I've always been against the idea of digital comics, I've felt that comics is something that I need to own a physical copy of, so that I can get the feel and smell of it as I read it.
However, I just recently got myself an Android phone (a Samsung Galaxy SII), and noticed that they had Comixology comic readers (Marvrel and DC both use it), so I downloaded it just to see how it was.
And little by little, I was blown away. I've not had such a reading experience when reading a comic in quite a while. And the reason for that is simply the magnificent way the app zooms in and out on the proper things.
How many times haven't you read a comic, where they build up for a big reveal, but you accidentally spoil yourself as you turn to a new page as your eye see the whole page, and not just the first frame (say the reveal is at the bottom of a page, very hard to make yourself ignore everything but the first panel).
This never happen the way these apps are made, they focus on one panel/frame at a time, preventing you from accidentally looking at future frames. At the same time, they don't reveal all the artwork at once, so that you spot it at the most opportune moment.
My best example; I bought the Madrox miniseries (which I loved btw), and the first comic start off by showing us Madrox's head and shoulders, while we have text boxes around. After reading through the boxes, we get a sense of dread. Touching the touchscreen to proceed, the "camera" zoom out slightly, to reveal that Madrox was all along clutching his hand to a bloody wound on his chest. Had this been a normal comic, I would have seen this at once, and the dread in the textboxes would have been obvious, and not really needed.
For things like this, I'm really enjoying reading the comics digital. Also, I save a lot of money since I don't have to import them from the US anymore (one TPB, a Spider-man Brand New Day for instance, cost me about 30$ when I convert it back to USD), and I get them at the same time as you Americans.
I will of course continue to buy physical copies of series' I love (Walking Dead, Preacher, etc), but my run of the mill Superherocomics, welcome to digital!
I'm always gonna be an old school comic book kinda guy. Anyone who wants to get into comics via digital or completely convert to it thats fine by me, anything to help continue promoting the franchise, (thank god for the movies!) and I don't mind the occasional preview or different series over view by digital means.
But allot of why I buy comics is the collecting factor and you just can't collect digital comics pass them on to your kids one day or get them signed by your favorite authors and so on the way true comic dorks always have anything like the classic paper comic books.
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None of them sparkle!
Sig by Scythe!
My external hard-drive weighs like 1/4 of a pound and currently stores around 700GB of comics, which equates to thousands of individual issues. I'm no mathologist, but I'm pretty sure the same amount of paper comics would weigh a little bit more than my hard drive, and wouldn't be nearly as organized.
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"I am tired of Earth. These people.
I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives."
Last edited by Galan007 on Feb 5th, 2012 at 06:33 PM
I actually threw away like half my collection recently, trying to scale my sh*t down to all fit in my new place. I only kept the stuff that I "follow" like Spider-Man, Doctor Who, JSA, etc. Digital comics are so much easier...I'm not a pack rat.
Digital comics actually help you to keep your comic space to the bare minimum, I would rather show my kids physical comics than internet collections because I make it a big deal to have actual objects so they have physical experiences. But even with that attachment to the object itself, digital comics are essential to keep your collections organized, are easier to share and carry less weight. I have nothing against them as long as the physical counterparts exist.
Jan 26th, 2012 06:21 PM
