Bringing comics online seems like a great alternative; all the necessary parts of a story can be brought together in one place, and thanks to the complete lack of ink and paper required to create same, the prices of the books can drop. That may mean some good news afoot for comic buffs, as Amazon announced a new agreement in which it buys digital comics company comiXology.

For those not familiar, comiXology—founded in 2007--is one of the Web's biggest sources of digital comics online. Containing properties from 75 different publishers, as well as individual efforts, there's a host of things to read found there in just about every vein from DC to Marvel and beyond.  Amazon, according to a press release, picked up the company because of Guided View system, a platform that makes the process of discovering and reading comics both simpler and more fun overall. ComiXology, meanwhile—according to its founder and CEO David Steinberger—is out to “...spread the love of comics and graphic novels in all forms,” and “...accelerate a new age for comic books and graphic novels.”

With Amazon's market power and reach behind comiXology's platform, this could mean some very good news indeed for comic buyers, who hopefully can look forward to more extensive digitization of comic properties and hopefully an improved interface. Interested in checking out a few of the older storylines, I actually hit comiXology not long ago to see what was on hand, and came away rather disappointed. The format seems focused on individual issues, and while many issues were available the same day as print, some issues seemed to be about the same price online as in stores. That's not exactly a real bell-ringer for going digital, but waiting a bit did seem to generate some price drops, which made some sense overall.

One point that the Amazon acquisition of comiXology will also hopefully bring is the ability to buy complete series for discounted prices, particularly series that concluded some time ago like DC's “Our Worlds at War” from 2001. Volume One of that series alone lists for $19.99, though it's currently available for as little as $2.94 out at Barnes & Noble. Some consolidation and further accessibility would certainly be welcome, and might be a great way for comic publishers to gain revenue on older product that may not be selling quite so well these days.

There's always something to making the money up front on things like books and comics, even older television shows, but there's always a new generation showing up to the table with an appetite.


Edited by Maurice Nagle