Comic books and Amazon

If you noticed I've posted some of my reading lately. I've been a comic reader and collector for over 25 years now. Well something happened around 2012 that changed my habit. I read so many comics that my choice in reading material adjusted. I stopped wanting to read anything I considered low quality. If I didn't trust the writer or liked the art by the artist I didn't buy the book. So I directed my energies towards novels. It worked out great for my book reading but my comic reading took a massive hit.

I couldn't bring myself to spend between $3-$5 for something that I considered low quality. I used to push those books to the bottom of the pile and read them later. Well eventually I just did not read those books. I'd flip through them and put them away. That was a waste of my time and more importantly my money. So 2012 comes and I look at my subscriptions list and cut it down to the bare minimum. After a while I had trouble finding time to read those books as well. My need for quality was so high I was slowly but surely moving away from reading any comic books at all.

Thankfully for me in 2012 I found Goodreads. I wrote about my appreciation for the site on the old blog and its only grown since then. One of the things I got out of it was organizing my books between what I read, what I want to read and what I have not read, but own. That last part caused me a great deal of shame because I saw just how many books I spent money on but did not read. I being who I am, calculated the amount of money I spent on these books. I slammed my forehead onto the desk quiet hard that day. The pain in my skull was a reminder to stop being a pain to my wallet. With that said I reevaluated my comic spending habits.

Now what does any of that have to do with Amazon?



I received an e-mail from IGN.com recently advertising some promotions that they found throughout the internet. One of them was from Amazon stating that there a sale on Marvel comics for Kindle/Comixology from $0-$5. Well I checked this out and half an hour later I bought three trade paper backs for around $9. The most expensive one was $3.40. Now some of you don't understand the significance of this but follow along I'll keep it relatively simple.

See had I bought the comics in print form from a comic books store the price would have been $103. That's going by the list price for the physical books. Even if I bought the digital versions at regular price it still comes out to $46 for three comic books. Amazon being the smart business that they are showed that I saved 93% on one book, 90% on another and 88% on the last one. Again all within half an hour. So after I downloaded them to my iPad I did the only thing I could do, I looked for more.

Well after three days of looking I bought 17 digital trade paper backs for a grand total of $35.40. One of them was actually two trades merged into one. One of them I got for free as a promotional prize. That book cost $7 but I used my promo token to get it for free. The most expensive book I bought was the one that was originally two trades for the high price of $5. I bought a group of 7 trades for $12. The cheapest book I bought was for $.80, that is not a typo. And within two days I'd read two of the books I bought. You can scroll down to my previous posts and see which ones. After all of that you can imagine my sifting through the lists prices of these comics. It didn't take a genius to realize I saved a ton of money. Now I've got a new reason to get back into comic reading and collecting. Along the way I made a few discoveries and some realizations.


First big realization was something I forgot about Comixology. A while back it was bought out by Amazon. This wasn't a big deal at the time, but now it is. I think it could be a major game changer if things play out a certain way. Especially after I looked for comics that were not from Marvel comics.

So as I was buying digital comics and sending them my iPad to be read on Amazons Kindle app, a memory occurred to me. Back in 2011 when the first iPad was announced I immediately thought about how it could change the comic book industry. Downloading a comic to be read anywhere was going to change the game. The only problem would have been hard drive space of the iPad. Fast forward back to today and the iPad did change the game, while cloud computing made the space issue a non-factor.

With Comixology a company like Marvel can distribute their product to the consumer through the digital medium. A person can use an iPad, another form of tablet, a home computer, or a smart phone to read the comic. Marvel gets the majority of the money from the sale while Comixology gets a set percentage from the sale. It's a win for the consumer, Comixology, and Marvel or any other content creator. Now here's the thing. Marvel comics still has to pay some that money to those involved in creating the comic. So the writer, the artist, and others involved in the comics creation get paid for their contribution. Here's where things get interesting.


As I was looking through the Marvel books I decided to also look at the DC Comics books. I'm primarily a DC reader so I wanted to see what books they had to offer that might also be on sale or at a lower than physical book price. To do this I signed into Comixology with my Amazon account. This now linked both of them together so I could buy comics from one or the other. *Note: I'll have to see if I can buy a book on Comixology but read it on the Kindle app. Now I could have just done it on Amazon but I wanted to check out the depth of what Comixology had to offer. Amazons main site does not have as much selection as Comixology does. At least that's what I initially thought.



As I scroll through to the DC section I start looking at titles and prices. There is no sale on newer DC Comics but the prices are actually quite good on the older stuff. I notice the single issues of new books are regular price to the print versions. What gets my attention is the prices on older books. The "new and noteworthy" is not really new books but they are noteworthy as they are books older than one year. Some of these books go back to the '90s some even go to the '70s. The prices are $2 on these single issue titles. That made me go back to Amazons main site and see if it was the same there, it was.


