Comments on: Marvel DCU reax

by: Vert

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 03:57:09 +0000

Gee whiz, Chad!

Golly.

by: Chad Anderson

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:50:08 +0000

BradyDale, Vert, please stop having a polite debate. You’re ruining my image of the Internet.

by: Torsten Adair

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:35:27 +0000

I envision a Marvel Online Universe where I can read a comic, click on an editorial link, and then read the Handbook entry on an obscure villain, or read the backissues of that characters appearances. Then I could enter different chatroom and discuss the issue, or the villain, or the writer, or NoPrize entries, or the locale where the story took place. I could even place a tag in my post which directs the reader to the issue, and even the panel, that I mention.
I hope that the editorial and licensed advertising pages are reproduced as well, if only as a miscellany. Or maybe Hostess could advertise by reprinting their superhero ads from the Seventies!

by: groonk

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:22:24 +0000

i’m with that last guy. i don’t want to rent comics. just like i wouldn’t want to rent music.

these days i’m picky enough to know that the comic i’m buying, i’m keeping.

the Marvel DCU thing sounds like a good idea but…well maybe it wasn’t meant for folks like me.

by: Vert

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:10:20 +0000

BradyDale:
I see where you’re coming from.

by: BradyDale

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 03:13:42 +0000

Yes, I guess people already have the books when they scan them… I guess I’m just thinking that the motivation to do it (if I scan others will scan) is broken down a lot when comics cost so little to buy digitally.

I hear you about comics sucking on a screen, but more and more people are getting used to it.

by: Vert

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:46:04 +0000

I’m not a fan of reading comics on a screen, so I won’t be checking it out. But you would think that Marvel would have tried to avoid that “DCU” acronym, just from a marketing perspective. Why create potential confusion?

And BradyDale: I think I see your point about keeping them cheap to avoid illegal copies, but your argument doesn’t work for me. Would I pay a dollar instead of taking the time to scan? If I have the book in my hands to scan, why would I pay a dollar? Or am I misunderstanding?

by: BradyDale

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:50:33 +0000

the more I read people’s arguments for why you ought to just be able to buy comics digitally and keep them, it makes sense. They should just start selling high quality scans of their comics for like $0.75 each and let folks take them. Put up as much as they can and leave them there.

Considering the fact that scanning comics is a lot more labor intensive than ripping a CD ever was, a low but reasonable price for e-delivery of a comic would probably all but kill the pirate trade. Would you really be able to stand to take the time to scan if you could just buy it for around $1?

This does sort of smack of the music industries earlier and more inept attempts to keep CDs from becoming mp3s. They had to give in and go with Itunes.

and if they want to get into kids’s space, Itunes is more likely to do it for them, as a delivery mechanism, than their own subscription site.

by: maija

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:55:21 +0000

Unless the format changes (and I’d rather not see that happen) the stumbling block for online delivery of traditional comics is always going to be the portrait-oriented page versus the landscape-oriented monitor.

E-books never really took off, but somebody should be jumping on the technology and producing an e-comic that will display pages at actual size. I never had an interest in e-books, but I could see myself carrying around an e-comic. I’d still buy the trades, but it would be swell to pay a dollar to download a back-issue of some obscure independent series from, say, iComics™ and be able to read it in that remote village that has nothing but an internet café, never mind a well-stocked comic shop.

Of course, the two-page spread would suffer. Maybe you could turn it sideways for those and then click to see individual pages.

by: Chad Anderson

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:51:42 +0000

Oh, scratch that. The folks at ComicMix just highlighted a portion of an interview with Dan Buckley at ICv2 that has killed my enthusiasm for this initiative.

Do you plan to put up all new issues of the titles that are on the "Current Favorites" or "Young Reader Series" lists? No, we do not plan on putting up the new issues of "Current Favorites" nor do we plan on keeping complete runs of top selling trades like Astonishing X-Men up on the site for prolonged periods of time.

If they're going to be shifting stuff in and out all the time, then there's no reason for me to subscribe to this.

by: Remedial Comics » Blog Archive » Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:41:19 +0000

[…] Responding to a post at THE BEAT about Marvel’s new online comic initiative, rounding up a number of reactions. […]

by: Chad Anderson

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:34:23 +0000

I think the difference is in the sheer volume of their offerings (not to mention the possibilty of a regular release schedule for newer comics), and given the fact that folks will be paying for this, I’m guessing most reders are expecting the number of comics they make available online through this service to increase. Like The Beat, I’ve got more than a few comics I’d be willing to let go of in favor of thois option.

by: Anun

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:14:13 +0000

I’m just trying to figure out how what they’re offering is really so different from their last webcomics attempt several years ago. Somewhere, around 2000 or so, they had comics available for reading on their site. The interface was rather clunky, and they mainly only had the Ultimates line available, but this isn’t their first attempt at all. It just seems like the news really is “Marvel has online delivery — which you have to pay for!”.