Top Shelf is dipping its toes into the DRM-free waters. The company announced today that it would be conducting a “grand experiment” to see how well their DRM products do.Top Shelf has made a selection of their digital graphic novels available, free of digital rights management, directly through their website. This mean that rather than simply licesnsing the rights to read the comic through a seller – such as Comixology or iVerse – you can purchase a digital copy to keep and do what you want with directly from the publisher.In addition, Top Shelf is also offering “add-on pricing” to their graphic novel store. This means that when you buy a print copy of a graphic novel from Top Shelf you have the option of paying a deeply discounted price for the digital edition as well. For example: The Underwater Welder costs $19.95 in print and $6.99 digitally. Now, when you purchase the print edition, you can add on the digital edition for only $2.99.Top Shelf isn’t the first major comic book publisher to move towards the DRM-free model. Image Comics announced last year that it would offer DRM-free digital copies of its comics directly through its website.I don’t know about you, but not actually owning the book I buy is one reason that I don’t buy as many digital comics as I might otherwise. I think another publisher at least trying DRM-free distribution is an interesting sign of the times. What do you guys think?The Top Shelf titles currently available digitally and DRM-free though their digital storefront are:
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- March: Book One by Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell ($7.99 digital, $1.99 with print purchase)
- Heck by Zander Cannon ($9.99 digital, $2.99 with print purchase)
- Crater XV by Kevin Cannon ($9.99 digital, $2.99 with print purchase)
- The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire ($6.99 digital, $2.99 with print purchase)
- God Is Disappointed in You by Mark Russell & Shannon Wheeler ($9.99 digital, $1.99 with print purchase)
- Chester 5000 by Jess Fink ($5.99 digital, $1.99 with print purchase)
- We Can Fix It by Jess Fink ($6.99 digital, $1.99 with print purchase)
- The Surrogates (Vol. 1) by Robert Venditti & Brett Weldele ($5.99 digital, $1.99 with print purchase)
- The Surrogates (Vol. 2): Flesh and Bone by Robert Venditti & Brett Weldele ($5.99 digital, $1.99 with print purchase)
- Swallow Me Whole by Nate Powell ($9.99 digital, $2.99 with print purchase)
- Will You Still Love Me If I Wet the Bed? by Liz Prince ($3.99 digital, $0.99 with print purchase)
- Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer (Vol. 1) by Dusty Higgins & Van Jensen ($4.99 digital)
- Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer (vol. 2): The Great Puppet Theater by Dusty Higgins & Van Jensen ($4.99 digital)
You can find these titles at www.topshelfcomix.com.
