Comics UK

Just put the artist/writer info in a PDF file.

Lew Stringer wrote:
...then the beer turns sour as they realize the discs no longer work and the memory stick is faulty.

Well, I've heard it said that DVD-Rs can last only three years, and flash drives are only guaranteed to work for about ten, aren't they?

Today's digital formats might be very difficult for 22nd Century historians of Sid's Snake to access - unlike well-preserved paper!

Cloud storage?

Digifiend wrote:Cloud storage?

Costly. And what if the service provider goes out of business in the meantime? Or internet connectivity is crippled due to some dystopian future war, or some future government shuts down internet access, or taxes it too highly to be affordable? What would the next century's scholars of Cheeky Weekly do then?

I guess they'll probably have to glean what they can from any surviving copies of Whizzer & Chips with Krazy.

I fear Freaky's role may be overemphasized. It's quite heartbreaking.

...Maybe we should each choose a single comic to memorize for posterity, like in Fahrenheit 451.

- Phil R.

Currently the most cost effective way of preserving old comics is to scan them and distribute copies far and wide. This act of electronic dissemination, geographically diverse and self perpetuating, will ensure that at least the contents will exist for as long as anybody, anywhere is interested in them.

Note - This course of action breaks many applicable laws...

Raven wrote:

Digifiend wrote:Cloud storage?

Costly. And what if the service provider goes out of business in the meantime? Or internet connectivity is crippled due to some dystopian future war, or some future government shuts down internet access, or taxes it too highly to be affordable? What would the next century's scholars of Cheeky Weekly do then?

And what if the sky falls down and we all die?

Surely the answer is to not trust to any one system, but to spread it around, so for example, if your house burns down and all your original comics go up in flames, you'd still be able to read them.

Did that Retro sweet company ever reprint whizzer & chips issue 1 to give away with orders,i cant remember the thread or the company name but i do remember someone asking for a copy a while back & beating me to the issue in 30th century comics.

This reminds me of the sleeve notes to one of my psychedelia compilation cds where they copied the recordings from the old reel to reel tapes found in garages and lofts (recorded by the original bands when they were teenagers for posterity). They described one of the tapes as disintegrating in front of them as it was being recorded onto disc. Obviously it was the last chance and they got it. Other songs on these cds have bits of dropout and pops and crackles so it was fortunate they were preserved when they were, allowing me to savour the far out grooviness of bands like Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck, Caretakers of Deception, Tales of Justine &c.

big bad bri wrote:Did that Retro sweet company ever reprint whizzer & chips issue 1 to give away with orders,i cant remember the thread or the company name but i do remember someone asking for a copy a while back & beating me to the issue in 30th century comics.

The company was A Quarter Of - http://www.aquarterof.co.uk

Found the thread: http://comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4909

yes, I always reckoned that if a proper War comes along, then the restoration and archiving of comics will be the least of our worries!

I always felt that the plug could get pulled on the internet at any time, [it would probably have to if real War between Continents broke out]: it is totally dependent on society co-operating, which is a tall order with the human race!

This is no reason to stop trying and save stuff for the future though, in the hope that peace will prevail.


I don't know how long DVDs last , but I do have CDs that are over 20 years old and still work fine: if the original discs will deteriorate eventually, it's very easy to transfer the data onto a new disc, and as previously detailed on here, '1000-year-discs' are already on sale at about 5 dollars each!


It's a bit like the early days of film, where older nitrate film stock deteriorated naturally over time--there was a massive ongoing campaign to transfer the endangered film onto more lasting safety film, which happily went ahead, but it took money, investment, and time: although many filmed works deemed 'lesser' were allowed to sink into obscurity.


Unstable printing techniques used in some IPC comics are the paper equivalent of the old 'deteriorating nitrate film' reels. Today's technology of course means that anyone with a scanner and perseverence [and blank disks] can transfer images onto 'safety format'.





Totally agree with Marrionette's assessment that if the house goes up in flames and your prized comics are destroyed, keeping DVD copies elsewhere would be a lot, lot better than nothing...the comics would still 'exist' to a degree, you could even print them out onto paper again if you had hi-res scans prepared.


Regarding 'future dudes might be thrown by archaic DVD-rom technology', well I understand that extremely early wax cylinder recordings [including Edison's 19th Century 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' test recording] are still in existance, and playable!! I even heard a genuine spoken recording by Queen Victoria, one of the earliest-ever sound recordings, which presumably can't be played on a computer drive [from source], but somebody obviously managed it!


Just because some of us can't sometimes play our DVDs after getting an odd faulty disc from HMV or Amazon, doesn't mean that future-dudes with hi-tech gear won't be able to decode archive recordings/scans. They will be a lot better-equipped than we will, with 'industrial-strength' gizmos!!!!

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:yes, I always reckoned that if a proper War comes along, then the restoration and archiving of comics will be the least of our worries!

Quite frankly, I'm disappointed in you.

I don't want to see a War, starscape, I am fascinated by War but I would prefer to avoid it.


But if my house went on fire, I would try and save my old Sparkys if I could, ------when I go on holiday I even store them up high in case of floods from above [which happened at my sister's flat].

I wasn't being entirely serious. There are far more important things.

Things like Eighties independent singles by fey limp-wristed anti-pop stars. I could live without Whoopee! but not so sure how I'd cope without the Razorcuts.

Oh yeah, and there's the wife and stuff maybe...I'll think about that one...

she doesn't read this does she?