SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – If you've ever bought a digital comic book, your experience probably went something like this: You opened up an app like ComiXology, paid around $1.99 to $3.99 – likely, the same price as a print issue – but never downloaded the file for the comic to your hard drive. That's because you don't really own it – you've simply licensed the right to look at it in someone else's library.

It's a digital sales model that has been adopted by every major U.S. comics publisher – and most e-book publishers as well – and was inspired by fears that piracy of digital copies could hurt not just digital but also print sales. It has also essentially prevented the comic book readership (or at least, the legal comic book readership) from truly owning any of the books they buy. At least until this morning, when comic book publisher Image Comics announced at its Image Expo convention that it will now sell all of its digital comics as downloadable via its website for both desktop and mobile users, making it the first major U.S. publisher to offer DRM-free digital versions of comics. Readers can even choose the file format they prefer: PDFs, EPUBs, CBRs or CBZs.

"My stance on piracy is that piracy is bad for bad entertainment," Image Comics publisher Eric Stephenson told Wired in an exclusive interview. "There's a pretty strong correlation with things that suck not being greatly pirated, while things that are successful have a higher piracy rate. If you put out a good comic book, even if somebody does download it illegally, if they enjoy it then the likelihood of them purchasing the book is pretty high. Obviously we don't want everybody giving a copy to a hundred friends, but this argument has been around since home taping was supposedly killing music back in the '70s, and that didn't happen. And I don't think it's happening now."

>'My stance on piracy is that piracy is bad for bad entertainment. There's a pretty strong correlation with things that suck not being greatly pirated.' Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson

And while Image comic books will still be offered for sale on ComiXology, iBooks, and every other platform where they were previously available, Image's Director of Business Development Ron Richards says that offering the direct-to-consumer downloads is important. "There's something to be said for the ownership factor. If readers purchase a book on ComiXology, that may be their library [on the service] but from what I understand that could be revoked. And God forbid, if ComiXology goes under or their data center has an earthquake all their hard drives go away — then you've got nothing."

Indeed, there have been several snafus so far that have illustrated the limitations of ComiXology's model of digital sales. In March, a server crash caused by massive demand for a Marvel Comics promotion not only shut down sales of new comics, but also user access to the reader and any comics stored in the cloud. In April, ComiXology refused to submit an issue of Brian K. Vaughan's popular Image comic Saga to Apple's iOS store based on its sexual content, and later removed 56 other comics for content issues. Other comics have been "pulled back" after they were purchased by readers and locked until a later date.

Image, whose comics include The Walking Dead and Saga, is currently the third-largest comics publisher after the "Big Two" superhero companies Marvel and DC, and has a long history of breaking away from the corporate model of doing business. Founded in 1992 by a group of high-profile comics creators who wanted to keep the rights to their work, Image remains a publisher of creator-owned content – meaning writers and artists get to keep the rights to their work – rather than the work-for-hire model that dominates mainstream comics, where creators typically receive no further royalties. This distinction, which sits at the heart of the most contentious legal and ethical issues within the industry, has made Image an attractive home for the original work of numerous A-list superhero writers and artists.

But despite Image's history of innovation — and thumbing its nose at the corporate status quo — its decision was informed not just by ideas but by data. Despite the industry's initial fears that digital comics would hurt print sales, or disrupt the fragile balance of the direct market in comic book shops, the exponential growth of digital sales hasn't hurt print — and may have even helped it.

"Over the last several years, we've learned the answer to the big question, and guess what: Digital comics have not destroyed the industry. Digital has shown tremendous growth, but we've also seen growth in the direct market and the book market," said Richards. "If you look at other publishers, they're seeing the same thing."

Access the design files for Ouya's gaming console on Thingiverse and customize your own printable case. Photo: Makerbot/Ouya

Image has the statistics to back it up — and even more surprising in an industry where publishers have been notoriously cagey about providing data about digital sales, actually shared them. Although the publisher only started selling digital comics in 2009, digital sales now make up more than 11 percent of the company's overall revenue, and is currently projecting sales of 15 percent by the end of 2013. Image's best-selling comic, The Walking Dead, sees 22 percent of its sales in digital. And when measured solely against print comics sold in the direct market at comic book stores, digital makes up 27 percent of revenue.

Digital comics has transformed from a threat to a boon, a new channel for sales that not only serves existing readers in new ways but opens to the door to a different and far larger audience than brick and mortar stores. "There's a lot more potential for outreach with digital comics," said Stephenson. "I mean, how many comic stores are there? Maybe 2,000 or 2,500 in the United States? There are more radio stations than that. If you're trying to convince casual [and new] customers to find comics, we'd be better off selling to radio stations than comic book stores."

Still, says Stephenson, it may take time for certain calcified ideas within the industry to change, particularly regarding digital comics and piracy. "Piracy is not going to stop; everybody's doing a completely ineffectual job of stopping it now, and I don't think that this is going to add to it... Now that the technology has caught up to us, then the attitudes and the opinions [in the industry] have to catch up as well. And that takes time, because it's a shift in the paradigm. There are a lot of people who still don't quite understand it."

The Image Comics website, which relaunched today with its new DRM-free offerings, will focus initially on releasing new comics and best-selling series like The Walking Dead, with more of the back catalog to be added as time goes on. And while the new downloadable format will not retroactively be available for Image comics purchased on other apps like ComiXology or iBooks at the time of the launch, Richards says it's something they're looking into.

But for any comics that readers buy directly from Image moving forward, the model is simple. "As long as you purchased them, they won't go away," said Richards. "If you bought it, you own it."