No, not that MDC:
And definitely not that MDC:
It’s Marvel Digital Comics (technically Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, but until they actually are without limit I stand by my truncated nomenclature). MDC offers thousands of sales pitches for Marvel toys issues of comic books, available for viewing online without software for a monthly fee of $9.99, or an annual subscription of $4.99 per month. This direct-to-consumers approach is not without its constraints, most notably that new issues won’t be available to subscribers for at least six months. If this seemingly arbitrary restriction gets aficionados blood boiling, it shouldn’t – it’s very much by design, and, as far as I can tell, beneficial to the greater comic book market.
Marvel Comics is the biggest generator of income for comic books in shops, followed by DC Comics. Providing an online service that gave consumers new issues at a greatly undercut flat rate might crater retailers, in turn dinting the sales of independent publishers, if not forcing them to go out of business altogether. Figurines and toys also play a weighty role in keeping shops in business, so it’s possible they, as well as the sale of graphic novels, could stem the losses. But it’s fairly obvious Marvel thinks it has a good thing going, even if the sale of the comics themselves actually accounts for a very small segment of the overall revenue stream. At very least, they don’t want to alienate retailers with anything so drastic as that, or deny themselves potential liquid assets at a time when every dollar counts.
I know this is off-topic, but I wish there were a relevant reason to write about the hardcore punk outfit MDC.
