Are Print Comics Dying?

I hope not, I love to hold my comics

i prefer holding an actual book in my hand, i know its real that way :p. only problem ive ever had with actual comic books are all the ads, limited copies, and the delays caused by holidays, and none of those issues are enough for me to consider abandoning printed comics for their digital offspring.

I aggree there something about actually reading a comic that is soo enjoyable

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really, really don't like digital comics, but I've resigned myself to the eventuality that someday soon that will be the only option.  I've already begun the shift to trade-waiting, and envision a future where I read the monthly installments digitally, then buy the trade of the things I like.  The only problem with that model is, I won't really have the option to resell my digital copies like I do monthlies in order to recoup some of my cost.  I still haven't quite figured that one out yet.

I dont believe so. The format will be added, but any smart company will not become all inclusive to just one product type.
They have too much to win by presenting every format possible, and thats what i believe we're seeing.
A friend and I had a discussion about the worlds end one time, and a part of that focused on whether people
would still buy things. Our decision was yes, because humans are natural consumers, and hold the trait of nostalgia.
Being that as it is, people will want comics which are " old school " thus the printed comic format will have a costumer
base for some time just in that.

Print won't die.  But Digital offers a chance to grow and print sales are so pathetic right now that it won't take much for digital sales to dwarf print sales.  That just means that digital will become where the focus is at the publisher level.  They'll be happy to print those comics and sell them in the direct market as long as it is profitable, but you might not be able to get every title that way.  The end result is that I think we've already seen the high-water mark for single-issue, superhero comics.  The last hurrah probably will turn out to be Civil War.  
Personally, I think digital has a lot of promise.  I have zero attachment to storing all this crap in my house and would rather have it digitally, even if it is via comixology and isn't really "owned".  I also think that digital will result in a better variety of story types.  We won't have 5 different Avengers books.  We'll have one or two, but we'll gain a horror, crime and a romance comic because digital is going to be about appealing to more than us 30-45 year old white guys.

I really hope the print stays. I just read an article in my newspaper about how a bookstore in the town-next-door is closing a the end of the month, and it was rated the best bookstore in Ohio! They blame digital books too. I really love the feeling of a comic in my hands, the smell and all that nostalgic stuff. I just can't imagine a world without printed comics. It isn't just the book either, just going to the shop is worth the paying price. you don't get to meet other fans or talk shop with a computer or e-reader.

nothing beats a good old yellow-paged 1970's MAN-THING #1 smell.
 
nothing beats seeing the advertisements from the previous decades. Those are the little things...the small idiocricies of unsheathing an issue from its bag n board. The carefulness and joy from opening a first issue for the first time. I will never tire from a phycal copy. Simply put. 
 
There's not a whole lot of $$ these days for me so I usually just wait for trades and I try to buy locally as well (sometimes). Plus, the waiting sucks. I'm suffering until I get more of issue #80 of Walking Dead. 
 
nuff said

I sincerely hope not. Much like music, movies and videogames, digital versions of media are far more ephemeral and less valuable than hard-copies. Regardless of the reliability of the source (for instance amazon isn't likely to go out of business anytime soon, so your digital licenses through them are safe for now) and regardless of the quality of the digital copy you have umpteen redundant backed-up versions of, the fact of the matter is you don't own a real thing. If you have a book, it is your book. Maybe I'm a cave-man sticking to outmoded ideals but I require that feeling of ownership. With music, movies and games, I don't mind the digital distribution model but for reading materials, I doubt I'll ever make the switch.

Digital print is much like the current fad of 3D movies.  It's just that, a fad.  There is no substitute for holding print media.  Yeah there is theoretically no limit to what you can store on some internal memory, but decades of people holding books will never go out of style.  Also, the collectors of the world would never switch to this gimmick.  

i do own the comixology app and like to read so digital comics when i don't hab´ve my comics with me, but reading the digital comics could never replace holding the real comics in my hands. and a digital comic book library doesn't looke nearly as cool as having your comicbooks in a huge collection on your bookshelf

I really do prefer to read printed copies of comic books. I feel that a part of the fun experience of reading something solid in front of me much better then reading of a low resolution computer screen.

