The digital comic book retailer has promised to fix bugs that hamper the ability to read titles.
The world of media has steadily moved online, which you have probably noticed if you’re currently reading a news story on a website, possibly on your phone.
Every field of media has had to adapt, and the comic book industry is certainly no exception.
Change Came For Comics
Sure, there are plenty of people who love the ritual of going down to their local comic book shop and buying physical copies, and there’s always going to be aficionados who insist that buying trade paperbacks is the most satisfying experience.
But the funny book industry has plenty of digital options for people who still love comic books but have hit the point in their life where they don’t have room in their apartments for boxes of back issues.
Both Marvel (DIS) – Get Walt Disney Company Report and DC (T) – Get AT&T Inc. Report offer digital subscription services (Marvel Unlimited and DC Universe Infinite, respectively), though often you can only read the titles months after the physical books hit stores.
But the biggest game in town, is Comixology, which is often called the iTunes of the comic book industry.
The company was started in 2007 as an online community for comic book fans that allowed them to pre-order a title (or what fans called “a pull list”). Then it evolved into a service that allows fans to access material from most of the major publishers, including independent titles.
Not to be all “comics aren’t just for kids” about it, but if you’re not into superheroes, there’s plenty of titles to pick from in the memoir, crime and off-beat indie genres available on the service.
Comixology was purchased by Amazon (AMZN) – Get Amazon.com, Inc. Report in 2014 (a story in Wired around the time of the sale pointed out Comixology had sold 4 billion comics in 2013 alone), as part of the the company’s greater moves into the media world.
Around the same time, Amazon Prime Video began ramping up its production of original television series. After an initial rocky transition, Amazon was fairly hands off, but now a recent corporate overhaul has infuriated the Comixology faithful.
Comixology/TheStreet
Why Are the Comixology Readers So Mad?
At the time of the purchase, fans were concerned that Amazon might muck up a good thing.
Wired pondered whether the purchase would go the way of IMDb, Audible.com or Zappos, all of which did fine under Amazon, or the way of CDNow, Telebook or Yap.
If you don’t know what any of those are, that’s the point.
After the purchase was finalized, Amazon immediately sparked a fan outrage by removing the option to purchase comics inside the iOS app, instead directing them to the website to browse, thus cutting back on the potential for customers to easily browse and find new titles.
This immediately raised concerns about the future of Comixology (plenty of users said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had already ruined the service) but that’s nothing compared to the latest outrage.
Amazon recently introduced a new overhaul to the Comixology service that integrated it more fully into Amazon’s storefront, and the backlash was quick and severe. The headline from Gizmodo and I09, one of the leading tech and comic fan websites, put it bluntly: “Amazon’s Comixology Overhaul Is Here, and It Sucks.”
What Exactly Didn’t They Like?
Now, Comixology’s website re-directs users to Amazon Kindle Comics storefront, and a users’ Amazon and Comixology accounts are fully merged.
Users were quick to complain that the unique and iconic, to them, Comixology app now just felt like a subsection of Amazon’s storefront, one that was also harder for casual fans to stumble upon. You have to go to “Books > Comics & Graphic Novels” to find it.
In other words, it no longer felt unique to the community that supported it.
But the main complaints were that several of Comixology’s signature touches had been replaced with an approach similar to Amazon’s Kindle, making for a more frustrating and less unique user experience.
One of Comixology’s most beloved features is a panel-by-panel “guided view” option that allows fans to read books one panel at a time, and zoom in on details. This feature had been removed, and now fans have to double tap a panel instead of using an easier to find button.
There were also changes to the library search function that made it difficult to navigate large collections, or to navigate from the storefront to your library. The launch also had bugs that made it so some readers were unable to access previously purchased comics, and certain titles wouldn’t appear in high definition.
The overhaul also allowed only a few out of hundreds of new releases to be on display in the storefront, thus making it harder for readers to discover new titles and independent publishers.
Readers also had to use the Kindle Cloud Reader to read their books on the web, instead of the service they’d grown used to.
Comic book fans are not a group known to hold their tongue, and the Twitter backlash from fans and creators was severe.
Note to all companies, do not get on Patton Oswalt’s bad side.
Comixology Says They Are Working To Fix It
Comixology took to Twitter to let users known they are aware of the complaints, and were taking steps to fix them.
The company says it is working to both improve the navigation process and the web reader experience, and also promises to fix the New Releases filter, and also clarified that Guided View is still available.
“Moving to a new codebase and away from our dedicated web experience was a tough call, but it’s an important step towards our long-term goals—to share our love of comics, manga, and graphic novels, and to reach more lifelong fans,” the company concluded at the end of its Twitter thread.
“We hear your feedback and we recognize that there’s a lot to be done. We appreciate your patience and support while we do everything we can to bring you the experience we envision.”
The backlash illustrates that when big companies acquire smaller ones and fold them into a larger platform or service, the things that make the small company unique and beloved to their loyal users can often get lost in the transition.
In other words, Amazon fixed what wasn’t broken, and now they need to fix what they fixed.
