OPINIONS ON COMICS ON DVD.

[john9965]

I know this topic has been aired before but I would like to know peoples current views as more & more of these DVDs have appeared on ebay.
I do have quite a few of them and to be quite frank find them superb. Of course the real thing ie the paper in your hand will always be the best but I really do find this media excellent.
The latest one I've bought is a complete set of Misty comics, specials & annuals all on one disc. Probably as most of you know, Misty usually commands a premium price on the web and to own that set would literally cost you hundreds of pounds.
The few others I have is a near complete set of 2000AD, Action & Scream. I see no harm in these if it gives more people a chance to see & read these publications. Whether they affect comics values is maybe another matter but it seems to be there is a big market out there for this type of product. While I do like the complete sets I'm not so keen on the ones that have a mixture of comics.
I think maybe it's just a matter of time before we see complete years of the Beano & Dandy turning up on disc or would this be a copyright issue?
I would be fascinated to know what other comics collectors think?

[Lew Stringer]

I think maybe it's just a matter of time before we see complete years of the Beano & Dandy turning up on disc or would this be a copyright issue?

Most definitely, and those discs you've bought are also in breach of copyright.

[TwoHeadedBoy]

Don't like them myself - it's hard enough reading through a few missed episodes of a webcomic, let alone whole comics.

If it was designed to be read on paper, that's how it should be read!

[felneymike]

Quite apart from the fact they're ripping off the real publishers, if they see these sort of things selling they'll start to get ideas about doing it officially... when what they really need to be doing is reprinting favourite stories in their entirety as cheap paperback "phone books". If the stories originally appeared in black and white on cheap paper, and the original artwork is lost, they don't actually need lavish reproduction in dustjacketed hardback on art paper do they?

[Richard S.]

it's theft, simples!

[stevezodiac]

I recently bought a dvd-rom set of Countdown but I do have a complete set of the comics that I bought when they were published. Same with TV Century 21. (Although I don't have the first issue). To be honest I'd much rather have Essentials/Showcase style collections of UK titles.

[Lew Stringer]

Quite apart from the fact they're ripping off the real publishers, if they see these sort of things selling they'll start to get ideas about doing it officially

Perhaps, or maybe they'll think that as most of the tiny niche that are interested in such things already have them on pirate disc there won't be enough interest to support an official venture.

... when what they really need to be doing is reprinting favourite stories in their entirety as cheap paperback "phone books". If the stories originally appeared in black and white on cheap paper, and the original artwork is lost, they don't actually need lavish reproduction in dustjacketed hardback on art paper do they?

I agree, although it'd still be an expensive risk for any publisher. Despite what paper stock is used for printing, the cost of preparing the artwork would still be the same.

Also, I may be mistaken, but if we're talking about a small print run (and let's face it, there's no mass market audience for the older material) then digital printing on good quality paper would be cheaper than using newsprint or pulp paper. But even then a phonebook-sized collection wouldn't be cheap. (Eg: that book on British Fantasy heroes that Ugly Duckling Press published, - £75 cover price, print run 100. I understand a softback version still wouldn't have been that much cheaper.)

[tony ingram]

Regardless of the legal issues, I just find it incredibly difficult and distracting trying to read comics oin a screen. It isn't how they were designed to be viewed.

[-MikeD-]

Regardless of the legal issues, I just find it incredibly difficult and distracting trying to read comics oin a screen. It isn't how they were designed to be viewed.

And I read practically all my comics on the iPad nowadays...including .CBRs of older titles.

I'm more than willing to pay for official downloads of old IPC/DC Thomson titles, but I'm guessing that the market will be fairly small against the cost of scanning and preparing the artwork.

