THE FUTURE OF COMICS

You can't stop progress. Go on any subway in New York and you'll see ads all over the place for the "kindle;" an electronic pad that is stylish and can hold about 1700 books for you to read in its database. Newspapers are disappearing too, with some going only on-line, but what does that mean for us comic book afficiandos? Eventually we're going to say "goodbye" to the comic book as we know it. It's enevitable. Does that mean comics will vanish? Hardly, but it does mean that the format which we've grown used to for nearly a century will evolve into the next stage in our technological and digital evolution. There's already downloadable on-line comics from Marvel and DC and there's already been discussion from the two major companies about the pricing of comics when the obvious will happen. That discussion is the first step to reality. So, what does this mean to us fans that love the tactile experience of handling our comics and turning their pages and bagging and boxing our prized possessions? Many good things actually, and some bad too. The first is that space will free up for our collections and there will be less environmental upheavel with less paper and plastic being produced as the world's reading materials goes to digital formats. That means less trees geting cut down for printing purposes and less non-biodegradable plastics that we use to protect our precious masterpieces. It also means that some things will get less expensive. The current comic book costs a minimum (as of this writing) of about $3 and up because of paper costs, but with no paper, there's already talk of charging $.99 (cents) for the equivalent 22 page story download and maybe $1.99 for a CD of the same material. It also means that for a while anyway, comics in their original form might go substantially up in value and net us all a small fortune if we were willing to sell our prized possessions when we get the same material digitally. It also means that comics may go up in popularity in its new format with easier to acquire material as CD versions of the medium are made available to places they've never been sold in before like a Best Buy, for instance or people now being able to get them downloaded right into their computers. New comics companies may arise with more material for us fans too. It may also mean the destruction of the harmful monopoly that Diamond Distributors has on our comics as this new format will be able to bypass this company and its stranglehold on the industry. That's the good news, but then what's the bad? The economy for the store owners where we get our comics from will get affected. Unfortunately this means less sales for them and the unfortunate and eventual going out of business for many stores. This last part worries me. Like many comics buyers, I have a measure of loyalty to my Comic Book store (Grasshoppers Comics in New York- shameful plug), where I have spent my money gladly and also purchase action figures and statues. The owner and manager of that store has the human touch of ordering things for me and holding expensive items until I can finish paying for them. You can't get that kind of service on-line or at a major electronics retailer. You won't be able to get those exclusive items at other places if comic book stores suffer as a result of tecnological progress, to say nothing of how more businesses failing will affect our currently poor economically troubled times. Last but not least, there is that emotional attachment to our comics that will be somewhat lost when they only exist in virtual space. We shall see....