Jerry Ringi of Amazing Fantasy Comics in Chesapeake, Virginia read the recent article regarding the growth of mobile comics (see "Mobile Comics Growing Geometrically") and had this to say:

Excuse me while I laugh at the statement that the new mobile comics coming out on all sorts of devices will help bring comic book retailers more customers into our store to purchase comic books.  That is, at best, a hope and a prayer.  In reality it will end up costing us customers and will put the last nail in the coffin of the Direct Market Industry as we know it today and the end of Diamond as a distributor of comic books.

How long will it be before one of the major publisher (Marvel, of course, since they have been looking for a way to steal the direct market customer for years now so they will of course lead the way) will start to offer a subscription for new stories to individuals who are upset with the $2.99, and shortly going to $3.99, for each comic book?  The offer of $10.00 a month for a group of comics to be downloaded to read each month will be the death of the direct market.

Help the direct market retailer?  What a laugh it would be and the first time since I've been in the business (1992).  Well, I hope that once the publishers (Marvel) are successful in doing away with us and having the field all to themselves they can now cut out the cost of  publishing, shipping and distributing their product now they can have it all.

I can only hope that when this market dies -- and I'm sure that it will because reading on a device made for games is not the same thing as playing a game on it -- it will die off and then the publisher will again be looking for something to save them again.  Only this time they will have killed the goose that laid the golden egg for them and the business will be gone.

So please excuse me if I laugh at this move that will supposedly help bring in new customers to my shop.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.