It’s good to be back on The Watchtower!
While we had a bit of an extended holiday break, the comics world swirled around us! So much to talk about including:
-Avengers Vs X-Men Tie-In (note the sigular)!
-DC’s no-so-much holding the line at $2.99!
-Pandora’s box is open, and impending crossovers in the New 52!
-Comic Sales for 2011 were…up?
And so much more!!
All that plus we’ve got a massive Forecast, and Donnie turns fashion critic on the new Captain Cold!
It’s 2012! It’s The Watchtower! It’s Good To Be Baaaaack!!!
Got a question or comment for Donnie or Jeff? Leave a message at (347) 655-3000!!
10:07 pm on January 12th, 2012
Holy crap…finally!!
And excessive travelling during the holidays is not a legitimate excuse for delaying
a podcast =)
6:30 pm on January 13th, 2012
Oh! About time! I was one of the people who asked Jeff on Twitter if there was going to be a show this week and he didn’t even reply, so I started thinking that maybe you guys were hanging out together and decided to drive into the Grand Canyon, Thelma & Louise style, and that’s why there was no show for a while, and there never would be. Luckily, I was way off!
Also, did I hear Donnie apologize for the wait? He’s usually rather unapologetic about this, and he’s all like: “Oi! Shut up, awright? It’s free! In fact, you should be paying us for this, but you’re NOT, soooooo … Quit yer whinin’ … We record it whenever we feel like it!”. It must have been the booze talking, or he’s a changed man in 2012. Regardless, it’s good to be baaaaaaaaaaack!
3:01 pm on January 14th, 2012
Hey Morden,
Who do you like more? Jeff or Donnie?
Everyone else is also free to answer this question.
10:23 pm on January 14th, 2012
Kathrin Curtis
12:05 am on January 15th, 2012
Who the heck is Katherine Curtis???
*checks the web*
….OMG….
3:20 am on January 15th, 2012
Donnie is my favorite.
1:56 pm on January 15th, 2012
Mine too.
3:49 pm on January 15th, 2012
Making me choose between Jeff and Donnie is like asking me which Spice Girl I like better! Or maybe it isn’t. Perhaps it’s like making someone choose between their kids, and gosh, you kind of love them both, so what are you to do?
They’re just a dynamic duo that makes Watchtower what it is. However, I’d like to give Jeff some extra credit for being a busy bee. He seems to be reading all the comments, he answers on Twitter and via e-mail, on several occasions he did the show on his own, and from time to time he even puts together a contest for the listeners.
7:01 pm on January 15th, 2012
On a different subject, I couldn’t help but notice that Comixology increased the price of their digital comics, which now cost as much as printed ones. Last time I checked, publishing comics digitally didn’t cost as much as printing them and physically distributing them to the stores. Comics ARE digital before they get printed, so what gives? This is rather upsetting for me, and those like me, who don’t live in the US or Canada and can’t just go to a comic book store and pick up their weekly selection.
How can publishers actually lower the price of printed comics just so that others can spoil everything by bumping it up for digital releases? The Strange Talent of Luther Strode #3 was $1.99. Issue #4 is $2.99. That’s a whole dollar more. That’s half of what I paid for Luther Strode #3.
12:02 pm on January 16th, 2012
It’s true… I am pretty great… maybe I’ve changed my mind.
12:03 pm on January 16th, 2012
That’s strange. I hadn’t heard that Image had adopted the digital policies of DC (ie $2.99 for the first month, then drops to $1.99)
12:38 pm on January 16th, 2012
I once thought that cheap digital distribution would dramatically decrease illegal downloads, be it movies, comic books, software and everything else, but seeing as digital editions tend to cost as much as physical ones, what’s the point?
I rarely buy digital books for my Kindle, because at online bookstores I can pay half of what Amazon asks. Half of the digital price for a physical book, including shipping. For the life of me I can’t figure out how Amazon’s Kindle store can still operate. Perhaps it’s the convenience of a one click purchase.
Digitally purchased movies are usually locked to a specific device and can’t be played on anything because of the certificates that aren’t supported by all devices. Digital comic books now cost as much as printed ones. Digital books are more expensive than printed ones. Digital games cost way too much and after a month from a release, I can probably score a cheap physical copy from a bargain bin. Digital music I just don’t buy. I’ll stick to CDs and vinyl, thank you.
This whole “let’s make everything digital” really bothers me. Companies charge way too much for digital releases, and the funny thing is, people still buy them, which in its turn makes the companies think they can ask for more but give even less.
It feels like they’re testing how much they can get away with. Nowadays, when you buy a game for your Xbox, there’s a ton of “extra” content for you to buy. If you buy a fighting game, you can buy extra characters. If you buy a first person shooter, you can buy extra multiplayer maps, and so on. Seeing as you already pay for Xbox Live to be able to play online, is it really fair to pay for extra multiplayer maps? Usually, the amount of money you have to pay for the extra content effectively triples the price of the game. People buy all of this, so there’s no denying that there’s a profit to be made on those extras. So other companies follow, and so on.
This rant is getting quite long, but my point is, if prices of digital editions were lower, I’d be buying a whole lot more. In the end, it all comes down to the question “is it worth it”. Digital comics are awkward, and now that they cost as much as printed ones, what’s stopping people from downloading those easily accessible scans, for free? What happened to keeping the prices low and customers happy? Now, it’s “let’s increase the price and see if they’ll still buy it”.