Comics of course. And other stuff

Boom Studios, which publishes a couple of awesome zombie comics released "North Wind" recently both for free online and in comic shops for sale.  This is pretty cool.  I asked my local comic book guy, Frank of Amazing Fantasy in the Sunset, what he thought about it.

He said, "I know comic book shops that believe that giving this away for free online will eat into their profits, but anything that gets more people reading comics increases our market.  Comics used to be sold everywhere, now it’s only in comic shops.  We need to get more people reading comics, because that grows the market for people that buy our products."

He’s a wise man.

I’ll be following the comic now as long as it’s free, and if they stop making it free, I’ll buy the next trade paperback they release with the compiled issues.

After all, free isn’t a business model, it’s a marketing tactic.  It worked on me.