That’s right, everyone! The ghostly appearance of the Apple II that took Brandon’s life can only mean one thing: it’s time for Digital Comics Week! What? That was finished six months ago? Well prepare for something entirely different:

Digital Comics Life!

That’s right, readlings! Digital Comics Life is here to make sense of all the major developments in the world of digital comics, “all” being defined as whatever I decide is noteworthy. So, business as usual.

The big news right now, of course, came from Barnes & Noble yesterday: the company is supplementing its eReader/device lineup with the NOOK Tablet, a 7″ device along the lines of the Kindle Fire or the Kobo Vox (or a Samsung Galaxy Tab, Motorola Xoom or BlackBerry PlayBook, if you want to be nasty). Like the other devices, the NOOK Tablet will be a multimedia tablet with LCD screen designed to show more than just books, and with that came the announcement that Marvel Comics is partnering with them to deliver the largest selection of Marvel graphic novels on any device. Meaning: other devices will have less. The graphic novels will also be available on the NOOK Color, even if that device’s name isn’t properly spelled, but I guess I’m just going to have to accept that Americans don’t know how to use the letter U correctly. Ah well.

Needless to say, this is a pretty big announcement, and a lot of good will come out of getting Marvel Comics into more hands. I will always be in favour of anything that gives readers more options, because that equals sales and that equals people I quite like being able to eat. Plus, a recurring complaint about digital comics as they’re currently sold is that issues usually have to be purchased individually instead of in digital “trade paperback” collections, and NOOK Comics will likely please a lot of the people with that complaint. So in that regard, hooray!

That said, there a lot of other sides and repercussions to the announcement, and that’s where Digital Comics Life comes in.

01. POLITICS: THEY’RE NOT JUST FOR SURREPTITIOUS GAY SEX ANYMORE

This announcement, with whatever positive results come from it, did not occur in a vacuum. Just as the NOOK Tablet is in many ways a response to devices like the Kindle Fire, the deal with Marvel they announced is a response to Amazon’s announcement that DC Comics would, at least for now, be releasing 100 of its graphic novels and collections exclusively on the Kindle platform. In response, Barnes & Noble pulled the physical copies of every one of those exclusives from their stores, remarking:

“regardless of the publisher, we will not stock physical books in our stores if we are not offered the available digital format. In recent instances, exclusive publisher deals have prohibited Barnes & Noble from selling certain eBooks, preventing millions of our digital customers from access to those titles. To sell and promote the physical book in our store showrooms, and not have the eBook available for sale would undermine our promise to Barnes & Noble customers to make available any book, anywhere, anytime.”

-Barnes & Noble Chief Merchant Jaime Carey

As a result, it’s hard not to see Barnes & Noble’s announcement, coming exactly a month to the day since Carey’s statement, as a response to DC as much as it is to Amazon. They’re not just debuting their newest, coolest device; they’re saying fuck you to DC. This isn’t unexpected, and it’s certainly not unjustifiable. However, what it does it create a difficult situation for consumers, which is where things get complicated.

02. WHATEVER CARD MONTE

Say what you will about comic book shops (and we have), even the bad ones theoretically offer the same selection to every customer. Whether or not they have everything in stock, whether not they will be a dick to you, every comic book store (and thus, if they’re doing it right, every customer) has access to the same selection.

With digital comics, this was initially not the case, as each company’s apps weren’t necessarily for all of the same devices. Gradually, digital comics sales have generally coalesced around Comixology and as that company’s portfolio broadened, everybody on every device could basically buy the same comics. Now, however, it seems like it’s moving away from this. Look at the different offerings:

• Amazon: Has DC exclusives, which are available on any non e-ink Kindle or any device that has a Kindle application, available internationally.
• Barnes & Noble: Has Marvel exclusives, which are available on the NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color. It’s unclear if they will be available on the NOOK applications*, which are only available in the United States. There is no international option.
• Comixology, Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Archie apps: more or less the same selection on every device/platform that has an app.

What this means is that different platforms have different selections, which are complicated by the apps and specific content licenses available. Before, fielding questions about NOOK vs. Kindle was primarily a matter of the device and the operating system. Now it’s complicated by “Well, what do you want to read?” If someone prefers Marvel, they should maybe buy a NOOK. If someone prefers DC, they can go with a Kindle or an Android or iOS device or a computer. Fans who like both will have the very likely reaction of being disappointed eventually, regardless of whatever they pick? What if it’s a gift? What if someone makes the wrong decision? Every point of divergence is another wrinkle for potential customers. Every wrinkle is another potential frustrated or confused customer, because “I want to read comics” is no longer the only consideration to have.

