Comixology / Digital

[Bone-A-Fach-ee]

I'm trying to do some research on digital comics. Looking for user information. So, please take a minute, and let me know your digital comic reading/buying habits.

What DO you like about Comixology?
What DON'T you like about Comixology?
Do you buy digital comics anywhere else? If so, where?
How much a month or year would you say you spend on digital comics?
What company's titles do you purchase digitally?

Thanks for these amazing replies! A lot of you have mentioned the problem with organization. How else would you like to organize your books, aside from by title? By publisher? Author? Date?

[BugsySig]

What DO you like about Comixology? Use friendly, day and date availability, quantity of publishers and titles

What DON'T you like about Comixology? Not enough bundles or subscriptions, DRM

Do you buy digital comics anywhere else? If so, where? Dark Horse Digital

How much a month or year would you say you spend on digital comics? $30-40/month

What company's titles do you purchase digitally? All Valiant monthlies, various other titles randomly from various publishers

[IanAlexavier]

I use comixology. Ive not tried any other digital options.

I always have my books with me. Price is cover at first but goes down in a month... then there are always the .99 sales where I grab the rest

I wish I could organize my books differently. I wish there was an option to read them in order between titles.

No need to store the books... never worry about bending them LOL.. and I still pick up the variants if I want to

[DirtbagSailor]

Posted in thread: http://www.valiantfans.com/forum/viewto ... 6&start=25" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If I'm going to be a bit more honest about Comixology (and other digital comic readers), it would be to say that I have a love/hate relationship with them.

I enjoy the access and ability to read anywhere and anytime needed. This has been wonderful for me, as I frequently deploy to various locations often for long periods of time, and such apps allow me to enjoy my favorite story-lines and to watch the Valiant universe grow and expand week-by-week.

At the same time, I also fear the impact that such a media will have on the comicbook industry. How much does it hurt actual sales of actual books-in-hand? How much does this hurt the market, and also the next generation of collectors insomuch as their ability to actually "hold" a printed masterpiece from their childhood and then grow with it over the years? My daughters read EVERYTHING in electronic format, yet there is nothing to show for it. No books on a shelf or in a box to go back to 5 years from today. I waited nearly 30 years to get my hands on some key-issues (e.g. Hulk #181, ASM #129, Silver Surfer #4, etc.) and thank god such things were still available. Imagine if someday most issues are direct-to-digital and by-pass print all together! I fear that day, and pity a generation who might not know the joys we have all experienced.

I presently purchase (via Comixology) every Valiant title that is released, the day it is released (except for Shadowman and Q & W). So whatever that works out to in dollars spent, I do a poor job tracking such things since my weekly/monthly comicbook purchases comes directly out of my personal slush-funds.

Once I have a comic shop near by that I can visit (or someone here that is willing to ship to a military guy serving overseas...) I will likely use digital to read (avoid damaging my books) and double purchase actual physical issues to do my part in supporting the printed comicbook industry.

[Scarlet-Batman]

The Good:
- Storage: Digital Comics do not eat up any of your living space, even if you have hundreds of comics.
- Day of Date Release: Huge boon to Digital and puts it on an even playing field with IRL stores
- All Issues: ComiXology has every issue, even obscure back issues (unlike Comic Shops)
- 3 AM Buying: Buying comics on your schedule, rather than being beholden to a store's hours
- Organization: ComiXology automatically organizes your books by title for ease of use
- Free Previews: You get 3 low-res copies of any comic you are interested in buying (can't do that in many shops)
- Reduced Price: All comics drop 1 dollar in price x amount of days after release (depending on publisher), can't say that for comic shops
- Downloaded: All of your comics can be downloaded to your tablet and can be accessed w/o internet there after
- 99 cent sales: Great for picking up whole runs

The Bad:
- New Issue Price: 4 dollars for a digital comic is a bit steep (if you don't factor in how much to costs to store print comics)
- Cost: All back issues, even stuff from the 40's, costs 2 dollars. Pretty steep for comics that cost 10 cents when they were published
- DRM: Enough said
- Organization: You cannot organize your comics in any way other than by title, which is annoying if you like to group things differently
- Tablet: You have to own a tablet to access your comics, which can easily run $100-600+
- No re-saleability: You cannot re-sell your digital comics


Personally, I buy all of Valiant's titles via ComiXology save for Unity, which I pick up in print. I know I definitely would not have gotten into Valiant titles (outside of perhaps X-O and Harbinger) had it not been for Comixology and its 99 cent sale. It allowed me to buy every single comic that had been released up to November for 1/4 the retail price (90~ish bucks from me, rather than 360~ish normally).

For me, it is a constant battle between Digital and Print. On the one hand I like supporting my comic shop (it is a cool place to hang out) and I like the look of a long run of comics in my boxes. On the other hand, I don't have a lot of space. I think I wound up buying 300~ish print comics last year. That may not seem like a lot but that's almost 3 short boxes full. A few years from now (assuming the same pace) I could have 12 short boxes and I have zero idea where I could store that many. Digital saves me from that problem. Sure I can't re-sell my digital comics but I don't really know if I'd ever go the route of selling comics that I have read (cost/effort vs. reward).

