Amazon’s digital store for distributing and selling comic books, called Comixology, has “officially” accepted Miserable Americans book 1 for sale on their digital platform. I took the opportunity to refresh the first book. Updating it for the digital format and giving it a completely new cover illustration. Book 1 feels up-to-date with the rest of the series and having it available for digital sales is very cool and a first for me. Being a long time collector of comic books, I can’t say enough about the printed format. The way a book feels; the way it reads. Collecting comic books and perusing comic book shops has always been nothing but a pleasure. Comics not being a mass market medium, noodling around a comic book store always feels like belonging to en exclusive club, that only a few are aware of. I highly recommend a trip to your local store if you never have. It’s not just about super-heroes anymore. You’ll find any genre; sci-fi, horror, comedy, auto-biographical, surreal, non-fiction…. and several books that mix all those elements together. The comic book shop is still an under-appreciated cultural gem in almost any city you can find one. I think most people might just find it hard to leave…. at least without a pile of books in their hands.
Still, that being said, I can’t deny that I have enjoyed the new digital format. I’ve rebought some of my favorite books and having them available on my phone or iPad at a moments notice is pretty cool. As well, the reading experience is tremendous. And while I always love the printed book seeing this new version of book 1 on the digital platform is pretty cool. Click the image below to visit Miserable Americans on Comixology.
UPDATE: This fall Comixology is being fazed into the Kindle Store on Amazon. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand it may be a sign that Amazon was having trouble driving traffic to a stand alone digital comic book shop and that moving them into the Kindle store will open them up to a potential wider audience. I don’t know… we’ll see.