According to Comic Book Resources Top Cow Productions announced at Wizard World Philadelphia that the company would begin to offer internet downloads of its comic book titles starting as soon as September.  Following the iTunes model, Top Cow will charge in the neighborhood of one dollar per issue.  To lessen competition with print editions, the downloads will start with the earliest issues in a series.  In order to interest customers in paying for something that is currently available for free, Top Cow will include scripts, pencils, and pre-colored images -- essentially providing readers with a look at the entire process of creating a comic book.

 

It should be interesting to see how Top Cow's program fares and if any of the other major comic book publishers will begin offering Internet downloads of their key titles.  Downloading of comic books is on the increase especially among tech-savvy younger readers, and Top Cow's plan acknowledges the fact of downloading, which the other publishers are largely ignoring, and attempts to profit from it.  The question is, can Top Cow offer downloaders enough added value to make them want to 'buy the cow, when they have been getting the milk for free.'