Bittorrent is mostly known as the successor to Napster and the main method of downloading music MP3s, movies and TV shows, but if you look around long enough you will find sites that provide .cbz and .cbr files of almost every new comic book released, and most of the old ones, as well. While I prefer to own a hard copy of any comic book or graphic novel that I enjoy, I do think that the bittorrent culture provides some valuable lessons to be learned by the publishers whose wares are being posted, and downloaded, for free.

Many readers say they have downloaded a comic out of curiosity only to enjoy it enough to buy the actual comic. I know an alternative comics fan who read an issue of Garth Ennis's Punisher MAX series online, and liked it so much that they quickly bought up not only all the trade paperback collections, but then went on and bought those stories again in the oversized hardcover collections. In the latter case, this is an investment of hundreds of dollars that otherwise would not have been spent, except for the availability of a free (and unauthorized) online download to sample the series. Lesson? The availability of free, downloadable comics in .cbr or .cbz format can and will lead to large outlays of cash, but there's a catch.

Many, many -- the majority -- of corporate superhero comics that are available for download are so ham-handedly amateurish and uninteresting that people choose not to read them, even for free. The vast majority of downloaders responding to a comics piracy poll a year or two back at a popular comics message board responded "yes" to the statement  (quoting here) "I cherrypick which titles I want to read so I don't waste time downloading crap I don't want." (Yes, the question was really written that way, and no, I didn't write it). So yes, the availability of free, downloadable comics in .cbr or .cbz format can and will lead to large outlays of cash, but there's a catch.

The comics have to be worth reading.

The majority of available comics that you can download are corporate superhero comics. I'd submit to you that "I cherrypick which titles I want to read" would not have been chosen by so many readers, if Marvel and DC would spend more time, as artcomix publishers like Fantagraphics and Drawn and Quarterly do, investing in and nurturing talented creators, encouraging them to do their best work and then rewarding them for it. Instead, they continue, decade after decade, to pander and pile up the space-wasting junk on the shelves of the superhero-leaning majority of shops in the direct market -- junk that the poll clearly suggests is not worth reading even when easily available for free.

There's an obvious business model for Marvel and DC to follow here, if they want to compete outside the direct market with the greater mainstream audience for comic books. Because surely not all the people buying comics on Amazon, at Borders, or Chapters, or their local independent bookstore, want to buy Fruits Basket or Persepolis or the other titles they choose; some of them would probably like to spend their money on quality adventure fiction, some of that even superhero fiction. So what's pretty clearly called for is more emphasis on quality, and less on overwrought continuity porn like Secret Invasion and Final Crisis and other, editor-driven, creatively bankrupt trademark maintenance. One more time: To be worth buying, especially in the economy we face as we stand here on the edge of the year 2009, the comics have to be worth reading.

I'd love to see DC and Marvel take up that challenge in the new year. It would make a better year for comics than 2008 was, that's for sure. But we as readers have a responsibility to hold up our end of the bargain as well, and only invest our (increasingly harder-earned) money in the sort of comics that delight, excite and inspire us. Be here at iTaggit in the year ahead, and those are exactly the sort of comics I'll be talking to you about.

I wish you and yours a safe and healthy holiday season, and a very happy new year.