up", "The Brave and The Bold", or another book was the backbone of the large comic book publishing companies monthly releases.
Month after month the reader could find powerful partnerships formed by characters that would never actually find their way into each others books. These books were also often times used to tell stories a little "out there" for main stream continuity using up and coming artists who didn't have a monthly title of their own.
Batman Kills JokerCall it a "what if" story if you want. Have it be someone other than Bruce Wayne as Batman but this book would sell like hot cakes! Knowing that time has finally caught up with him Batman decides that he's but one last thing to do on this earth: Kill JOKER!
He uses his considerable resources and finances to update his gear, leave his estates all settled up and sets out on a one man quest against the crown prince of crime that will end in the Thunderdome: Two men enter, one man leaves.
Robin, Nightwing, Catwoman, Commissioner Gordon, The Question, Superman and more all have a moderate to large roll but it will suprise you who thinks that the Jokers death is a good thing helping Batman and who tries to get in his way. No matter what happens, Joker ends up DEAD! This wouldn't be a gimick story.
The George Perez showI hesitate to call it "JLA vs AVENGERS" because it may not be that at all. George is given any "team" project he wants and is allowed to run with it. The publisher backs him up with a team of digital producers who assist in helping George structure his amazing artwork to fit best on the computer screen. Thats it, we could debate and salivate all day but it wouldn't matter because anything GP did would sell, sell, sell!
Licensed Motion Comics
Many comic book publishers have done comic adaptions of Star Wars, Star Trek, Highlander, Escape From New York, Aliens, Predator and more. Many of these properties don't often do as well in a flat platform like the printed page as they did on the small and large scree. Those listed above would be perfect for Motion Comics with limited sound effects and a big animation piece in the middle in loo of a "pin up".
This book is the only book distributed free to all of us as there's a commercial that goes with it for revenue.
Kids ComicsBooks like Teeny Titans, Super Girl, and young versions of Spiderman, Hulk, and Iron Man have kept "kid comics" alive and kicking. A Digital comic book delivery systems seems the perfect vehicle for more. Some could be animated, some not. These books will be half as many "pages" long as full page books and a new one would be posted every day like clock work for at least the first year.
The company that really needs to get in the game to make kids turn to Digital Comics is Disney. Currenly the Disney Princess franchise makes up about $4 Billion in global revenue (almost 20% of Disney's overall revenue.) Why there aren't a ton of Disney Princess Comics on every Wal-Mart Checkout line is a mystery to me.
These books would, in this blogger's opinion, go a long away to position digital comic books in a "must have" position in any future market place.
Have a nice weekend.
2 comments:
I've recently acquired a hankering for some golden age comic goodness in a condition (good to very good) I can afford. What I do is down load any number of golden age comics (not talking timely or DC titles here) and give them a read. Not all golden age heroes or issues are created equal. I pick out my favorite issues of my favorite character and focus on saving my pennies to buy them first. One (digital) helps feed into the other (print). :)
RKB, yeah, I have what can only be described and an unhealthy and uneconomical fascination with the Golden Age heroes from other companies. I Soooooo want to do some sort of comic/web comic with them, but at the same time, I can't really justify spending time/money on such a project.
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