Comic Book Writer Brian K. Vaughan On Digital Comics: We are "earning at least as much as they would to create a comic for traditional publishers like DC and Marvel Comics."

The New York Times has a short article about digital comics. You know, comics that you can see on the Internet. This time, though, we are specifically talking about comic books online in this article by George Gene Gustines.

Downloads of digital comic books are up:

A report released last week estimates that North American sales of comics — whether single issues, collected editions or digital downloads — were $870 million for 2013, up from $635 million in 2012. Digital sales rose to $90 million from $70 million. 

The article focuses on portals for comic book downloads like Comixology and newer sites like Thrillbent (co-created by comic book writer Mark Waid) and Panel Syndicate (co-created by comic book writer Brian K. Vaughan). The former tends to have a lot of name brands (The Avengers and so on), while the latter two have a lot of new, original content.

Now, with some of these sites, you see a sample and then pay for the actual digital content. 

But then there's the pay-what-you-want model, like at Panel Syndicate:

While he would not go into specific numbers, Mr. Vaughan said that the creative team — including the colorist Muntsa Vicente — were earning at least as much as they would to create a comic for traditional publishers like DC and Marvel Comics. More “people pay something than pay nothing,” Mr. Vaughan said of the pay-what-you-want model. “Against all odds, we’re doing great.”

Fans follow creators that they like and creators can easily eliminate the middle man (Marvel, DC, Image, etc.), that has historically taken a chunk of the income and rights for their creations.

Of course, it helps to have an established fan base.