The Online Comic Book Revolution - Comixology

In keeping with yesterday's newspaper comics post, how about comic books?

A couple of years ago, I mentioned how I was always a big comic book fan, but that I had fallen away from it both from the story point of view but also because I just ran out of space and was getting tired of making room for them. I was thrilled to see that both Marvel and DC comics had online services now that offered comics for their readers who wanted digital versions.

The problem was that all of the comics on the apps were old. I lamented the fact that you couldn't get your monthly subscriptions as digital downloads.

Fast forward a few months, and that's no longer true.

Yes, I am a comics reader again, though nowhere near to the extent I used to be.

Thanks to Comixology.

Comixology is a service (and an app too, which I love on my iPad) that offers thousands of comics for digital download. In addition, comics are now almost universally "same day as print" available on the site, so you never have to be behind again. (To be fair, I believe both the Marvel and DC Comics apps also now have same day as print, but why tie yourself to one or two specific companies when Comixology offers everything?)

I started my sojourn into modern comics-buying with the Merc with a Mouth, Deadpool (Marvel). Decided that would be the only one I was going to follow religiously. Of course, that quickly jumped to two with Hellblazer (DC: Vertigo) and now is up to four with the new Invincible Iron Man (Marvel) and I am all caught up on the Walking Dead comic (Image). I read through all 104 issues in almost a week in order to be caught up, so now I'm going to be getting it monthly.

Comixology also offers sales on older titles to get you started. Maybe a Captain America sale, or Witchblade or whatever. There are sales going on all the time. I did take advantage of a couple of them to try out new books, but none of them grabbed me. I'm waiting for some collections to go on sale to catch up.

I understand those who like the tactile feel of books and magazines and comics in their hands. I would like nothing better with mine too. But comics take up so much space, and I'm a collector. I like to be able to re-read them sometimes, or maybe read an entire 6-issue story once it's complete. It's not like re-reading books, which can take a while if you're a slower reader. Comics go by fairly quickly. And to me, it's not worth the space they take up.

Getting them online like this is a dream. I'm not going to go as hogwild as I did in the past (I used to buy something like 20 comics a month), but I am enjoying what I'm reading.

It helps that we've been finding iTunes gift cards at discounted prices, paying $80 for a $100 card for example. That makes things even cheaper.

So if your a comic book fan, do you prefer paper or digital? And if you used to be a fan, would you consider coming back now that you can do it digitally? There are so many possibilities out there for a broad range of tastes, from Walking Dead (seeing what inspired the TV show) to superheroes to secret agents to history even!

It's good to be back in the fold.

Newspaper Comics - is Online Saving Them?

The awesome Speed Bump from Nov 27, 2012.

One of my favourite childhood memories is eagerly getting the newspaper each day, ripping open the "non-news" section (that's what I always thought of the stuff like "Lifestyle" and other sections that weren't hard news stories), and finding the comics. Sunday tradition was to dig through the mountain of flyers, catalogs, and other sales items to find the self-contained Sunday comics pages.

I had many favourites at the time, like Hi & Lois, Beetle Bailey, Hagar the Horrible, and the Wizard of Id.

That's mostly gone by the wayside now. I stopped getting newspapers that had comics a while back, and now I don't get the newspaper at all. I get all of my news online, either from news web sites or blogs or whatever. That has had the unfortunate side effect of eliminating comics from my reading.

Except that it hasn't. Because they're all available online.

Newspaper subscriptions have been trending downward for years, so comics artists and syndicates have had to make some changes in how they do things. One of those changes has been to make their work available online, including huge archives of previous strips if you want to pay for the access.

The great In the Bleachers from Nov 30

Scott Adams has his own Dilbert site, for example. Others are included in various umbrella sites such as GoComics and ArcaMax (the direct link to the comics page doesn't appear to be working right now, but you can find it through this link). These sites allow you to subscribe for free and have them delivered to your inbox every day, which really saves a lot of time and effort.

GoComics allows you to set up your own comics page you can go to each day, with one of them being sent to you in the mail if you're not a paid subscriber. If you are paid, the entire thing gets sent to you.

There are some great ones out there that I follow, such as Luann, Strange Brew, Dilbert (of course), In the Bleachers. I was really sad when the Far Side went away, but I believe Dave Coverly's Speed Bump is a nice replacement for it. A couple examples of it are on this post, and I just find Coverly's sense of humour to be wonderful.

