Could Free Comics Work The Same Way?
Over on Gizmodo we get news of a new way in which we can prove that the British do, in fact, kick serious ass. Especially John Cleese.
We're all pretty much aware that the movie and music industries hate pirates of any sort (unless they're played by Johnny Depp), including those that post copyrighted material on YouTube. Even though the posters make no money off of the content that is streamed, the MPAA and RIAA detest this practice with some real venom. Those lovable cads of Monty Python decided to buck the system, offer up their high quality content (some of it ever before seen) on YouTube and charge the magnanimous sum of zero dollars for it. All they did was add a link to buy their material from Amazon.
And sales of Python merch went up 23,000%.
That isn't a typo. Sales went up twenty-three thousand percent because of the videos on YouTube. That's not just shocking, that's downright unbelievable! A 23% increase would have been laudable, but this is truly a nail in the MPAA and RIAA sides.
My question to you, dear readers, is this:
Could a similar approach help comic books?
We know that sales across the board are down (and were falling before the economy rolled over and died) and that pirating is up, but are they related? Is there a significant amount of people who don't buy the books BECAUSE they pirate them or do they tend to download the books they wouldn't buy anyway? If a company offered select, high quality titles for free would it be an incentive for people to pay for the rest? Offering up something like Dark Avengers would theoretically get the reader intrigued about Mighty Avengers and New Avengers, but would tha translate into actual sales?
Does Marvel's Digital Comics Unlimited (DCU) help the pamphlet market or hurt it? I would imagine the majority of people using the DCU are the same people who buy the Essential line and most of the roster on the shelf anyway.
Goblin
Posted to Comics on 26 January 2009
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: digital distribution, Gizmodo, Marvel, Monty Python
I have some TPB runs on my shelves due to comics that i first read on my computer. They, um, fell off a truck. I really think that these larger media groups need to roll with the punches and trust that people out there will still pay for content even when it's available elsewhere. Especially nerds like me who think no hi-res scan can replace the deluxe hard-cover sitting on a shelf.
Now another generation after me raised on digital media might think differently. But right now a little good will can go a long way, even if it's counter-intuitive.
Boom! Studios caused a minor fracas last year when they placed the first issue of North Wind free online. Retailers had not been notified, and felt they would be stuck with nonreturnable, unsaleable copies. Turns out the issue sold out in paper.
I personally wouldn't buy a comicbook after reading it online, but I WILL buy any collection of material I read on a regular basis.
I'm going to put myself out here, and if any legal teams want to come after me, so be it.
A Precise List Of Comics I Pirated First Before Buying Them In Issues And/Or Trades:
-The Authority
-Runaways
-Ex Machina
-Y: The Last Man
-The Invisibles
-DMZ
-Northlanders
-Transmetropolitan
-Brubaker's Captain America
-Steranko's Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD
-Strangers in Paradise
-Kabuki
-The current JSA series
-Manhunter
-Nextwave
-Marvel Adventures: Avengers
-Top 10
-Young Avengers
-Preacher
-Starman
Keep in mind (o nebulous phantom lawyers), I read almost NO comics before I started pirating. Sandman, Doc Frankenstein, Shaolin Cowboy, and Action Philosophers were all I read my first TWO YEARS as a "comic book reader". Then I discovered torrents, and my quarterly trip to the comic book store became monthly, then weekly. And then, now having confidence in my own tastes, I was able to judge a book right off the shelf whether or not I wanted it, and I began buying more and more comics, in more and more genres.
Digital distribution is VITAL to the survival of the industry. And more companies need to get with it.