iVerse was on hand this year’s SXSW ScreenBurn Arcade to show off their iPhone digital comics reader and distribution network. Books are released regularly on the service, costing from $0.99 to $2.99.

The company’s strategy is to distribute comics across as many platforms as possible. Recently, iVerse has been working with Sony to distribute comics on the PSN Store to the PSP Comic Reader. According to a booth representative the iVerse reader and store will soon be making its way to the iPad, Android phones, and a PC desktop reader. The iPad and PC applications in particular will allow publishers to submit higher resolution comics to the service. However, there will not be cross platform support.

I just had to ask the representative about the elepant-in-the-room: can digital comics really replace physical comic books? Arguably, digital books lose the tactile feel and collectibility of traditional-paper comics.

He says he hopes those differences will allow digital comics to coexist with the old guard. With digital, you don’t have to worry about caring for the paper comics are printed on. Like music mp3 files, large collections of digital comics can be carried around on small devices. Besides, physical comics will forever remain collectible regardless of how abundant they are digitally. Their value derives from the supply of physical copies so a collector’s market will always exist. He says certain comics still sell more physical copies than digital, while others are taking advantage of digital’s low publishing overhead. In particular some indie comics have found that they can expand their physical comic sales by using digital comics to expand their audience.

Recently iVerse has been working with webcomic creators Scott Kurtz and Brad Guigar to distribute PVP and Evil Inc respectively.

Hopefully, this rise in digital distribution will allow publishers to experiment with pricing models and find new audiences. As a comics newbie myself, I never got into comic book collecting. However, the sheer convenience of digital comics might just hook me into new comics.