Two bits for your consideration:

1) The Digital Comics Museum

The archiving of the Golden Age of Comics is well on its way. All of them fall under public domain.

2) ICV2 Explores the future of Digital Comics

Why Digital Comics Are Different (And Print Can Grow Too)
…awareness of many comic properties is very high. That’s because comic characters have been widely (and increasingly) used in media with mass appeal, such as TV, movies, and videogames, and because comics also pick up characters and stories from other media.

This creates a huge opportunity for comic content to reach new audiences using digital delivery. Digital distribution also offers new ways for unknown properties to build audiences, reaching many more people than have ever been able to buy physical comics by new companies or creators.

Digital distribution can reach anybody with a reading device or computer, offering a much broader audience than a couple of thousand comic stores or even a few thousand bookstores can. The great news is that it appears that at least some of those new customers are moving to purchase comics and graphic novels in print as well.

via icv2, laughing squid