This made me wonder just how much money will the original artist and writers of these get from their comics being sold digitally on Amazon and Comixology. What many of you are not aware of is that for decades comics would be bought and sold. Then the comic would be resold back to a comic shop. Now from here you have to know that the creators and the publisher never got money on the resale of the comic. This pissed publishers and creators off for years. But now with Comixology, Amazon and even the publishers themselves selling back issues money can be made off books going back decades. This is great for the content creators because they make a residual off work they created years ago.


The thing is the single issues were selling for $2 an issue. Now that's not much but $1 is greater than $0. So the publishers making money from Amazon is great for them. It's good for the creators of these works. It's really bad for the comic shops that sell the physical books because now they have a form of competition from online that will erode another revenue stream from their bottom line. Keep in mind more and more creative people will be bringing their creations to Amazon. But understand that the stores aren't the only ones in trouble. Companies like Marvel and DC Comics now have to compete with Amazon for future original content and even content creators.

If you don't believe me than your not aware of what happened in the novels market. One example you maybe aware is this. A woman reads the Twilight novels and decides to write her own version of that story but with a more erotic, more bondage heavy twist to the story. She write it, publishes it online and sells it online. Well it does so well online that it eventually gets printed as a physical book. Eventually it gets adapted into a movie. That would not have happened if she took her creation to a traditional book publisher.

Another series that had a similar trajectory was the Silo series. It's something that happened with the Scott Pilgrim series. It will not stop anytime soon. More and more content creators are realizing that they don't need to take their work to one of the traditional comic companies to sell their creations. Amazon and Comixology are already big publishers in the online space if you think about future potential. But if you're Marvel and DC Comics you have to accept the good and the bad of this situation.

Now obviously both of them will focus more on selling their creations on their websites and their own platforms but Amazon is too big to ignore. Remember when I said I read my new books over Amazons Kindle app. It's not like I was reading them over the Disney reading app. I'm sure like with Netflix the parent companies of Marvel (Disney) and DC Comics (Time Warner) will want to bring all their properties in house to sell them under their own umbrella. But for now they have to maintain a relationship with the juggernaut called Amazon. Again $1 is more than $0. Will this be good for the writer, artists and everyone else who was involved in creating the comics? That's a question that will have to be answered in the future.

There is more to consider on this subject. You have to understand that the changes in the comics market has been happening for years. Back in the '90s comic companies started reprinting comics. This was great for them because it got more comics into peoples hands. The problem was the value of the original prints of those comics fell to the ground. A book that gained some attention and had only one printing became more valuable with time. But the comic companies being greedy, reprinting a book a second, third, even fourth time meant that that first printing was not very valuable. Now there's no such problem. No matter what there's a digital version so value is whatever the digital provider says it is. Basically comic collecting for future investment is pointless.



The landscape is still changing. Physical stores are suffering with what physical books they should invest their time and money in. What helps is the popularity of comic creations that are also television and movie related creations. But eventually even that will shift. Not due to over-saturation by the way. No, it will be due to a company like Amazon getting to the next big thing first. Remember Amazon Prime, Amazon Fire Stick, Amazon Fire and whatever thing Amazon has coming next. Shows like the Man in the High Castle and The Tick are proof that Amazon can and will find content to adapt to its platforms. Keeping up with them will be difficult as Netflix and Hulu already know.


Considering all of this I now have to give serious consideration to investing in Amazon Prime. Basically its price is a bargain when I think about all that it comes with. I was buying a pre-paid card for my iTunes account the other day. I saw a Amazon pre-paid card and realized I might have to start investing in one of these to have money in the account to save myself a headache. Next time I might see a DC Comics sale but not have $35 to spare in my wallet. But if I already have some money in my Amazon account I could buy some books off  Amazon or Comixology. It is something to think about amongst other things.

I'm sure Amazon will follow the model that happens in video games with Steam. The Steam sales events are big money for Steam as I've mentioned in a previous post. Don't be surprised when around the holiday season Marvel, DC, Image and every other comic company has their comics on sale by a amazing amount. It is something to consider if you are a comics fan. I'm sure the big parent companies will be watching how much revenue they make. I suggest you watch how much you spend. And remember space is not a major issue, it comes down to price and quality. Enjoy.

www.amazon.com
www.comixology.com
www.marvel.com
www.dccomics.com
www.imagecomics.com
www.hulu.com
www.ign.com
www.goodreads.com

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