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Comic Book Humble Bundles: A Bright New Future

Humble Bundles? Wha? Huh?! Calm yourself old people and the uninitiated, I'll explain. There is a website which humbly offers collections -- or bundles -- of things that you can buy at whatever price you want. That's right. Pay a penny or a grand, just name your price and it's yours. Not only that, but the money goes to charity! How cool is that?! Usually, and most famously, they do this with indie video games, but they've recently switched gears and are now offering Image comic trades. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUe1G0HAzOo#t=55 Great news! They've been doing pretty good. At the time of writing this, they've raised around a half million in proceeds (which isn't bad at all for the comic book community). You can tell because they post the stats near the bottom as well as the top contributors to make you feel horrible for your 5o cent donation. [caption id="attachment_52037" align="aligncenter" width="706"]Screen shot 2014-05-04 at 9.09.17 PM You may not have 420 dollars to spend on a dumb joke, but Anon does.[/caption] Not only do I think this cool, but I also think this is something big. I'm talking future trend. Humble Bundles have done a lot of good for the indie game scene, giving games to those who maybe wouldn't buy them if they didn't come amongst other games for, like, five dollars. It can do the same for comics too. There are a bunch of really good comics in the Image Humble Bundle, not like the fluff they give out on Free Comic Book Day. These are first volumes of some award-winning comics series, some of the best Image is putting out. Screen shot 2014-05-04 at 9.28.16 PM Next to just giving someone all these for free, this is the best way to get someone into these comics. It's a fantastic deal even at the average price of 9.60 (at the time of writing this, it was 8.00 when I bought mine) and a literal steal at anything lower. You're going to get so many people who were on the fence about comics giving these a shot, and if any comics could get them hooked, it's these. I haven't been a marketing analyst for over 34 years (it's a young man's game), but I'm sure you'll see this come out in the positive for Image. A whole flock of new readers are going to head over to their camp now. Not to mention the buzz in the comic community. DC and Marvel, if they're smart, are going to want to play catch up. They don't have first volumes of creator owned material to offer, but they could both put out some great things. DC could offer Death of the Family or, I guess more likely, some dumb event like Forever Evil. Marvel could offer Infinity or the first volume of Thor: God of Thunder or Hickman's Avengers. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="336"] Or the only 6 published issues of this... masterpiece[/caption] Hopefully this is the beginning of a new trend for the comic book industry. Using the various resources on the Internet to reach out to new audiences, to new demographics. The Image Humble Bundle is a great idea and, for my money, a good sign for a bright future.

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