Ed Sherman of Rising Sun Creations in San Diego, California wonders why there isn't any sales data being reported for digital comics and manga.

I was just wandering where the sales figures for digital comics and manga are.  There is all kinds of sales data for printed comics, but no sales data for digital comic sales.  Might that be because the publishers do not wish to share that information with the brick and mortar stores?  Hmmmmm, I wonder why that is?  I wonder if the increase in digital comic sales reflects the decrease in printed comic sales?  Am I the only retailer asking this question?  If you think I sound paranoid, then where are the sales figures for digital comic sales?

Just ask yourselves the following question fellow retailers.  In today's economic environment, how long do you expect to be in business if your comic and graphic novel sales decrease 10-20% or even more because of digital comic sales.  I do hope you have a plan in place for when you have to close your store.  I do.  Look at what happened to music stores and the DVD rental industry.  Look at what happened to Borders.  I am amazed that that there are people in our industry that still think that digital delivery is not going to destroy the comic store.  What is even more amazing is the pathetic attempts by the publishers to assure us that digital comics will actually make our business grow.  For the moment the publishers still need us, but rest assured, as soon as digital comics become self-sustaining and profitable they will not hesitate to throw us under the bus.

I will close my rant by quoting Masaaki Shimizu, General Manager of International Business Strategy for Bitway, a subsidiary of Toppan Printing, the 2nd largest printer in the world, which was posted on ICv2 back in September 2010.  At least he told it like it is:

"With a good execution, digital brings better profit with less cost for print, logistics, and less risk for inventory."

Need I say more...

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.