Comixology lets you re-download previously purchased comics without making you pay again on any device you want, so if you lose the copies stored on your device, you can easily replace them.  One could argue that part of the reason why they charge you the same as for a print copy is to pay for the cloud storage.



If you're referring to Comixology's guided view, there's an option to disable that which lets you view the entire page at once instead of panel-by-panel.  You can also switch between page-by-page and guided view on the fly.  Not very useful if you're reading on a phone, but most tablets are large enough that you can view the entire page and still read the type.  I prefer to view the entire page at once, and I use a tablet, so that's how I read digital books, unless there's a huge, two-page splash.  In that case, I switch to guided view, but that's not very often.

I only buy digital books in a limited set of circumstances.  I generally abide by the guideline that if a comic was printed in the newsprint era, I try to track it down in single-issue format unless it becomes prohibitively expensive for me to do so.  I prefer the way newsprint era comics look in their native format.  In trade or digital, those older comics tend to look overly bright and it bothers me.  But at least as far as classic comics, my interests tend to gravitate towards 70s and 80s books, and most of those can be had for non-bank-breaking prices.  Count me in for one who likes looking at old Hostess fruit pie ads and reading the letters columns.

For books printed in the glossy paper/computer colored era, the presentation isn't really affected when viewed in digital or a trade paperback, since in most cases the native format was digital to begin with.  So those are the books I'm ok with buying in digital format.  But even then, if it's a book that I know I will want to keep or is meaningful to me, I'd still rather have it in print -- perhaps a nice hardcover.  Coincidentally, this is also the era when the ads started to lose a lot of their charm.

I usually end up making digital purchases whenever Comixology has a sale.  I find that their sale price point is much more in line with what I think digital should cost, and I usually end up buying books that I'm interested in, but not so much that I'd pay anywhere near cover price.  So I use digital to catch-up on things like the occasional crazy Marvel event, or the latest iteration of the Avengers or X-Men, or a book that I've heard a lot of good things about but is in a genre or from creators that I usually don't care for.

For me, digital will never replace my print comic collection.  But the best use I've found for digital?  You can't beat loading up a tablet full of comics to read while you're on vacation.

I loaded the 70's run of Fantastic Four on my tablet. It is very nice carrying it around.

I usually take one DC Showcase Presents & one Marvel Essentials on vacation.

I am "old school" with my music too. I don't own an mp3 player. I still buy CD's or vinyl. I still like reading liner notes & discovering other songs besides the singles.

I saw my daughter lose a lot of her music when her ipod got messed up. She also lost the music on her computer when it crashed while at college.

I might do 2-3 issues of a digital comic at most at a time, on nothing less than a large 24' monitor so I can open 2 pages at a time. They're useful as back ups or to 'preview' new books but I prefer original hard copies by far. I'll never switch over.

yeah digital is great to preview new books. forgot about that benefit. 

www.humblebundle.com/books

Forgot the link!