Oh, the hours I've spent inside the Coliseum, Dodging lions and wastin' time.  Oh, those mighty kings of the jungle, I could hardly stand to see 'em:

I've been absent for quite a many more weeks than I had originally intended.  What started out as a work related trip that I figured would consist of no weekly columns turned into more than a month of depriving you, my gentle readers, of my words on a semi-weekly basis.  And for that I am truly sorry.  To the two of you that actually read this column.

This week's column actually is derived from my now not so recent travels.  I want to talk about shopping and electronics and how they tie into the proud tradition of our wonderful comic book shops.  I just noticed something is completely off the subject here, but thought I'd mention it anyways.  When I write about comic books I normally write comics or as in the previous sentence when I write comic book shops I started to put down just the words comic shops, but decided to add the book inbetween.  Do I think you might imagine I'm writing about a shop full of stand up comics?  My second San Diego Comic Convention I was sharing a room with as many other fellow struggling writers and artists as we could squeeze into in order to better keep the individual cost down.  One of these fellow creators was a fellow named George Broderick, who late went on to be Editor of Innovation Comics.  One day George and I decided that since we were in San Diego and San Diego is well known for its famous zoo as well as its famous Comic Book Convention we should partake of said former and skip some of said latter.  In the cab to the zoo the driver asked what we were in town for and we casually mentioned we were there for the comic con.  And his reply was the industry needs new comedians.  So whenever I start to write just comics I always flashback to that conversation in the cab as George and I tried to explain to the driver about a before what would late become a huge convention and I'm sure every cab driver would know what the comic convention was.   End of long digression.

Before I left for my recent trip I decided to purchase one of those new fangled devices that Apple just came out with.  You know what I'm talking about, the iPad.  You might have seen a thing or two about them in the news.  I struggled with the decision for at least a week before I broke down and found myself at my local Best Buy fondling said device and telling the sales clerk that I had to have one.  And surprisingly considering all the talk about being sold out and people having to wait to get one there was one waiting for me there that day.  So I was able to take my new toy home and start to play with it.

This isn't an electronics column so I'll refrain from covering too much about the iPad.  What I want to talk about is comics...ahem....comic books and the iPad.  Every comic blog or news site is predicting the end of print comics and the rise of digital comics.  Even DC Comics, which up to now has had no presence at all in the digital world has thrown their cowl into the ring and have their very own app now.  One of the most downloaded apps on the new iPad was the Marvel Comics app.  In almost every review I read of the iPad the Marvel Comics app was mentioned and usually in a very positive light. 

Yes, I downloaded some comics.  I downloaded the Marvel Comics app and the Comicology app, which is an app that features a lot of other comic companies besides just Marvel Comics.  I downloaded a few free comics.  I ended up downloading both Mage I and Mage II, mainly because it's one of my favorite series and I figured that I wouldn't mind re-reading it a few times whenever I wanted to read  a comic.  Let me say right away that comics look really good on the iPad.  Turned longways the device isn't that much smaller than a comic book, so when you have a page on the screen it's not that much smaller than the actual comic book page you would hold in your hand if you were reading the print version.  The colors are bright and the art jumps up from the screen at you. 

Over the last month or two that I've had the iPad I've downloaded a dozen or so comics.  Since the DC Comics app was just introduced I've downloaded a few more from their line.  Do I see myself replacing my print versions with digital versions?   Now I'm not going to be your typical buyer of the online digital comic books.  I'm a bit older than the fan that was raised on computers and doesn't know what a vinyl record album is.  I buy digital music, but I still search out and enjoy buying something that I can actually hold in my hand and put in a player to bring music forth.  For me buying comics on the iPad will be best for two reasons.  One is for something like the first two Mage series I bought and downloaded.  (And I should point out that I own both series in print also.  In fact I own them in the original comic version and than later the collected versions, so with the iPad version that will make the third time I've purchased these books).  A finite series that I enjoy going back and reading, so if I'm traveling and want something to read I can pull it up and have it at my fingertips.  The second reason will be to try out new series.  One advantage to a digital issue is that it's almost half the price as it's paper brothers and sisters.  Comics are pricing themselves out of impulse buy.  Once upon a time I would not hesitate to pick up a few new issues of stories that I had never read or might have stopped reading a long time ago, just to see if I thought.  Nowdays when the average comic costs almost four dollars I find myself thinking twice about picking up that comic that I have been reading on a regular basis, much less picking up something that I might not know anything about.  But as a digital read the price hasn't pushed itself out of that chance to give it a try.  And here is something that the brick and mortar shops should find good about the device that many of them see as the end to their existence.  If I try out a new comic on the iPad and like it I will find myself more likely buying it at my local comic shop than continuing on the iPad.  The iPad only holds so many bites (or whatever you call them) so why clutter it with up a lot of four color ones. 

So do I think the iPad is going to destroy the comic book shops?  No, but it will have a big impact on them and change the way a lot of people shop for their comics.  Like I said, I don't think I'm the typical comic book shopper nowdays.  A lot of younger people have been raised on digital everything, so for them buying digital comics will be no big thing.  But still most people that buy comics do more than read them.  They collect them.  Collecting digital comics just isn't the same thing as collecting print versions.  And you can't resell a digital comic.  Ok, ok, yeah, you could, but I don't think anyone is going to be offering hundreds of thousands of dollars for a digital comic. 

