The ability to access a comic with the click of a button, is indeed wonderful. You can get free previews, discounts on trades, and best of all, you can take your comics with you anywhere you go on your device (so long as you have the app, but the apps are usually free. So. You probably have it). It seems like the comic industry is another area where technology is beginning to take storm. Maybe it's more convenient, but is it necessarily better to purchase comics digitally? Here are five reasons why you should still be buying you single issues in print format.

5. Most of the time, single issues aren't actually cheaper digitally

Although many discounts are offered on collected editions or bundles, single issues are often not any cheaper than you would see them in stores for. A lot of this is because comic companies still rely on their distributors so pushing everyone to buy cheaper digitally would cause a loss for them. There are also specific teams dedicated to creating the books digitally with reading features like “guided view”, where the panels and text appear as you should read them rather than just the entire page at once. It still takes a lot of time to create the digital format for comics, it's not as simple as someone sitting there scanning them in and then sending them to Comixology.

4. Digital comics don't accumulate value

Comics are for our enjoyment, but I'm not going to sit here and pretend I don't meticulously bag, board, and store every comic I purchase to keep it in pristine condition. Which is something many comic collectors do. As much as we love to read them, there is that hope in us that one day this comic will be worth $100 as opposed to the $4 I paid for it. I've had to part with comics I had for years due to bills piling up and working a job that didn't pay shit in college. But because I bought them in print, kept them nice, I was able to get decent money for them which kept me from drowning in student loan debt. If you're going to spend the money anyway, why not do it in a way that could actually earn you so money in the long run? Just something to think about.

3. There's just something about holding a physical copy

The same goes with books in general. Even though I have a Kindle, I have certain authors that I HAVE to buy the physical copy of their book. There's just something about holding it, the new comic smell, the sound of the pages turning, the feeling you get when you turn that final page. Maybe I sound crazy to some, but there are people reading

this who know exactly what I mean. Having a physical copy in your possession is just different somehow. Especially when its a book you love, being able to proudly display it, it's just the best.

2. You get some social interaction

Yeah, you can order printed comics online, but usually when you buy a comic in print, you go to a comic store. And, in my experience at least, in most comic stores there are always people gaming, reading, or just hanging out because that's the kind of environment comic stores provide. I work at a comic store so I know that one of our main goals

is to make you feel welcome. Workers will talk to you about the comic, random people will talk to you about it, it's a great way to meet people with common interests as you and it's all because you went to a store to buy a comic in print rather than download it.

1. You're supporting local stores

I feel like a lot of people aren't aware of this, but most comic stores are not part of bigger chains. They are independently owned by someone who just happens to also love comics or gaming or some other media associated with nerd culture. These owners also usually don't generate their livable income from their stores and often work a full-time job alongside running their shop. Comics aren't exactly a million-dollar industry, plus when you own a store, you need employees and you need to pay those employees. You also need to pay rent for the location your store is set up at and there are just a lot of fees generally involved with owning a business. So it's really important that we support our local shops.

Sure, there are comics you probably just want to check out that you really don't care about, go ahead and download. I do it too. Or maybe I'm not sure if I'll like it so I download the first issue so I can read it and decide. Maybe I won't like it, ok, nothing lost and it's not taking up space. But maybe I do like it, and when that's the case, that's when I grab my physical copies. I'm not telling you that you HAVE to buy physical copies, just know that there are some reasons to consider of why you should.