WRONG!

Just when I was rejoicing about DC Comics going to same-day digital releases on all titles, they drop the other shoe — right in the chowder.

DC slipped pricing information into their blog posting today about a comic book/digital copy combo pack for Justice League #1, and the news fell like a stinky wet fish that even Aquaman would have a hard time tolerating.

According to David Hyde’s post on The Source, “Both digital and print editions of DC’s comics will have parity pricing for the first four weeks of release; thereafter, the digital titles drop in price down to our standard 1.99 digital price point. Oversized issues, including JUSTICE LEAGUE #1, will start at $3.99 and drop to $2.99 after four weeks.”

I’ll say it again… WRONG!

You do not start a venture intended to encourage a whole new digital audience to grow by pricing digital copies the same as physical copies — unless you wait four weeks in which case you get digital copies for $1 less. This seems like a misguided attempt to throw a very small bone to comics retailers while slapping digital-version fans squarely in the face.

I bought every DC digital same-day release offered, even at what I considered to be an exorbitant $2.99 per issue, because I wanted to show DC there was a demand for same-day releases. Now, I’m sorry I did because it has apparently given them the impression that they can milk extra money out of digital fans who don’t want to wait an extra month to see what is happening in their favorite titles.

The philosophy of this is utterly backwards. DC is relaunching their entire universe. They should want to get those digital #1 issues out to everyone they can get to read them, from day 1. Had I been doing this, I would have been tempted to price every #1 digital issue at the lowest possible price for the first four weeks of release, just to get fans to try every series. I’d have offered a package deal on a subscription that would get you all 52 DC new universe #1 titles at such a bargain price that even casual fans or single-character fans would have been foolish not to sample everything.

Instead, DC is going to bleed the ones who are the most loyal fans for an extra buck a hit while slowing down the proliferation of the new DCU to the new audience they need to make it work. That’s like a football star dropping the ball at the one-yard line on the game-winning touchdown run so he can stop to sell a few extra autographs to nearby fans.

No digital edition should EVER cost the same as a hard copy of exactly the same material. If comics are going to ever again reach the mass audiences they once enjoyed, they need to attract new readers by being viable impulse purchases. 99 cents for most digital “reprints”. No more than $1.99 for standard size new releases on day of release. Subscriptions at bargain prices to encourage commitment and reward loyalty to a series. Larger size extra-value issues can be more, of course. But not this. This is a wrong move, just when DC was making all the right ones.

Short-sighted. Foolish. Self-defeating.

WRONG!