The rumors from two weeks ago are true. Amazon just issued a press release announcing that they've bought digital comics retailer ComiXology:

Amazon.com today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire comiXology, the company that revolutionized the digital comics reading experience with their immersive Guided View technology and makes discovering, buying, and reading comic books and graphic novels easier and more fun than ever before.

This is a big deal for comics. ComiXology is basically the only distribution and sales platform for digital comics, and Amazon just bought that entire market. If I worked for a comics publisher, I'd be very nervous about this deal. Amazon has a long record of ignoring the wishes of publishers when it comes to the pricing of their books. There's a possibility they may leave digital comics prices the way they are, since they basically own a monopoly on the industry. But they also might try to lower the prices of digital comics across the board. This could cause serious problems in the industry, which isn't exactly swimming in profits as it is.

This deal also puts Amazon in direct competition with comic book stores around the country. Given that Amazon also has a long record of putting physical bookstores out of business, if I were a comics retailer, I'd immediately start looking at the independent bookstores that have survived Amazon's competition. I'd also start incorporating some new ideas into my business plan. The comics industry has been sheltered from Amazon for a while now; all that's about to change.