Marvel’s Move into Digital Comics — the UWS Analysis
Here is the UWS Publishing analysis and commentary on the New Marvel Digital Strategy:
Last night around midnight my time, I got an e-mail from Comixology telling me Marvel titles were now available on their app. After looking at the screen for a second, I think I muttered something very similar to “holy crap…”
By dawn, it was everywhere I looked. David Gallaher was twittering about it, so was the wonderful Occasional Superheroine. By this afternoon, there was an excellent article on Comic Book Resources that revealed Marvel’s full plan – Total Digital Domination! Bwah-hah-hah! (Sorry, it just slipped out!). Marvel did not limit their digital offerings to Comixology, they also went to Panelfly, iVerse, and Scrollmotion as well. And, according to CBR, they’re still approaching other app makers!
What are they doing?
Simple: Winning.
As always, I’ll leave the breaking news to others and just dive into the analysis and complete BS part of our program. Ready? Great, let’s go!
Learning the Lessons of Rhapsody
After Napster’s collapse, a couple of music services rose up. Rhapsody was the favorite of the industry – subscription based, DRM out the ying-yang, no purchasing. It was perfect. But ingrained in people is the desire for ownership and control. No one trusted Rhapsody – many still don’t. Even when it became compatible with the most popular mp3 player on the planet, the ipod, it still didn’t catch on. People would rather pay 99c to have that feeling of ownership and control. And so, iTunes became the powerhouse it is today. People like to own things – pretty basic lesson.
Fast forward a couple of years, and you come across Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited. Being the digital guy that I am, of course I checked it out. And what did I find? Digital Comic Rhapsody. Disgusted, I barely ever came back – and really, only to check and see if they finally got around to paid downloads. Of course, they never did. Why, you ask? A deep, deep fear of piracy. Back then, you would download in either pdf or cbz, and few people had faith in DRM for those formats. So, driven by fear, the Rhapsody model ruled in comic publishing for a while.
Give Marvel credit, though, they stuck with it (DC didn’t even try). But someone in that company learned the Lessons of Rhapsody and finally convinced the others to go the iTunes route.
Why Pay for Market Research?
The second thing to pop into my head after seeing Comixology’s e-mail last night, was “why didn’t they just buy them?” It wasn’t until CBR broke the news that nearly every comic app merchant was approached that I began to understand. They don’t know how people like to read digital comics!
So, here they are doing their market research, and getting paid by the very researchers doing it! Brilliant! I’m telling you, I’m having a newfound respect for the guys at Marvel! Someone actually remembers business school!
Each reader works in a slightly different way. I have each reader on my iPhone and I have downloaded a new Marvel comic from each one to compare (get to that in a sec). So, Marvel wants to find out which format and method is the best. Once they find that out…? I have a feeling that company will be given “an offer you can’t refuse.” Also, special insight – they aren’t all priced the same! Ha-ha-ha-ha! Someone over at Marvel’s got an MBA, I’m sure of it…
Plan 9 from New York…?
For those old enough to remember the “Rise of Diamond” they may recall that the dreaded comics distributor was born through Marvel’s desire to control comics. Marvel set up its own distribution company and tried to force the market. A rebellion took place and Diamond emerged victorious. As all other distributors were seriously weakened during the battle for dominance, they quickly assumed the top spot and control of the industry.
Will history repeat itself? Does it need to? Marvel could easily buy out any of these players. They make more in a day from Iron Man DVD sales than they will ever pay for one of these app companies. Alternatively, they could easily bankroll their own app development and go direct to iTunes. It’s not like they can’t afford it. Then again, it may be cost effective to let the winner just handle it – a win-win for everyone. However it ends up, I doubt that Marvel will continue to distribute to each company. Both sides of this equation will jockey for an exclusive deal and eventually a decision will be made. If Marvel gets good terms, I’m sure they’ll let that digital packager keep going. If not, they’ll do it themselves – it’s down to the bean counters, at that point.
The bottom line, though, is that this little experimentation period will eventually end. Whoever wins will become the Digital Diamond.
Or will they?
An Equal Opportunity Marketplace
The nagging question on my mind is, why use a secondary storefront at all? They didn’t for Spiderwoman, and I’m sure that was much more complicated than a simple comic app. Despite what they may claim, none of these players are the actual store. Itunes is the store. Why not go direct? In the grand scheme of things, what is the advantage of an mini storefront like Comixology over single app makers like Robot Comics or Infurious Republic? All make a decent app. But Comixology isn’t directly linkable to the product (neither is iVerse or Panlefly, for that matter) – Robot Comics, Infurious Republic (our personal favorite!), and Pixelseed are.
