Marvel goes online

Huh? I can’t decide what I think about this. Well, any innovation is positive,so I guess it’s good.

On the one hand, $60 to be able to read all of House of M and Runaways without having to clutter up my house anymore or pay for shipping is pretty appealing,
on the other hand,
I’ve never liked reading comics online that were meant to be read on-line. How would I feel about scrolling through the pages?

The real question is… can I finally find out what happens in Solarman #2?

Now that I think about it, reading the old POWER PACKs and CLOAK & DAGGERs that I haven’t had a chance to hunt down would be cool. And I wonder if they’ll have the NEW UNIVERSE up on there? Hmm… it’s tempting.

First, while I think this is a very nice way to present older material for those that just want to read the issues without taking up valuable space either in long boxes, on the shelves, or on the hard-drive, I have a problem with their comment about the books being at the highest resolution possible. Maybe the previews are at a lower resolution than the product once it’s bought and paid for, but on my monitor these scans look awful. The line work is jagged and the lettering fuzzy. Again, maybe this is just an issue with the previews being offered.
Second, I too am curious how/if royalties are paid on this. While this isn’t an issue for older books, I would think new material would be questionable. Does Warren Ellis, for example, get a piece of Thunderbolts trades? Does Bendis get a cut of the Daredevil trades? And what of the artists? I thought newer contracts with creators included some royalties on trades. While I don’t see this on-line initiative cutting a huge chunk out of that money (particularly, if the on-line comics are in such a crappy resolution), but surely it will bite somewhat into trade sales of collected runs, won’t it?

They are going to overload their servers today.

Is any of the pre-hero monster stuff on the site? 70’s Marvel Movie Specials? Issues of Groovy? I’ll go find out…

There servers are definitely overloaded, and I agree with Sean B. You kind of have to use the Smart Panel thingee… but it didn’t work superwell for me as I tried to look at Runaways #1. It’s buggy. I got lost.

If it worked, though, I could see reading comics via smartpanel as being okay. NOT as good as reading the actual comic, believe me… there’s something about seeing a whole page… but good. It’s good.

I’m going to try this out, but I’m not saying I’m dropping $60 just yet.

I wonder if the standard Marvel contract covers royalties for online or digital media. If so, does Marvel simply not pay?? Is it gravy for them?

I find the timing somewhat ironic, given that’s one of the contentious points of the WGA strike. It would really be ironic if Whedon, Heinberg or Vaughn don’t get a cut of the online Marvel stuff.

As with DC’s ZUDA site (and every other comics site I’ve visited) the text is too small to read, making enlargement and panning around a neccesity.
Seems to me the solution would be to present each individual panel at 3 to 4x the size now seen and have the reader scroll left to right only. A panel at a time. No scrolling down, scrolling back up, panning over and scrolling back down again. Of course splash pages and 2-page spreads would be a problem in that format. Maybe a larger scan that runs the width of your screen? Then you’d simply scroll down to read the next tier of panels or the next page.
Essentially, the traditional dimensions of the comic book page is the problem here. It’s just not compatible with computer monitors.
I don’t want to have to pan and scan to read a comic and I’m sure I’m not alone. Surely someone’s eventually going to step up and get this online comics thing right.

…well, I can’t tell what I’d be surprised at since their site seems a little out of whack right now, with the entire web wanting to read Fantastic Four #48 at the same time to see if Galactus’s costume is colored in its orignal green and magenta. No? Just me?

I’m kind of amused by the name. It’s Marvel’s “DCU.”

To M. Lusk: What you’re describing is basically the gyst of the “Smart Panel” thing that they have on there. Either it’s buggy or it takes developing a knack for, because it messed up for me… but that’s what they are trying to do.

With shelf space in comic shops so valuable, it seems inevitable that more content will go online.

“We don’t have our product intersecting kids in their lifestyle space as much as we used to.”

And at a $60/yr. or $10/month price point you won’t have many kids intersecting your webspace…especially if they can’t download them, put them on their ipod, etc…

Whatever happened to the idea that comics were an inexpensive form of entertainment?

“Whatever happened to the idea that comics were an inexpensive form of entertainment?”

Word.
Well, if you want my single biggest gripe in comics it is this, dead on. Comics cost way, way too much. Whether they are on-line or off-line. The price of comics has risen way past the price of inflation.

Why are we using fancy paper and high end color reproduction and whatever else drives up the price for comics? Save it for the trades of the really good stuff.

