When DSTLRY co-founders David Steinberger and Chip Mosher first announced the new publisher, there were three key points that seemed to set them apart from most other comics publishers — a different approach to ownership, where their “founding creators” would have a stake in the company; larger-sized editions that were more akin to the comics you find in France than you would normally see here in the U.S.; and a company-run digital marketplace, where you could buy and sell the digital editions of their comics.
It’s taken them a good year to bring that third point to life, but today DSTLRY launched their digital marketplace. If you’ve bought any of their digital comics in the past, which have only been available for a limited time, then you can now list them on the marketplace and sell them. The new owner receives access to the digital comic, along with the other benefits that DSTLRY offers, like early or exclusive sales of other digital comics, access to web streams (like they did recently with Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay) and more. According to DSTLRY, creators will receive a royalty from each resale.
“We’re creating a new digital platform that never stops delighting readers and collectors, while helping secure the future of the comic medium’s most valuable storytellers and artists,” said Steinberger. “Today’s marketplace release is a revolutionary take on digital collecting and comics. Not only can you finally buy and sell digital comics, but the narrative doesn’t stop after the last page of one of our digital issues—it’s an invitation into Friday Happy Hours with creators, exclusive merch opportunities and convention engagements.”
The marketplace went into beta mode last week, and those of us who owned digital titles were able to access it. It’s now open to everyone, and people are already listing titles for sale. Something I didn’t realize when I bought some of their digital comics was that each of them has an edition number, and I’ve seen some cases where those with lower numbers are asking for higher prices. It’s only day one, so it’ll be interesting to see how it grows and evolves.
I should add, though — I’m not a digital collectibles guy. I bought DSTLRy’s digital titles because that’s how I prefer to read them, and their web reader is very easy to use and intuitive. Plus, their creator line-up can’t be beat. But I also get that there is a collectors market out there, and I like that the creators are getting some sort of benefit from it with this system. And the webstream with Lotay and Cloonan was fun.
The other thing to note is that if you aren’t interested in buying digital comics directly from DSTLRY (or even single issues in print), there will be another option. According to the release, “While DSTLRY’s digital single issues and collectibles will be exclusive to dstlry.co, DSTLRY will be releasing mass market collections in print via comic shops and big box bookstores, with digital collections available on all major platforms including Kindle Store, Google Play Books, and Apple Books.”
“We’re excited to see fans dive into buying and selling their DSTLRY digital collectibles to each other. Then to see what happens to the value of a digital comic when fans see that Scott Snyder, Tula Lotay or Marc Bernardin owned it first. And how will they react to all the cool benefits that we provide with ownership?” Mosher said. “There’s never been anything like the DSTLRY digital marketplace before and we’re stoked to see fans’ reaction to doing digital different, the DSTLRY way.”
Thanks for the coverage!