Over the past few weeks, while the air has grown brisker and the leaves have adjusted hue accordingly, major industry players have dropped some fairly large announcements. Dark Horse, Marvel and DC were among the companies that recently announced new business initiatives – some of which were unveiled at the New York Comic Con this past weekend, while others came to surface in the weeks prior.

One of the larger announcements came from DC on September 21st, when the mega-publisher stated their intention to move a significant chunk of their employees from New York to Burbank, California. This move impacted DC’s multimedia and digital distribution divisions, which  basically means all of their TV, Movie, Videogame, and Digital Media Ventures. This makes sense, since Burbank is the home of DC parent company Warner Bros. Studios.

This, however, wasn’t the most significant piece of news DC dropped that day. In addition to reiterating the end of Zuda, (DC’s webcomic-publishing platform, which officially closed on July 1st) DC Co-Publishers Dan Didio and Jim Lee announced that the Wildstorm Comics imprint would also be shutting down. Wildstorm, which has been around for roughly 18 years, was known for publishing such comics as Ex Machina, Astro City, The Authority, and Gen 13. No lineup to slouch at, clearly.

The last Wildstorm titles will hit comic shelves in December of this year.

Then last week DC dropped another bombshell, when they made an unprecedented move to drop the price of their standard size monthly comics by a full dollar. Beginning January 1st, all DC titles currently priced at $3.99 will go down to $2.99 (US). With the price cut comes a minor adjustment to page count – instead of shipping with 22 pages of story, the $2.99 DC titles will contain 20.

Marvel initiated the price hike to $3.99 in early 2009, with DC following suit shortly thereafter. Apparently the gains did not justify the amount of customers alienated by the steep price point – Jim Lee said that DC’s decision to bring the retail cost back down was made with the “long-term health of the industry” in mind.

In a completely unrelated press release later that same day, Marvel also stated they would be reducing the price tag on ’some’ of their $3.99 titles in January. Specifically, Marvel’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Circulation David Gabriel went on record as saying, “because of the digital comic sales, prices will decrease (in 2011)”.

Vague? Yes. But also telling of the underlying issue at work here – print comics are lagging in sales, and comic publishers are struggling to restructure their business methods to capitalize on the rising popularity of digital distribution.

This issue was examined at great length in the ICv2 Conference on Comics & Digital at the New York Comic Con on Thursday. For a thorough breakdown of the panel, Comic Book Resources has an excellent write-up.

ICv2 is an organization dedicated to providing in-depth market analysis on pop culture products, and their website, ICv2.com, is a valuable tool for anyone seeking sales information and daily trade news pertaining to related industries.

ICv2 CEO Milton Griepp was on hand to present some early observations concerning comic sales so far in 2010. Comic Book retailers won’t be surprised to hear that graphic novel sales were down 20%, and while comic periodicals didn’t experience such a sharp decline, their sales were still “relatively flat”.

In contrast, Griepp went on to state how the digital market for comics has risen from the 1/2 to 1 million figure they estimated in 2009, to between 6 and 8 million for 2010. He attributed much of this market growth to the rise in popularity of the Tablet, particularly Apple’s iPad.

As the ICv2 conference carried on throughout the day,  it seems that it became clear there is strong contention as to how to handle tapping into that digital market. Subscription-based sales models became a strong topic of discussion, as did the concept of finding a way to let print and digital comics peacefully coexist – hopefully without denting the business of physical comic book retail shops.

So we’ve established that this is officially the current hot button topic of the industry. (And it only took how long?)

What else, then, are comic publishers doing to capitalize on this ever-swelling beast of a digital market?

Dark Horse appears to be riding on the front lines of aggressive expansion into the digital market, announcing a new publishing initiative which their VP Marketing described at NYCC as “the most ambitious e-comics program to date”.

Dark Horse aims to have a cross-platform app ready by January 2011 that can be downloaded for “(any) device that has a web browser”. The Dark Horse digital comics app would allow users to purchase a Dark Horse title, and read it on any device that has their proprietary ‘bookshelf app’ installed.

By making their application proprietary, Dark Horse avoids paying licensing fees to Apple per individual comic issues – thereby allowing them to lower cover prices, while increasing profits for creators. Instead of the $1.99 US price point typical to digital comic downloads on mobile devices, Dark Horse titles will be available for purchase for $1.49.

