The Robot Friday Digital Library is officially live today. The Library will be THE place where you can download, completely FREE, collections of the Robot Friday print books. Of course the artist commentary and behind-the-scenes material aren’t available in the free downloads, but all the great strips are there in a nice portable format, FOR FREE!

If you bought a digital version of the print books during the time that they were not free then you still got your money’s worth. The digital book 2 was actually a double issue that contains the yet-to-be released version of print book 3! Plus, both previous digital versions had all the artist commentary and behind-the-scenes material completely intact. So, if you bought a digital book in the past I thank you whole heartedly! You showed me your support and I hope you continue to enjoy what is now a very rare digital version of a Robot Friday comic book.

Now for the inevitable question, “Why give them away for free?”

For me it’s something that makes complete sense. Right now my number one goal for the Robot Friday website is to gain new readers, and giving away copies of my collected editions in an easy to use portable format free for anyone to download and share with their friends helps me move toward that goal. I also see huge potential in downloadable digital content in the very near future. As more online users get used to the idea of reading magazines and newspapers in digital form I think comics are poised to really explode in the coming months.

We have the potential to get comics from the past and the present in the hands of people who have never considered reading them before. We also have the potential to enrich the lives of comic books fans even more now that we can distribute vast comic book collections. With pdf formats creators can provide links to online content at their websites inside the free digital collections. Readers now have the choice and ease of use to enjoy our content at their leisure and/or visit our websites to purchase print editions or to stay up-to-date on our fresh webcomic content. It’s a win/win all around in my book!

So, check out the FREE downloads and if you’re a comic creator give some thought to providing free comics of your own. I have a hunch we won’t regret it