If I were Marvel, I wouldn’t worry about the minor storefronts – Marvel has a massive media machine, getting people to the product isn’t a problem for them. I would use whatever app they end up liking, and have links on my web page directly to those titles all over the place. Head over to Marvel.com to check out the latest on Spiderman, and have the links to iTunes right there waiting to be clicked on. “Missed last issue? Don’t worry about those nasty, dirty back issue bins – click here for instant digital comic bliss!”
And you know what’s even more devious? They could get affiliate links to iTunes and make an extra 3% on every click through from their websites! Isn’t that crazy?
You know what’s even crazier? Anyone could at that point. Everyone could be an affiliate marketer for Marvel, with iTunes paying the tab. That currently isn’t possible with Comixology, Panelfly, or iVerse. But it is with the individual app producers. Just something to think about, that’s all I’m saying. All of you comic blogs out there (Comics Bulletin included), could be making a lot of money linking to iTunes apps in all of your reviews if the final decision went to an individual app maker.
Think about it. “Yep, the latest issue of New Mutants was totally awesome! If you’re new to this series, you can catch up right now without leaving your chair by clicking HERE!” CBR’s Media Kit says they get 2 million unique visitors a month – at a 1% conversion rate, that equals 20,000 sales at $1.99, 3% of that is $1,194 in your pocket. And that’s assuming each of those conversions only buys ONE digital comic. Many may buy more.
Who you pulling for now?
What about you, Marvel? You could have every comic blog on the web selling your books, or you could lock it behind the Panelfly firewall. Which option do you think would give you the better return?
Apples, Oranges, and Bananas
All right, the moment you were waiting for – the comparison! That’s right, Rob, stop all your jibber-jabber and give us the goods!
Setting the stage here, each app presents the book differently, but they all work basically the same. Iverse gives you the full page option and the “cut up” option, depending on how you hold the device. Panelfly gives you the full page and then zooms in on areas of interest in the page (this is not adjustable, by the way). Comixology is a more like a cross between iVerse and Panelfly. You can get the full page, and then go to panel cut ups to read it, or you can just go to the panel cut ups – it’s a reader controlled option.
My personal preference is the Comixology model, but that’s just me.
I picked books at random and did not perform anything even closely related to a scientific study. I got Astonishing X-Men from iVerse, Iron Man from Panelfly, and Captain America from Comixology. As I have an iTunes affiliate account, I would love to link directly to these books for you, but alas…
All three apps did a great job on presenting the books. I have gotten books from Panelfly before and really didn’t like their viewer, but for the strict geometric page layout favored by Ellis, it worked surprising well. Captain America and Astonishing also looked great on their viewers. If I had to put a winner on it, I would actually pick iVerse. A little shocking for me, as I really thought Comixology would be my favorite. In all fairness, though, I think it had more to do with panel layouts of the source material than it did the mechanics of the viewer. Whedon and Cassady presented a much more “cinematic” book in Astonishing than Brubaker and Epting did with Captain America. Source material layout is a big factor in digital conversion. I can say that every reader performed admirably and presented the material well.
As I mentioned earlier, prices differ. Panelfly is 99 cents across the board. Comixology and iVerse are $1.99. Personally, I find the $1.99 offensive, but when you do the math it becomes obvious. Given that iTunes takes 30% off the top, and Comixology, for example, goes 70/30 on the remainder (ends up about 20 cents to Comixology, 50 cents to the content provider), you can see how it goes. Print publishers want to make a $1/copy sold when it comes to floppies. You aren’t going to get that with a 99 cent sale price. So, why offer 99 cents at all? Hard to say. Who set the price? Did Marvel dictate selling price or did they all do it independently? Regardless, it turns up some good data for Marvel, and will most likely determine the digital sales price of digital comics from now on.
The Wrap Up
About a year ago, there was a pretty big dust-up between the Occasional Superheroine and Joey Manley from Comic Space about what would happen if Marvel waded into the webcomic scene. I think Valerie came out ahead on that one. That argument was pre-iphone app store, of course. With that little wrinkle thrown in, I think good ol’ Val is still correct. Marvel goes in it to win it.
I see this as a huge boost to the creative market. Now that a major player has moved into digital comics, it adds validation to the business model. Much like when Amazon jump started the ebook movement with the Kindle. Now people will be checking their phones for comics just as often as their comic shop (maybe more due to the convenience).
The real tipping point to all of this is when Marvel (or DC) moves their digital offerings from the secondary market to the primary one. A lot of characters out there have trouble carrying their own print book – but could they carry a digital one? DC’s Blue Beetle, Manhunter, and Aquaman all had a tough life in print. Maybe digital would provide a more profitable way of keeping those copyrights alive… (Shamelessly, I’ll repeat my previous statement – I’ll write a digital Aquaman, Mr. Didio!)
Many things could happen, but one thing is certainly for sure: It’s a great time to be in comics!
Rob McClellan
