Dear Mom,

Yesterday, the fine folks at Apple announced a feat of engineering that will be released soon and they’re calling it the iPad. Yes, I know it’s a pretty stupid name, but apparently the guys in marketing are MadTV fans. Please don’t make me explain that reference.

Since then, I’ve been trying to write down my thoughts on this in a way that explains both Yes, this technology will have an impact on the comics industry and No, I’m not worried any more than usual about Brave New World’s ability to support your son and family. So, I thought it might be easier to explain it to you in an open letter since you don’t follow these sorts of announcements the way that many of our customers and friends do. I know you’re very busy running a household full of teenage foster care girls and don’t have much time for these sorts of things, so if you just skip to the part where I explain why I’m not worried, I won’t blame you a bit.

First of all, what is an iPad. The hype preceding it got out of control and it looked like they were about to announce something akin to a tricorder (even you have to get that reference, right?) but, as with many other techno announcements in the past (did I ever tell you about how people thought those segway thingies were going to defy gravity?) this one was a very predictable step on the technological ladder. A tablet (or touchscreen computer with a color screen, no keyboard and no mouse) that is about the size of a hardback book and costs $500. There are a lot of specs that I won’t worry you with, but lets just say that this thing is kinda cool.

So, you might ask yourself, why should I worry about yet another computer taking away my grandson’s college savings? You shouldn’t. But, many, many are worried that it will effect the comics industry in the same way that the iPod (surely you’ve confiscated at least one of those) effected the music industry. Okay, maybe the iPod didn’t actually make the effect, but it was a symptom… you know what? I should explain how comics works first.

The majority of comic books are sold as periodicals. 22 page stories that are chapters (or episodes) in a larger story that you read monthly. Well, not you specifically, I know you have too much laundry, dishes and floors to clean (and yes, this is how I imagine your day. I also imagine an endless stream of peanut butter cookies coming out of your kitchen so take it with a grain of salt) to be able to stop and read 22 pages of story every month. But most of our customers will read anywhere from 6 – 65 of these stories every month. The problem is that at $4 a pop only those with a good ability to budget or a good job and an understanding wife are able to afford that kind of habit. 

The music industry had this same problem 15 years ago or so. In order to be a full-on music fan, you had to afford a couple albums a week and after all the different format changes, a bunch of college kids figured out that they didn’t need all buy these CDs, they could just copy them to their computer and burned them to another CD or share them over the internet. And then Apple came along with the iPod and iTunes and cemented the fact that recorded music was in fact easier to distribute digitally and so why are you carrying aroung CDs? Have you seen a record store lately? This is why.

So, for awhile now, people have been expecting the next big change in technology to take the world of comics down that same path. And everytime I was asked if I thought that digital comics were going to impact our business, I said, “Sure, when there’s a color tablet with wireless access to the internet and is priced under $200.” The iPad is 2 out of 3. Which means that 3 out of 3 isn’t far behind. 

I see you eyeing that pile of laundry that needs to be folded and wanting me to get to the part where you can stop worrying, so how about a list of reasons? But, before I do, I should tell you that I’m convinced that eventually, we will take a hit from this. So, I’m not being naïve, but I have been thinking about this for a long time.

1. Comics are still collectable. The collectability of individual issues took a hit when publishers started publishing paperbacks (I would use the words Graphic Novel here but I know that you always arch your eyebrow when I use the word “Graphic”) that collected the stories of those individual issues. But, there is still a collectors market and since this is one of those justifiers that readers give their understanding wives, I don’t expect this one to go anywhere soon. And no one has yet to figure out how to make a digital copy go up in value.

2. Most of our best customers are in their 30s. This means that they have always done the most of their reading on paper and won’t change that soon. It also means that have lots of earning and consuming years left in them. Hows that for a mercenary view?

3. The top publishers are way behind in getting their product ready to distribute digitally. DC has made no real efforts to provide the stories people are clammoring for and Marvel (who wants to paint themselves as the market leader in this field) made the nearly comical blunder of attaching their digital content to a software platform that Apple refuses to cater to. There are other smaller publishers who have made better in roads, but until the big two head down that road, we don’t have anything really to fear. 
This reminds me of something very funny. There is a company that wants to provide digital comics to everyone. And they have always said that that is their goal. They also developed a comics subscription program that they’ve been convincing retailers to PAY for so that they (and the retailer) can collect the data about these customer’s buying habits and contact info which they will no doubt use to market digital content to those same customers. Okay, maybe it’s only funny to me.

4. Brave New World is a pop culture shop. As long as there is stuff that people want to play with, throw, wear, adorn their walls with, fly, splat, shake, solve, compete over, or smear each other with, we’ll be here to sell it to them.

5. Brave New World is a community. There is a very good reasons that Portlyn and I made this choice. This announcement was one of them. Because it is very hard or at least much less fun to download in-store gaming, art lessons, Geek Singles Night, live music, creator appearances or any of the other activities that we have here at The World on any given weekend. It’s always more fun to meet someone face to face and get to know them. It’s always more fun to buy your comics from a pretty face than it is to type in your paypal number. Brave New World will be here because we’ll be here and we’ll be listening for how we can make this place more like what our customers need.

SO, yeah, the comics industry is about to make a change. And if you watch over my Facebook status more than I assume you do, you see that when it was announced my first reaction was a bit depressed. It wasn’t because I thought we were going to have to change our way of life. It was because I had known this was coming and knew that I still had a lot of work left to do to make this place what is needed to be to survive that change.

Today, though, I’m excited. Aside from being a consuming tool, the iPad has the chance to be creative tool and I’m excited to see what creators come up with when they’re not chained to desks and scanners. I’m excited to see if people will actually begin to read more for pleasure when their periodicals are in their hands again. I’m excited to see if journalism will make a comeback with this new invention. I’m excited to see if comics will actually gain a new audience when the limits of the shabby comics shop are no longer a limitation. But, mostly I’m excited because, damn it, I was right. I was right about how people would respond to this kind of tablet. And I can’t wait to see if I’m right about how people will respond to the place that our team is building here at Brave New World. Sorry about the damn it.

No worries, Mom. Brave New World will keep your grandson in Oreos and apple juice for the foreseeable future. We won’t be calling you up asking to move into your guest room anytime soon (though I suspect you’d like that). No, you can go back to watching the news for reports of floods, fires and earthquakes and worrying about how we’re surviving those. Because, we have a great group of people shopping with us, working and playing with us and it will take some sort of epic natural disaster to bring down Brave New World.

Your loving son,
Atom!
(I LIKE spelling it that way!)