Brian Wood: 'Digital is ray of hope'

Brian Wood has discussed the potential of digital comics to be a "ray of hope".

The DMZ creator was commenting on the controversy over Dark Horse Comics' apparent intention to sell its digital issues for less than its print editions.

"I've had series cancelled recently," Wood wrote on his blog. "I've had pitches rejected for financial reasons. I've seen my editors laid off. I've taken page rate cuts (a LOT of us have).

"My income from royalties have dropped. Most comic shops don't carry my books. I have very good reasons to suspect my career in comics may be drastically reduced in the near future. Things just plain suck, but I've taken these hits, figuring that everyone else is having hard times too.

"I don't mind bleeding a little, and one ray of hope has been digital, the potential it has to maybe, just maybe, keep some of us going through these lean times. But like I said, we can never explore that potential to even just see if it's there, as long as current pricing stay locked in.

"So I'll have to bleed a little more so that others can bleed a little less.The problem with that, to really keep abusing this metaphor, is that eventually I'll just keel over and die from it."

Dark Horse caused outrage following its announcement of simultaneous digital and print releases when it seemed that the publisher was intending to sell the digital copies at a lower price.

Wood is currently working on a Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha and Omega miniseries for Marvel Comics.