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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2020 18:30:19 GMT -5
Well, there is a huge disadvantage to having a fully digital collection. Swatting a fly with an iPad is bothersome - and could result in a broken iPad. Far better to swat the fly with a £4 comic.
Seriously, though, I do prefer paper. I’m old-school like that. But I am not a Luddite. For me, it’s a balancing act in the sense that one cannot afford everything. I saw a copy of BATMAN #232 on eBay for around £180! Yet it was much, much less than that via comiXology. I don’t have 180 quid to spare on a comic. I do have a few £££s to spend on the digital equivalent (but what a shame the comiXology editions don’t, for the most part, feature the letters pages).
I sometimes cannot afford the inflated eBay and Amazon prices so I’ll embrace digital. But if something is available at a reasonable price, I’ll opt for paper. And, like I said, swatting flies...
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Post by wildfire2099 on Aug 6, 2020 21:43:25 GMT -5
What are the prices on hoopla like? I agree about the brevity and slightness of a lot (not all) of current comics, especially the Marvel/DC stuff. Even if I liked it a lot more than i do I would find it hard to justify paying what they charge for it.
Hoopla is provided through library systems. It's free for the user, but the library pays them a fee to allow their patrons access. Each library systems sets their own borrowing limit (based on the fee they pay to hoopla). Our library allows 10 borrows a month (it was bumped to 15 through the COVID shutdown, but just dropped back to 10 in August). -M MIne also does 10 a month, which is plenty for me.... I typically use 3 or 4. Its 90% trades, so it's a good amount of stuff.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2020 22:11:28 GMT -5
Though it is grand to finding expensive issues I may never own but can read on a digital platform. Plus, reading comics from the 40's and 50's digitally is just about the only way to go based upon affordability and or availability. I don't think so....you can get HCs discounted by as much as 90% sometimes.
I got all those classic Archie HC Archive books for $5 each....love holding those in my hands.
Digital is my very last recourse. Unless it's comics done using Poser rendering. Can't post examples here tho....
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Post by tonebone on Sept 2, 2020 15:24:26 GMT -5
Though it is grand to finding expensive issues I may never own but can read on a digital platform. Plus, reading comics from the 40's and 50's digitally is just about the only way to go based upon affordability and or availability. I don't think so....you can get HCs discounted by as much as 90% sometimes.
I got all those classic Archie HC Archive books for $5 each....love holding those in my hands.
Digital is my very last recourse. Unless it's comics done using Poser rendering. Can't post examples here tho....
This really is a golden age of being able to find more obscure material reprinted in trades or hardcovers. I have amassed quite a collection (to my wife's dismay) over the past ten years or so, since I stopped buying new stuff. And, yeah, they are able to discount them pretty heavily. I picked up a TON of hardcovers at Ollies a couple of years ago, with none being over $6. I NEVER buy a hardcover for more than 50% of cover price.
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Post by hondobrode on Sept 3, 2020 23:50:22 GMT -5
Over the last 6 or 7 years I've gotten heavily into Comixology, and Dark Horse Digital, with a smattering from Humble Bundle.
I love how you can take the Guided View and blow the panel up to screen size. It really gives a different perspective and angle of the story.
Obviously saving physical space and having instant access and portability is wonderful as well.
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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 5, 2020 2:32:09 GMT -5
Over the last 6 or 7 years I've gotten heavily into Comixology, and Dark Horse Digital, with a smattering from Humble Bundle. I love how you can take the Guided View and blow the panel up to screen size. It really gives a different perspective and angle of the story. Obviously saving physical space and having instant access and portability is wonderful as well. Digital is so fast and convenient. Every time I sort through my comics boxes , I see the appeal. My problem is that my iPad is an older version and is getting wonky. It stopped opening my comixology app and I had to cancel my sub. It won't open to the library books either.
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Post by hondobrode on Sept 5, 2020 2:59:22 GMT -5
Ouch !
I've only ever used an iPad, but truthfully, I think a less expensive pad would probably work as well.
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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 5, 2020 3:18:30 GMT -5
What less expensive tablets do you suggest?
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Post by Rob Allen on Sept 5, 2020 16:27:05 GMT -5
A related question - does it have to be a tablet? Does anybody regularly read comics on a laptop or a PC monitor?
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Post by tarkintino on Sept 5, 2020 17:21:25 GMT -5
Digital is fine, especially in that it keeps me from handling my oldest books too much, but the one thing I find grating about it is how many comics' original coloring has been altered, usually to make colors "pop", etc., This process was in effect back in the hardback years of DC Archives and Marvel Masterworks, where the rich dyes used on 1960s covers were not to be seen in the book reprints and the digital versions. To me, that really changes the emotional tone of the original work.
