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Image Comics go DRM-free
- Dr. Mabuse
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- Ambassador of Truth
Being behind the times I'll ask our resident online comic gourmands...er gourmets, is this a good thing? The idea of buying something and not owning seems strange to me (ie Comixology).
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- Legomancer
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- D10
- Dave Lartigue
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I know that if Comixology went under tomorrow, those books would be gone. There was a time when that would have been a dealbreaker, but not any more.
Part of my change in attitude came about when I looked at a wall of trade paperbacks and a number of longboxes, realized I would never read most of it again, and sent it all away to the comic shop. I didn't even care about the credit I got, just having it gone felt good, and it started me on the road to trying not to have so many things around.
I don't go to many movies, but when I do I pay ten bucks or so, see a movie for a couple hours, and then leave. I don't walk out with anything except my memory of whatever the movie was. If I really liked the movie and feel like I'd watch it again, I can buy a DVD of it, but that's not included in the price. Similarly, I pay for cable and watch some TV shows on it but again, that cost doesn't include ownership of them. I have to buy DVDs or whatever if I want that.
So with Comixology, it's similar, only better. Unlike cable, I'm not paying for shit I don't want. Unlike movies, the cost *does* include being able to "see" it again if I want to, unless the company goes bust or something. And if I really like it and feel like I do want to own it forever and see it on a shelf and get a warm fuzzy out of that, I can buy the trade, just as I bought the DVD of Moonrise Kingdom after seeing that in the theater.
Comics as "collectibles" is bullshit. There is no secondary market for most of this stuff. All that matters is what you enjoy reading. And no matter what your tastes, most of what you read, even if you enjoy it, you wouldn't miss at all if it disappeared from your house tomorrow. So why not just go digital? What are you holding onto?
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- Dr. Mabuse
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Legomancer wrote: I love Atomic Robo and have all the trades, digitally, through Comixology. I think it's a great series and I'm happy to have bought (and, in some cases, re-bought, since I had the first three trades as paperbacks but gave them away to friends.)
I know that if Comixology went under tomorrow, those books would be gone. There was a time when that would have been a dealbreaker, but not any more.
Part of my change in attitude came about when I looked at a wall of trade paperbacks and a number of longboxes, realized I would never read most of it again, and sent it all away to the comic shop. I didn't even care about the credit I got, just having it gone felt good, and it started me on the road to trying not to have so many things around.
I don't go to many movies, but when I do I pay ten bucks or so, see a movie for a couple hours, and then leave. I don't walk out with anything except my memory of whatever the movie was. If I really liked the movie and feel like I'd watch it again, I can buy a DVD of it, but that's not included in the price. Similarly, I pay for cable and watch some TV shows on it but again, that cost doesn't include ownership of them. I have to buy DVDs or whatever if I want that.
So with Comixology, it's similar, only better. Unlike cable, I'm not paying for shit I don't want. Unlike movies, the cost *does* include being able to "see" it again if I want to, unless the company goes bust or something. And if I really like it and feel like I do want to own it forever and see it on a shelf and get a warm fuzzy out of that, I can buy the trade, just as I bought the DVD of Moonrise Kingdom after seeing that in the theater.
Comics as "collectibles" is bullshit. There is no secondary market for most of this stuff. All that matters is what you enjoy reading. And no matter what your tastes, most of what you read, even if you enjoy it, you wouldn't miss at all if it disappeared from your house tomorrow. So why not just go digital? What are you holding onto?
Sold.
Excellent points Lego, I never thought of it in terms of the movie analogy. It's funny but I never thought of digital files as clutter until I realise that my home computer is bogged down with, god only knows, what I've downloaded and forgot about over the years.
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I gave it a serious try, when I bought that DVD with 40 years of Avengers issues, for just $50. It was an amazing deal, and I was so psyched about it that I was considering buying a scanner so I could convert all my longboxes into digital files so I could sell my collection and just keep everything backed up on a stack of CDs.
But it turned out that reading comics on a computer screen is not anywhere near as enjoyable as reading physical comics. Even with a laptop, I couldn't just flop down on the couch or in a beanbag chair or on the grass and casually read a story. No, I had to be in a position where sunlight wouldn't impair my ability to see the screen, and in a way that I could use the mouse to flip pages. And once in a while, there would be a two-page spread that I couldn't see all at once on the screen without shrinking it down first. Even a nice tablet is still an inferior experience, because it has considerably more heft than a mere comic or even a typical trade paperback. And I don't want some damned touchscreen that I am going to smudge up while reading.
This isn't just about my age. My girlfriend was in her 20s when I got her into comics, and she has never liked reading them on a screen either.
And I admit it, I tend to collect things, or at least accumulate things that I want to enjoy time and again. I have several bookcases worth of books, and I have re-read the majority of them at least once. Likewise, I have re-read the majority of my comic collection multiple times now. So the idea of paying for digital comics and then losing them when a server goes down or a company does under is unacceptable to me. I read some great comics by non-DC/Marvel comics back in the '80s, and some of those publishers didn't survive despite publishing great comics. So I can easily imagine a modern publisher going out of business and leaving digital comic buyers stranded.
This DRM decision by Image is interesting, but doesn't quite change my mind. I like the idea of buying their DRM-less digital comics and then not worrying about ever losing them to an Image bankruptcy. But I don't want the other publishers to follow suit if it's going to make the piracy problem worse for every publisher. And I still want to read physical comics instead of digital ones.
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- ThirstyMan
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AcesWeekly
Here's a promo ad for them
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