Though I can't let go of my comics from the 1960s and 1970s, I have been doing something similar. I'm slowly selling off my modern comics that I've bought since 2004, when I returned to reading comic books.
Though I will never get over reading comics printed on paper, I know that the digital comics downloaded weekly on my iPad are indeed the future - whether I like it or not. Give this article a read and see what you think the future of comics is.
Peace Out!
Steve
The Los Angeles Times
by Noelene Clark
March 16, 2012
Comics need to adapt to a digital medium if they want to survive, comics writer Mark Waid told WonderCon attendees Friday afternoon during a panel spotlighting his career. And to drive his point home, Waid announced that he is selling his extensive comic book collection to fund a weekly online comic series, which will launch in May.
“This is in no way a hard-luck story,” said Waid, the writer behind Marvel’s relaunch of “Daredevil” and co-creator (with artist Alex Ross) of the Eisner Award-winning graphic novel “Kingdom Come.” “I’m a very lucky man. I don’t have to do this because I need a kidney. … I’m just doing this because it’s about the right time to let go of the past and really embrace the future.”
A future for comics, according to Waid, means creating comics specifically for a digital audience, instead of adapting print comics for the Web. For example, comics are created in a vertical format for print, however digital readers tend to read on horizontal devices, Waid said, holding up an iPad. Furthermore, they should cost 99 cents instead of the $2.99 or $3.99 major comics publishing companies currently charge, he said, explaining that smaller comics creators can’t always afford to print their books and have them placed in shops, and so the Internet provides a better outlet.
“They don’t want to undercut the 1,800 Diamond retailers out there in the world, and I get it,” he said. “I don’t want to undercut them either. But we’re playing a different game. The more of us that know how to do this for the Web, the better off the medium is.”
Waid is teaming up with John Rogers, the writer and producer of the TV series “Leverage,” to develop his own “digital publishing imprint,” he said. The project will be funded by the sale of his comic book collection on blastoffcomics.com.
The new weekly series will be created by Waid and artist Peter Krause, who worked together on “Irredeemable” and its spinoff series “Incorruptible.” Although Waid has said those comics will come to an end in May, he hinted during the panel that the new digital series will pick up where they leave off. Each weekly installment will be smaller than a full comic book — a decision inspired, in part, by serial newspaper comics like “Prince Valiant.”
“We said, ‘Let’s look at the old Sunday pages,’ not in any way in terms of tone or in terms of language, but really in a sense of how much of a chunk of story feels like a good, satisfying chunk of story,’” Waid said. “And what we found so far is about eight to 10 screens feels about right.”
Waid is also releasing a one-off digital comic, a zombie tale drawn by “Narcopolis” artist Jeremy Rock, that served as a “proof-of-concept” for Waid’s digital format. The comic, titled “Luther,” is available free on Waid’s website.
But Waid was careful to honor the character’s past, even as he tried to turn over a new leaf. “If I had come and just started to clean house without any sort of acknowledgement of what had happened in the past, I would have had my head handed to me,” he said.“Even I got to the point of having to take a stiff drink at the end of each issue,” Waid said, laughing. “Will nothing ever go right for Matt? Why doesn’t every issue open up with Matt having a gun in his mouth?”
Instead, Waid took inspiration from his own approach to dealing with dark points in his life.
“Matt hit that point: ‘I just have to start faking it until I make it,’” Waid said.
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