My big proposal to DC Comics

[sckao]

Nice job!

 

For something like this to happen and pervade the public consciousness though... you have to go where the action is.. and the action is via the Itunes interface where people already have their credit cards entered. (Although I agree that a separate Website is also necessary.)

 

I'm sorry it didn't work out.

[Aman619]

Very nice presentation! Impressive!! but obviously, as you know, the right idea always needs the right timing to get off the ground. And if you step back and be honest, how hard is it to imagine that Levitz et al have already thought about and decided against putting their comics library online? Reminds me of Bob Overstreet moaning about about how many times since CDs were invented that people told him he could (and should) put the Guide on CD or online..... When the right time came around he did it, sort of, but you see what I mean.

 

Anyway, you have a cool job in animation! Who says the comics biz is any better??? Didnt Millar say recently that Hollywood is constantly raiding the comics biz for talent? They already got you!! Enjoy! Think of how boring it would be managing the endless tedious conversion of 1000s of comics into scans etc. whew!

[Johnny G]

You did a fantastic job! This IS the way of the future, like it or not.

 

I feel for you man

 

My feelings on the idea; sure this won't hurt NEW comic sales ... but what about the back issue market? Already there are thousands of downloads available from thousands of sites! I know that there is one torrent available weekly which has every single publication for that week available to view digitally... for free!

 

How can this NOT hurt the market?

 

Sure I think it's cool and I actually have a few titles in digital format myself. But what about the new collectors that we want to bring to the hobby? Will we bring them in by way of the internet and downloads? Or the traditional way of shops, conventions and the like?

 

I have discussed this with many friends in the hobby and we all agree: That although it is cool, it will surely put stores and conventions out of business! Slowly yes, but that is what the outcome is sure to be.

 

 

 

Again, you did a fantastic job and I think that you will be rewarded for your efforts, if not by DC, some other company will realize your creativeness

 

John

[goldust40]

Tremendous work, although I might've been more reticent about sharing it just yet. The site pages look fantastic and do make you want to download books.

[ArAich]

Nice job WDB...my feelings are...screw the big 2 and launch a website that features comics that have no copyright protection...I'm sure the supply is vast....

[chromium]

This is a fantastic looking proposal Howard...like a few others already said, it makes you want to start downloading and reading comics right away...

 

I would have put a shocked-Robin-in-the-corner on the cover, but yours works as well

[Red Hook]

Don't let one rejection letter stop you. Wait until you have a couple of walls papered with them.

[Timulty]

Wonderful presentation, great concept in theory but with the trades and archives that DC makes money from....well, I am not surprised they didn't go for it.

The sad part is, that is DC did this, Marvel would follow suit. More agressive legal actions would take place to shut down sites with their old material available for download. And then it would most likely be as you said.

What they are truly missing is Cross-product and promotional revenues from this. They could consolidate their DCdirect line with the site you proposed and work off the synergies of both.

 

Well, their loss in my opinion. Still, you should try to get on with an independent or small publisher. Make your bones. Then give them a shot a couple years from now. At the very least a decent digital effects guy would be worth a million to them.

[Dad&Son-migration]

Don't let one rejection letter stop you. Wait until you have a couple of walls papered with them.

 

I echo these sentiments as Red Hook said. Don't let one stop you from achieving your dreams. If your passionate about a project or number of projects about a certain area like comics just keep the creative juices flowing and you may stumble upon the next great breakthrew!!! I admire your hard work and ambition. At least you don't use it to create eBay scams... Keep up the great work... I personally think it was a fantastic presentation and business plan. You have skills!!!

[kahml]

Absolutely FANTASTIC work!

 

 

Larry

[Red Hook]

Don't let one rejection letter stop you. Wait until you have a couple of walls papered with them.

 

I echo these sentiments as Red Hook said. Don't let one stop you from achieving your dreams. If your passionate about a project or number of projects about a certain area like comics just keep the creative juices flowing and you may stumble upon the next great breakthrew!!! I admire your hard work and ambition. At least you don't use it to create eBay scams... Keep up the great work... I personally think it was a fantastic presentation and business plan. You have skills!!!

 

And don't forget, he's got the Eye of Agamotto on his side too!

[Ze-man]

Howard, well done man...well done!

 

Made me wish it was an actual site I could go to....NOW

 

If anything at least you had fun making it, and perhaps can spin this effort into something tangible down the road.

 

Thanks for sharing and keep us posted.

 

Ze-

 

 

PS I love the Bat Chucks!

[SignatureSelect]

That was the coolest proposal. I would have jumped on that. They are very dumb. Sure they might take a risk But they could have made some big money. I mean I would have downloaded detective 1-26 on my first visit. I would have also down loaded adventure 40-44. That is 30 buck my first visit. They would have had thousands of people do that.

[topofthetotem]

Very nice work!

I'm kinda bummed out, I thought it was gonna have a happy ending.

[Sal]

my advice would be to foster relationships within the DC publishing office, so that if they ever did decide to do something like this, you would be at the front of their rolodexes.

 

things rarely happen solely because of talent, ability, perserverence or luck. it's almost always relationships

[Karma23]

Beautiful job, sorry DC missed out on your talents! Have you thought about offering this to other publishers? Image or darkhorse for example?

[Mr. Zipper]

Great work, Howard!

 

However, I don't know if I would have sent that much on spec. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

 

[Monstro]

i would love to be able to download old books like that for a buck. looks like it would have made a great site. why don't you pitch it to marvel?

[howardhallis]

Thanks everybody for the nice words.

 

I had a bit more detail in the proposal at first, but Brendan advised me to keep some of the negatives out.

 

Like the effect something like this would have on the back issue comic market. First off, in my opinion the only thing this could really hurt would be trades. I think collectors will still be on the lookout for high grade original books, and as most of us know, reading a comic online is just not the same as holding one in your hands. But, as many of you know, people who just buy the comics for the story would probably choose to download 5 issues for $5.00 rather than get a $20.00 book.

 

Marvel has already licensed many of their comics to that company that put the first 500 Amazing Spider-Man and X-Men issues out on DVD for $50. Can you imagine how much more money they would have made if they developed a system like the one in my proposal? Who would spend the $500 when you can get them already in digitized form for pennies per comic?

 

Back to the DC Archives Online:

 

Like I-Tunes, users could sign in and have an instant download button that would charge their credit card instantly each time people click DOWNLOAD NOW. I wanted to go into this option more, but once again Brendan said it might get too complicated to describe to the suits.

 

The other negative that I wanted to address would be piracy. Obviously many of these books would be up on Bit Torrent or Limewire about 5 minutes after the site launches. Not much you can do about that other than ask people to report it and have Warner Brother's lawyers actively try to shut down any sites that encourage distribution of their copyrighted material. We've already seen how effective that is, so I didn't mention any of this in the proposal.

 

And as far as rejection slips go, I've already gotten quite a few. I still try to develop and put energy into new ideas, but this one has hit the brick wall. Once I got the form letter, I realized there was nothing more I could do.

[Aman619]

Marvels is all over the idea. They used to put new books online,

 

And doesnt anyone remember CROSSGENs online comics program? They let you read them for a small fee AND, they actually animated the balloons and sound effects! A real hybrid comics/"online cartoon" experience. Didnt help (or hurt) their prospects in the long run.

 

But presenting and selling comics online is NOT a new idea anymore. DC and Marvel are seeking the perfect business model before they jump in.