Plus, there’s the issue of international readers. I live in Canada, so I can’t buy the Kindle Fire or any NOOK iteration, but I can at least use the Kindle app on my iPad and read Watchmen there. Just like with some of their other announcements - like Netflix/streaming media and the partnership between Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited and Starbucks - Marvel hasn’t fully taken into consideration viewers who aren’t American. Given a world where Marvel’s movies and physical comics are available internationally, their digital approach can be incredibly frustrating for someone like myself, who wants to give them money but can’t because of their address. It looks likely that I won’t be able to buy some of their digital comics because I’m not American, and that is messed up.

03. THIS TIME IT IS ABOUT SIZE

Are all the devices equal? Not necessarily. The Kindle Fire and NOOK Tablet are more or less equivalent other than their exclusive deals, at least from a hardware point of view. However, the elephant in the room is still the iPad. Not only does it have a leg up by being an established market choice, but it also has access to the DC/Kindle exclusives. Plus, and this is huge, it (and larger tablets like the Samsung Galaxy 10.1) has a bigger screen. From a weight and transport issue, that could be a drawback. When it comes to reading comics, however, a 10″ screen is the closest tablet on the market to the actual size of most comics. While - and I speak from experience - double page spreads can require some zooming in to read the dialogue, single pages on a big screen are more or less as easy as reading a physical copy.

Now look Ultimate Spider-Man on the NOOK Tablet:

Image courtesy of Ryan Penagos

The first thing I’m sure you noticed is that the screen is bright, crisp and looks like it would be great to look at. Now imagine turning the page and having to read an 8-or-more-panel page on a device the size of your hand. Now imagine trying to read the dialogue. Without zooming. It sounds hard and it sounds frustrating, especially for people with vision issues. Time - and hands-on looks - will tell, but right now it seems to me like the 7″ screen size (NOOK or Kindle) isn’t as well suited for reading a comic as a device with a larger screen is. For the time being, I’m glad I went with an iPad, because a 10″ tablet reader seems to get the widest selection to read in the best digital format, but again, that’s just the lucky roll of the geographical dice for me.

04. FRAGMENTATION LIKE IT’S AN EPISODE OF FRINGE WHAT WHAT

Ultimately, the question I find myself asking is whether exclusive content deals are good. From a business viewpoint, it certainly helps Marvel to get some exclusive-agreement money and their name all over a press conference and the Barnes & Noble website. Eventually, the exclusive agreements could expire and the marketplace could become more or less equal again, while allowing some short-term benefits for the parties involved.

However, I’m not sure it’s great for the readers. One of the benefits of the promise of digital comics to me, as I’ve said before, is that especially with day-and-date digital releases,which Marvel has announced are coming company-wide in early 2012, I can say, “Buy this comics!” and any person who reads that can go out and buy a comic a second later, regardless of how close they are to a comic book shop or whether the local bookstore has it in stock. Watchmen for $9.99 on Kindle is an incredible deal and the book is often a great introduction to comics for a certain audience. Not being able to recommend it as a digital purchase to someone with a NOOK is terrible. A Marvel exclusive that only Americans can buy doesn’t do me any good.

Whatever business benefits they carry, exclusive deals seem to push the digital comics market away from the unification that appeared to be coming. A NOOK reader isn’t the same as a Kindle reader or an iPad reader. International readers aren’t the same as American readers. Marvel has an automatically smaller market through Barnes & Noble. It’s market fragmentation and I think it might harm more than it helps.

Fragmentation says that liking comics and wanting to pay for them isn’t enough. You have to have the right device in the right location, and it adds points of divergence and disappointment for prospective customers. At a very fundamental level, it says that not every comics fan is equal, and that seems like a dangerous thing.

Like I said, anything that puts comics in front of more eyes is doing a lot of good. More people will read Marvel comics because of the NOOK Tablet announcement, just like more people will read DC comics because of the Kindle announcement. That is, at face level, an extremely good thing. But after briefly expanding the available selection for every digital reader, these exclusive announcements seem to say that liking comics isn’t enough, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.

* A inquiry was made to Ryan “Agent M” Penagos, Marvel.com’s Editorial Director, who attended the press conference for Marvel; he said he would look into it for me.