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Post by brutalis on Sept 5, 2020 17:22:41 GMT -5
I read digital comics/magazines on my Amazon Kindle. Use a laptop/monitor during the week at work as I uploaded many into a folder specifically for when I was working for reads on my breaks/lunches.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2020 23:28:50 GMT -5
A related question - does it have to be a tablet? Does anybody regularly read comics on a laptop or a PC monitor? What digital comics I do read, I read on my PC monitor. -M
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Post by Ozymandias on Sept 6, 2020 7:05:38 GMT -5
A related question - does it have to be a tablet? Does anybody regularly read comics on a laptop or a PC monitor? My first serious try was with an iPad with Retina display. I previously tried with my PC monitor, which was lacking both in the resolution as well as the color space departments. I even bought a really cheap 2nd hand LaCie Electron 22blue IV - CRT monitor; it solved the color problem, but it didn't have enough resolution (same resolution as the iPad but on a surface four times as big). It was good for displaying double pages, but being CTR, you couldn't place it on a portrait position for single page reading. The iPad had both the resolution and the color accuracy you'd like, but it turned out to be a little small. In general, I wouldn't recommend anything less than 13". Maybe the iPad Pro is enough, I haven't personally tried it.
As for your question, the device I've used more exhaustively for comic reading was the 13.3" rMBP (from early May 2013 to late April 2019). Over nearly 6 years, I've read thousands of comics on it, and I only changed to a Huawei Matebook X Pro when the price went down a little (and the Mac started to fail, it still works, but not reliably). In both cases, the screen is big enough to show a single page at a size bigger than the paper copy (in portrait mode) and the resolution is high enough not to lose anything over the original. Of course, all this rests on the digital copy being of a high resolution nature. The first contact I had with the digital world, where the GIT CDs, which consisted of low resolution scans of high quality copies (except for the early/more expensive issues). This is a prime example of the kind of digital comics still circulating which will always lose when compared to a physical copy. On the other hand, if both the source and the display device meet the requirements, there's nothing the paper copy has over the digital one, when it comes to reading. The problem comes when people start to consider things like touch and smell as part of that reading experience.
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Post by brutalis on Oct 6, 2021 11:04:40 GMT -5
So, recently found some bargains for comic books digitally through an "antique" shop called Brass Amadillo where sellers rent space. Found a couple DVD-rom scanned comic collections on the cheap which I grabbed up instantly. Famous Monsters nearly complete magazine collection along with Vampirella, Creepy and Eerie. Hit the shop again last weekend and found 2 more collections: the original Valiant comics series and the DC Milestone collected.
I am really enjoying reading the stuff which I never picked up/missed out on or will never afford being able to pick up. I did a little internet searching and found a few public domain sites which you can buy from along with Ebay/Etsy having sellers of scanned comics. So no shortage of options along with pay sites for new comics. There is also lots of "free" viewing sites for new issues which may border on legal/moral issues.
I really have no problem purchasing "old or classic" comics scanned by personal sellers as in my mind with over 40 years of new and LCS back issue buys I have done my part in support of the comic book industry. I can now buy and read comic series which I never had a hope of affording in my lifetime. I'm still picking up original back issues and new publisher trades as well. I will also being doing double dipping as I buy DVD 's of series I already have. So no moral implication as far as I am concerned, just the Joy's of comics never seen or to read again. For examples I would NOT set out or be desirous of having ALL THE valiant or Milestone series in my collection but to find them collected electronically for $10 I will gladly read what is there and if I find those I don't care for cast them aside. Those which I will like I may be more inclined to pursue purchasing. DC is slow to collect Milestone in trades but is putting out a few upcoming trades with the new Milestone projects. Now I get a feel or taste of them digitally and that helps me decide what I want.
As to "older" CV comics, I can NEVER find Gold Key/Charlton/Dell stuff here in Phoenix other than occasional high profile and priced issues or very torn apart ones, so I will spend $7-15 for a DVD collecting say Magnus or Dark Shadows or when that $7-15 may not even buy me a single issue. On the internet through Etsy I can get a complete collection of the Marvel Planet of the Apes b/w magazine, color series AND the British run for $20. Try searching shops in Phoenix or via the internet and see what single issue collector prices are like.
Is digital the BEST option for most? No, but it's an affordable alternative for many to actually read old/classic material that might otherwise never be enjoyed.
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Post by Ricky Jackson on Oct 6, 2021 15:06:47 GMT -5
Since getting back into reading comics last year I've been about 80% digital. It's basically a convenience and money issue. Space as well. Yes, I would prefer to be able to just read trades, or even single issues (though that is far less an attraction then it was when I was younger, sad to say) but the cost would be astronomical and lord knows, when coupled with my wife's collection, I have enough books to fill a small library already. Digital just makes more sense for me
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