Printed Comics Nearing Death As Marvel Strikes Latest Blow

Traditional print comic books are dead. D.E.A.D.  They just don’t know it yet.  And the latest blow–one that could push print comics toward life support–was cast by Marvel Comics this past weekend.Over the weekend, Marvel featured a unique sale: purchase a comic on the Marvel Comics app and Marvel would email you a $5 coupon that could be used at any local brick-and-mortar comic book shop.  Pretty forward thinking, right?  Here’s the quote from Marvel regarding the promotion: “As we continue to grow the digital comics world, we want to make sure it’s always to the benefit of the medium and our comic shop retail partners,” said Peter Phillips, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Marvel Digital Media Group. “This coupon is a great way for us to let more of our fans know about their local comic store and incentivize them to make the trip there. At the end of the day, our goals in the print and digital mediums are the same—bring more fans to comics.”As far as straddling the line of pushing in-house digital comics vs traditional brick and mortar (BAM) old school print comics, Marvel has done a pretty good job the last couple of years.  From releasing same day digital as the same price to other pushes to help BAMs, Marvel has shown a genuine willingness to keep physical copies alive and support local shops.  I think their approach has been fantastic.  However, the $5 coupon offer makes me pause.  Why?  First of all you have to buy the digital comic from MARVEL–and only Marvel.  Not from ComiXology or another site that offers digital versions.  That means Marvel is the one getting a new account.  Or getting repeat business.  They’re pulling sales in-house.Secondly, the ‘let more of our fans know about their local comic store’ is a smokescreen.  Everyone knows that digital sales are currently well behind print sales.  An overwhelming majority of buyers go to their local shop.  Offering a coupon for $5 isn’t going to push more folks to local. The coupon is there to get people to TRY digital, knowing that A, if they don’t like it now, Marvel has an account (and email address) to market to them, and B, if they do like it, a new digital customer is born.