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  1. #151

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bri View Post
    I totally understand. But with the poor quality of many collections the very act of reading the books is causing them damage. Anybody else left fingerprints in the ink of $125 omnibuses? Ive taken to handling my more expensive books with soft hand towels or gloves. I shouldn't have to have reading gloves, dammit.
    I buy physical for books with great art or stories I really love. Other than that I've been relaying on Marvel Unlimited a lot the last few years due to higher prices and lower quality. Although it's a bit extreme to say that just reading these books is causing them damage.

  2. #152
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bri View Post
    Maybe I'm off my rocker to post this here but isn't the answer to poor build quality and the possibility of omnibuses and other large collections falling apart going digital? Your digital comics will never deteriorate and the reproduction quality is always flawless. Let me be clear here: I am not talking about those of us who buy books as potential collectors items, but the people who are only concerned with reading and enjoying the stories and art. At present digital costs more than buying actual print editions, but of course the digital books will last forever. Also no need for bags, shelves. boxes, etc.
    So if all you are concerned with is the content and you feel you are spending too much on print editions that will fall apart digital might be the way to go. I myself am a total print addict, but I could see changing my ways.
    I think ultimately digital will be better than the Omnibus format.

    But I don't think restored copies of everything are out there in legal to own format and there are probably notable gaps on Marvel's subscription service. The Omnibus format really doesn't offer anything special beyond a large number of issues collected in one place with larger artwork that is often restored for older works.

    Tablets with the resolution and screen size needed to match the standard Oversized Hardcover/Deluxe format are realistically almost here. I think the screen just needs to be ~13 inches to match 7.5 x 11 oversized dimensions, but they often they have crappy resolutions when it comes to pixels per inch. I think in the next few years they'll be more widespread and affordable with proper pixels per inch. I wouldn't think battery life would be too much of a problem when compared with the length of time people usually sit still for one reading. Obviously if you're using the tablet for other things and draining the battery that way, there's no clean comparison to reading a physical book.

    So after that, the next hurdle is getting all the content there without gaps in the runs (which will be superior to Omnibuses because they can have everything there without you wondering if they're going to print a Volume 3 or 4 or whatever) and artwork restored or at least properly scanned (as opposed to some of those less-than-legal scans). Hopefully stuff like the Epic Collections line are helping Marvel get their ducks in a row for high quality digital reproductions.

    I think the clarity of the viewing screen, the portability of a tablet, and ability to have everything in one spot without taking up valuable real estate in your home will be very alluring IF Marvel can get the pricing right. A Netflix-model like the Marvel Unlimited service at a Netflix-price of $10 a month or whatever is a good idea. Pricing a single digital issue to own at $3-5 or whatever is not going to get people to switch to digital. Even $1 an issue is pushing it for certain comics.

    Off the top of my head I can't think of any Omnibuses with extras outside of variant covers that have been very notable. I'm sure someone here can correct me or enlighten me. If Omnibuses provided more value in that department, it might be worth keeping them around in physical format, assuming those extras never made it into the digital realm.

    Stuff like Adamantium editions (which I realize many think are ridiculous) would be very difficult to replicate digitally unless you're holding a small-ish LCD TV/Monitor in your lap. Products like DC's Absolute Editions and Dark Horse Library Editions offer the extra large size that's likely big enough to be inconvenient to reproduce with a tablet. Books like IDW's TMNT Ultimate Collections have that extra big size and they're annotated by the creators providing all sorts of extra detail. The size and that extra level of content, which I don't believe is available digitally, make those the types of things collectors might want to own in physical form.

    I really like reading both comic trades and prose books in physical form, but I think the convince of digital is ultimately going to win out in the long run unless the physical edition offers something extra and special that isn't available digitally or simply can't be reproduced digitally. If someone said "You can have this affordable 14 inch tablet with a super high resolution, a 10 hour battery and it comes with a MicroSD loaded with the first 125 issues of Fantastic Four OR you can have these three Omnibus editions and hope Marvel makes a 4th to finish out Stan Lee's run on the title," I would take the tablet/digital option hands down.

