Comicscape - November 19, 2003

By: Tony Whitt
Date: Wednesday, November 19, 2003

OPINION:

It still amazes me that, before three weeks ago, I had never heard of BitTorrent, the revolutionary (and controversial) new way of trading comics via the Web. But it wasn't until a friend told me about it at a faculty party that I checked into it - and soon discovered what a potential firestorm this replacement for "traditional" peer-to-peer file trading programs could become.

For those not yet familiar with it, professional computer consultant Kevin Elliott, on his website Kevinelliott.net, describes BitTorrent far more clearly than I ever could: "The way BitTorrent works is, after you have installed the client tool, you download a .torrent file and open it. It will automatically open the client program and connect to a server somewhere (these are called Trackers) which will inform you [that you] have people you can connect to to download the file you requested. It will connect to as many people as you have bandwidth for, essentially, assuming there are other people downloading. Once you have finished downloading, you are requested to keep the client open so that others can download from you...So when a Torrent is created, 1 or more people start uploading the initial file to people who want it. These people uploading the initial file are called seeds. The people downloading the file are called peers. You are 99% of the time a peer. Once you have received the full file, you're considering a seed. One other cool feature is this... Imagine this scenario. A single seed with a fast connection starts a torrent. 10 peers begin to download the file. More or less, each of the 10 peers download a different section of the file. So as each gets a piece of their own chunk, they can begin sharing those chunks with each other." In other words, the people downloading the file also help distribute the files they're downloading, making the process far faster than most P2P scenarios.

Sounds like a

great way to get movies, music, and TV series episodes fast, doesn't it? But it also turns out that many of the BitTorrent sites out there offer comic books for trade. Comics being traded on the Web is nothing new, of course - simply scan a comic into a series of JPG images, put it in a .zip file, and put it in a shared file folder, and you're already trading (albeit crudely) that comic book. (There's a much more sophisticated version of this same process that allows an entire comic or set of comics to be stored in a .cbr or .cbz file, which can then be read with programs such as CDisplay.) It's BitTorrent, however, that has allowed trading comics on-line to become so easy and so prevalent.

Of course, this raises the same questions that we hear about the P2P trading of music, TV, and movies files: is this piracy? Does the trading of such files on-line diminish sales of the product in question? And could something like this damage the comic book industry in the same way that some have argued that music trading on-line has damaged the music industry? Or, conversely, could BitTorrent trading actually give the comics industry the sort of shot in the arm it's been needing for years?

On the one side is what I'll called the "anti-Torrent" argument, which says that trading comics on-line is no less criminal and every bit as damaging to the comics industry as music and movie trading is. Granted, much of what's available on the BitTorrent-capable sites and IRC chat channels is back issues, but even those back issues can represent current earning potential for comics companies. The original Neil Gaiman SANDMAN series, for

instance, is readily available on-line, but DC also continues to make money from that same series through the sale of both hardback and trade paperback collections. The real problem, though, is that many comics currently on sale are also available. A more current Neil Gaiman series, Marvel's 1602, is already downloadable in its entirety - one site had the fourth issue, released just last Wednesday, available as early as Friday night. (Possibly even earlier - it's all too easy to scan a comic and turn it into a .cbr file, much easier than converting a television series episode to .mpg or .avi format, for instance.) If someone downloads 1602 #4 through BitTorrent instead of buying it at their local comic shop, it's bad enough - but what if they never buy it, and the people who download it from them and then share it with other BitTorrent users never buy it? This is hardly an unlikely scenario, as anyone who's downloaded an entire album's worth of MP3s instead of buying the album can attest - and that thought alone is probably more than enough to give both Joe Quesada and Paul Levitz, not to mention all those other comics company heads out there, a sleepless night or two.

However, the "pro-Torrent" argument says that BitTorrent trading is no more insidious than the sort of comics trading many of us did back in junior high and high school, and that it actually brings more potential comics readers to the comic shops in the long run. The analogy between BitTorrent trading and "traditional" comics swapping isn't a bad one, but only up to a point. Say I buy a copy of 1602 #4 and you have a copy of the first printing of BATMAN/SUPERMAN #1 (you lucky turd, you), and we decide to trade the physical comics. I've paid for my comic, you've paid for yours - Marvel and DC have made their money on those two issues. The only thing lost is the potential sale

each company could have gotten had either of us bought the comic we traded for on our own, and that potential sales possibility diminishes the further away one gets from the time the comic originally went on sale. With back issues, that potential sales possibility is even smaller, unless the company decides to put out a collection of those issues. In either case, I have never heard an argument against physical comics swapping - perhaps I simply haven't been listening closely enough, but it's never come to my attention as a serious issue. Of course, this analogy breaks down with BitTorrent, as only the person who did the initial scan paid for the comic (we hope, anyway), but more than one person will be able to swap for it, making the possible loss of sales on that comic far greater. Despite this, some still argue that it's really no more damaging that those trades you and I used to make back in Study Hall all those years ago - and until someone does a study looking for the detrimental effect of BitTorrent comics trading on comics sales, there's nothing concrete to disprove that notion except sheer logical deduction.

