Well, I've always focused on the bigger picture of the comic industry here, first, as a publisher/creator working in the direct market it's obviously on my radar, and second, because I've known for years that we were at a crossroads in the US industry. Now it seems, keeping tabs on the pulse of the industry is a daily occurrence, so here's another roundup of news items relating to our changing times...
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First we have a new feature on The Beat, adding an independent publisher roundup to their monthly tallies of comic shops sales, based off the Diamond top 300 books.
Very interesting to get a coherent rundown of all the indie books making the list.
Check it out HERE
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Next, also courtesy of a link from The Beat, Todd Allen explores a doomsday scenario, where the direct market, if things play out poorly, could collapse altogether (and hey, that's not too far fetched... I've always said, digital will reach a tipping point when either A) there's a reader device current fans embrace, or B) when one of the large publishers (Marvel or DC) decide to switch to a digital model, of which the latter could occur at any time).
Check out part one HERE
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Then, hop over to Newsarama for a couple different articles on digital comics...
First, a poll on what readers think is the best price model for digital HERE
and second, they take a look at the new software update for the iPhone, and it's implications for comics HERE
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And finally, there's the news that DC plans to start shifting pricing on it's books to $3.99 (to match Marvels recent-ish moves of the same), and also some rumblings of continued price increases for Diamond UK, that were on-again, off-again (see Lying In the Gutters), that could've had a big impact on the UK market.
Tune in next week dear readers for what I'm sure will be more developments...
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