The Apple Tablet

[pauljholden]

Hey, so, in a couple of days, Apple are poised to announce the Apple Tablet (or iPad, or iSlate, or Canvas, or one of a dozen other names - I favour Canvas)

What's this got to do with 2000AD? Everything and nothing.

If the Apple tablet does half of what people say it will - for example, if ALL it does is combine the App store ability to distribute/sell content along with a platform that allows you to read comic book content then almost overnight it will completely reinvent the comics industry - in a way that the iPhone has started to make headway in.

2000AD has some unique problems to deal with though, specifically:

Screen size. Largest anticipated screen size I've seen mentioned is around 10" - this is just a little smaller than a US comic, and, combined with really hi resolution screen will keep US comics readable, 2000ad - not so much. We'll either have to see chopped up art, some form of on screen loupe for reading content, or zoom in/zoom out reading - none of which are perfect, but, at with a bit of luck, the entire 2000AD back catalogue could be available on a single device.

I think, screen size may, ultimately, force 2000AD to resize its content, too. Can we, the readers, cope with a smaller print-sized 2000AD?

I also hope that 2000AD go with a pricing model that makes the digital version MUCH cheaper than the comic and available on the same day as the print edition. I think if it's priced, say around 59p per copy, I'd nearly be prepared to buy print and digitial - and, I'd be a lot happier giving my print copy away. Digital pricing at the same price as the print copy means I have to have a serious think about digital or print - certainly not both...



Anyhue, any thoughts?

-pj

[Jim_Campbell]

I think, screen size may, ultimately, force 2000AD to resize its content, too. Can we, the readers, cope with a smaller print-sized 2000AD?

I always liked the way Marvel's original experiments with online comics worked -- it showed you a page or a spread, but each panel enlarged on click (double-tap on a tablet?) to a readable size. Admittedly, you do have to pay someone to repurpose the pages as Flash or HTML, and actually slice the page up into different hotspots for each panel, but I can't imagine that being more than a day's work per week for one person, which would be a fairly small overhead relative to the possible benefit.

Cheers!

Jim

[MIKE COLLINS]

Interesting...Off on my own noodlings, I've been looking at designing strips in such a way that they'd translate well to the Iphone format- the best I think it to treat the art the way French BD pages are drawn- as landscape halfpages. In print that'd work fine for 2000AD, as it's roughly A4. If the Itablet (or whatever it's called) is roughly A4 landscape, this'd be fine. I'm with you PJ on seeing this as a positive thing: just as music going digital hasn't laid waste to the music industry, I can see comics benefiting greatly from the ability to comfortably download and read the latest Tharg Thrills.

[Hell Trekker]

I largely ignore the news on the digital side of comics because I have no intention of ever purchasing them that way, even if it's the only option in the future!  But your statement about this newfangled gadget influencing the size of the real 2000ad has got me concerned.  I quite enjoy the larger prog and don't want to see it shrunk down yet again. Of course my opinions are that of a crotchety old man set in his ways and fearful of change.

[Grant Goggans]

My fingers are crossed that 2000 AD jumps on board early to whatever Apple has in mind.  The comic should be the trailblazer - American comics should be the ones trying to catch up.  Get ready, Rebellion!

[Minty]

Personally, I wouldn't mind if 2000AD changed size format. Most of the other comics I read are the U.S. size and it's never bothered me before. I like the size of 2000AD, but it's not a deal breaker.

Having said that, digital comics don't really appeal to me. Even though I know there are some good ones out there. The only reason I ever look at digital comics is as previews or part of someone's blog. I don't seek them out and I wouldn't pay for one unless it was something extremely special. Though I'm happy to order comics online.

I'm probably wrong, but I don't think it's the same as downloading music. It's a visual media and so how it's presented is more important in that respect.

I find the printed comic book format more convenient than digital. I like that I can stuff them in the back of my briefcase in case I get an opportunity for a read. I wouldn't want to need an expensive bit of kit with me to read one, or spend a fortune in printer ink outputing them for later.

