Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The problem with digital comics

As you may know, I bought a shiny new ipad the other week – and I love it! I even love reading comics on it – they look so pristine – and for someone who simply has no room left for books/comics/DVDs in his flat, it’s great that they take up no physical room! 

But all is not well in ipad land! 


You see, if you go to buy a new comic – say, Astonishing X-Men 49 – it costs pretty much the same as in the shops - £2.49. 2000AD costs the same as in shops. How can this be?
And if you go to buy, say, the new Stephen King hardback, you can get it for 8 quid on Amazon – but 11 quid on Amazon Kindle! Shocking!


Methinks they need to sort this out, think it thru, come up with better deals. After all, you’re essentially buying nothing – you don’t really own it, you can’t sell it at a car boot sale.
Plus – it’s such a rip-off! If you can buy a pop song for 99p or so, you should be able to buy a comic for around the same price. 


And the other problem is that I currently get a discount at Forbidden Planet (because I work for sister company Titan) - I get 30% off the comics and books. So if I buy a digital comic from Comixology, I mostly lost out, because I lose my discount!


And don’t get me started on manga, which isn’t available to buy in UK digital shops!


It’s a bit of a mess, and I hope they sort it out soon!