You know what they say, "The more things change the more they stay the same".

Print comics are not going to roll over and die just because there is an option of digital comics.  That's all it is, an option.  I prefer having an actual comic/graphic novel in my hand rather than viewing it digitally, but to each their own.

Masterpiece is better to be printed. Anyway holding a good novel before go to sleep is always better than holding a iPad.

There is no replacing the feel, smell or experience of holding an actual comic.  I got into comics because I could afford to get a few of them with what little allowance I received. Now a kid would have to save up an get an iPad first?

As a cartoonist who publishes his work on the web first, I do plan on collecting my comics and offering a print and ebook version of the book when the time comes.  I will offer the book POD (print on demand) to eliminate inventory, storage, and shipping hassle and unnecessary print run excess. 
 
I don't want print comics to go away.  I love reading comics in hand!  That being said I don't read any NEW comics at all.  They're for too expensive for the scant content and so few of them actually interest me anyhow...if I want to read print comics I look to quarter/dollar bins and/or trades.     

as long as most comics aren't released digitally the same day as their physical counterparts, then no, not for me they're not.

" I do NOT like the digital comics one bit. "

In a blog i did last month which you can check out here. right now iPads and other touch pad like techs are still expensive to buy at $600 + monthly plan. though archie comics offer their sonic the hedgehog comics as downloads at the itunes app store. 
 
 Print can stay alive. but if it is going to survive through a wave of online apps then there has to be more promotion for the original copies. there are special bar codes now adays that can be scanned or have its picture taken using the iphone or others that when transmitting the code it can give that comic buyer certain access to material online that one could not get from a downloadable comic.
 
 but this idea of downloadable comics is a double edged sword. it can in a way bring in new comic readers and keep the franchise going. it can be like movies where all non comic readers would just buy their 99 cent copy online and forget about it. while we still reap the rewards of still having regular comics. BUT. if more and more people are buying into the online app and more people are switching from the paper comic to online.... well im sorry to say this but regular comics prices will become that of trade paperbacks.  and frankly we all should be scared.

I prefer to be physically able to hold the comic/book.  I have an ipad and whilst I have kindle and have purchased two books, its just not the same experience reading from it. I haven't even bothered to check out the comic apps on the ipad as a result

Print can't die.... Shure dig copies have their advantages (storing them for example), but print feels right and better..... Dig can't replace print.....

" Nicely written article and a topic that continues to pop up, doesn't it?   I think there may be a market for both digital and print comics.   How long that will last, though, is questionable.  I think it won't be too terribly long, however before all printed material sees a marketed increase in becoming available digitally and that will happen when the younger generation of today decides they will go that route.    It is simply a matter of time.    "

It's interesting to watch what publishers are doing in what Clay Shirky calls "post Gutenberg economics" - in other words, instead of publishers filtering content and printing, the world of the internet allows almost anyone to become a publisher and the world at large has to filter the result. Theres an even more interesting idea from a  venture capitalist named Fred Wilson about the constriction of markets that are or can be converted to end-to-end-digital businesses. He has pointed to the music industry where all of these same conversations took place - basically that we are often only an unforeseen innovation away from everything changing quite dramatically. 
 
While I myself love comics, collecting and reading for almost 35 years now, I self publish now and digital sales only took a month to exceed a year of print sales. The hard truth was in the numbers - the growth of digital reading extended in my case to the comics I was publishing digitally. At least one reader made it a point to contact me saying he was actually waiting until my comics were in a digital format (not enough to make a case for anything I am sure but it's worth at least mentioning). My sales aren't massive, but they were easier to promote to digital readers, easier and less expensive to publish on digital reader systems, and far easier to get feedback from readers with ll the same contact information. 
 
I still maintain a print on demand version of my comics, I likely always will. But I can't overlook the potential posed by digital readers systems when retail outlets will barely give a self publisher like me a chance when a digital reader customer is.