One factor that was driven home to me while I was traveling was the reinforcement that I am a big nerd, or as the more currently acceptable nomenclature, geek I am.  I was traveling for work, so this wasn't a vacation for me.  But one of the first things I did when I got to my first stop was to key in “comic book shops” in the gps.  I was in a suburb of a large city, but I only came up with the name of one comic shop in my gps.  And it was just down the street from the hotel I was staying at.  It wasn't more than ten minutes away. 

The shop was in a strip mall that was shaped like a huge sideways L.  The shorter half was a grocery store and a few other stores.  The longer part has a few stores and a Pancho's towards the bend. (And on a side note when I saw there was a Pancho's I was overjoyed.  Ever since the one on Veterans closed I have been craving Pancho's.  But this was not the all you could eat but a normal sit down restaruant.) The other half of the L was mostly empty.  Except for the comic shop.  On both sides of it were empty stores.  I almost passed it, there was no sign except for one in the front window telling me what it was.

Entering the store the first thing I noticed was that I didn't see any new comics.  There was a huge counter to the right, where the person running the shop was sitting playing a video game.  In front of me was a spinner rack with what looked to be comics that were at least five or six years old.  Nothing that was particularly collectible, just some random comics shoved in the rack.  There was a table with a few comic boxes on it behind the rack.  A little farther down from the table was another table with a pile of comics sitting on it.  Not in boxes, just piled on top of each other.  In the showcase was some toys.  There were toys on the wall to the left.  The clerk finally acknowledged me when I walked past him and back into the shop.

I still hadn't seen any new comics.  Finally off the side, next to the counter on the wall were the new comics.  I counted maybe two dozen different titles.  In the back were more boxes in no order, comics sitting on another table.  I couldn't figure out any sort of order to any of it.  I also couldn't figure out any sort of pattern to what new comics he ordered.  There were some Marvel, some DC, the newest issue of Buffy and that was about it. 

Needless to say I didn't spend much time in the shop.  A few columns back I talked about the fun and interesting conversations I've had in comic shops.  I tried to ask the clerk a few questions, but he was more interested in his video game than talking to me.

Comic shops can worry about the iPad all they want, but I think the biggest problem is the comic shops themselves.  Yes, there are a lot of good ones out there.  Ones where you can go in and find new comics and a person that is interested in what you are looking for and willing to help you.  But we all know of the other ones.  The ones like the one I just mentioned.  The ones that think all they have to do is rent a space and put some comics in it and they're in business.  Maybe, but they won't be in business for long.

Another comic shop that I've bought from now and than has told me he is having to cut back on how many titles he can order and how many issues he can put on the rack.  I can understand this completely.   Comics are non returnable, whatever the shop buys they are stuck with it.  As the price of comics go up it also goes up for the shop.  And as the economy goes down less people have disposable income for comics that cost four dollars a pop.  So a shop can't just order every comic out there and stick it on the rack and hope it sells.  I know that for some of the comics I like I might have to search for or pre-order with a shop.  That was the big point the owner was telling me, he's not ordering much for the racks, if I wanted a comic I needed to open a folder and pre-order what comics I wanted.  I won't go into why I don't do this anymore, but I'm not a fan of folders.  And this is just for me.  I think it's a great idea for someone that knows what comics they want and regularly buy the same comics.  I skip around too much now in my buying.  I might buy a series for awhile, but than drop it.  I like to look at a comic and decide to pick it up when I'm shopping.  I don't want to feel forced to buy something because I put it in a folder.  Still everything the owner was telling me I could agree with. 

I went looking for some comics.  The newest issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer had just come out.  I didn't see it.  I asked and was told that he was only ordering enough to fill his folder customers.  Now outside of Marvel and DC Buffy is the best selling comic month in and month out.  Buffy has a name recognition outside the normal comic book shoppers.  Someone walking in off the street and wanting to try comics will recognize Buffy.  So my question is why wouldn't you want to buy a few issues to put on your rack?   

I could understand the comic from that small publisher that no one has ever heard of.  Heck, I can even understand some of the other comics from some of the bigger publishers like Dark Horse or Image that a casual reader might not pick up on.  But if you want to grow your business why would you not put a few copies of Buffy out on your rack?

Making sure you have those folder customers is going to make sure you know you're making a certain amount every month, but it's a closed system.  Unless you have new customers coming in and buying comics you're not going to attract new folder customers.

Instead of looking for villains outside the field  comic shops should look to themselves first and make sure that their yards are in order.  The iPad will have an impact on comic book shops, but if some of them don't get their own acts together first it won't matter because they'll already be gone.

John Holland is back and will be back again next week.  He promises.  Unless something happens, but he doesn't think anything will happen.  He's actually got a big multi part set of columns coming up.  And he'd like to actually talk about, you know, some comics themselves, maybe sometime soon.  You can reach him at JohnH985@gmail.com.