earlier today, Brian Wood, the writer of the comic i’m currently drawing for Dark Horse, “The Massive”, published this Tumblr post. take the time to read it.

The Massive debuts in January in Dark Horse Presents#8. it’s the first of a three part prequel story, and then the ongoing series debuts in June. that’s just a little bit of background.

I share Brian’s sentiments regarding the state of affairs. As an artist and a black belt level daydreamer, i have my own ideas about where things could go..

the physical single issue might go away. It’s possible that the serialization of comics will become increasingly digital, with comic shops dealing in “books of a certain size”. trades, art books, etc. there are still plenty of goods both paper based and durable to fill the shelves of a forward thinking comic book establishment. load those up with production art, interviews, etc.

it would be interesting to produce and distribute serial installments of comics digitally more like a season of television. buy single installments on the cheap, or buy a “season”. then buy the premium trade from the shop.

you can’t put technology back in it’s box. some publisher is going to have to be the first to do a lower digital price point. it’s inevitable. Things are changing. i find myself drawing a vertically oriented comic page, and picturing the day in a few years when that fucker turns sideways for Ipad viewing, or we start drawing pages with perfect 1/3 tiers for easy scrolling. things are going to change, in the business, and the artform. I think the vital thing is to make the distinction between the digital serial installment, and the physical collected volume. Two designations of product, with two pipelines of distribution. Where does this leave the physical single? I don’t know, I find myself buying less of those nowadays.