In addition to revealing their new Nook tablet, Barnes & Noble announced they would soon be carrying Marvel digital comics on the device in their first-ever electronic pairing with the bookseller.
As you all know, last month Barnes & Noble decided to pull all DC Comics books from their physical store shelves after the publisher made an exclusive deal with Amazon.com for their new Kindle Fire e-reader. Recently B&N has made a deal with UK publisher 2000 AD/Rebellion for a large portion of the old Alan Moore stories.
“Regardless of the publisher, we will not stock physical books in our stores if we are not offered the available digital format…To sell and promote the physical book in our store showrooms, and not have the eBook available for sale would undermine our promise to Barnes & Noble customers to make available any book, anywhere, anytime.”---Jaime Carey, chief merchant of B&N
Of course, I can think of a few exceptions to that(Harry Potter)but for the most part, I think this is a good move for both Marvel and B&N, especially because I own a Nook Color. I know that most of the Marvel content will be for the new Nook tablet,but according to Ryan Penagos,editorial director of Marvel.com, they will offer it to N.Color customers as well.
B&N already offers Archie comics, as well select books from Red 5, IDW and Boom comics. And coming soon, Marvel Trades!