LA Times Explores Whether Digital Is The Death Or Rebirth Of Comics

A lot of interesting stuff in today's LA Times article on digital comics, with quotes from many of the major players in traditional comics publishing.

The premise of the article: to ask whether Digital will revolutionize/"upend" the comic book industry in the same manner it has other media like music television, and movies. Let's pull out some interesting data and quotes:

• While digital sales make up only 5% of roughly 1 billion dollar U.S. and Japanese manga market, it is quickly growing.
• "Comic book sales have seen flat to relatively modest growth in recent years, but digital sales for us have so far doubled, year over year." -- Ira Rubenstein, Marvel Executive Vice-President of global digital media.
• A recent comiXology survey of 2,000 readers found that 1 in 5 who bought a digital comic never bought a comic before.
• "Digital distribution is our new newsstand. It's a way to get our product in front of a mass audience." -- Chip Mosher, Marketing Director, BOOM! Studios.
• "Every time we undergo a change in technology, people say we're losing something. I see it as gaining something...Comic creators will learn how to tell their stories in new ways." --Joe Quesada, Marvel Comics Editor-In-Chief.

This last quote brings up an interesting point that is expanded upon by DC Comics Co-Publisher Jim Lee:

"As readers become more familiar with reading digital comics, it will affect the way we think about producing the comics. We start to think about constructing our pages differently. Some publishers have asked artists to create layouts specifically for the iPad, for instance. We also think about the length of our stories because people with smart phones have shorter bits of time to consume media.... I see a lot of experimentation with the art form."

Will we see more short stories and arcs in comics as a result? Less events? What about the future of the graphic novel? Or the dimensions of the standard comic book art board? Will artists find it easier to draw certain assignments panel-by-panel or in smaller pieces?

And will publishers make more or less money on digital versus paper sales? And if the Direct Market begins to become adversely affected, how will that impact the traditional comics culture as a whole?