I See Dead People. Maybe: Amazon Buys ComiXology

I’m not gonna write a whole hell of a lot about this development, since Amanda and I have decided that this might be a good topic for another podcast (Yes! Two podcasts in less than two years! Truly it is a new and exciting age in audio-only media!), but there is one thing I would like to point out.

That thing being that our Web site traffic, which is usually pretty consistent, is up about 25 percent today. And not because of anything recent that we have posted, oh no. No, it is because a couple of years ago, I wrote a piece about a kid on Reddit who briefly posted a script that allowed people to download their comics from ComiXology and strip the copy protection so they could back up their own books. And how ComiXology landed on that kid with both feet, and how that should be a matter of concern for ComiXology customers, because without the ability to locally save their comics, they would never really own any of them. You know, if something ever happened to ComiXology.

It’s a piece that has garnered a little bit of attention; it has been highly-ranked on Google for people searching for ways to save their digital comics locally – you know, just in case something happened to the parent company to get in the way of you getting the books that you paid for – and if it even got picked up by Hacker News just a few months ago.

And it suddenly is getting a lot of traffic. Apparently because there are more people than usual trying like hell to find a way to save the digital comics that they bought. Just in case something were to happen to them. Or the company they did business with in good faith.

But don’t worry. Amazon almost never buys competitors in the digital publishing space and shutters their conquests. Seriously: that doesn’t happen often.

But it could. Jeff Bezos could remember getting wedgied for wearing Spider-Man Underoos in 1979 and hate-close ComiXology tomorrow if he wanted to, and take all of “your” digital comics with him.

But not my comics. My comics are in a longbox, either in my closet, or in a storage facility behind two locks to which only I have the keys. But, you know, your mileage may vary.

But again: more on that in this week’s podcast.

(via Bleeding Cool)