I'm interested to see what kind of books the founding creators will be releasing and I like the higher-quality print format. The digital scarcity thing doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. The drop culture they reference in their interviews is for physical products. People like showing off those products by wearing them.
How are you similarly going to show off a digital comic you bought? Relatedly why would I care if a digital single issue is in limited supply if it is the same content as the superior print format of the book and if I can later buy a digital trade that includes that issue? And if I'm paying a premium for the print version, I think it would be reasonable to get a digital copy thrown in for free.
There needs to be some extra "something" other than "we only made 5 of them!" Maybe like an interview, sketches, extra content, a Livestream only available to people owning the issue, or maybe the chance to win original art? Like everyone who owns a digital copy (or all copies of a mini series) will get something cool or get a chance to win something cool.
"How are you similarly going to show off a digital comic you bought?"
So when my partner and I started our shop, we had to make some decisions regarding product. I had a lot of things that I loved. But when you start a shop, you can't be precious about what you have or what you want. Suddenly, you start thinking about your collection. You start looking at the books, and think about what you have for you, and what you have for someone else, to potentially "show off".
As a store owner, I don't think you can run a shop to the best of your abilities if you are aiming to keep a "show off" collection for yourself. If it doesn't mean anything to ME, I don't keep it. That's partly why my collection ends up being things like Runaways, Spider-Girl, Stray Bullets, Casanova and the like.
All this to say, while I understand the collector mentality that requires a bit of show and tell, it isn't something that speaks to me, and I admittedly discount it. So take this with a grain of salt: how many people collect to show things off? The opportunity is always fun, but I can honestly count on my two hands, the amount of people I have showed the gems of my collection to. From what I hear from my customers, they collect to keep and tend to just keep it in a room, or collect to sell at a later date. So I do understand where DSTLRY is with this type of thing (even if their digital offerings aren't really something I'll end up being interested in... barring cool process stuff).
Good points. My own collecting habits are similar. I have keys that are meaningful to me that I put in my long boxes and then I like to display cool variants on my shelves above my desk (but that are not usually more valuable than cover price).
My comment was in response the press I read where they were trying to emulate Super's drop culture. My understanding of that is that part of the appeal is wearing your Super sweatshirt out and about to show off that you were one of the few people who were able to obtain said sweatshirt. (Maybe I'm off here and most people just put all their Super stuff in a box and never wear it).
I just don't see the appeal of a limited digital collectible that is nothing more than the same version of the physical comic or that doesn't grant you some special privileges. If owning a digital copy of issue #1 of JTIV's new book gets you access to some sort of livestream or something else cool, I would definitely be more interested in trying to get one.
Let's talk about a very old idea. I promise I will get positive at the end, just as I was excited for a new idea in digital comics, but this doesn't sound like a new idea at all.
1. People making comics that own a piece of the profit even if they don't do any creative labor (the 3% going to an upper class of initial creators.
2. "Digital scarcity" is just faux scarcity. Either there is a highly complicated way to protect those digital originals (e.g. blockchain) or they are easily copied. Easily copied is the whole point of digital files.
3. Faux scarcity is just creating a demand for something that doesn't have an organic demand. It's the same old bullshit of variant covers or NFTs applied to something that didn't need it.
There is an inherent value in editors. I believe that editors, when doing their work well, make creative works better. Gatekeepers are necessary because not every artist wants to handle the business side of making a living from art.
I believe there are legitimate markets unexplored for digital art. Look no further than Panel Syndicate, which quietly celebrated its 10th anniversary recently. There's also itch.io and gumroad.com, and on the big money side there's Webtoons and Zestworld, and of course, Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
I believe that someone will continue to improve on the digital pipeline that will include real world spaces to engage with art, whether that's eventual print editions or stores that become a community hub and bring in the work of digital artists.
Maybe DSTLRY is it, but this sounds suspiciously like old-school owner-class capitalism and about the farthest thing from a union.
Good points! To me the whole point of digital is that distribution is basically free and supply is infinite. Given what's happened with Comixology, why would I want to be locked into a specific comic reading app? What happens to my digital comics if the company goes under?
Rather than focusing on digital scarcity in an American comics market that is being dominated by young adult graphic novels, manga, and Webtoon, why not make the digital versions free? If they want to limit the issues' free availability for a week, then that's a good compromise.
So this is the trick: of course folks can "pick up" the product digitally for free, whenever they want. Should DSTLRY not offer their "scarcity"... heck, should they not offer digital at all, this would not change.
I personally don't care for limiting access - to the point where I am generally okay with folks who obtain comics digitally outside of legal means. (TL;DR: 99.999% of those people were never going to buy the book in the first place, and a non-zero portion of those people will fall in love with some of the books and buy something - a net gain). That said, as a retailer, I've seen what even simulated scarcity can do for sales. It is also a non-zero effect.
At the end of the day, I think DSTLRY is trying something interesting - and worst case, creators will have a taste of whatever digital back market exists - which is ALSO a non-zero effect. I'm not mad at it, anyway.
Sorry. I intended that to be in response to Jon Auerbach's comment about digital issues being given away for free. But it's not a particularly thoughtful or cogent response anyway.
I'd love to chat more about all of this sometime, maybe with the initial launch book in July, or the first series in the fall? I like the mindset of what I've seen, and Heidi always tells me, folks are HUNGRY for nitty gritty industry stuff, and you folks are taking a VERY interesting angle.
Somehow this didn't land on my radar. I'm intrigued to see how this causes a shift especially since some of the named creators used Substack to put together books which they then shopped to existing publishers with mixed degrees of success. I do like the idea of creative unions, because it gives the creators more control and oversight of their IP!
