So Jim Zubkavich, of Image Comics’ “Skullkickers,” has been having a broad discussion on Twitter today about comic book piracy, and it’s one of the best discussions I’ve ever read on piracy in general. I know there must be a better way to relay it than by taking screenshots of the most interesting exchanges, but I’m afraid I don’t know how to do the better thing yet, so for anyone interested, here’s the play-by-play:
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- Initial thoughts from Zubkavich: (first tweet in this set: http://twitter.com/#!/Zubkavich/status/137611498670395392)
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- Responses start coming in…
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- More good stuff…
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- More sidebar discussion
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- After those responses, Jim wrote this, which I found pretty striking. (I’d never thought about the google alert angle, the idea that notification of the piracy would land in your inbox)
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- Further commentary… and now I have another comic I need to check out.
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- The old “you wouldn’t take a CD off the shelf” canard comes out and Jim gives the obvious rebuttal. I’m just including this because I love it when people acknowledge the validity of different angles on one problem. Also until I read these two comic creators using it, I had never understood the physical analogy at all. I still think it’s a bad analogy, but I actually get it for the first time.
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- The conversation turns towards the positives…
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- Next round of Jim’s thoughts
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- Scott Kurtz joins in! With a lovely counterpoint in the form of a positive observation. Side note: you should read PVP (http://www.pvponline.com/)
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- More from Jim, winning me over (even more) by (again) acknowledging that some arguments against piracy are stupid. This makes the bit about it hurting creators land much harder. (Moral high ground: it’s where you launch the missiles from!)
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- Another positive spin, as one responder prompts a mildly embarrassed Jim (in an “aw, shucks” way) to relay the announcement that his comic, Skullkickers, is currently available on comixology. Hey, we have a comixology! Use this URL for our store: “http://www.artoffiction.com/HouseOfSecrets/digital.html#/series/4764″
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- Even more positive responses! I’m partly including this for my own reference. Legal, free alternatives rule! But only if the people who need them know about them.
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- And one more, because, as heatherlleach says here… Spread the word.
What do you think? I’m obviously not a big fan of piracy, what with the job where I sell comics to people and all, but I’ve also never considered it a very serious threat, because I’ve always believed that piracy is more likely to mean “more readers” than it is to mean “fewer paying customers,” and it seems like reasonably priced legal alternatives to illegal downloading do a very good job of redirecting the impulses of some former illegal downloaders.
(I of course would rather not admit that I downloaded music like crazy when I was young(er) and had no idea what money meant, or intellectual property, but assuming I did have such a wicked past, it would make it all the more striking that yesterday I paid $1.29 to buy a song I already own on CD. I didn’t have it on hand, but I wanted to play it for a friend, and it felt like a reasonable price for the instant gratification.)
So here’s to Jim Z.! Points for grace and style. And if, like me, you now feel like you should finally check out “Skullkickers?”
Here you go!
Skullkickers on House of Secrets Digital