[Kev Levell]

Despite how cool these new gadgets are and as much as I want to embrace the technology as it is happening, reading comics digitally as with reading anything onscreen is just a different experience.

I hope this doesn't signal the death of printed comics, particularly with regard to smaller publishing houses. I do hope that 2000AD can trailblaze the way that Grant has suggested because I'd rather have 2000AD alive and digital, than consigned to history.

I worry that physical comics will get more expensive as a result of the ease of publishing digitally. I also fear that the effort to put out comics and books with real production values will get even more sidelined. A whole part of the joy of collecting will be lost too... there will never again be a case of a 'rare' comic.

For me it simply comes down to how I interact with the comic/book as an object and how it feels... I'm not sure I'm ready to give that up yet.

[pauljholden]

I worry that physical comics will get more expensive as a result of the ease of publishing digitally. I also fear that the effort to put out comics and books with real production values will get even more sidelined. A whole part of the joy of collecting will be lost too... there will never again be a case of a 'rare' comic.

Oh thank god! 'rare' comics are what caused the great speculator bubble.

As an aside, I don't think a perfect digital distrubition WILL mean no-more hi-production, beautful books - I think the opposite - gloriously beautiful, outrageous expensive limited editions with all sorts of extras WILL ALWAYS MAKE MONEY...

-pj

[Professah Byah]

Comics have a century head start on the Apple Fancypants and it might be a bit rich expecting a worldwide norm to change to accommodate the privileged few, but the reader available through the Playstation Store is quite good - push a button and the screen wanders around the page following the art/speech balloons for you, zooming out for big panels and then back in for the text.  There's always means of navigating the limitations produced by two incompatible formats but you'll always have moaners and holdouts, or people just talking shit about the new because it passes the time.

Speaking of: let me get this straight - you can take it anywhere, hold it in one hand, it flips through lots of stored images easily, and the screen is shiny so you can wipe it clean.
Yeah, this thing's main function isn't going to be to look at comics.

[The Cosh]

If the Apple tablet does half of what people say it will - for example, if ALL it does is combine the App store ability to distribute/sell content along with a platform that allows you to read comic book content then almost overnight it will completely reinvent the comics industry - in a way that the iPhone has started to make headway in.

Not Apple-bashing but I really can't envisage this happening. Maybe that's a failure of imagination on my part: I like a gadget but I've never been an early adopter whether it be games consoles or mp3 players so I generally struggle to see the appeal of paying a premium to get something before I know it's going to be around for a while.

What I see the issues being here are price and portability. Are people really going to want to lug something like this around just so they can read Iron Man? I've only recently got an internet enabled phone and I don't think I've Turned my netbook on since. The iphone is portable and while the contract was initially a premium it wasn't really that much more per month when you considered all the cool stuff it does. Is paying five or six hundred quid (NB figures plucked directly out my arse) for this going to be the same?

[pauljholden]

expecting a worldwide norm to change to accommodate the privileged few

When I first suggested iPhone comics, some time BEFORE they started showing up en masse, I suggested the potential world wide market for iPhone comic readers was then going to be 10 million in the first year. I haven't seen figures at this point, but the iPhone is around 40million world wide, this compared to the comic industry which is capable of reaching a tiny fraction of that number via comic shops/newsagents.

In other words: the world wide norm is to have access to comics on a mobile device, the privileged few have access to them via comic shops. You're looking at things the wrong way round...

-pj

[pauljholden]

If the Apple tablet does half of what people say it will - for example, if ALL it does is combine the App store ability to distribute/sell content along with a platform that allows you to read comic book content then almost overnight it will completely reinvent the comics industry - in a way that the iPhone has started to make headway in.

Not Apple-bashing but I really can't envisage this happening. Maybe that's a failure of imagination on my part: I like a gadget but I've never been an early adopter whether it be games consoles or mp3 players so I generally struggle to see the appeal of paying a premium to get something before I know it's going to be around for a while.

What I see the issues being here are price and portability. Are people really going to want to lug something like this around just so they can read Iron Man?