The other "pro-Torrent" argument, though, is just a bit more compelling: that it's bringing new readers into the fold. I had just announced this topic in last week's column when I received an e-mail from a reader who prefers to remain anonymous (and if BitTorrent trading is ever criminalized, I can't say I blame him). The reader has this to say: "There have been some comic creators who loathe the idea of digital comic trading (which is their right), but I think they're missing the bigger picture of trading. I got into trading digi-comics about a year ago. I was flat broke and couldn't afford to buy any book that wasn't for school. I had no friends at school that collected comics regularly, either, since they were all as broke as I was. Then a friend got me into Torrent trading comics. I quickly got myself up to date on the books I was currently reading, and I checked out some books I had never picked up before - lots of indie stuff, and trades that

were scanned. I became part of a huge community on IRC and on msg boards [with people] who shared the love of comics and who downloaded them. The one thing that was common with a lot of us was we were all broke comic fans. Some had kids and wives to support, some were just college kids with no extra cash, high schoolers, etc. Within the last year, I've graduated school and gotten a job. I've since gotten up to date on all of my regular books with back issues...and I collect at least 30 monthly books, and some minis/maxis. In the long run, comic shops/companies have ended up getting more money out of me because of trading than they would have if I would have not found digi-comics and [if I had] just eventually gotten out of comics. Comics are so daunting to get back into when you've been out for a while (just ask anyone who stopped collecting after the [comics speculation boom] happened, and started collecting again after the X-MEN movie.) Before digi-comics, I was only buying about 12 titles a month and the occasional trade. Now, I probably spend more money than I should...My story is not, by far, the only one of its kind. As with anything, there will always be some leeches who just want free stuff. It's not like people don't hang out in shops or bookstores and read a comic or trade in the store and not buy it. I've done it myself. But there will always be a collector mentality, and people will always compulsively need to buy comics - people like me."

I include this reader's comments because I can attest to the veracity of what he's saying just from the example of the friend who first told me about BitTorrent. In his case, he had never collected comics before, nor had he read them much in high school, and had only gotten into them briefly back in the early 90s, at a time when he couldn't afford to buy them. Since then, he has read several titles he's gotten from BitTorrent and has begun buying them. He also says that reading some of the rarer comics available on-line has sparked his interest in different creators that he never would have read before. I doubt that these two are the only examples of how BitTorrent may have helped the comics industry rather than hurt it.

On a more neutral note, there's also the fact that BitTorrent trading often allows readers to find titles that probably will never be reprinted, meaning that the comics companies are basically losing nothing on these comics being traded - but also meaning that the back issue market may be affected. For example, in the very first week I tried BitTorrent (for the purposes

of researching this article alone, mind you), I found a Torrent collecting the entire run of Marvel's WWII series THE INVADERS, and I have yet to hear any news that Marvel will be releasing it soon, or to find a comics shop that even carries one back issue of this series, much less the whole run. I've also found the complete run of EPIC ILLUSTRATED, which I can never find in comics stores and which Marvel isn't likely to ever reprint. But the question remains, not just for me but for any trader of comics on-line: is that download and sharing of THE INVADERS or EPIC ILLUSTRATED a help or a harm to Marvel in particular and to the comics industry in general? Can it be called either?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds both sides of this debate compelling, so I'd like to hear your comments on the issue. I'd especially like to hear from anyone working in the comics industry who reads this column - just as I'm sure there's likely to be a regular COMICSCAPE reader who feels that BitTorrent trading is piracy, there bound to be at least one comic book industry professional who feels BitTorrent is trading is either harmless or a good thing for the business. Either way, please send your comments to comicscape@cinescape.com - I'll review them all next week (and if this discussion goes anything like the last one, possibly the week after that, too!). Now, here's the list of comics most likely to be available as BitTorrent downloads in the next 72 hours:

THIS WEEK:

It's actually a bit of a thin week for comics this time around, which makes the trade paperback of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS for $29.95 that much more welcome. Unless you've already read it fifty thousand times or have downloaded it via BitTorrent, that is.

Not too tough a week for the Bat-Fans out there, either. You

have your choice of BATMAN ADVENTURES #8 for the kid in you; ROBIN #120, also for the kid in you; and BIRDS OF PREY #61 and BATGIRL #46, for the woman in you (and don't try to tell me she's not in there, either). However, there is a treat this week as the BATMAN: DETECTIVE 27 hardcover goes on sale for $19.95 this week, in which Bruce joins a secret society of detectives battling the criminals that helped make him into an orphan. Geez, doesn't this guy investigate that enough, already?