BRING DOWN PRICES!!! Profits are likely to IMPROVE. See, “elasticity of demand.”

“Whatever happened to the idea that comics were an inexpensive form of entertainment?”

It died. They buried it in Avi Arad’s backyard and had a very nice little ceremony. They served crab cakes!

$10/month (or $5/month if I pay in advance) for as many comics as I want seems pretty inexpensive to me. That’s three print comics.

BradyDale hits the nail on the head.
I’ve been reading comics for almost 40 years. I’ve written and drawn professionally and I was a a retailer from 1996-2001.
I love the comics medium, and seeing comics survive (especially print comics) is very important to me.

But I have to say, every time my 7-year old wants me to buy him a copy of Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, I hesitate. I hesitate, and half the time I say “no.” I remind him that he has tons of comics at home, and thousands of mine he can read.
Because three freakin’ dollars is too much. About three times too much.
The average parent (or young adult for that matter) looks at that $3 price tag and walks away, never to return.
We need to make them that way again, especially with all the competing media they face.

Now that I have reading-age kids of my own, I meet and talk to plenty of other kids their age and I can assure you: 95% of them would rather be hitched to an X-Box or PS2 than read ANYTHING.
We have a very uphill fight on our hands.

And yes, $10 a month for undownloadable online comics is way too much. I would think it far more desirable to attract 10x the subscribers at 1/3 that price.
“$2.99 a month for all the comics you can read!” Works for me.

Comics were always inexpensive entertainment til the early 80’s. Which was about the same time the readership began shrinking.
Nevermind dollar volume, how many READERS do we have now, compared to 1967? Back when Fantastic Four sold over a quarter-million copies – as compared to the pitiful 60,000 or so it sells today?

Whoever finds a way to make comics affordable again will reap considerable benefits. If I were Marvel, I’d make new issues available online the same day as comic shops for an additional charge of about a dollar per title. That’s more than Marvel clears per copy now, I’m sure.

This generation of readers is not as attached to the printed page as my generation.
My guess is the next generation will probably PREFER electronic comics delivery *and* collecting. To have every Marvel comic ever published, digitally restored and viewable with a keystroke? What a great thing. No gooey tape to remove, no disintegrating paper to protect.
Your own mint-condition Marvel library, safely stored in cyberspace forever… I’m almost convincing myself.

Let’s just hope Marvel doesn’t offer new comics online a week EARLY.
I wouldn’t want to be a retailer if that happens.

M.Lusk said:
“Because three freakin’ dollars is too much. About three times too much.
The average parent (or young adult for that matter) looks at that $3 price tag and walks away, never to return.”
—–
Several years ago, I was in a local store that still had comics on the rack. Comics were $1.99 then. A family walked to the book section. The kid wanted a comic. The father said it cost too much. The father then proceeded to buy a Big Truck magazine for $4.95.

Apparently, comics are only too expensive when a kid wants it, not when a parent wants it.

HMM??? :)

This is CRAZY. This pricing is NOT too much. It costs less for unlimited comics than a trip to the movies. ONE trip. Video games cost $60+ and will not give as much entertainment bang for the buck. Three DVDs or THOUSANDS of available comics.

I think this is the equivalent of my parents constantly going on and on about how Coke used to be a nickel and gas used to sell for a whistle and a little Fred Astaire dance. $3 for 30+ minutes of entertainment that you keep is a BARGAIN. Compare it to renting a DVD or buying 1/7 of a DVD or getting three songs from iTunes. Comics are properly priced in comparison to competitive entertainment. People who want comics to sell for a dollar do the medium a disservice. I’m just saying a bottle of soda at my job is $1.35 from the vending machine. I bet comics have always been about 3 times as expensive as soda so I think if you really freak out about how expensive comics are, consider your alternatives and how old and cheap it makes you sound. I have a nephew and his toys cost me 3 or 4 times what a comic costs.

No. I remember when a comic and soda from the local convenience store were the same price. And just because so many other media are grossly overpriced doesn’t justify comics being the same. Also, a truck magazine may cost 5 bucks or better, but you are looking at 5 times as much content or better and that being the sole periodical purchase for that person for the month. If say, comics still had that range of publication and exposure it would probably go a long way toward driving down the price instead of a the premium prices we pay in today’s niche market.

