Corbit Wilkins of Captain Comics, Inc. in Boise, Idaho ponders the ramifications of digital comics (see "DC Goes Day & Date") and looks forward to day-early delivery.

Well, I just wanted to vent a little bit about the approach of the digital age of comics.  I've tried to view it as a way for a larger audience to gain access to comics--hoping they will enjoy the stories and want to visit our store for more.  But I fear the opposite is really going to happen.  With this being the first full year of the iPad and such, I can't even imagine where this will take us in the next 5 to 10 years.  This has really prompted some discussion with my manager and family.  Hearing news of same-day releases for the new Batman Beyond and Ultimate Spider-Man ("Death of Spider-Man"), I can only guess as to what will be next.  I can only hope that Marvel, DC, and others will understand that we will need some sort of consideration in future plans to keep reading and collecting alive.  Same-day releases for digital and print will surely see a decline in the traditional comic book shop numbers, and could ultimately hurt sales for everyone (including Marvel and DC) in the long run.

It's hard to imagine how our great customer service is going to keep winning over customers when our product becomes too expensive in comparison to the digital comic.  Are there any thoughts or action plans from other retailers on how to remain viable beyond this year?

On a completely different note, I want to give a big "Thanks" to Diamond for listening--and bringing day-early delivery to us!  Several times this past year we've had a missing box (or more) that arrived a day late.  Not only was it a pain for our rep to help get things moving, we had extra expenses for employees to be here early a second day and go through the pull system twice!  (This also includes other costs not discussed... like running a credit card twice in a week instead of once, extra fuel for driving to pick up the boxes, and losing sales to another store that didn't have the boxes shorted.)  So I'm hoping with the start of the early shipping next week, we'll see substantially less problems in the future!

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