Comics: A Lost Art in the Digital Age?
Last week I braved both weather and Wookiee to attend WonderCon, an annual comic, science fiction and film convention held annually in San Francisco. After a nice chat with Spiderman about the overpriced convention food, and a fear-inducing run-in with Manga warriors on the showroom floor, I retreated to one of the countless discussion panels offered throughout the day. Lucky for me, I happened upon a panel hosted by Ben Templesmith, best known for his illustrations in comic-turned-blockbuster creation, 30 Days of Night, by Steve Niles.
Templesmith’s panel was largely focused on the conversion of comics to films and video games, and the increasing presence of Hollywood in the comic industry. Yet as the discussion continued, it evolved into the issue of digital comics displacing the tradition print editions. Curious about this digital takeover, I did some poking around on the convention floor to find out just how digitized comic books have become.
Sure enough, Marvel started putting some of its older comics online last November, hoping to reintroduce and gain fans for a mere $4.99 a month. Dark Horse and DC Comics have jumped on the bandwagon and started putting their issues up on MySpace and Vertigo has gone so far as to offer free downloadable pdfs of back issues. As book stores are shutting down, publishing houses are facing closures, and 5-cent comics have virtually disappeared along with the five-and-dime shops that sold them. It seems comic book publishers need a new way to intersect with the lives of the modern reader. The fastest, cheapest and most effective way to do this? The Internet.
The initial concern with comics moving to the Internet is that the hard copies will no longer be purchased, further hurting the independent retailers and slowly smothering the nostalgic pastime of comic book collecting. Templesmith and his fellow panelists cast an interesting light on this concern in suggesting that it need not be one or the other. Ultimately, the coexistence of digital and print comics is the very thing that will ensure the survival of both. Perhaps digital distribution will simply serve to whet one’s appetite for a new series, or help an avid reader catch up on back issues without going broke to do so.
After spending a mere 8 hours alongside some of San Francisco’s most avid comic book fans, it is hard to imagine the industry doing anything but growing. I like knowing that I can catch up on Spiderman online and still purchase the latest issue at my favorite comic shop. It seems digital distribution is simply feeding the frenzy, as I spent an hour trying to wade through the used comic vendors simply to get to a cup of coffee. As Templesmith said of the comic book, “It’s an artifact,” and if anything the newer mediums of distribution aren’t harming this artifact, but helping it to survive.
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Andrew K.
Posted on March 4th, 2008 at 12:02 pm.
It is very hard to cuddle up with a good computerscreen…