In the Dawning Era of E-Books

Gary Leach bangfish at cableone.net
Wed Feb 17 16:57:29 CET 2010


I've also wondered about the future of comic books as printed on paper  
(or dead trees, as some will have it).

Back when we first started working on computers to produce Gladstone  
comics, they seemed to be the answer to time-consuming and  
increasingly expensive "traditional" publishing production techniques.  
Only slowly did it start to dawn on us that computers combined with  
networking combined with the Internet heralded what was, perhaps, the  
beginning of the end of publishing as we even knew it.

In many ways publishing on paper has met the future and found it  
dismal. Whether it goes away entirely remains to be seen, but  
indications are that the 32-page comic book that I and so many others  
grew up with is reaching the end of its time as the main medium for  
comics.

It's a melancholy thought, at least for old-timers like me. Still, I  
remain interested in what the future holds. And I think there are some  
bright prospects there for old friends like Donald, Scrooge and  
Mickey. The trick seems to be, at this stage, getting a bead on the  
most effective way to present them.

Gary

> From: schulte at teacher.com
> Date: February 16, 2010 6:04:52 AM GMT-07:00
> To: dcml at nafsk.se
> Subject: Re: Paolo/Papersera/The Future of Comic Books
>
>
>  Many thanks to Paolo for his efforts at Papersera!
> As a teacher of Latin, who has some Italian training, I can  
> understand some of the site!
> The website obviously has taken many hours to construct!  I think of  
> Beru's website with all the scans of stories by Barks, Rosa, et al.
> With Kindle and other so-called "e-books" I do wonder if Internet  
> paperless publishing is not the best way to continue the tradition of
> Disney Comics as handed down to us by Barks, Rosa, et al.  On the  
> other hand, perhaps the comic-book story
> is obsolescent?  Today's Wall Street Journal has an article on 3-D  
> cartoons coming out this Spring and Summer, along with regular  
> movies (over 20 total:
>  how does a $9.00 comic book compete with a $9.00 ticket to a 3-D  
> movie?  To be sure, you can keep and re-read the comic book.
> But for the new "thrill me more" generations, that might be a  
> difficult proposition to sell.
>  3-D Cartoons
>
>
> Best Wishes
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