Marvel Puts Dozens of Graphic Novels on iBookstore

This is great. My guess it is going to widen the age audience for books for the iBookstore. Considering marvel material is aimed at younger ones and most of the iBooks on there are more for adults. I reckon apple can make a lot from this seeing that there a lot of kids around who use an iPad I bet you would be very surprised by the average comic book reader age.

Not really Comixology quality. These appear to be pdf files and nothing more.

Apple could/should sign a deal with Comixology if they want to bring comics into iBooks.

I'm curious if this really interests comic book readers. I thought a big part of the experience was to own rare editions and keep them in plastic bags. No one will ever pay $30,000 for an iBooks copy.

As a serious comic book reader, and an active member of the comic book community, yes it does. Believe me, there is plenty of demand if the price is right. Comic book collectors are a subset of comic book readers. A few years ago, I'd probably have been in the paper only club, but now, the opportunity to access a wealth of unread stories and comics I wasn't able to see first time around fills me with excitement I haven't had since I first got into the medium.

Your point about the value of paper is entirely valid though. One of the problems with digital right now is that prices just are way out of whack. A same day issue of, for example a DC New 52 costs $3.99 whether its print or digital which just doesn't make sense. With a paper copy you can resell it a few days later, usually for 50% or more of its cover value. Or you can simply seal it in plastic and wait a few years for the price to go up. Add to that the print and distribution costs and the cut taken by the comic book store, and it just doesn't make sense that the digital copy should be the same price. What DC is doing is trying to protect the paper market, by forcing people to pay unrealistic prices for digital. I can understand their reasons, but this is exactly why digital needs to be treated differently, with more of a focus on say subscription based archive access rather than all the focus being on same day print/digital publishing.

I'm not claiming to speak for comic book readers as a whole - there are plenty of diverse opinions around, but to me this is the most sensible way for things to be handled at least for now.

Kickass!! The Marvel app is great, but embedded in iBooks? Even better!

Comixology offers a very compelling experience. Something Apple prides itself on. The only thing I could imagine iBooks offering to one up Comixology would be super high-res art for the new iPad 3. From the sounds of things, it ain't happening. Not at this point anyway. Stick with Comixology. Read your comics on other platforms and well as Apple ones with a fantastic user experience (Guided View). They did it right.

Exactly. The free one is 120 pages. So that is what? 3-5 issues gathered?

No, the free one is a 30 or so page single issue.