Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Newsarama: Ron Marz Responds to DC's Digital Comics Plans



With the announcement today that DC Comics has entered the digital comics marketplace, one of the more interesting aspects of the program — for the industry's talent, anyway — was that DC will have a royalty program for creators when one of their digital comics is purchased.

DC has often been praised as a creator-rights leader for its royalty program, with former publisher Paul Levitz even winning an Eisner Award for his humanitarian work on behalf of creators. So creators weren't shocked by the announcement, but were reacting positively nonetheless.

The internet has also been abuzz about the future of comics now that both major publishers are dedicated to digital comics.

So we went to the creators to ask:

- What is your overall reaction to the news of DC's digital program?
- Do you have knowledge about or a reaction to the plan to pay royalties on digital sales?
- When do you envision the digital model being the industry's dominant from of distribution? 2 years, 5 years, 10, or never?

What follows is the response, which we'll be updating throughout the day:

Ron Marz

Obviously it was not a questions of "if," in terms of DC's digital model, it was a question of when. The industry as a whole needed Marvel and DC to both have a serious digital presence in order to move forward into the future of comics. I think a lot of hardcore fans will always want print versions, but to me, digital is the way that casual readers and more importantly new readers are going to pursue comics. As a creator, the most pleasing aspect is that DC has figured out its royalty plan for digital distribution. Which is not surprising, really, since DC has always been meticulous about both domestic and foreign royalty payments. If your book sells a hundred copies in Croatia, a check for a few bucks shows up. It's a hallmark of the company.

Read more creator responses here.
Source: Newsarama

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