I'm interested to see what kind of books the founding creators will be releasing and I like the higher-quality print format. The digital scarcity thing doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. The drop culture they reference in their interviews is for physical products. People like showing off those products by wearing them.
How are you similarly going to show off a digital comic you bought? Relatedly why would I care if a digital single issue is in limited supply if it is the same content as the superior print format of the book and if I can later buy a digital trade that includes that issue? And if I'm paying a premium for the print version, I think it would be reasonable to get a digital copy thrown in for free.
There needs to be some extra "something" other than "we only made 5 of them!" Maybe like an interview, sketches, extra content, a Livestream only available to people owning the issue, or maybe the chance to win original art? Like everyone who owns a digital copy (or all copies of a mini series) will get something cool or get a chance to win something cool.
"How are you similarly going to show off a digital comic you bought?"
So when my partner and I started our shop, we had to make some decisions regarding product. I had a lot of things that I loved. But when you start a shop, you can't be precious about what you have or what you want. Suddenly, you start thinking about your collection. You start looking at the books, and think about what you have for you, and what you have for someone else, to potentially "show off".
As a store owner, I don't think you can run a shop to the best of your abilities if you are aiming to keep a "show off" collection for yourself. If it doesn't mean anything to ME, I don't keep it. That's partly why my collection ends up being things like Runaways, Spider-Girl, Stray Bullets, Casanova and the like.
All this to say, while I understand the collector mentality that requires a bit of show and tell, it isn't something that speaks to me, and I admittedly discount it. So take this with a grain of salt: how many people collect to show things off? The opportunity is always fun, but I can honestly count on my two hands, the amount of people I have showed the gems of my collection to. From what I hear from my customers, they collect to keep and tend to just keep it in a room, or collect to sell at a later date. So I do understand where DSTLRY is with this type of thing (even if their digital offerings aren't really something I'll end up being interested in... barring cool process stuff).
Good points. My own collecting habits are similar. I have keys that are meaningful to me that I put in my long boxes and then I like to display cool variants on my shelves above my desk (but that are not usually more valuable than cover price).
My comment was in response the press I read where they were trying to emulate Super's drop culture. My understanding of that is that part of the appeal is wearing your Super sweatshirt out and about to show off that you were one of the few people who were able to obtain said sweatshirt. (Maybe I'm off here and most people just put all their Super stuff in a box and never wear it).
I just don't see the appeal of a limited digital collectible that is nothing more than the same version of the physical comic or that doesn't grant you some special privileges. If owning a digital copy of issue #1 of JTIV's new book gets you access to some sort of livestream or something else cool, I would definitely be more interested in trying to get one.
Let's talk about a very old idea. I promise I will get positive at the end, just as I was excited for a new idea in digital comics, but this doesn't sound like a new idea at all.
1. People making comics that own a piece of the profit even if they don't do any creative labor (the 3% going to an upper class of initial creators.
2. "Digital scarcity" is just faux scarcity. Either there is a highly complicated way to protect those digital originals (e.g. blockchain) or they are easily copied. Easily copied is the whole point of digital files.
3. Faux scarcity is just creating a demand for something that doesn't have an organic demand. It's the same old bullshit of variant covers or NFTs applied to something that didn't need it.
There is an inherent value in editors. I believe that editors, when doing their work well, make creative works better. Gatekeepers are necessary because not every artist wants to handle the business side of making a living from art.
I believe there are legitimate markets unexplored for digital art. Look no further than Panel Syndicate, which quietly celebrated its 10th anniversary recently. There's also itch.io and gumroad.com, and on the big money side there's Webtoons and Zestworld, and of course, Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
I believe that someone will continue to improve on the digital pipeline that will include real world spaces to engage with art, whether that's eventual print editions or stores that become a community hub and bring in the work of digital artists.
Maybe DSTLRY is it, but this sounds suspiciously like old-school owner-class capitalism and about the farthest thing from a union.
Good points! To me the whole point of digital is that distribution is basically free and supply is infinite. Given what's happened with Comixology, why would I want to be locked into a specific comic reading app? What happens to my digital comics if the company goes under?
Rather than focusing on digital scarcity in an American comics market that is being dominated by young adult graphic novels, manga, and Webtoon, why not make the digital versions free? If they want to limit the issues' free availability for a week, then that's a good compromise.
So this is the trick: of course folks can "pick up" the product digitally for free, whenever they want. Should DSTLRY not offer their "scarcity"... heck, should they not offer digital at all, this would not change.
I personally don't care for limiting access - to the point where I am generally okay with folks who obtain comics digitally outside of legal means. (TL;DR: 99.999% of those people were never going to buy the book in the first place, and a non-zero portion of those people will fall in love with some of the books and buy something - a net gain). That said, as a retailer, I've seen what even simulated scarcity can do for sales. It is also a non-zero effect.
At the end of the day, I think DSTLRY is trying something interesting - and worst case, creators will have a taste of whatever digital back market exists - which is ALSO a non-zero effect. I'm not mad at it, anyway.
If the work they do is free, who pays them?
????
Sorry. I intended that to be in response to Jon Auerbach's comment about digital issues being given away for free. But it's not a particularly thoughtful or cogent response anyway.
Thanks for the thoughtful write up, Brandon!
I'd love to chat more about all of this sometime, maybe with the initial launch book in July, or the first series in the fall? I like the mindset of what I've seen, and Heidi always tells me, folks are HUNGRY for nitty gritty industry stuff, and you folks are taking a VERY interesting angle.
Somehow this didn't land on my radar. I'm intrigued to see how this causes a shift especially since some of the named creators used Substack to put together books which they then shopped to existing publishers with mixed degrees of success. I do like the idea of creative unions, because it gives the creators more control and oversight of their IP!