Speed Bump from 11-19

So my newspaper comics reading is saved, even as newspapers go the way of the dodo.

What comics did you like to read? How about currently? And do you get a newspaper every day? How much of it do you read?

*Note* With this post, I have now posted at least once every day in the month of November. Also have had something post every day since I re-started the blog at the end of October.

A milestone I'm really happy with. And it shall continue as long as I'm able!

Comic Books and Technology - Bringing Back my Childhood

This post is a personal journey culminating in a wish for the future.

I was a comic book collector for a very long time. I think I started collecting comics when I was in Junior High or High School (can't quite remember). I wasn't particular as far as companies went, other than the fact that they were all superhero comics (though I guess I did read the occasional Archie comic as well).

I collected all through college and through my years in Chicago. I figure it was around 10-15 years of comic book collecting. Sometimes more titles than others, but always a fair number.

And I devoured them.

I did keep them in plastic bags like a collector, but I always read them at least once before putting them away. I would file them away, in alphabetical order, in boxes that were designed to hold comics.

(The long ones, not the short ones)

I read as much as I could. Spider-Man was a favourite (there were four series with him at the time), Daredevil, Avengers, Fantastic Four (among others) from Marvel. Teen Titans, Justice League, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc from DC. As I got older, I read some of the more mature ones like Hellblazer and the pure beauty of Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic.

All read, then lovingly stored away in their boxes. Occasionally to be brought out again, but not that often (didn't want to destroy them in case I ever wanted to sell them!).

When I moved out to Seattle, and then to Vancouver, they couldn't come with me. I didn't have anywhere to put them. So my parents graciously allowed me to store them in their basement. But I kept collecting. I started new boxes in my new home. Which ones I collected changed often, but I was still collecting quite a bit.

Until finally I just looked at everything, the space they were taking up, the space they were taking up at my parents' house, and said "maybe I should get rid of these?" I was still enjoying them, but that enjoyment was slowly being superseded by the part of me that realized that I was running out of space, and the problem would only continue to grow.

So I got rid of them. 3000-4000 comics, sold. I don't remember for how much. The money wasn't important (though it was nice); it was the space and the effort of collecting that had become just too much for me. While they were enjoyable to read, they weren't enjoyable to collect anymore. So I stopped.

And never looked back.

In fact, I didn't really miss them that much.

Until both Marvel and DC came up with their iPhone and iPad apps that would let you read comics on the device, as well as Marvel's "Digital Subscription Service" that allows you to read over 8000 of the comics that they've digitized, all for a monthly subscription fee.

What an idea!! Electronic copies of comics that you have access to at anytime, and no storage!

And I'd be on that faster than a fly on...well, you can probably guess.

Except for two things, one limitation of the app/subscription and one much broader:

1) Where are the new titles?

So far, most of the comics available seem to be old comics and old stories. While that's kind of cool, what I'm interested in is paying a subscription for *new* comics that come out every month. Say print comics right now are $4.95 (I'm not sure what they actually are, but this is just an example). For $2.00/month, you could subscribe to each new issue of a comic (say, Detective Comics if DC was doing this). And it would be $2.00/month for each book, so if you wanted Action Comics as well, it would be $4.00/month. Maybe even a bulk rate if you subscribe to 5 or more titles.

That doesn't appear to be an option right now, though I would welcome being shown differently.

Instead, I see stories from 2005, 2001, 1995, and even reprints of the originals from back in the 60s. Which is definitely cool! Just not what I want.

2) The state of the comics industry

From everything I've heard, the superhero genre has gotten *really* strange, with massive reboots even more massive than the massive ones that were happening when I was collecting. Do any of the stories that I remember even still "exist?" (and by that, I mean in the current continuity, as I know the stories themselves still exist...don't be pedantic). Are they even well-written anymore? I don't know. I guess I could certainly dip my toe in...if they started offering the subscription option I mention above.

But Marvel's "Civil War" saga? From everything I heard about it, it was seriously stupid, though I guess some people might disagree. I certainly can't give an informed opinion about it.

Anybody knowledgeable in the current comics field have any recommendations? Something I can keep an eye out for if it's ever available electronically? Even smaller press, though obviously those are less likely to ever be available electronically.

This is a perfect technological way to bring back my childhood (and earlier adult years), one that would solve all of my storage problems and still allow me to enjoy something I love.

If I loved it anymore. I guess they do say you can never go back.

But it might be worth a try?