[kjjohanson]

I don't buy any comics digitally on a regular basis. Occasionally I'll splurge for a bunch when there's a .99 sale.

Most of my pros and cons have been covered by others. Having a way to organize a "play list" (or "stack") would be nice for uninterrupted reading.

[Keith]

What DO you like about Comixology? Immediate availability. Reading my comics at 8 am on Wed rather than waiting for a store to open and get them shelved. No chance of a comic being sold out. Huge back issue availabilty

What DON'T you like about Comixology? That I don't actually "own" the comic.

Do you buy digital comics anywhere else? If so, where? Bought a couple on the Dark Horse app, but that was a rare occurence.

How much a month or year would you say you spend on digital comics? Approx. $50 a month

What company's titles do you purchase digitally? Valiant primarily, but if a good sale or price reduction catches my eye I will check out other companies stuff.

[Phoenix8008]

What DO you like about Comixology? It was easy to use and I enjoyed the
What DON'T you like about Comixology? I don't dislike anything from the couple times I've used it.
Do you buy digital comics anywhere else? If so, where? This is the only place I've used.
How much a month or year would you say you spend on digital comics? I've only got a handfull of digital, maybe all free ones.
What company's titles do you purchase digitally? Only Valiant so far.

[Bone-A-Fach-ee]

Thanks for these amazing replies! A lot of you have mentioned the problem with organization. How else would you like to organize your books, aside from by title? By publisher? Author? Date?

[BugsySig]

Thanks for these amazing replies! A lot of you have mentioned the problem with organization. How else would you like to organize your books, aside from by title? By publisher? Author? Date?

All of the above. Should be simple enough to do, yet its not offered.

[AnthonyF]

What DO you like about Comixology? - no tax! (saves 7%), can use gift cards purchased at grocery store, instantly available when released, available where ever I go, saves space at home

What DON'T you like about Comixology? - no way to organize my comics, would prefer larger discount on back issues

Do you buy digital comics anywhere else? If so, where? - No

How much a month or year would you say you spend on digital comics? - $30

What company's titles do you purchase digitally? - VEI, DC

[the1captain]

All of the above. Although I can't bring myself to pay print cover price for a digital copy. So I wait a month for the dollar drop and/or sale.

I don't think this was really covered so far but for me the great thing is variety. Going digital has exposed my to tons of indie books I would have never tried otherwise. Shops have limited space and money to put a lot of indie books on their shelf. And sometimes even finding a copy can be difficult with it buried behind better selling dc and marvel. And let's face it. Most of the time people just don't splurge and pre order an indie book unless they already know a lot about it. In fact it was a comixology sale that got me back into trying the new Valiant. I would have likely never have tried hunting down those issues in print.

And I've grown to love reading comics on my tablet. Colors seems brighter and so much easier to go through a pile of books.

One minor downside. If you are lucky enough to have your own "mancave" or "comic room" at home. From a decorating stand point a nicely set up room with a nicely organized display of your collection looks so much nicer than just holding up an ipad and saying "this is my collection".

[lorddunlow]

I use ComicRack for my digital comics. They can literally be organized in any way, including completely custom lists (which can be shared among users). I usually group by published date. This works really well for things like crossovers/etc.

The DRM is the deal-breaker for me, as it prevents me from loading the books into my preferred reader software. Remove DRM and I can read them the way I want.

[brucehartshorn]

For all who purchase comics from Comixology, please remember that it's really important to VEI to have you rate your purchases. It's fast, it's easy, and it helps VEI out a great deal. So please be sure to be a team member and help VEI

[Jonathan Janz]

I really enjoy Comixology. I guess the the prices for older comics can be kind of steep, but the selection is excellent, and the functionality makes reading easy and enjoyable.

[drmirage]

Yes!! 100% True. This also goes for Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and whatever book store that have reviews.

For all who purchase comics from Comixology, please remember that it's really important to VEI to have you rate your purchases. It's fast, it's easy, and it helps VEI out a great deal. So please be sure to be a team member and help VEI

[DirtbagSailor]

For all who purchase comics from Comixology, please remember that it's really important to VEI to have you rate your purchases. It's fast, it's easy, and it helps VEI out a great deal. So please be sure to be a team member and help VEI

Bruce, sorry for the delay, I failed to even notice the rating system on Comixology, so I just ordered some chicken & rice, and spent my lunch break giving a 5-star rateing for EVERY VEI purchase made to date (I think it came to just about 100+ VEI books rated, with another 26 ratings for the VH1's Harbinger 0-25 that I re-read over the hollidays...). Took about an hour to get click through every issue, but I had coffee and we play 80's rock in my office so the time passed quickly. =)

I found it was easiest to open each VEI title in its own tab and rate issue by issue within each tab.

Hope this helps! Wish I could have provided written feedback as well, but there is no option to do so at this time.