"     Oh and as a tidbit, I think its interesting to note how Babs mentions the collapse of the comics industry in the mid-1990s.  The culprit behind that whole disaster though was not the economy at large, for all one has to remember is just how much of an economic surplus there was in the country during the Clinton regime.  And there certainly wasn't a publishing crisis as there is now.  Instead, it was greedy speculators that tried to revolutionize the comic industry into being a mini-Wall Street.  Unfortunately it was a gamble that spelled disaster, a disaster which an historian I hope we have all learned our lesson from. "

I think that what we will see is a move towards an all digital comic world, but at some point the companies will strike a deal with the print on demand companies to make their rosters available that way.  
 
If I were a comic book shop I would start making a move to become less of a comic shop per-se and more of a gathering place for comic fans in general.  Maybe a digital comic cafe sort of thing, with wi-fi and everything from coffee to energy drink and soda, Comic themed snacks and food, and events.  I think for most of us going to the comic shop isn't just about picking up comics.  Comic shop proprietors are kind of like bartenders for the geek underground anyways.  

On one hand, digital formatting is a necessary ecological solution. I will miss seeing it, but I proactively condone anything that benefits the environment. Also, as an artist, I save hundreds of dollars on supplies with the tools currently available on-line. Save a tree!

I don't think so. This is mainly because the comic companies (and a lot of  the entertainment industry)  are run by people that do not understand technology. They treat digital comics like just a data version of the print comic. 
 
If they want it to work, they would set up a model similar to the marvel online, but modified. They should do a yearly subscription like Marvel and have new releases delayed by about 8 months. For the subscription you could access the companies back catalog. But if you wanted the newest issues you would have to go to the store (as not to kill comic retailers). Also they could allow the comic stores to sell the yearly subscription cards or cards for online purchases (like Xbox live and Itunes cards). This would allow the comic retailers to make some money from this as well.  
 
I guess you could argue that some of my grey area acquisition of digital comics for my Ipad has cost the comic companies some money, I honestly contend that it has actually led me to make additional purchases I would not have normally made. Through trying out the first few issues of comics like Power Girls, Secret Six and X-force, I actually added them to my pull list. 

People are just so impressed at what the digital age can DO for comics, and it IS amazing. It's a phenomenal option to have, but I really don't think it has ever come close to being a threat to print comics, at all.  Everyone's just like, "HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THIS NEW THING WE CAN DO!", and even then it's people with iPads. Even then, it's not everyone.
 
If they ever are, it won't be for a very, very long time.
 
The biggest threat to print is the companies themselves. I hope they don't push digitisation in such a way that it FORCES comics out of print. CDs have suffered the same fate in a lot of ways. CDs are still a perfectly usable and viable medium, but because bands feel forced to go digital, collectors are being forced to suffer some bands dedicating themselves to only being digital now. Like The Smashing Pumpkins.
 
I think, worst case scenario, comics may end up released monthly online, then serialised in a trade paperback, kind of like how some bands and artists CHOOSE to put out their work on vinyl for collectors. For that reason, I think that single issues are more under threat than printed comics in GENERAL, but even then I'm having trouble seeing that.
 
The very fact that vinyl is still alive and not dead proves that comics have nowhere near an expiration date in print yet. I wouldn't fret at all. The digital medium will improve to the point that some fans can choose to go entirely digital, but I don't think it'll ever evolve beyond a wicked option for those who want to try it. I just don't see it happening at all. 
 
With regards to the decline, these ARE harder times. I know a guy who manages a comic store and they are undoubtedly harder times. However, I think too much is invested in the personal element for it to ever die. People generally love going to the store and talking to the regulars, I know I do. For one thing, I live in London. Within a 15 minute walk there are four comic stores. One of which, Gosh! Comics (Best comic store in London) has been around for 25 years this year. It's not huge, or a chain, and it's had competition. The only one of those stores that is a chain is Forbidden Planet, and that has grown, far from being threatened. Granted, it sells merch and cult merch more than comics now, but you know.
 
Then there's the likes of Comicana, which has also survived for more than a decade. I started going there in 2000, so it's obviously been around a long time too. That store is the smallest, specialises in back issues and has survived. I think it's like the news, you know? If you believed everything it said, you'd think it wasn't safe to step out your front door.
 
