Up till now, most comic book companies' digital offerings have been scattershot. Maybe a few titles day-and-date, a few others that are a few months behind, and then a random assortment of issues from older titles.

In contrast to “day-and-date,” we might call the current approach “if-ever.”

But starting in September, DC has made the commitment that every new comic they put out will be available online in digital format immediately and forever.

I’ll say it again: AND FOREVER. That means that from September on, as long as DC stays in business, a customer will be able to buy any comic they’ve ever put out (from September on) at any time for or less than the original cover price.

Since the mid-70s, comics have existed as a niche collector’s market. Scarcity and demand drove cost both for older comics and for the next big thing. The first appearance of Spider-Man is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The latest sold-out buzz book from Image might go for $100 on eBay.

In recent years, we’ve seen this change somewhat. Publishers have found a new revenue stream repackaging their older comics into collections and selling them through comic stores and book chains. But they can’t reprint everything, and they can’t print an infinite number of copies.

With the move to day-and-date, DC has effectively decoupled the content from the collectible forever. There’s no longer such a thing as an obscure, hard-to-find comic. Storylines never go out of print. And no comic will ever be under-ordered again.

DC can put out a war comic or a horror comic or a cowboy comic, and if it doesn’t sell enough copies in September, they can sell the exact same comic in October, in November, and in 2015. Comics that they couldn’t afford to keep in circulation as collections, comics that would become hard to find and potentially expensive to collect as back issues, will be available forever and instantaneously in digital format at cover price or below.

Reading habits will change. Ironically, day-and-date distribution means that there’s no need to buy every comic the Wednesday it comes out. Want to wait a week or two to hear what people are saying about the new Blackhawk title? It’ll still be there when you’re ready. Heck, want to wait a few months and buy a few issues at once for a meatier reading experience? All of those issues will still be available, and they might even be cheaper!

We saw a similar phenomenon, “trade-waiting,” rise up around collected editions, but the danger there was always “If the comics don’t sell well enough, who’s to say there’ll be a collection?” But with day-and-date, those comics will always be available.

The only real risk is cancellation. If you don’t buy the comic now, they’ll stop making new ones. But there’s even a novel solution to that! Imagine DC putting out a press release:

“Sales on Jonah Hex have been slumping. If sales don’t increase, we’re going to have to discontinue the book.”

Within minutes, everybody’s who’s been waiting to pick up new issues can log in and download the issues they’d been holding out on. They can also reach out to friends and followers on social media to sample their favorite comic. And it doesn’t matter whether new readers start reading from the beginning, the latest issue, or the greatest hits in between. It’s all new money contributing to DC’s bottom line.

While DC will still be operating a periodical business day-to-day, they’ll also be maintaining an infinitely extensible backlist. This is essential for comics, because most comics are such quick reads. To encourage long-term reading habits, you need a library of comics available to potential readers. Enjoy this issue of Superman? Here’s 20 more. Like Grant Morrison’s writing? Here are three more series he’s written.

Of course, the ultimate barrier to entry is cost. There seems to be a growing consensus that comic books, and digital comics in particular, need to cost 99 cents. It seems to be the magical number at which each purchase becomes an impulse buy. With infinite availability and an “impulse price,” comics could finally have a chance to go mainstream.

(Here “mainstream” means something your average person would download while waiting in line at the bank.)

For various reasons which I won’t get into today, it’s not practical to sell comics for 99 cents just yet. But DC is at least thinking about ways to make their digital comics more affordable. Though their new digital comics will still be $2.99 at launch, same as their print comics, they will be lowering the price to $1.99 after 30 days.

Twice the right price isn’t good, but it’s better than thrice! And it provides some interesting options for those of us who plan to make the transition to all-digital come September.

I will certainly be buying the big new series on or very near to “day-and-date.” That includes the new Justice League, Action Comics, Batman, etc. And there are a number of other titles that I’ll be picking up, here and there, throughout the month as the mood strikes me. For instance, I’ll probably sample Omac and Hex and Nightwing before the end of the month.

Based on what I enjoy the most, I’ll decide what I want to stay up-to-date on. What do I really, really want to read as soon as it’s available? For everything else, I’ll wait a month or even two or three, picking up a few at a time at the reduced price.

If, after a few months, I start hearing good things about a title I’m not buying, I’ll start at the beginning, rather than trying to jump on with the latest issue. If I like what I’ll see, I can either pick up a new issue every few weeks, like I’d do for any other series, or I can catch-up and start following the new releases.

If I find that I’m buying too many comics, I don’t need to drop any of them. I’ll just buy them less frequently. Instead of picking up the latest Aquaman every four weeks, I’ll pick it up once every six weeks. I may fall behind, but those later issues will always be there waiting for me, and they might even wind up being cheaper to boot!

That’s me in the short term. What really excites me though is the future. I’m thinking of the reader who discovers comics in ten years. For them, it’s all new and it’s all available instantly at the click of a button. They could spend the rest of their lives reading and loving comics, pouring through the best the industry has ever had to offer, and never, ever read a comic “day-and-date.”