And TEN DOLLARS a month just to BROWSE Marvel’s archive? In yet another clumsy Flash viewer?! HAHAHAHA!

The average joe’s perception is what matters, not the converted.
And the average joe thinks $3 for a comic book is highway robbery.

And no, comics have not always been 3 times as expensive as sodas. If anything, they were close to the same in price until the 1970’s, when comics began to increase dramatically in price.

Perceived value is everything.

Erik Grove: “I think if you really freak out about how expensive comics are, consider your alternatives and how old and cheap it makes you sound.”

My alternatives are trade paperback collections that are reasonably priced or how about a paperback novel that will give me 20 times the entertainment time for less than twice the price of a comic book?
I don’t think that makes me sound old; I think it makes me sound like someone who knows price-gouging when they see it.
As fewer and fewer people buught comics, publishers charged more and more for those comics. And those increases have not been consistent with the increase in printing costs.

Erik Grove: “I have a nephew and his toys cost me 3 or 4 times what a comic costs.”

Apples and oranges.
Unlike comics, toy sales haven’t dropped 70% in the last 20 years, so kids (and parents) must feel they’re getting their money’s worth.

Average parent’s reaction to expensive toy? They’re annoyed. But they usually buy the toy if it means something to their kid.
Same parent’s reaction to a comic’s $3 price tag? They’re incredulous. I’ve seen and heard it more times than i can count.

Fanboy Menace said:
“Also, a truck magazine may cost 5 bucks or better, but you are looking at 5 times as much content or better and that being the sole periodical purchase for that person for the month.”
—–
A kid will read the same comic over and over until it falls apart.

We have no way of knowing how many magazines that guy bought every month. I only report what I actually saw that day.

$10 bucks a month is still cheaper than the amount I pay per month for my subscription to play “City of Heroes”. And $60 a year is quite a bargain! $10 bucks a month is still less than I would pay if I got each title at Border’s or at my local shop.

Once they get their servers in order, I’m going to take a serious look…

This is a good thing. How many issues lie forgotten in the archives?
My nephew (23) bought and read the recent Captain America DVD-ROM. All of it. I’m slowly perusing the MAD Magazine DVD. Yes, it’s awkward, but also very powerful. (partial word search, foldable foldins, super special extras… )
As for the cost of comics, I would like to see Marvel And DC follow the Japanese model. Print a black and white anthology every week. Collect it in trade in color later. Sell it for $5.

“A kid will read the same comic over and over until it falls apart.”

Maybe they would if they were self contained stories. Not any more.

I can see this business model working if: you could pay the flat fee to read EVERYTHING, including this week’s comics in Flash online. Then you potentially begin to attract new readers, some of whom who might eventually want to purchase a trade at the bookstore. OR begin buying new floppy copies of a title at the local gaming and comic shop.

As it is so far, a person would just be subscribing to an online Marvel library of back issues.

Good start though.

I don’t think it’s that bad* that users can’t read new issues immediately, as there’s already a similar existing model in the rental dvd market. Marvel’s DCU is essentially Netflix for comics. Still, the price is a little high to attract me.

$5 a month or $40 a year and I’d consider it.

There’s a deficit with digital in that I can’t read it on the pot or in bed or on my lunch break at the local Fuji Grill. It would take a lower price tag for me to sacrifice convenience like that.

*note: of course being “not that bad” is not really the same as being “good” and/or “sensible” – I think that at their current price point, they’d need something like “Today’s Comics: Today!” to bring in subscribers. Maybe, I’m not sure how big a need the average reader has to remain on the edge of what’s going on. I know I’m perfectly content to wait for trade, and I’m not even the casual reader.

“I don’t think it’s that bad* that users can’t read new issues immediately, as there’s already a similar existing model in the rental dvd market.”

uh, no.

As the former director of marketing for a dvd label, let me assure you that the day DVDs go onto shelves at the Blockbuster is the same day (every tuesday) they go on sale at a retail store.

There’s no reason why the same couldn’t be done at Marvel.com.

I would rather see more ads on the Marvel site and have access to cheaper comics (or free!) with additional content – forum boards, galleries, interviews, etc… then I’ll go buy the trade collection at my LCS.

Bill I was referring to dvd release of movies vs. theatrical release.

Ah – you mean release windows…and even those are shrinking considerably. If Mark Cuban has his way, elease windows will go away altogether. His movie BUBBLE was released day and date at theaters, on HD Net and on DVD.

Back to comics.