If anything, the biggest threat to printed comics is the panic over what the threat might be to printed comics, because THAT may lead to knee-jerk reactions of, "OH GOD WE HAVE TO GO DIGITAL TO SURVIVE!"

NO

I wil always prefer to hold a book in my hand over a digital copy. I even need to buy a larger bookshelf for all my books, comic, and manga.
 
The only reason I read so many manga online in scanlations is that's how I stay up to date with the rest of the conversation on certain series. Certain manga publications in the US are months if not years behind the publications in Japan.
 
In other cases, scanlations are the only way to get the true story. Since poor publishers, such as VIZ Media,either censor or alter the mangas for the U.S. market and refuse to offer a more authentic alternative.
 
Manga in Japan is publishing quite well. Back in November One Piece volume 60 sold over 2 million units in only two days. Back in August, Volume 59 sold 1.8 million in one week.
 
My issue with digital distribution is when it comes to maintaining that collection. Electric devices break down. What happens if you lose your electric reading device of choice? What if it's broken or you run out of memory space? Could you lose your entire collection and have to buy it all over again?

" I do NOT like the digital comics one bit. "

I hope that digital does not replace printed comics, this will only lead to an increase in the pirating of comics, ever since I was younger I have always dreamed of running/owning my own comic shop but at the rate things are going it just does not seem like a wise idea.
 
I guess im just a collector at heart, heck some shrinks might label me a hoarder, considering all the recreational bagging/boarding/boxing I do, but I'll take printed over digital any day

" 
0. Are print comics dying? 
1. So the question is, what does this have to do with the comic book industry? 
2. So, will the digital market monopolize the comics industry and eventually make print comics a commodity?  
3. What does the future hold for print comics and books, in general?
4. I for one hope that print comics continue to thrive, but what about you? 
5. How do you think the digital age will affect the comics industry? 
6. Do you think that digital comics will eventually replace print comics? 
7. If so, what will happen to comic stores? "

yeah, prints gonna go. And it sucks. What has always made the comic store great is that when your there, your surrounded by like-minded people. You get to see all the comics you never would have heard about, and most shops have all kinds of other neat products too. 
 Online and digital comics will mean no more of that. The comics companies will pick and choose what they "recommend", showing you only their comics related to their comics. You will have to search and search for anything fresh, as it will be piled under layers of the same old, instead of on the shelf right next to it. 
 My biggest problem with Digital comics will always be their worth. With my physical copies, i can re-sell them, share them, and when i store them i know they will always be there. If there's a fire, i can point to my comics and get reimbursed. But how do you explain your 20 years worth of digital comics to your insurance? If my years as a gamer have taught me anything, its that downloadable content can become "no longer available" whenever it wants, leaving you with nothing but your backups. 

if the companies were smart they would package a cd with the comic for a digital copy, or have the comic come with a code to download a copy so customers can have both

The state of comics bothers me because most people I don't think truly love the medium.  If they did, then there would be more quest for to dive into the history of comics.  Everyone knows Stan Lee, most people love him and don't know why.  But where is the Kirby and Ditko love from the Marvel fans?  Kirby and Ditko never pimped themselves, so those who read only Marvel for the character, only know Stan Lee.  Similar with DC Comcis, a lot of people read comics to see what their favorite characters are up too, this is why Grant Morrison gets a backlash for having to much Metaphysics in his comics.
 
Comics are more then just pictures and words.  Guys like Will Eisner changed the pamphlet to great the Original Graphic Novel.  Guys like Alan Moore and Grant Morrison write unfilmable works on purpose because they write "comics" not storyboards.  Many comic writers write storyboards because they failed to get into film, I am not saying that this approach in comics are bad, a good story is a good story.  I am saying that there are a lot happening in comics that people don't realize, I feel comfortable saying that because a few of my favorite reviews I wrote here on the comicvine were to inspire.  Inspire because the greats I feel have thought me how to see comics as a limitless medium of expressing information.  A picture tells a thousand words and sentences can help make the pictures make more sense with the message they are providing, we just need to train ourselves to do it.
 
