Sold-Out ‘Duncan the Wonder Dog’ Now Available for True Digital Download [UPDATED]

We've been big supporters of Duncan the Wonder Dog, the debut graphic novel by Adam Hines that we named the #1 graphic novel of 2010. But anyone we swayed with our honeyed words was immediately faced with a difficult dilemma: The book is completely sold out, and a new printing isn't due out until March.

Fortunately, Adhouse has decided to do something incredibly smart and make the book available as a digital download at the significantly lower price of $9.95 for people who want to own it now. And I do mean own it -- you can go to MyDigitalComics.com and actually download it to your hard drive as a PDF or CBZ. I know that might be an unfamiliar concept if you've gotten used to "renting" your comics through third-party apps, but I assure you, you'll like it.For someone who has spent the last month unable to open her mouth without talking about either 1) Duncan the Wonder Dog or 2) digital comics, this is the best news possible, and the combination of the reasonable, significantly lowered digital price point almost 15 dollars below the print price and a digital sales model that actually allows readers to own the comics they buy is basically a fever dream of awesome.

Needless to say, if you've been wanting to read Duncan but were stymied by the price point, the sheer weight of the book, or the fact that it was impossible to find in stores, all of your problems have now been solved.

Update: We spoke to Adhouse's Chris Pitzer about the decision to go digital:

ComicsAlliance: What made you decide to go with MyDigitalComics.com instead of Comixology?

Chris Pitzer: A couple reasons. I approached Comixology originally since we have the majority of our library through their system. The problem was that they couldn't just release Duncan to the Ipad or computer. It had to also go mobile, which mean thousands of hours in programming the work for the small screen. We didn't have the resources to do that, and they didn't. So it opened up a chance for MyDigitalComics and AdHouse to work together. I've had fond dealings with DCBS and InStockTrades, so I felt it was time to try this.

CA: MyDigitalComics.com allows readers to actually download the comics they buy rather than license or "rent" through through a third-party app. Why was this something that you wanted readers to be able to do?

CP: Well, I admit that I did or do have concerns about that, and possible piracy. That said, given Adam Hines (creator of Duncan) mentioned possibly having the entire work on his site for FREE at some point... Well, it took less of the worry out of the equation for me. Actually, Adam currently has the entire Show One on his site right now.

CA: You significantly lowered your price point from the print to the digital version (nearly 15 dollars), another thing many publishers are loathe to do. Why did you make that decision?

CP: Are publishers loathe to do that? I don't profess to being an expert in this arena. Basically, this model costs NOTHING to put the digital work in the hands of possible readers, so why not reduce the digital version cost? As a side, one of the fastest profitable original graphic novels we ever published was Salamander Dream by Hope Larson. At the time of publication, the entire work was available FREE online.