The Rio Theatre’s biweekly “Movies for Mommies” event is today, and Apple’s gonna make some big announcement, too; but i’m skipping the former this time around (to catch up on some work), and i’ll hear all about the latter soon enough, no doubt. No, these things aren’t what makes today special.
For those of us so afflicted, Wednesday means: new Comic Book Day.
Today, for example, Marvel Comics will have a new batch of FREE digital comics ready to be downloaded through its iPad (and iPhone/iPod) app. Every week, Marvel gives away half a dozen issues, just like the proverbial dealer’s narcotics samples, to get us hooked. And it works quite well. Giving me the first issue of a good story arc for *free* makes a pretty compelling temptation to buy the next issue (and the next…).
But, as i shall explain, today is a very special day for comic books…
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Last week, on my bus ride home from work, i was enjoying the first issue of an especially good free sample from Marvel: issue #1 of a Spider-Man and Wolverine team-up miniseries — pretty cool in itself, but even better when it starts halfway through some crazy time-travel adventure, with our heroes living amongst proto-human primates on the eve of some prehistoric mass-extinction event. Now that’s entertainment.
Anyway, i wasn’t the only one on the bus to be impressed. Over my shoulder, it turns out, was a member (or friend, at least) of the venerable team behind Vancouver’s own legendary Comic Shop! He seemed both intrigued and somewhat disturbed, however.
“Sales are down,” he told me, “and now i can see why.”
I have to admit, i felt a little guilty. But only a little. After all, i had just spent pretty much all of my remaining discretionary money at the Comicshop only a few days earlier…
Let’s rewind a bit.
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About a month ago, again on the bus — that’s where life happens, after all — rolling east on West 4th Avenue, i noticed a huge banner in the Comicshop window declaring a moving sale. I took a photo:
On my way home that day, the crucial question was answered. Moving? Where? …Right into “my” little corner of Kits (i’d soon find out, as noted here, this area is actually where the Comicshop got started too… The old spiraling cycles again). I took another picture, but...
The new storefront was looking pretty rough. It used to be “Fun in the Sun” (a decent discount surf/skate/snow sportswear shop, now located at 4th and MacDonald), which had some kind of reflective film on the windows; i used to stop out front with Roy so we could wave at our reflections. That shiny film had left some funky scum on the window, and all in all, the place sure didn’t have an auspicious, well-cared-for appearance.
We might forgive some people, for example a commenter on this article, for having expressed doubts about the Comic Shop being able to get the new place up to spec in time. A member of the Comicshop team, however, asserted that they would indeed be open: today, September 1st, at 10 AM (and that anyone present for the opening would enjoy a 10% discount). True to their word, when i walked by yesterday evening, the place already looked as good as a Christmas tree. Judge for yourself: photo #3.
But i’m getting ahead of myself...
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One quick aside: We have lived here, a short walk from Jericho beach (and the Premier’s office, yay!) ever since our discovery of cheaper rents on this side of town than in those more (covertly) prestigious neighborhoods of East Van. Proximity to UBC has proven a bonus too. Sara’s old place was near Rx Comics on Main Street, which is also a great shop.
So the Comic Shop has moved: from 10 minutes up the road, to less than a minute from my door. Well i sure can’t complain.
But nevertheless there is a feeling of loss. The Comic Shop, in its familiar location a few doors down from Sophie’s Cosmic Café, is where i bought comics on family trips to Vancouver as a kid. It contributed to the mythologization of this city in my mind.
I’ve fallen in love with Vancouver several times, but the courtship began at the Comicshop.
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Returning to recent events: when i had some time after first seeing that banner in their window, i checked the Comicshop website, and not only was it a month-long moving sale, but the discounts would increase as the moving day approached!
Now, the fact is, ever since Roy was born, in order to make space for baby necessities, i’ve been trying to eliminate as much of my physical library as possible, including comics. It’s hard. I’ve collected books all my life, and the first items in my collection were comics.
But there are limits, so i have enthusiastically welcomed the advent of iPads (and the iBookstore, as well as other means of acquiring content) as an opportunity, not only to eliminate many physical books (especially academic and reference tomes), but to simultaneously upgrade them: to searchable and completely portable e-books. Exciting times, i say.
But of course these changes don’t look like improvements to everyone.
As i’ve been shifting my comic collection from boxes in the closet to files on my computer, whatever money i spend on comics has also shifted from “brick and mortar” comic shops, to online direct digital sales — and as we know, digital content can also be shared for free, so that’s a factor too.
Generally, i’m an advocate of file-sharing, but i’ll save detailed discussion of the pros and cons of “free” peer-to-peer proliferation vs. higher-quality commercial modes of comic distribution for another post.
Suffice for now to say that i have indeed been persuaded to give Marvel money for digital comics, enhanced with ComiXology’s “guided view” technology (individual panels isolated, each rendered full-screen) which makes reading digital comics effortless — and much more enjoyable than having to navigate through mere scanned images of entire pages. However, i have also acquired many comics through file-sharing networks, especially scans of older issues or less-popular titles that have not yet been made available for purchase (like The Silver Surfer, whom i adore).
No matter what your moral intuitions are about the meaning and future of either content restrictions or copyright itself, i think Cory Doctorow makes some really good points in his anti-iPad rant. And his criticisms of the Marvel app are fair, but he neglects to mention (and, i think, fails to appreciate) how just plain awesome it is. Mr. Doctorow is right, though: the problems are serious. As one commenter (on a Marvel discussion board) put it, describing my situation as well:
“I've bought comics via the Marvel iPad app and the ComiXology app. I just found out that ComiXology has a website where one can view all the comics you've purchased from them...except the Marvel comics.”Yup, that’s unfair and stupid. But this is not a day for ranting about DRM (that day will come soon enough). Today is a day to celebrate…
Long story short, constraints of shelf space and finances aside: i happily failed to resist temptation, and grabbed a stack of old back issues at The Comicshop's moving sale — they were going for 80% off! I scored some serious gold. But i’ll
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Questions about what will become of comics, and of comic shops (and the people who run them, and the people who love them), will remain open for quite some time yet. As indeed, i sincerely hope, will Vancouver’s flagship Comic Shop. I wish them luck — i hope they really do live long and prosper.
In particular, i look forward to walking around the new shop with Roy... though it’s hard for me to comprehend the idea that, before long, he’ll be walking in there on his own little feet! I imagine myself, eventually, watching him pick out his own favorite hero stories.
But that’s a few Wednesdays down the road.
