1.Diamond (rightfully) continues each year to refuse to take financial risks on independent-created comics. The bar of pre-orders at said distributor continues(and will continue) to rise each year.
2.Creators and small indy publishers will HAVE TO increase audiences or cease publication entirely.
3.Electronic distro – most sensibly of the FREAKANGELS model, along with what Flashback Universe, iverse , etc. are doing- will be the only dollar-friendly method to get as much free content out there to many more adopters or “subscribers.
4. Money is made on collections, albums, TPB, call them what you will.

iPod/phone, NDS, online game console and virally distributed content FEEDING eventual GN/TPB sales is going to be most prevalent in next 10 years for the “small guys”. If the economy continues to buckle-and if youth culture continues to buy more electronic consumer appliances, it will be necessary for bigger companies to follow suit. I agree, paper comics, books, magazines will not blow away. But in the long term paper versions as PRIMARY adoption of content will go the way of the Dodo.

As a creator, doing your webcomic in such a way that it’s nearly impossible to print frustrates the goal of making revenue from as many different sources as possible. The bookstore crowd is (for better or worse) the most reasonable profit-bearing market to target. Not everyone gets a movie deal.

Tell that to Jeph Jacques, or Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. While Penny Arcade is in print now, Krahulik and Holkins made a comfortable living off of merchandise sales for years. Print collections are only one source of revenue for webcomics, and in some cases not even a particularly large one.

Just needs colour and it will really take off… (I know there s plenty of black and white content that could be used, but let’s face it, pretty colours will sell the product better…)

At least with big names like Sony and Amazon pushing that format, it should take off in one form or another soon enough…

You are not paying for the internet. You are paying someone who gets you to the Internet as a service, but they don’t ‘pay for the internet’.

Unless you want to see your monthly Internet bill go to $100 (like cable tv), you can select and paying for the services you want. Don’t you think the creators and their support companies deserve to be compensated for their work? (It’s unfortunate, but many people steal music on the internet and justify it on the same terms as this author’s.)

(BTW: I don’t plan to buy digital comics myself. I prefer paper, and will discontinue my reading if this switch occurs…That’s OK as there is a lot of good reading of all kinds out there…)

As one of the first publishers to embrace Digital Comics as the new way, and perhaps the only publisher with comics available in cbr, web comic AND on the iphone/iPod I’ve gotta say that 2009 is actually the year comics go digital! I’ve been reading comics from uClick, iVerse and ComicZeal on my iphone, and in so many cases, it’s really a very seamless transition. Check out Atomic Robo, or Chance of the Lifetime on your iphone/ipod for some great examples of that format! I

And in the Fall, Apple is supposed to be rolling out the iTablet!

- Jim Shelley
http://www.FlashbackUniverse.com

Uhm… I’m done hogging the comments section now. Serves you right for posing interesting questions!

With the iPhone and other devices like it the market for digital comics does seem to get a lot bigger and more attractive. It’s also a great way for new talent to self-publish, which seems increasingly difficult to achieve in print. I think a lot of people are with you on the ‘not paying for stuff on the web’ part, the Freakangels model seems plausible to me, any idea what sales figures versus downloads are on that?

Now I’m ashamed…only ever read the first book in junior high.

Umm, sorry Mark Millar. I might buy the trade. For the art…

2012???

What have you heard…lol, I’m such a geek, that comment actually made me sick and worried. Do you have a link? Or am I missing the joke?

I don’t know who this “Balak01? guy is, but he’s onto something.

Damn, he sure is.

I really dig that interface.

And, I think it would be possible to convert it to print. You would just need to make judicious use of stat panels. Something, certainly, would be lost in translation, but, as Morrison taught us, only nothing is impossible.

But, of course, why do webcomics need to be print comics? A number of (print) comics creators constantly talk about writing comics that are only meant to be comics — not to be TV shows or movies or video games or anything else. Shouldn’t webcomics creators focus on writing comics for the web and not worry about the print collection? The medium is the message, so stay on message, yeah?

Webcomics creators are bound to make more money off merchandising (sketches, posters, apparel) than off a collected edition anyway.