The Digital Comics Controversy

By Ariel Carmona Jr.

I couldn't believe my eyes. I almost fell off my chair actually. I had stumbled upon a great discovery and felt like a kid on Christmas morning scavenging under the tree. Or so I thought. But soon I found myself embroiled in an ethical dilemma the likes of which I had never been a part of.

Thus began my torturous decision of what to do about the digital comic book dilemma. It harkened back to the early days of Napster and to the familiar controversies of a digital age: In the case of Napster and other file sharing programs which followed, it had to do with the downloading of music files and the music industry's claim that people were short changing the artists. Everybody knows the story by now.

Well, a similar controversy has arisen with the rise of illegally downloaded comic book files, typically in .rar, .cbr or similar file extensions. It's probably common knowledge to some people that reading comics in a digital format is as easy as getting hold of scanned copies which can be read with specialized software such as CDisplay, (for Windows) or FFView (for Mac) although it’s probably not as widely practiced as pirating movies or other commodities. Or so I thought.

However, while scouring the web for Golden Age comics I could read without having to sell a major organ, I came across entire blogs which offered free contemporary comic books in .rar and other formats from the big companies like Marvel, DC and Dark Horse.

The digital solution for comics has not yet been found even though the big publishers have slowly realized the importance of this market share and can see the benefits of making at least some of their products online. Marvel, for example, launched Marvel Digital Comics which provides a subscription service for as low as $9.99 a month or alternatively, an annual subscription of $59.88. which allows members access to the first 100 issues of favorites like Spider-Man and X-Men as well as 250 free samples for a limited time.

Other publishers have followed suit though in DC's case, their launching of Zuda Comics at Zudacomics.com was more an effort to create a digital face for the company where new creators could showcase their talents in a spirit of competition rather than a repository for new or archived comic books alike.

Dark Horse Comics has taken to providing original material on their Myspace site like the much hyped "Sugarshock" by Joss Whedon, no doubt anticipating the enormous popularity and traffic generated by such social networking sites.

Dark Horse is posting material by such industry heavyweights as Whedon, Fabio Moon, Eric Powell and Ron Marz for free in order to entice future readers. It seems like a smart move and one other publishers might be looking to emulate. Image Comics has been offering copies of past comics in digital format on their site for a long time, though they are not stupid enough to make current ones as easily available.

DC Head Honcho Dan DiDio has gone on record as being less threatened by the downloading of digital comics by fans than his counterpart over at the "House of Ideas." DiDio has said he believes downloading comics allow fans the opportunity to sample books they might want to purchase and he's said the publisher is aware of the fact that due to economic reasons, it's unrealistic to expect DC fans to purchase the more than 60 books they put out monthly. Others fail to share in his optimistic outlook.

Of course, not everybody is ready to read comics on a computer screen, some users have said on online forums that they find it a cumbersome process and many who spend enough hours in front of a computer at work are less apt to forego printed comics for their digital counterparts.

I consider myself a comic book historian and a person who is interested in the evolution of the medium, but I was shocked to find out I could download copies of current titles for free if I so desired. However, I was soon cognizant that there was a big push within the industry against such practices and even though at first I wanted to justify my motives, I could not. I did not want to cheat the artists and those producing the books, so I swore that I would not acquire these books this way, in a manner which was akin to stealing.

Yet there are those who will try to justify their actions and who have a different view of such downloading practices. When I asked a friend who is very knowledgeable about technology, his response was, "People will do whatever they feel they have to do to get what they perceive they have a right to." In other words, if you can do it without getting caught or without any negative consequences, then so be it.

BitTorrent sites are notorious for providing these illegally copyrighted comics and making them available for download, sometimes within hours of release. Some industry professionals have been more vocal than others when it comes to denouncing these practices. For example, Dan Slott who currently writes Marvel's Avengers: Initiative and Amazing Spider-Man made an appearance on one such site asking people to not download comics he was a part of.

"Your sale acts as a vote," Slott was quoted at comicscrew.com. "When you download a comic without paying for it, no vote is cast… That's not fair. We work very hard to produce the best comic we can... and in effect, you've stolen from me," the Marvel scribe added.

It certainly felt that way as I scanned the new titles shipping one week, only to find out a great number of them were available online as early as the following day or sooner.

Recently, a very good friend of mine got a job with the local store and I am the beneficiary of discounted books, but I still purchase the comics I want to own and I like the fact I have a copy of every Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic ever printed by Dark Horse (not counting one shots, specials or variants), but I am a collector and a huge Buffy fan so I don’t mind shelling out the dough if I have it.

In the end, it will be a personal choice whether one wants to download material which is copyrighted or whether one wants to do the ethical thing and acquire the products in the correct manner. History has shown that in the digital arena, the choice may not always be a permanent option.