Holy crap on a stick Tuesday! It's been forever since I wrote about anything comic book related, mostly because I couldn't afford to buy them. Now that's it's almost been 2 years since my last new book, I'm in a position to get back into the game. However, books are still getting increasingly expensive. With individual issues hitting $3-$4 standard during an economic recession, it's the worst possible time for a price hike. People can't afford the luxury of comics, not to mention most current books are lousy anyway. So, what are people to do if they want books cheap? I'd hate to say it, but the answer to keeping the comic book industry alive may be the Apple iPad.

Announced in late February 2010, the iPad is the Apple slate device everyone knew was going to happen. It's a 10" touch screen device - arguably a "large iPod Touch". It runs the iPhone OS and will run iPhone OS apps, as well as apps tailored for the iPad hardware. On April 2, Marvel announced an app that will undoubtedly change their company forever. They released the Marvel Comics iPad app.

First question: "How will I save money on (luxury expense) comics by buying a (luxury expense) reading device?" Good question, imaginary voice. The truth is, it's going to be a long term investment, no doubt about that. The iPad starts at $500 and works its way up to $830, with six models total. Many people are saying that's way too expensive for a device that doesn't even run a full version of Mac OSX (let alone Adobe Flash). But there are still a variety of applications (not program applications, use case applications) that cannot be denied and if it dropped even $100 in price, a whole lot more people would be convinced to buy it. Still, let's get back to brass tacks. $500 is the equivalent of about 140 issues at an average of $3.50. That's the device with no content yet. Now, the Marvel app offers a few freebies to get you into the game, with hints of ongoing offers of free issues to spur sales. That's not bad, especially when it's modern books like New Avengers or Thor from the beginning.

Here's the real news: Issues are $2 a pop. Temporary price? Maybe, but that's still significantly cheaper than print. I don't even remember when prints were $2; I got into "collecting" when I was 16 and books were $2.25. That's still not a huge difference from $3.5, which means that it'll take about 350 issues to break even (yes, I did the math, 0+3.5x vs 500+2x). If you buy 5 issues a week (say you're following 20 montly titles), it'll take 70 weeks to break even and start saving money on the iPad. Again, long term investment. It's not the answer to reducing issue prices during the recession, but it's a start.

So the next question is, "How do I justify spending money on an iPad just to read slightly cheaper comics?" Another good question, imaginary friend. Like I said, the iPad has various use case applications. The mail client, the map use, reading traditional books (Kindle app), there are lots of ways to change the way you use traditional paper/electronic products. Of course, if you read my Kindle 2 review, you'll see one of my arguments for it is not only the money savings, but also the space savings. Books are heavy; Comic books are heavier! Three 12-issue hardcover books weigh 8lbs. I'm currently sitting on 14 books by my bed that need a new bookshelf, one that supports 40lbs just for them alone. Heavy. With digital comics on the iPad, a never changing 1.5lb device, physical space becomes a non-issue. Of course, depending on what storage capacity model you get, you may need to store the bulk of your library on Marvel's servers. Thankfully, Marvel allows you to delete local copies and re-download them from the app to the iPad. That could make licensing rules more relaxed than current rules for devices like Kindle, which has a secret limit on re-downloads that are dictated by the publisher, but not disclosed. We'll see how that works when people start pushing it.]

But still, this app has a lot of promise for getting people (back) into comics. Get onto a device that people may be buying for other reasons, but provide a cheaper price than print, with various freebies. If and when I get an iPad, the Marvel app will be on there. In fact, I actually have it on my iPhone with a couple freebies already on it. It's not the best reading experience, but the page turning experience and even pane transition is amazing. It's not "animated", but the intentional pan and zooming does something that print has not ever been able to do - keep the surprise of the next pane/page. Unfortunately, it doesn't yet address the problem of centerfold art that covers both pages. If the portrait mode supports both pages, it might work out, but it'll take some interesting designer work to make portrait mode working for large panes. Of course, a lot of people are wondering where the DC app is, but we'll have to wait for DC's parent company Warner Bros to deal with licensing (I guess I'm not sure about Disney's involvement in the Marvel print distribution as of right now).

If you've got an iPhone, download the free app and any freebies. You may not get an iPad (at least immediately), but you can still see how well this app works and get some free content out of it. With Marvel's catalog still pretty limited, it may be a while until you're even capable of buying enough comics to make it cost effective. Marvel still has a lot of work to do to make this app a viable supplement, let alone complement, to the traditional reading experience. I want the iPad to allow comics to survive and evolve into a new era.