Glossy paper may still be the medium of choice for comic lovers, but DC is making sure they can enjoy their "Aquaman" and "Green Lantern" books on tablets and PCs as well. From now on, every title's monthly number will appear on the digital bookshelves of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple the day they hit newsstands.
Graphic novels and collections can be found on those bookstores, and of course there are comics-centric apps like Comixology on which many comics are released concurrently with the print versions. But this expansion into three major mainstream e-bookstores will let users collect their comics in the same place they have their media and regular e-books.
Digital comics have been a long transition for both DC and its perennial rival, Marvel, which have struggled with platform and piracy issues for years. But DC reports that digital sales have nearly tripled over the last year, which no doubt helped make the move to bigger venues happen.
The increasing popularity of tablets might help account for this growth, as well as more convenient and ubiquitous online purchasing of media.
The impact of this on brick-and-mortar comic stores, for which monthly paper comics are an income staple, will be seen over the next year. Some paper editions come with a download code for the digital version, so it's still worth going to the shop, but it's possible they may share the fate of other small bookstores and disappear.
Keep an eye out in your favorite e-bookstore for the latest DC titles — and don't be surprised if Marvel's heroes show up there before long as well.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBCNews Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.