Dubai: There are guys who really like comic books. And then there are the real hardcore comic fans who live on a steady diet of superheroes and supercharged storylines to the point that they have amassed huge collections worth small fortunes.
You could call Mike Priest a diehard adherent of the old inky comic book yarns wrapped in dramatic glossy covers depicting the colossal feats of Superman and Spider-Man to Batman and the Fantastic Four.
"I've been collecting comics since I was seven years old," said Priest, 28. "When I moved to Dubai from Australia, I shipped 21 boxes of my collection along with me. I couldn't leave them there."
He figures he owns 4,000 comics in Dubai and that doesn't include his entire repository back home, filled by his weekly Wednesday visits in his youth to the comic book store to pick up the latest issues hitting the stands.
"It's a ritual you go through, you build a stack. It's a nostalgic thing," said Priest, a journalist and contributing writer to Stuff magazine.
The times, though, are changing. With the world moving away from paper literature in favour of the ease and efficiency of e-books and e-magazines, loyal literature hounds of all persuasions such as Priest are now buying in to electronic versions of their favourite heroes.
"It was a hard switch at first," Priest said, "but now I use a credit card card and push a button. It's too expensive to import a single edition [of a traditional paperback comic book]."
Priest said his conversion to electronic comics began after he purchased an Apple iPad in early 2010 and within no time was downloading comics through the iTunes Store. New apps released by comic giants DC Comics and Marvel right down to the small-press comic publishers app Comixology have utterly captivated comic book aficionados since their entry last year into the market.
Popularity of apps
"It's really insane, I'm buying two or three apps a day," Priest said. "I have seven different apps for comics on my iPad now.
"I have more than 100 comics now. I had to delete some because my iPad was getting full."
While Priest still buys the occasional dead-tree comic book, electronic comics are now the norm rather than the exception.
"It's all about accessibility, really. When I'm in the mood to read, I don't have to go to a store, I can just go online and download a comic," he said.
Arafa'at Ali Khan, managing partner with ExtraCake PR, whose parent company Extra Cake PRA is hosting the inaugural Middle East Film and Comic Con in April. The Abu Dhabi event is expecting 25,000 fans to showcase the many worlds of fantasy, drama, horror and science fiction to TV, animation, comic books, anime, manga, pop art, collectibles and merchandising.
Ali Khan said a surge in online apps enabling ecomics to be downloaded in the Middle East are part of a pent-up demand by one of the youngest populations on the planet who spend $4 billion (Dh14.68 billion) a year on entertainment. "It has a lot to do with accessibility I think, comics are just easier to find and purchase whether that's through digital media or simply ordering online for example," said Khan. "Retailers have also identified the opportunity and there is significantly more stock available here in the Middle East.
"It's also a generational thing as we live in a region with the youngest population in the world and anyone under that age of 35-40 has grown up on superheroes and spaceships. It's now cool to be a geek."
The advent of mobile on-line access has opened up worlds of possibilities that comic book companies are now beginning to recognise and act upon with their new applications. "It's just so easy now to find and enjoy exactly what you want," Khan said. "As younger generations who don't know of a world without social media and touch screen tablet phones continues to grow, I'm sure we'll see an even larger shift in this direction.
Cross platform
"Everything is cross platform now as well so your entry point into loving comics could be from a film or a video game for example and almost every major release has a supporting comic, mobile app, etc."
Part of the online demand for comics and magazines can be attributed to comic book fans' desire to be on the leading edge, rather than waiting for distributors to ship hard copies to the region weeks or months later.
"We're just used to consuming content almost instantly and people are no longer as willing to wait months or weeks for a new issue or the next chapter,' Khan said. "There is still a place for ‘hard copy' as it's hard to match that feeling of closing the last page in a book or graphic novel but as time goes by we'll see more and more content at the touch of a button," he said.
There will be a mix of both electronic and print versions of comics to satisfy all demands at Comic Con.
"All forms of cult entertainment and popular culture are covered so that both a younger audience who has grown up with new forms of media as well as those of us who have grown up with a more traditional love of the medium will find something of interest at the show," he said.
Collection
Emirati marketing student Ali Al Ansari is a big fan of comic books who has long collected anime and manga but has only recently started his own stack of Western comic books in paper format. The 21-year-old student based in Sharjah believes that while digital is great for some things, comic books as collectibles need to be in paper.
That said, Al Ansari said the digital comic book collection is the way to go for people who want their comic books to go. "Digital is so much more portable, when you're on a plane or a train, you can read with very little effort," he said.
But Al Ansari said you still can't beat a paperback comic or graphic novel as a tangible literary and visual art form, especially if you are a collector.
Routine visits to the Book World at Dubai Mall are still high on his priority list to buy the coolest and latest comic books with his favourite titles such as Walking Dead, Spawn and The Watchman.
"I believe the future will be balanced. People will still stick to their old-school books and read but at the same time, the digital world is growing, especially with the iPad and iPhone," he said.
Digital reading: paying for content
New statistics compiled in the US suggest that more people are paying for digital reading content.
Pew Research Centre officials surveyed 755 users and found that almost one fifth of online users downloaded and "paid for newspaper, magazine or journal articles or reports. Almost two-thirds paid for digital content, said Pew Research Centre following its Internet and American Life Project survey.
"Music, software, and apps are the most popular content that internet users have paid to access or download, although the range of paid on-line content is quite varied and widespread," the Centre said after releasing the figures.
An earlier survey by Pews in September last suggested that we are witnessing the "rise of apps culture" in which some 35 per cent of adults now have apps on their mobile phones. Kristin Purcell, Associate Director of Research at the Pew Internet Centre, said although people are now downloading apps, the potential of the technology is still not fully understood.
The Middle East Film and Comic Con is scheduled April 29-30 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.
