Unlike the useless Marvel Digital, which offers comics online six months after publication, “Myspace and Boom! Studios teamed up to release each issue of the new comic North Wind simultaneously with the release date for brick and mortar stores.”

This is great for comics fans who want to catch up on the series, or simply missed an issue. Cory Doctorow explains why the usual system (no online availability, or Marvel Digital) sucks:

“The trade paperbacks help here, but usually there’s a 2-3 issue gap between the collection and the singles. That means that if you’re not a Comics Person and you walk into a bookstore and buy the first collection of Thrilling Underwear Pervert Stories (issues 1-6) get hooked, and decide to brave a comics store for the first time to pick up issue 7, you’ll generally find that they’re up to issue 9 or 10, and that 7 and 8 aren’t for sale and can’t be ordered.

The result? You go back to the bookstore in a couple months and look for the collection — maybe. If you remember.”

Hopefully Boom!’s idea will catch on. If not, well, at least Boom!’s fan base is likely to grow.

Link.