Obviously Marvel thinks that, with the upcoming SPIDER-MAN movie featuring Alfred Molina as Doc Ock (and a great bit of casting that is, by the way), you can get enough of this pair - so this week look for SPIDER-MAN/DR OCTOPUS: OUT OF REACH #1 (OF 5), being published at the same time as that other Spider-Doc Ock miniseries. Let the promotional glut begin!

Genis is on a different sort of glut this week in CAPTAIN MARVEL #16 as everyone's favorite cosmically aware maniac takes on both the Kree and the Shi'ar Empires.

And

speaking of people who claim to be gods, there's THOR #71 to look for, as the Thunder God's future utopia ends up looking very different from what it appears. Kind of like Iraq, then.

Vertigo's shipping two humdingers (whatever that word means) this time around, with Peter Milligan's excellent take on a previously tepid 70s character with HUMAN TARGET #4 and the conclusion of the "Brothers in Arms" story arc in LUCIFER #44.

Abnett and Lanning astound us again with a girl with the powers of a video game character in iCANDY #3. Thank God it's not Frogger...

Superteam fans have something to be thankful for a week early: not only does Judd Winick's excellent OUTSIDERS series continue with #6, but this week sees the release of the JLA: LIBERTY AND JUSTICE oversized softcover for $9.95, written by Paul Dini and painted by Alex Ross (no points for guessing that in advance).

In other superteam news, we also get the LEGION: SECRET FILES 3003, in which the aforementioned Abnett and Lanning tell us a complete story (making this one of the few SECRET FILES actually worth buying). Diamond also reports that LOBO UNBOUND #4 (Of 6) is out this week, despite its complete absence from the DC site - but does anyone really care?

Max Allan Collins and Steve Lieber gives us the second of three untold tales in ON THE ROAD TO PERDITION BOOK TWO: SANCTUARY, a compact format book for $7.95. Any chance of this one being made into an Oscar-winning film, too?

Speaking of movies deserving Oscars...bwah-ha-ha! Sorry, just couldn't help myself... No, seriously, if David Mack had written a movie script as good as the work he's doing on DAREDEVIL, issue #54 of which comes out this week, it just might have won an award, instead of being more fuel for the Jennifer Garner-Scott Foley breakup. (While we're on the subject of hot people, does anyone else besides me - and the Cincinnati Enquirer - think that David Mack looks like a buffer version of Tom Cruise?)

Still on the bad movie track... Image releases the 130th issue of SPAWN this week. (I'm already ducking my head in anticipation of the hate mail deluge.) If that's not your cup of tea, they're also giving you your choice of no less than two different covers of STREET FIGHTER #4, three different covers for STREET FIGHTER #3, and two different covers of WILDGUARD CASTING CALL #3 (Of 6). Yup, gotta make back the money lost through BitTorrent downloads somehow, by God...

A new runaway joins the eponymous group in RUNAWAYS #8. Brian K. Vaughan's writing this, so why aren't you reading it? It'll give you something to occupy your time till the next issue of Y: THE LAST MAN is out, anyway...

Wildstorm's shipping Geoff Johns and Kris Grimminger's THE POSSESSED #5 (Of 6); Humberto Ramos, Olallo Rubio and Francisco Herrera's KAMIKAZE #2 (Of 5); and the one-shot DANGER GIRL: VIVA LAS DANGER written by Andy Hartnell and J. Scott Campbell. (I assume Andy's no relation to the first actor to play DOCTOR WHO? That would've been too cool for words...)

The Gods themselves respond to Diana's book in Greg Rucka's script for WONDER WOMAN #198. And you thought being chosen for Oprah's Book Club was something...

Nothing against Fabian Nicieza or anyone else involved with HAWKEYE #2, but why is it that Clint Barton can get his own ongoing series while She-Hulk can't? Sigh...

It's good to

be a Superman fan this week! You lucky folks get Chuck Austen's SUPERMAN: METROPOLIS #10 (Of 12); J.M. DeMatteis' SUPERMAN: THE KANSAS SIGHTING #1 (Of 2) - provided it's out this week, so blame Diamond for misleading you and not me if it doesn't appear; the SUPERMAN/THUNDERCATS one-shot by Judd Winick (thus ensuring that it's actually worth buying); and SMALLVILLE #5, which tells how "evil" Clark spent his summer vacation in Metropolis. Whoo hoo!

Jeph Loeb has brought such a breath of fresh air to SMALLVILLE, it's only fair that his HULK: GRAY (#3 (Of 6) ships this week) should be optioned for a brand new television. Well, how about it, WB?

The sparks keep flying between the Submariner-to-be and his landlubber lady love - or as much as sparks can fly underwater, that is - in NAMOR #9.

And finally, X-Fans have only Greg Rucka's WOLVERINE #8 to look forward to this time around. Don't worry, I'm sure there's more mutant titles just around the corner...

So. Parchesi, anyone?

Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at comicscape@cinescape.com.

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