[paw broon]

Same as Tony. I find it hard reading comics on computer screen despite having a huge library of P.D. downloaded material. I just have to go slowly and these are comics that I either would never be able to find or, if I did, couldn't afford.
After previous chats re. reprinting old material, I have to admit now seeing Lew's point. I don't believe DCT, for example, will do official releases on disc or as downloads as there wouldn't be a good enough return. But despite my discomfort with reading a screen, I'd buy some of it.
The comics on cd/dvd thing isn't going away as there were dealers both at Glasgow cons and London marts with examples on their tables and I'm curious to see if any will turn up at the next Glasgow marts. A lot of the American stuff is P.D. and readily available for free so some of these discs are a rip-off and the non-P.D. stuff is simply theft.
If anyone wants old American comics to read/collect in electronic form, P.D. of course, sign up free at :-
http://goldenagecomics.co.uk//index.php (this site will be in hiatus for a short time while it re-generates into a new, faster, safer, better looking resource - New link when changeover is complete).
And:-
www.digitalcomicmuseum.com
Just remember, download only 1 item at a time. You'll find no DC or Marvel but loads of Quality, Fawcett, MLJ and many more G.A. companies which means, Plastic Man; Ray; Captain Marvel; Black Terror; Phantom Lady; Black Cat and so much more incl. some superb humour titles. All for free and legal.

[felneymike]

I agree, although it'd still be an expensive risk for any publisher. Despite what paper stock is used for printing, the cost of preparing the artwork would still be the same.

Also, I may be mistaken, but if we're talking about a small print run (and let's face it, there's no mass market audience for the older material)

Better to risk it and have "new" collections of material available than risking the stories vanishing from view forever as the number of copies of original issues dwindles to a handful tucked away in collections.

And I'm talking about large print runs produced as a "quick present" for teenagers and 20-somethings to give their parents for nostalgia purposes (even to the point of releasing them on father's / mother's day and advertising them like that). With readership levels declining over decades before long we'll be left with very few adults who remember reading comics when they were young, and even less incentive to reprint things in any format. It's a case of use or lose it, and the decision has to be made soon!

[stevezodiac]

I posted a newspaper cutting here a few months stating that the British Library was working round the clock scanning newspapers for their digital archive, nothing to stop them doing the same with comics and magazines. Just wondering how they would manage with the square bound magazines that are very difficult to lay flat at the inside spine.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I would prefer officially sanctioned digital comic archives, but there's no sign of this ever happening any time soon........the bootleggers are just plugging a gap that is not covered by the legal copyright holders. I don't own any bootleg comic archives, but I'd be interested in having a look at the quality and would consider it if the price was OK, and the quality was acceptable-----I'm not convinced the technology is quite ready yet.

Even High-quality scanning in 2012 just exposes the flaws inbuilt within vintage paper media, as I discovered myself recently after scanning some 1969 comics at hi-res. The comics artwork can be 'restored' in Photoshop etc even if the original artwork on bristol board is long lost, but I doubt if bootleggers would be prepared to go to these lengths.........bootleg comics on disc are probably OK as a stopgap but I'd still seek out the original comics personally.

[Lew Stringer]

Better to risk it and have "new" collections of material available than risking the stories vanishing from view forever as the number of copies of original issues dwindles to a handful tucked away in collections.

And I'm talking about large print runs produced as a "quick present" for teenagers and 20-somethings to give their parents for nostalgia purposes (even to the point of releasing them on father's / mother's day and advertising them like that). With readership levels declining over decades before long we'll be left with very few adults who remember reading comics when they were young, and even less incentive to reprint things in any format. It's a case of use or lose it, and the decision has to be made soon!

As enthusiasts we'd like to keep those classics alive but the big question is: is there a large market for them? I don't see any evidence to support that unfortunately. Can publishers afford the risk in the current economic climate?

[felneymike]

There probably isn't a market but I'm trying my best to make one

I'm going to create a semi-joking "comic tabloid" called The Sentinel with loads of ranting articles about "IF we were truly proud of our own culture we'd see big reprint voluimes of X" and sell it f'cheap, plus leave copies laying about.

Oh and also the other day a bloke at work asked if we'd seen Fight Club, which is "about underground, illegal boxing". I told I hadn't, but I had read Tinker Cobb in The Wizard...