    But right now I'm not aware of a tablet fitting those specifications. Comixology is only offering the first 53 issues of Stan and Jack's Fantastic Four run, and they want $75 for it, and even then you don't actually own it. There's Marvel Unlimited which has gaps in that run, and again, it's just an on demand/streaming service where you're subscribing and things could always disappear. Marvel Unlimited is great if you don't know that you want to own those comics or you want to try the out first. But if you do want to own them legally, you're kinda SOL. So we're not quite there yet on the digital front. I think we're very close though. Probably closer than many think if you take the pirating route to getting your content. Digital ownership, as opposed to licensing or subscription services, is definitely a huge hurdle and might be the biggest hurdle for those who value ownership. But as Netflix and Spotify and Pandora have proven, most people don't really want to own a lot of their media or they no longer care about ownership, so they're happy to deal with advertisements and/or pay for subscription services, and comics will probably go the same route.
    Last edited by kodave; 10-18-2015 at 06:31 PM.

  3. #153
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    I agree with everything you say. I have to admit I had not considered screen dimension. Most modern readers are used to reading thing on smaller screens. My nephew (12) prefers reading comics and watching movies on his phone. Kids these days. Only old men like me care about having a nice big format, where you can view the page as a whole.
    Digital will overtake print. Its just a matter of time. At some point one of the big two is going to drastically drop the price on first run digital, and this will spell the end of print aside from hard-core collectors, such as the contributors to this board. I believe this is already happening. I have no idea how much Comixolgy sells, but if the music industry is any indicator I would guess that illegal comic book down loads are huge. Everybody always wonders why all the movies and TV shows haven't brought in new readers. I bet they have brought in hundreds of thousands, they are just not paying. This is one reason why we don't have to worry about Omnibuses and Deluxe editions going away. There will always be a small, hardcore group dedicated to paying for huge pricey editions of or favorite comics.

  4. #154
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    Quote Originally Posted by MrJed View Post
    For London, you want to check out Gosh! Comics, Forbidden planet, Orbital comics - You can walk between these 3 in about 20 minutes. There is also the Book and Comic exchange in Notting Hill, sometimes some good stuff in here but hit and miss. Be warned, they are not cheap, and I don't expect you will find civil war spiderman
    Thanks for the recommendation guys. I thought comics in the UK would have all the crazy discounts same with the US.
    I have a list of PHCs that I'm looking for to fill the gaps in my collection that's already OOS at the usual online places - New Mutants, X-Men Legacy - if the price is reasonable enough.

  5. #155
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    Decided to do a readathon on New Avengers by Bendis to thin my backlog. Damn does he love all the superhero/supervillain megabrawl. Almost all of the story arc ends with a slugfest. All these characters with their unique power sets and abilities and he decides to just throw them into a massive incomprehensible brawl. The idea was good until Secret Invasion but the execution.. certainly can be done differently.

  6. #156
    Moderator Balakin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mzqamarul View Post
    Decided to do a readathon on New Avengers by Bendis to thin my backlog. Damn does he love all the superhero/supervillain megabrawl. Almost all of the story arc ends with a slugfest. All these characters with their unique power sets and abilities and he decides to just throw them into a massive incomprehensible brawl. The idea was good until Secret Invasion but the execution.. certainly can be done differently.
    coff...cofff JSA by Johns or Morrison JLA...coff....coff
    Lot of people said this a lot of times but Bendis is much better with the single character books like Spidey, DD or Alias.

