Is print dead? Not if comic books have anything
to say about it.
You could argue that the rise of digital media
(like this video) has dethroned print in everything
from newspapers, to magazines, to books. But
new data highlighted by Tom DiChristopher
on CNBC suggests the opposite about comic
books: print sales are growing alongside digital
comics, without any cannibalization of their
audience. In a time when comics characters
are everywhere -- TV, movies, and yes, the
internet -- good old floppy single issues
have been selling consecutively better for
the last five years. Quick disclaimer: I’m
a comics creator and I sell my books in both
print and digital formats. But we’re not
covering this story for my benefit. We’re
doing it because it’s an interesting look
into how we consume media and culture. There’s
two different models that let you read comics
on your desktop, tablet or phone. The first
is a purchase model that’s dominated by
the Comixology application. You simply buy
a digital comic with your digital payment
of choice, download it to your device and
start reading. There’s also a subscription
model, promoted as “Netflix-for-comics.”
Marvel has a service like this called “Unlimited”
that lets you read pretty much everything
in their archive up until a few months ago.
Last month, Comixology launched a similar
“Unlimited” service featuring thousands
of comics from a variety of publishers, designed
as a “gateway drug” for new readers. There’s
lots of other subscription services out there
too, like Scribd, Crunchyroll and more. Now,
just looking at the purchase model, digital
comics revenues reached $100 million in 2014..
Meanwhile, print comics are still on a steady
rise since 2011, when sales were at an all-time
low. As of 2014, single issue comics and collected
volumes were an $835 million business. There
are still dips and bumps in the business.
For instance, April 2016 saw sales go down
as many publishers released fewer comics.
But still, the industry is doing great. As
David Harper from SKTCHD recently pointed
out, more comics and graphic novels are being
released now than any time since the industry
crash in the mid-1990s. And revenues are up.
Compared to the circulation and ad revenue
of newspapers and magazines, that’s tremendous.
So what’s the deal? Why don’t digital
comics eat into the print market? CNBC speculates
that the collectible nature of the medium
might have something to do with it, kind of
like the popularity of vinyl records. Concurrently,
print and digital comics may have completely
different audiences. Either way, most comics
experts agree that the industry is providing
better quality comics, with a broad variety
of themes appealing to a growing audience.
And that can only help sell more books.
How do you prefer to read? Digitally? Or in
print? Get in touch and let us know. And if
you want more comics info, check out our video
interview with Brian Stelfreeze, the artist
on Marvel’s “Black Panther” (the best-selling
comic in April this year) at now.howstuffworks.com