I've covered a lot of this ground in the sunnyside comics podcast, but I think there are a bunch of factors contributing to why a device like this, right now is becoming a foregone conclusion - and you have to come at it from two angles:

(And before I begin, by most people, I mean a substantial number of people - substantial enough that it's all more than viable...)
1) Most people - who are likely to want a computer - already have a decent computer (some may have a couple)
2) Most people who have an internet connection will have a wireless connection
3) There is room - as evidenced by the number of games consoles sold - for devices whose primary function is to provide entertainment while being as expensive as a computer
4) The technology is maturing - the iPhone and the massive - and I mean bloody immense - number of applications that are purchased/downloaded for free - suggests people are more than willing to pay for downloadable content if presented in a 'frictionless' environment (ie, if you have an iphone - then you have an itunes account - if you have an itunes account then buying an app is a one button press followed by your password - no need to hand over credit card details - ie easy micropayments)

And, from the other angle:

1) Comic creators are willing to create content, but are unable to get the market to support even quality content (phonogram series 2 is coming out over such an extended period because it makes no money. Series 3 will not happen in print.)
2) The Diamond distribution model is fucking insane - you preorder a comic three months before reading it. You order issue 2 of a new series before seeing issue 1. Ditto for issue 3. The publisher is paid for issue 1 four (or more) months after issue 1 is first solicited. Everytime I've explained this to civilians they burst out laughing. It's insane for comic creators and insane for readers.
3) Many comics, even those ones that seem are doing well actually don't make money until they're collected as trades - or they barely break even until then.

I've only recently got an internet enabled phone and I don't think I've Turned my netbook on since. The iphone is portable and while the contract was initially a premium it wasn't really that much more per month when you considered all the cool stuff it does. Is paying five or six hundred quid (NB figures plucked directly out my arse) for this going to be the same?

Well, they managed to get the iPhone right, and a lot of the basic infrastructure is already in place - ie the app store, so ... you hold out if you want (as you did with the iPhone - though you finally relented... ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US!)

-pj

[Peter Wolf]

I dont see that this AppleTablet is going to make printed comics redundant at all as if the digital format takes off then it will be something that exists alongside physical comics and if it takes off then it will make the comic industry in general more profitable because it will potentially reach a much wider audience which in theory means more revenue so if there is more revenue earny from digital comics then that will in turn subsidise printed comics.

Shouldnt the digital format be cheaper by default because there are no publishing and distribution costs ?

Also the digital format has to be quite a bit cheaper for it to take off and attract new readers and to tempt them to buy into the format.

As a side issue what exactly is the comic industry itself doing about the Diamond distribution problem ?

[Steve Green]

I've no idea if it will be successful or not - personally it would be handy for me if it could be used to review/edit photos or video on location. But that's a pretty small niche.

As for comics, I don't know - I wonder if it might be more successful as access to archive material rather than new content.

I also wonder if publishers would feel obliged to jazz up the strip with animation/sound etc, which is taking it away from what comics are.

[Professah Byah]

the world wide norm is to have access to comics on a mobile device, the privileged few have access to them via comic shops.

There might be 40 million iPhones, but not everyone who goes into Tesco buys a Pot Noodle.  Let's say there's a Pot Noodle shop: that's a specific and potentially suicidal long-term business model which for the purposes of analogy could be used to highlight the specificity of the comics form if I could be bothered - but I can't.  Pinning all hope on a vague idea of digital reading - and at the minute, it is vague - is just as much eggs-in-one-basket as the comic store model of distribution, which - as you inferred* - is pretty much fucked.

Without even a uniform reader or format for digital comics, it's far too early to view it as anything other than a novelty, and it won't stop being a novelty until the bigger publishers start producing a sizeable chunk of format-specific content.
In the meantime, format-specific graphic novels might be an opportunity for the dedicated creator more focused on getting their work out there than securing a contract.


* or is it 'implied'?  Fuck it - it's not like I write for a living so I don't care.