  7. #157
    Astonishing Member legion_quest's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mzqamarul View Post
    Thanks for the recommendation guys. I thought comics in the UK would have all the crazy discounts same with the US.
    I have a list of PHCs that I'm looking for to fill the gaps in my collection that's already OOS at the usual online places - New Mutants, X-Men Legacy - if the price is reasonable enough.
    Nope, no discounts for the UK. But cheap-comics.com has some good deals.
    I will raise my throne above the Stars of God

  8. #158
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    Quote Originally Posted by mzqamarul View Post
    Thanks for the recommendation guys. I thought comics in the UK would have all the crazy discounts same with the US.
    I have a list of PHCs that I'm looking for to fill the gaps in my collection that's already OOS at the usual online places - New Mutants, X-Men Legacy - if the price is reasonable enough.
    Went to them 3 last week along with mega city, pointless exercise as no bargains and most omnibus's are full price, ie £75-£95, stick to speedyhen and wordery

  9. #159
    Fantastic Member Mix_Masta_Micah's Avatar
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    Has anyone read the Spider-Man "Next Chapter" stuff by Mackie/Byrne and Co. for the relaunch of Spider-Man in the late 90's or early 00's? The art looks pretty decent and I'm a huge Spidey fan....(I wish they would have gotten around to collecting the Paul Jenkins stuff but it seems they stopped at book 3)

  10. #160
    Mighty Member Peter Parker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mix_Masta_Micah View Post
    Has anyone read the Spider-Man "Next Chapter" stuff by Mackie/Byrne and Co. for the relaunch of Spider-Man in the late 90's or early 00's? The art looks pretty decent and I'm a huge Spidey fan....(I wish they would have gotten around to collecting the Paul Jenkins stuff but it seems they stopped at book 3)
    It was a dark time in Spider-History.

  11. #161
    Incredible Member grahamgg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter Parker View Post
    It was a dark time in Spider-History.
    Yep. It was pretty much universally panned when first released lo those many years ago. This was during Marvel's first attempt at rebooting all their main series post-Heroes Reborn. Amazing & Spectacular Spider-Man were cancelled in late 1998 along with the Peter Parker: Spider-Man book and relaunched a month or two later as ASM & PP:SpM vol 2 + Spidey Chapter One. Hulk was also cancelled (for no discernible reason story-wise) at this time. DD was relaunched under the MK imprint around this time.

    I have the TPBs and flipped thru them a while back to see if my opinion had warmed over time. It hadn't. This is the single worst era in Spider-Man history with the possible exception of OMD. Byrne's art in the main ASM book is slick & clean (mainly due to the superb inking by Scott Hanna), and JRjr was still doing rock solid work on the PP:SpM title. But the stories .... yeesh. MJ is killed (off panel) and kept out of the books due to editorial edict for a couple years, Spidey faces struggle after struggle until he's living homeless on the street at one point, and there's this whole subplot about some mysterious Senator Ward which never amounts to anything. Oh, and the "new" Green Goblin is revealed to be nothing more than a simulacrum/clone/etc despite a few years of build up which hinted it was (a then-deceased) Harry Osborn, or Phil Urich.

    Bad, bad, bad, bad comics. Terrible. Even typing this up I'm reminded how utterly horrible these books were (and still are).

    EDIT: The only thing good that ever came of this mess was, the books were so horrible, a year or so later Marvel gave the green-light for Ultimate Spidey by Bendis & Bagely which just showed what great creators can do to turn around a character. The USM books were SO MUCH BETTER than the main Spidey books at the time, they ended up influencing the movie which was released in 2002.

  12. #162
    Mighty Member Taral-DLOS's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bor View Post
    I love digital. I buy a lot on comixology and read a lot on marvel unlimited. That being said there is never going to come a time where I prefer digital over physical comics. Its a good way to read single issues or try out a series but for me atleast, and I think many others in this thread, its just not the same thing. For me this is mostly in regards to older comics that were made before digital colouring. For me it just feels wrong to read an 80s comic on my ipad, but I have no problem reading newer issues that way. And the no need for shelves as you mention is not a draw for me either since I like having a shelf with collections on it.
    This. Exactly this for me. I buy TONS on Comixology (especially mid-90s and early aughts X-Men), usually for 99 cents per issue. I also love going to cons and trade shows and hunting for fun pieces.