This is why I love the actual comic in my hand, I feel I can read it like a book.  Stop at certain pages to really digest what information is there.  In the digital format I can't do that, since the comics where not meant to be read in that fashion.  This is there the trend to technology is hurting industry.  There is so much tech and so much information, that it becomes an overload.  Most people just follow trends and never really know why they like it.  It happens with music, like why did any of us enjoy akon?  His voice is far from strong, his music content really is not ground-breaking, yet because he is "Cool" he is put on the latest Michael Jackson album.  Technology is good if it does not control the masses, but that is what is happening.  Most people let just follow the flow.  So with digital comics the status quo will be kept, but its the status quo that is static.  Like how often has Spider-Man felt like it was a waste of money.  The money wasted on things we know already are a waste, could be better spend on better comics, but we don't gamble enough.  This is why the industry is hurting.  I once wrote a blog about Alan Moore being Underrated and I still mean it to this day.  Everyone knows he is acclaimed and praise by his peers as the greatest, but we as readers don't do our own research to understand why.  We either accept or reject.  This bothered me because Neil Gaiman is a huge name, I like Neil a lot and harbor no hatred whatsoever to him, but all he really did for comics was write Sandman and he would not have had the chance to write comics at all if it was not for Alan Moore.  Gaiman's Sandman outsells, Moore's Swamp Thing way too much for anyone to ever dare say that the masses know their comic history.
 
The problem with comics is the lack of care of the history.  Most reader care about "continuity", but they don't care about the actual substance.  It is easy to say, I like or don't like something.  But to really get into why is the hard part, and I mean this because I feel not enough people can maturely about comics.  From techniques used to plot devices, most comic conversation is very Shallow: "What! One of the Fantastic Four is really going to die?"  I really hope I'll hear people say: "Man I hate Joe Q, his M.O. is to kill off wives, yes the kids lost their mom, but could they be more original"... I'll keep with just my prediction of Invisible Woman.  History repeats itself, I write about it all the time in my reviews.  So if history repeats itself, why do little care about history at all?  I was chatting with Liberty a few days ago when he read my Nat Turner review and I was amazed he liked history so much.  Being Canadian I didn't realize, till after reading Nat Turner, that we are very lucky people. Education is accessible to everyone now, in the past the blacks were not allow to read in the states, but were allowed in Canada.  Reading comics is still reading.  Because of that there are levels of maturity in reading comics, those who want shallow fights.  Those who want drama. Those who want a good story.  Those who really want a good story can careless who the characters are because, the characters are really avatars filling archetypes.  It doesn't matter if its Moby Dick or Namor, Sub-Mariner: The Depths is a good story. What I mean by this, is that a guy like Peter Milligan could of tossed any sea monster in the roll Namor played, but it is the visual cues and the pacing of the story that made it really good... if you are willing to READ the details and not just the words. 

I ranted on long enough.  But I rant to inspire, comics are more then just pictures and words.  Like Alan Moore's Tomorrow Stories, comics can be told in may styles and directions.  We can choose to stick to what we know, or we can dig deeper into the past.
 
Cheers!
- Silkcuts

"yeah, prints gonna go. And it sucks. What has always made the comic store great is that when your there, your surrounded by like-minded people.  You get to see all the comics you never would have heard about, and most shops have all kinds of other neat products too.  Online and digital comics will mean no more of that. The comics companies will pick and choose what they "recommend", showing you only their comics related to their comics. You will have to search and search for anything fresh, as it will be piled under layers of the same old, instead of on the shelf right next to it. 

"My biggest problem with Digital comics will always be their worth. With my physical copies, i can re-sell them, share them, and when i store them i know they will always be there. If there's a fire, i can point to my comics and get reimbursed. But how do you explain your 20 years worth of digital comics to your insurance?"

"If my years as a gamer have taught me anything, its that downloadable content can become "no longer available" whenever it wants, leaving you with nothing but your backups."

I doubt it, but honestly I wouldn't mind going all digital.

I enjoy the idea of having a ton of digital comics on a device that is far easier to carry around, but given the choice I'd rather sit down with hard copies any day.

The Print era is over...