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post #1 of 5
11/13/07 at 1:55pm
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http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/book....ap/index.html

Quote:
Originally Posted by CNN.com
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Marvel is putting some of its older comics online Tuesday, hoping to reintroduce young people to the X-Men and Fantastic Four by showcasing the original issues in which such characters appeared.

It's a tentative move onto the Internet: Comics can only be viewed in a Web browser, not downloaded, and new issues will only go online at least six months after they first appear in print.

Still, it represents perhaps the comics industry's most aggressive Web push yet. Even as their creations -- from Iron Man to Wonder Woman -- become increasingly visible in pop culture through new movies and video games, old-school comics publishers rely primarily on specialized, out-of-the-way comic shops for distribution of their bread-and-butter product.

"You don't have that spinner rack of comic books sitting in the local five-and-dime any more," said Dan Buckley, president of Marvel Publishing. "We don't have our product intersecting kids in their lifestyle space as much as we used to."
Beginning of the end for comics shops? Or just something different? I for one am happy about this, and hopefully as more of the catalogs show up online I might read comics again.
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post #2 of 5
11/13/07 at 2:02pm
It's a neat idea, but I'm not sure how well this is going to implemented.
Specifically, when am I going to be able to read ROM: Space Knight for free?
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post #3 of 5
11/13/07 at 2:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anderson
It's a neat idea, but I'm not sure how well this is going to implemented.
Specifically, when am I going to be able to read ROM: Space Knight for free?
Come over to my house - I have the entire run. And the action figure, which still works!

I'm glad that Marvel's testing the waters for this, and it's definitely long overdue. While I don't think comics shops have to worry about this now, it might hurt them years from now, especially if this takes off. The problem for Marvel and DC is advertising - they have to let the public (everyone including and OUTSIDE the comic fans) know they're doing this. People still watch TV, why not run a commercial or two? Hell, pimp the webstite comics before the Iron Man flick, right after the movie prevues, and before the feature starts!
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post #4 of 5
11/13/07 at 2:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark
3) Money- Anyone figure out how to make money off the internet yet? Anyone? Somebody get back to me with that.
Google. It's all about being the Ad provider.

Now a site based Ad client can pay ok, especially when you look at the cost savings of abandoning print production and distribution operations vs IT servers. Tie it all together with the built in merchandising and it's actually not a bad business model.
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post #5 of 5
11/13/07 at 2:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark
The shops are already dying a slow death. This is a reaction to that, not a cause.
True - I should've phrased my post better, thanks!
Ultimately, yes, the shops will die - it's inevitable, but I don't forsee it happening within the next year or two, unless DC does the same. If that happens the death of the shops will be that much quicker; I can see Image, Dark Horse, etc. follow suit and flock to the web as well.
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