    Plus, for some books, Comixology's catalogue is pretty weak. Take Excalibur for example. I wanted to read it, but Comixology has exactly two issues: 71 (part of Fatal Attractions) and 100 (part of Onslaught). But I've been able to get all of Claremont's run (1-34 + numerous specials) and most of Ellis's run (83-103) from cons and shows, and mostly on the cheap ($1-2 each for the most part). I've extensively used Krisis's guides to try to get complete runs (while his guides lean more towards collected editions, they're useful for buying complete runs including tie-ins; e.g. I bought X-Man 12 and will be buying Starjammers 1-4, as they're also in the Excalibur by Warren Ellis trades).

    Quote Originally Posted by Bri View Post
    I agree with everything you say. I have to admit I had not considered screen dimension. Most modern readers are used to reading thing on smaller screens. My nephew (12) prefers reading comics and watching movies on his phone. Kids these days. .
    Before I bought my iPad, I used to read comics on an iPod Touch. It worked rather well, actually, because of Comixology's Guided View technology. You're looking at one panel at a time, and can read the text and see the art just fine. For big, full- or double-page spreads, you would read zoomed in text and then see the whole page. Overall it wasn't a bad experience, though the iPad spoiled me.
    Last edited by Taral-DLOS; 10-19-2015 at 08:19 AM.

  13. #163
    Rad to the Max Canucked's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Taral-DLOS View Post
    This. Exactly this for me. I buy TONS on Comixology (especially mid-90s and early aughts X-Men), usually for 99 cents per issue. I also love going to cons and trade shows and hunting for fun pieces.

    Plus, for some books, Comixology's catalogue is pretty weak. Take Excalibur for example. I wanted to read it, but Comixology has exactly two issues: 71 (part of Fatal Attractions) and 100 (part of Onslaught). But I've been able to get all of Claremont's run (1-34 + numerous specials) and most of Ellis's run (83-103) from cons and shows, and mostly on the cheap ($1-2 each for the most part). I've extensively used Krisis's guides to try to get complete runs (while his guides lean more towards collected editions, they're useful for buying complete runs including tie-ins; e.g. I bought X-Man 12 and will be buying Starjammers 1-4, as they're also in the Excalibur by Warren Ellis trades).
    Excalibur needs a collection like no other. I have such a nostalgic love for that series. My old monthlies are threadbare. Also another hard to follow series in Thunderbolts. If you read the three classic TPB volumes and then try to follow it on Comixology you jump ahead like 15 issues or so.

    But I do love Unlimited and Comixology. I prefer to read on paper, but if a run is just bad and I'm only reading it for background or context I am not going to waste money on it when I can read it on unlimited. Unlimited also helps me keep up with marvel now somewhat. Buying all of that in physical form isn't really in mu budget but reading it six months alter and only buying what I love had kept somewhat enthusiastic about the thigs I really like. But also keeps me a little let down at all the good stuff that never caught on.
    The Wicked + The Divine. TMNT. Uncanny Avengers. Midnighter. IXth Generation. Daredevil. Morning Glories. Street Fighter. Fables. Uncanny X-Men. Bloodshot. Invincible. Ninjak. Mockingbird.

  14. #164
    Mighty Member Peter Parker's Avatar
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    Bosh Excalibur and New Mutants should be out in the Omni format by now. That we keep getting dreck like 90;s firsts and Ultimate Marvel beginnings while these other runs languish is a disgrace.

  15. #165
    Extraordinary Member Captain Craig's Avatar
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    I'm both surprised and excited to see that Werewolf by Night Omni is, as of now-Monday 10/19, holding the #1 spot on IST's ranking two weeks after release.
    I wonder if this is unique to IST or if other outlets are seeing a similar hold.

    I'll be curious to see what the sales rank is for the book. If it's as good as I hope then that bodes well for more niche material. Maybe a Zombie, Simon Garth Omni, Darkhawk or Deathlok Omni!!!
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