Comixology Win: Reading My Blog

It has become clear to me that the people at Comixology* are reading my blog. Last Tuesday I posted about how lame it is that they digitally published the first ten parts of "Grounded" but not the rest, and that the same with the Booster Gold tie-ins to Flashpoint. I also mentioned that it's nice that they've been consistently releasing one issue of Gotham City Sirens every week for several months now. So guess what happened yesterday? The rest of "Grounded" was released, and Booster Gold too. And, for the first time in quite a while, there was no issue of Gotham City Sirens.

So... If I complain about something, they will fix it, and if I praise them for something, they will stop doing it.

So... Isn't it totally lame that Comixology has four issues of the Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle run on Batman but not the whole run? It's absolutely ridiculous that they haven't digitized every single issue of Batman and Detective ever written by Grant and/or illustrated by Breyfogle. Gah! Get a life, Comixology.

And also... Isn't it awesome how new comics cost a full three bucks? Way to go, Comixology, keep it up!



...And now I will wait...



*It should be noted that when I say "Comixology**" I mean whoever it is that makes decisions about what shows up in Comixology's digital store. In the case of DC comics, it's most likely someone at DC's digital department, but those finer distinctions are beyond me.

**It might also be noted that the correct form is actually comiXology, but I've been doing it wrong since my first post and I'm not about to change now.

Waiting for War -OR- How I Failed to Beat the System

Right about the time I started getting interested in digital comics this past spring, I noticed that new issues of all three Green Lantern series were being published digitally pretty regularly, about a month after print. These were series that I'd been trade-waiting anyway, so it made sense to switch to digital with them. Except I'd already pre-ordered the next Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps trades, so I needed to wait until those came out before I could start buying the subsequent issues digitally. While I waited, I started buying Emerald Warriors digitally since I hadn't pre-ordered any trades for that series yet. Then my Corps trade arrived in the mail, and I caught up with all the following Corps issues digitally, so that I was up to the "War of the Green Lanterns" prelude issues in both Corps and Emerald Warriors. I expected the Green Lantern: Brightest Day trade to arrive in June, which was also when the Green Lantern film would be in theaters, so I was kind of hoping there would be a half-off sale where I could get all the "War of the Green Lanterns" issues for a buck each.

So I waited.

The week the film was released Comixology did have a half-off "Green Lantern 101" sale, but it didn't include any issues as recent as the "War" storyline. My trade of Green Lantern: Brightest Day arrived, so now I was caught up to where I could start reading "War." But what if I bought all eleven or twelve issues of the storyline for two bucks a piece, only to find a week later that Comixology had a "War of the Green Lanterns" sale, just like they had a "Blackest Night" sale last year? I'd have wasted twelve bucks. I can't do that!

So I waited some more.

Then I started thinking maybe they were waiting until the War of the Green Lanterns: Aftermath issues had been released, so they could include those in the big sale.

So I waited.

But those have now been in print for a while, and have yet to show up on Comixology, let alone be included in any such sale. And then I thought, maybe they'll put the "War of the Green Lanterns" storyline on sale right before the New 52's Green Lantern 1 comes out, you know, so readers can get caught up on the most recent history.

And so I waited.

But now the weekend before Green Lantern 1's release has come and gone, and instead of a "War of the Green Lanterns" sale, they had yet another "Batman 101" sale. Sigh.

So what do I do now? Obviously I have to read "War of the Green Lanterns" before I read Green Lantern 1. But I just know that the week I finally break down and buy the issues at two bucks a piece, they'll go on sale that weekend for half-price. Not to mention the fact that the Aftermath issues are still unavailable digitally, so I wouldn't be completely caught up anyway. So you know what? I'm going to boycott Green Lantern (and Corps and New Guardians) until Comixology has a "War of the Green Lanterns" sale. The hardcover collection goes on sale in November, and if I recall correctly, they had the "Blackest Night" digital sale around the time the collections came out. By then the New 52 debuts will be over a month old and so I'll save a few more dollars.

And so I will wait.

You will see, Comixology, I can be more stubborn than you. I will win this war.

Comixology Fail #2: Unpredictability

Disclaimer: I don't know whether this is a Comixology fail or a DC Comics fail, but either way the end result is the same for me, the average consumer. So I'm counting it as a Comixology fail.

On June 8th of this year, Superman 701-710, the first ten parts of "Grounded," were released on Comixology. I had been curious about the "Grounded" storyline, but not enough to buy the issues when they were first published (July 2010-April 2011). I had been planning to buy the trade, but it worked out to be cheaper to buy the issues digitally so that's what I decided to do. These weren't great comics, but I was interested in the story, especially once Chris Roberson took over, and I planned to buy the remaining chapters as they were released on Comixology. Except now it's September and Superman 711 has still not seen digital publication. Will it ever? I don't know.

A few other examples:

• Every issue of Detective Comics from 838 to 870 is on Comixology, with 870 being released on June 22nd. I was really looking forward to the beginning of Scott Snyder's run with issue 871. I'm still looking forward to it.
• The first two parts of J. Michael Straczynski's other aborted storyline, "The Odyssey," have been on Comixology since June 25th, but there's no sign of the rest of the story. 
• All three Green Lantern titles seemed to be on a steady release schedule this spring, with the most recent issues consistently released digitally one month after publication--until Green Lantern 67, which happens to be the final chapter of the big summer event "War of the Green Lanterns." The issue was already delayed several weeks before print publication, and digital readers had to wait another month and a half after that. 
• DC actually announced ahead of time that all Flashpoint tie-ins would be released digitally one month after publication. This has mostly been the case, but Flashpoint: Abin Sur 2 was released a month and a half after publication for no apparent reason, and the Booster Gold tie-ins simply haven't shown up after the first one. 

I'm not saying that Comixology needs to publish a schedule of their back issue releases two months in advance. It's actually kind of fun to check on Wednesday and see what new series are being added to the digital vault. But once they start digitizing a series, I'd like to see them continue, at least until they get to a logical stopping point. I'd like to see it work like it has for Gotham City Sirens: The first issue was released on March 30th, and a new issue has been released every week since then. It's fun to read the series this way, to experience an accelerated version of the original serial release. I look forward to a new issue of Gotham City Sirens every Wednesday, and I haven't been disappointed yet. 

So whoever it is at Comixology or DC who decides when and how back issues are released digitally, can you please get your act together? Variety is the spice of life, but predictability is the meat and potatoes.

Digital Delay on Justice League 1

As I mentioned last night, I was curious to see whether there would be a midnight release of Justice League 1 on Comixology, similar to the midnight releases at comic shops around the country, and if so what time zone it would go by. I guessed that Eastern would make the most sense, so when I checked Comixology's DC store at about 12:30am Eastern and didn't see anything new, I just about decided it wasn't going to happen and went to bed. But then I checked the general store homepage and found this:

At first 2am Eastern time seemed like an odd choice, but it makes sense as a compromise between making easterners wait all the way until 3am in order to release at midnight Pacific time, and giving Pacific-coast digital readers an unfair advantage over their print-reading counterparts if it were released at midnight Eastern time. At any rate, I was happy to see that Comixology put up the note letting us know when to expect the release, as I think one of the weaknesses of their release schedule thus far is that it is typically unpredictable (another post on that another day). And then I came back at 2am Eastern time (11pm Pacific) and it was still not there. I refreshed and refreshed and refreshed for five minutes, growing more and more annoyed at Comixology's lack of timeliness.

And then I looked at the notice again and saw, as you no doubt saw at first glance, that it says 2pm, not 2am. Sigh. So I guess I'll be posting a review tomorrow after all. C'est la vie.