Making Sure Digital is Done Right

DC is going to be releasing digital comics day-and-date with the print versions as of the release of the New DCU in September. Marvel has a plan where for $5 per month, you get unlimited access to all Marvel’s digital comics – around 8,000 at the time of this writing.
Are they doing enough? Are they doing it right?

What I would want out of a digital comic plan is access to a database that helps me make the best use of these comics. Use image and text recognition to make these as searchable as possible. And keep a list of characters that appear in each book. If I am suddenly interested in Sabretooth, let me search all your comics for him. Let me select if he is present in the comic, if he has a fight in the comic, or if he is just mentioned.

Allow me to search for all times that two characters fight each other – whether it is Batman vs. Deathstroke or Spider-Man vs. Venom. Allow me to get a list of all the characters you can show me Captain America interacting with in your group of digital comics.

If you are not going to be doing a lump sum subscription like Marvel is, then consider packages whereby I can buy, for a reduced rate, access to all appearances by a specific character or team. Want to drum up interest for a new upcoming series? Offer discounted access to the character’s back issues, origin and most important appearances. And story arc discounts as well - give me a reduced rate on all issues of "Kraven's Last Hunt" or "Brotherhood of the Fist."

At least as importantly, allow people to follow creative teams. Fans develop favorite writers and artists who they enjoy no matter what book they are working on.
Also, allow easier sharing of these books. In order to help bring in new readers, allow those who have a subscription a limited number of free “shares” of books, and a sliding scale beyond that, getting more expensive the more they are shared, particularly of the same series.

There are also promotional possibilities. Include a free download of a comic with a cereal box, or in the DVD/Blu Ray case for Disney or Warner Brothers movies. Give people a taste for free, and see if you can get them interested. I think there are a lot of possibilities.

Moving to digital is important, and is a great thing for these publishers to do, but they really need to take advantage of all the tools that are available in the digital world. In order to truly make digital comics come in to their own, it isn’t just a matter of transitioning the existing experience onto another platform, but instead, it is important that digital is viewed as a whole new medium, and the powers that be at Marvel and DC think in some detail about how to make their product as strong as it can be in this medium.