What Can Publishers Learn from Digital Comic Books?
"The effect on distribution is seismic," says Waid. "The ability to get comics into the hands of anyone with an internet connection versus into the hands of those lucky enough to live within driving distance of a full-service comics shop—that's gigantic."
Waid made a point of highlighting the nature of digital comics themselves. "Comics isn't a genre; it's a medium. What's great about the way readers' media habits inform digital comics is that—unlike the majority of print comics and graphic novels, which are superhero material because that's what the comics shop market caters in—digital comics aren't bound by genre, allowing them to find entire new audiences who aren't interested in superheroes."
John Parsons (john@intuideas.com), former Editorial Director of The Seybold Report, is an independent writer, ghostwriter, and editor. He is the co-author of the interactive printed textbook, Introduction to Graphic Communication, on the art, science and business of print, which has been adopted by Ryerson, Arizona State, the University of Houston, and many other schools and vocational training centers. Custom editions of the book are under consideration by major printing companies and franchises for internal training purposes.