Bleeding Cool has a pretty huge scoop: Turns out, comics distributor Diamond is working on a digital comics distribution model that will include physical comics stores as a part of the delivery system:

Diamond Comic Distributors has been working on a digital program which will be entirely focused on driving sales of Digital comic related content through brick and mortar comic book specialty retailers.

We anticipate making an announcement in the near future.

Between this and Google’s announcement, I’m happy to see that publishing did learn one lesson from the collapse of the music industry: They’re trying to keep the retailer included in the process. Now every comic shop in town needs to update their websites to make them into attractive destinations for curious e-comics buyers; not one shop in town has an even halfway decent web presence.

5 replies on “E-Comics to Follow the Google Books Model?”

  1. Exactly why is Diamond being involved a good thing, however?
    Aren’t they just flat-out middlemen, and therefore superfluous in this model?

  2. @1 has a point.

    Expect geek boi comix for the Android and geek gurl comix for the iPhone/iPad soon.

    Direct from the actual artist – who needs “distributors”?

  3. I read comics, but I mostly read them online.

    I don’t really have a driving need to own paper-and-ink versions of them. Yes, a few, but not most. I just don’t see any value in having paper-and-ink copies.

    I know that I could print out the pages that I read online (they are usually .pdf files), but I’ve never been tempted to do that.

    The benefit of a comics shop is the opportunity to talk to the knowledgable staff and get personal recommendations for what to read and what’s good.

  4. Between this and Google’s announcement, I’m happy to see that publishing did learn one lesson from the collapse of the music industry: They’re trying to keep the retailer included in the process.

    So, if Tower Records was one of many middlemen in online sales, how would that have kept their brick & mortar stores open? The non-physical format of digital music killed physical music stores, not who was selling it.

    Would you go to a brick & mortar iTunes store, or would you think that was the stupidest idea, ever?

  5. Why don’t they just cut to the chase, close all the comic stores, and just pay ex-comic store employees from the online profits?

    This missing the whole point – I want to buy comics without ever going near a comic book shop or thinking about physical materials at all.

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