Marvel, DC Comics Take Different Paths on the Road to the iPad

Like many of you the past few days, I touched an iPad. In browsing the many apps, one struck me as particularly remarkable: the Marvel iPad App. While it may not be any more unique than any of the other many print publication apps out there, its implications in the comic industry make it potentially more revolutionary – the short length and highly illustrated nature of the weekly comic make it most ideal for the iPad medium.

Consider the traditional comic subscription model: the subscriber pays an arguably high periodic fee to receive a weekly short story crammed in the mail. With the iPad, an issue is received immediately to be viewed on a clear, bright display. Simply eliminating the need to print and distribute material could dramatically lower costs. And since the distribution format can be regulated by an app, the risk of piracy is reduced.

On the other end of the battlefield, Marvel revolutionary Stan Lee’s son, Jim Lee, offered an opposing opinion as head publisher of DC Comics on the industry trend towards digital distribution, as reported in geek culture blog Geeks of Doom:

“I think at the end of the day, I have not seen anything on the digital side that is more compelling to me than a printed comic,” said Lee in response to a fan question at the panel. “I’ll use Blackest Night as an example. You open that up and — I don’t want to spoil anything — but there’s a spread inside that’s just amazing. You cannot replicate it on a device with a smaller screen.”

Ultimately, he said it’s why DC hasn’t jumped head first onto the digital bandwagon the way other companies have, such as competitor Marvel Entertainment, which released their own iPhone/iPad application to coincide with Saturday’s debut of Apple’s iPad tablet device.

“There’s no real business model for it, in that, it’s not a big part of anyone’s business right now, regardless of if you’re on the iPad tomorrow or not,” Lee said, adding that even when digital does start to carve out a portion of the industry it won’t cannibalize the printed comics because of all the differences it will end up having.

These differences include advantages like having an entire comic collection in your pocket, Instant access to purchase comics and being about to seek out new comics and new tools that will allow creators to tell stories.

“We have to come up with some really compelling content that plays to the advantage of digital distribution. Once we have something like that, that’s when you’ll really see things start to shift,” Lee said.