They also have a plan to allow direct market comic book retailers to sell Dark Horse digital comics in their shops.

Last year Marvel Comics announced the availability of their titles across a number of digital platforms, and earlier this year they launched their own Marvel Comics App (developed by ComiXology) for the iPad.

The Marvel approach seems to entail getting their titles out through as many digital distribution channels as possible – with the most recent being Graphic.ly’s desktop application, which Marvel announced in September.

The Graphic.ly announcement was significant because it marked the first time that Marvel titles could be purchased and downloaded directly to computers, which consequently makes them available for offline viewing. Previously Marvel comics could only be viewed on computers online, through Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited.

DC has approached the realm of digital comics more tentatively by comparison, just making their comics available through ComiXology and a ComiXology-powered DC Comics app this past June.

At NYCC, they had a few more announcements of their own to make on the subject. DC Co-Publisher Jim Lee said they aim to bring DC digital to Android devices in the near future, and a new Senior VP Digital was named.

Hank Kanalz was the Vice President and General Manager of Wildstorm Comics for the past six years – prior to which, he worked for Warner Bros. as their Director for Worldwide Theme Parks. His promotion to Senior VP of DC Digital makes sense, in a roundabout sort of way.

All of this amounts to the creaking joints of an industry experiencing some major growing pains. DC, Marvel and Dark Horse are obviously not the only publishers struggling to find direction as the digital market grows to overlap with print. Their announcements, however, are pretty indicative of the industry’s desire to find some way for both markets to coexist at least somewhat peacefully.

Well, comic book fans – you’ll have to contain your excitement and/or apprehension for now.

This Fall may have been a big season so far for announcements about business changes in the industry, but all signs seem to point to 2011 as being the real trial by fire period for new initiatives in comics.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

The three main venues this year was Another Dimension, Phoenix Comics, and Comic Kazi. Though we’d love to include all cities and venues, we’re just not as cool and capable as our freely featured superheroes. Maybe next year we will be lucky enough to have mastered our cloning skills. Calgary this year will have to do.

In Calgary, the hustle and bustle took place on Macleod Trail, where the local creator community, and fans, hosted by Comic Kazi banded together to create the vibrant atmosphere that brings the kids out in all of us. Thanks to Calgary’s own Gerald Garcia, who’s been running and coordinating the event at Comic Kazi since the early days. Gerald, was doing sketches to help raise proceeds for the Eugene Ouchi Memorial Scholarship at ACAD. Our hearts go out to Eugene’s family friends.

Kris Chisholm was there as well this year, sketching and enjoying the atmosphere. As he continues to draw, we can only see that this superstar to be, will soon be drawing our next favorite reads!

Fiona Staples, giving sketches away for free this year. Since the cancellation of Wildstorm’s, North 40, by Aaron Williams, after issue #6, she’s now hopped up on a new project, published by IDW called, Mystery Society, by Steve Niles. Sitting next to her was local artist Neil, who was happy that the community in Calgary has been growing quite successfully!

A few local indies there this year included Michael McAdam, and Mike Rieger, of Two Gargoyles Graphics. Since starting Diaperman in 1998, the twosome have successfully maintained their ability to self publish great stories, through community exposure.

A new feature to the stage this year was Ashley Delehay, the lead starlet in Zombie Attack! From Outer Space. She was there creating awareness and to promote, how to build a movie for under $60k! Following in Robert Rodriguez’s footsteps, the crew are well on their way with another Sasquatch movie in the works as well.

DC’s Marcus To, a Torontonian was there shaking hands and kissing babies, as he was a guest to the event this year providing the crowds with free sketches.

The Wildgunmen crew was also there promoting their new print editions of, The Wildgunmen, the geek culture magazine.

Last but not least, the coolest cat this year was Diamian Wilcox, of Dorkboy Comics! This local self published veteran has been producing web comics for the past 13 years. He was kind enough to hand out free sketches and, give our onsite comic fan, Cory Nelson, a comic of his very own!

The Sundry Seven also made a brief appearance. If you had a chance to snag one of the last remaining copies, we hope you enjoy the upcoming tale of our misfit superheroes in all their glory.

Remember, we really do love comics!